The Koharu Revalation

Yes I’ve been gone–sorry I should’ve mentioned something! It was spring break and I was hiking for quite a bit of miles in the Grand Canyon. But I’m back now–I’ve decided to skip the previous two Haromoni@ reviews and just start back up with the next episode. Don’t worry I’ve had my punishment, I missed Aibons reserfacing and Anataboshi among some things. Speaking of punishment…when I was hiking I needed something to take my mind off the pain of going up the Cathedral Stairs in the Grand Canyon. Humming Aruiteru worked for awhile…then I moved onto Genkii+, and in awhile I’d gone through a lot of Morning Musume songs and I needed to change it up. So I literally “took a Chance!” and went with Balalalaika. Suprisingly it’s a really good song to get you going when you need it and I could remember the PV fairly well. A month ago I probably wouldn’t have even been happy to meet Koharu on the street…she just irritated me that much but lately I’ve come to see her worth in more ways than just catchy songs.

First Impressions:

Let me be honest here. Koharu is the one member my friend and I laughed about because she was so insane. Yes I think we all remember Crack!Koharu dancing around with step counters on her body. We’d see her on the screen and just go “Achhh… it’s Ko-ha-ruuuu…” and normally just be outright annoyed but interested in seeing what she’d do next. One day though…it went from annoyance to a downright “get off the screen” mentality. She started getting me really irritated, I thought her singing was horrible (even with sound equipment),her anime looked boring, and she wasn’t all that funny.

And then another day came, and I watched the surprise performance at her school. She was so cute. It killed me. So I thought…she was just a regular little kid, and the more I came to just think about how normal she was when she first joined, the more I connected with her as a person. She and other members for that matter, aren’t oblivious to the negative things that their fans say about them. Imagine how she felt hearing those things, even hearing them everyday maybe. I mean just seeing what people say about her sometimes–it’s extremely harsh. I see things like “she’s a rotting piece of no good talent”. You don’t have to like her, but ragging on her 24/7 and saying things that demoralize her as a person aren’t cool, have some respect, seriously.

“Well Technically…”:

In a technical sense (singing and dancing) I think she’s alright at least in the dancing category. She has these little “Sexy Koha” moves that she throws into what she’s doing–so thats fun to look for but her dancing isn’t particularly that special. Her singing–I myself try to stay neutral about but, I know that the consensus is that its really bad. I mean yeah…she isn’t the best at the whole stay in the right register part of it–but at least she tries. I’m not really sure where her voice will go or if it’ll get better with time, but I know its gotten to the stage for me where it isn’t annoying but it isn’t there yet and I’m okay with that. Her enunciation though. That has got to change. I think it’s not really so much her singing that’s the problem…it’s the way she’s singing. She tends to emphasizes syllables randomly which is probably messing with her pitch a little bit and making her sound kind of gulpy. Truly, if she got a voice coach, or whoever works with that kind of thing–she’d sound much better than she does now. I’m not a 100% fan of her voice–but there is much hope!

Kirarin!Revolution:

Pfft–I don’t watch Kirarin Revolution nor do I care about the show…nor do I really care about her solo music. Yes, I’ve listened to it before but it was not the type of music I enjoy listening to. I think it’s not as good as her MM work simply because she doesn’t have the vocal support that a group provides…so it’s just her, her voice, a pretty good musical foundation, and the ridiculously cheesy videos. She is promoting something more juvenile so it’s not even like the set choice is her fault–but still. I think if I was in the target age group for that type of thing it would probably love Koharu and want to be just like her, but I’m not, therefore I don’t. I’m not saying you have to fall in the range to like it–but it’s O.K. if you do. As far as that whole K!R thing goes though…Koharu FTW. UFA is playing her up as a marketing “chip” perfectly, although I’m sure they care about her more than just an object. She is just so great as that type of figure…and it shines more genuinely because naturally it’s who she is. “She embodies the Kirari spirit!”. If you told her to be a somber housewife on a hit T.V. show she’d do it…but it’s not where her heart would be, and thats what makes her extra special as Kirari.

Did I go off on a tangent a bit? I did a little but huh? Well.

Give that girl some credit:

Koharu is so much better than some people give her credit for. The girl is intellegent.

I really think that is something that is somewhat taken as her “scheming attitude“. She is always conscious of what she’s doing (on camera) which is a good and a bad thing, but by no means do I think she’s dastardly scheming on how to get more camera time than everyone else. Some things in the world are complicated, and some things are not. I think Koha is one of the more simple people that’s just viewed as insanely complex. She just goes around doing things without a care while living up her youth and being herself. I can see K!R as a more serious place for her, because she has to work alone, and I can see MM as a place for her to let loose and be with her friends that she works with everyday. That goes for her self-discipline also, all the members have said before that Koharu has insane mental strength for her age, I don’t find that surprising at all.

As far as her work load goes I actually think she has just about as much to do as Aichan does or more. She has Milky Way and so many things to do for her anime, along with all the things that she has to do in MM–pfft–I don’t understand how MM members survive as it is…but having all those other things too. MM’s day ends at 9PM and her’s ends at 1AM is how I see it. Morning Musume boosts her success, she loves it and her heart is really into it–but at the same time I don’t think any one person can handle that much at once, especially for a sustained period of time. She’s got an education to think about also. Not to mention all the emotional things that come with being a teenager. Have you seen her act out on camera because any of these things? I haven’t–or she’s damn good at hiding it. I think with all this pressure…her graduation is possible but not likely. You can see how valuable she is to management and I believe they have a plan set up for her and how she’s marketed to work in their favor–but it really is up to her. If she works herself to the point of illness…then there’ll be some changes in her future.

Accomplishments/Image:

But hey! She’s popular in Japan and that’s all that counts.

-She was the youngest artist to debut as a solo artist within Hello! Project.
-She was the best selling Hello! Project soloist in 2006 & 2007.
-And she was the first artist artist to achieve the 2.0 ratio in Hello!Project in years.

She may not be your cup of tea–but for damn sure you can’t deny what the girl has accomplished. From what I’ve observed(Turn Dori etc.)…she seems like the type of person who’d love somebody but never put them before her job. I just feel bad for her though…if she ever messes up (scandal) it’ll be 10 times worse for her than other members. She’s got to keep the balance between cute and sexy. No offensive to Gomaki fans but as far as parents go I don’t think they would want their kids watching the anime voiced by the same girl who made “Glass no Pumps”. Just because it’s not appropriate and I’m assuming parents care about that kind of dual image. By the same token they wouldn’t want their kids watching K!R if they knew Koharu was dating three guys at the same time or something dirty like that. So she has an image to uphold in both parts of her job, because they both effect each other.

She’s a good kid:

Anyways…since she’s a month younger than me I’ve been pretty critical of her. She’s really not all that bad, I actually think after awhile we might be friends. She seems like if you gave her the chance she’d be a pretty good one, not to mention she could help me with school. She has a great sense of personal style too and she’s very supportive of other people and takes the advice from scoldings in strides. She’s growing up to be a warm person with great business sense, not to mention she can only get prettier! So what if she has bad teeth…would you rather there be a Morning Musume Sleepover Special and her wearing headgear and occasionally drooling on her shirt the whole time? She’ll live, if not–Invisiline. Her future is bright–as long as she keeps up her positive attitude.

She’s a miracle in the sense that she’s different than any members before her and any that will come after her…and her whole self is somewhat of a giant rubix cube. You hate it when you start it, it’ll take a long and frustrating time for you to get, you might have some setbacks, but when you finally get it you’re satisfied with the results. I mean–what’s the fun of a rubix cube if you get it and it’s already finished for you? That’s right–it is not nearly as fun as going through the process. Don’t feel obligated to hate her first then like her! But it definitely is different then liking her right away. Believe me–it’s been done before.

If you do hate her though, I encourage you to just stop for a second and look past all the issues you have with her, and maybe–just maybe you’ll see the something in her too. It takes a lot more effort to hate someone than to accept them.