2017's Brand New Morning

I have been meaning to make a post about this for a while as I am finally starting to catch up with the Hello! Project groups again. And the flagship group, Morning Musume '17, definitely has had things worth talking about.

Kaga Kaede and Yokoyama Reina

First off the latest auditions for the group bore fruit this time. H!P decided on selecting girls from the kenshuusei and Kaga Kaede and Yokoyama Reina have joined the Momusu ranks. They have already had their colors announced, Italian Red for Kaede and Gold Yellow for Reina.

On a bit of a downer Sato Masaki is currently on hiatus from the group. She has been suffering lower back pain and was diagnosed with a lumbar disc hernia so she has had to put all activities on hold to get treatment for that. Which sadly means she will not be participating in the recently announced single.

The mentioned single will be released on March 8th and is a double A-side. The title tracks are BRAND NEW MORNING and Jealousy Jealousy and it will have two regular editions and three limited editions.

Brand New Morning / Jealousy Jealousy [Regular Edition/Type A]

Morning Musume.'17

While I am excited that we do not have to wait long to see the 13th gen's debut single it is sad that Masaki will not be a part of it. It is also a bit worrying as other girls have ended up graduating Momusu after experiencing medical issues so it is a real possibility. I hope she can recover to continue with the group, yet I would understand if she did not want to risk her health to do so.

In any case there is plenty to look forward to, and dread, for the new year with Momusu and this year I want to do better with keeping up with it all.

Inter Kis-My-Ft2

Finally Kis-My-Ft2 will be releasing a new single. It will be a triple A-side with the single name being Inter. The three songs that will be on the single are Tonight, Kimi no Iru Sekai, and SEVEN WISHES. It will be released on March 1st, 2017 and come in three versions, each one will have a CD that will have the three title tracks on it.

The limited type A comes with a DVD with the PV and making of for the song Tonight.

INTER (Tonight / Kimi no Iru Sekai / SEVEN WISHES) [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type A] / Kis-My-Ft2

The limited type B comes with a DVD with the PV and making of for the song Kimi no Iru Sekai.

INTER (Tonight / Kimi no Iru Sekai / SEVEN WISHES) [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type B] / Kis-My-Ft2

The regular edition is just a CD but it will have a B-side not included in the other versions.

INTER (Tonight / Kimi no Iru Sekai / SEVEN WISHES) [Regular Edition] / Kis-My-Ft2

I am so happy that Kisumai will have a new single in the near future. I doubted they would remain inactive too long as they are one of Johnny's more popular groups but I have been burned on following groups that go on unexpected release hiatuses before. This release puts those fears to rest and hopefully the group will go back to a regular release schedule.

Also I am glad it is the usual release style with the limited editions having bonus DVDs only and any bonus tracks are on the regular edition. That means all I feel I need to pick up is the RE unlike with their previous single where I ended up getting all three editions so get all the bonus songs that were spread across them.

Let's Speculate ... Utapri mobile games

I love to speculate and with the recent announcements from Broccoli I can do so about a couple of my current interests, Uta no Prince-sama and mobile games.

First off it was announced a few days ago that Broccoli have entered a partnership with KLab. (Anime News Network article) KLab is probably best known for developing the Love Live School Idol Festival mobile game.

Then in potentially related news Broccoli announced that they are ending service for their mobile game for Uta no Prince-sama, UtaPri Island, in March. (ANN article)

If you have been looking at the Oricon sales charts the singles from the groups for the Ai Chu mobile game have been ranking rather well and of course they are far from the only mobile game based male idol units. IDOLiSH7 is starting to gear up with its own CD releases and already has other cross media promotion with a manga and a light novel. And then looking at how massive Love Live is it would not seem unsurprising for Broccoli to want to throw their hat into the ring. Especially since they have a property already in full swing that could be adapted to such a game.

And with the announcement that they are ending the mobile game that they do have for UtaPri it looks like they could be wanting to do just that. As it is not like UtaPri is no longer popular and they do have a fourth season of the anime series already announced so they have plans to continue it for the near future at least. And mobile games are not only popular but can also be quite profitable, especially for multi-media series as can be seen with the rise of the idol inspired mobile rhythm games. As they work as commercials as well as being a product in its own right with the use of songs that can be purchased when released as singles, and having promotional codes for the game as a bonus for the purchase of the physical releases.

Honestly I would love for UtaPri to have their own rhythm game like Love Live SIF. It would give them more reasons to want to release more singles, instead of waiting for when they have a new PSP game (which looks like it will all be PSP Vita from now on) or a new season of the anime series. And with the main group of STARISH as well as Quartet Night and from the looks of things HEAVENS will be added to the mix in the near future there is plenty of characters to create "cards" for, not to mention an already sizable song library.

One thing I could see being an issue is that most of the games I have mentioned use group songs with sub-units and solos as special songs and UtaPri has far more solo songs than group songs for the various groups. But that can be fixed, and having a mobile game like this would be a part of that fix.

Another is that the UtaPri franchise is hitting its 5th anniversary so one has to wonder how much longer it is going to keep going. Though with HEAVENS adding members and looking to get focus it looks like Broccoli is already thinking about how to continue on without depending too much on STARISH. And it is a series that it could be adjusted to start new groups eventually, seeing as the original setting is a school for aspiring idols.

I know I am really getting my hopes up for this but I love the UtaPri series and have come to really enjoy the idol inspired mobile games so I really want to see them mix. Even though it could make me broke between it and IDOLiSH7.