Houkago Princess sets out on a Roman Holiday! An Initial Thoughts Review

The last time we heard from Houkago Princess, they were mermaids under the sea with their third major debut single Seishun Mermaid along with the graduation of 2.5 generation member Miyashita Mayuka. Although I will not go into details about my thoughts on their single (a review of that is coming soon!), I will say that I deemed the single to be so-so. Now, the members of Houkago Princess are back with their twist on Princess Ann from Roman Holiday!

So let me just make some stuff sort out before I actually talk about the short music video. I never actually watched Roman Holiday before. The only Audrey Hepburn film I've seen so far is Breakfast at Tiffany's and that is it. Yes, I know it's a classic and shame on me for not watching it. Maybe when I actually have some free time, I might watch the film. For now, I'm just reading about the plot on wikipedia. /whacked; I would also like to add that this is the major debut single of Nagasawa Marina (her second but she left the group once), Sekine Sasara, and Kojima Mayumi!

Now, let's start talking about the short music video!

I believe that it's very clear that since their major debut, Houkago Princess has become coming out with better music videos compared to the low-budget music videos they used to release during their indie days. The music video for Himitsu no Tiara to Gelato is no different from what they've been releasing as of late. Even though we only get to see a good minute of the video; in my opinion, the video feels very polished and clean. It's also a very bright as well– it looks a bit colorful and vibrant.

Personally, I love bright music videos. However, I feel like the music video was edited to be a bit too bright. Judging from her photos, Nana seems to be a pretty pale person. With the intense brightness of the video, she looks so white like a Twilight vampire. She's already so pale (in my opinion) and now she's just so white like a ghost. I personally don't like that. When I watch her in the music video, I feel a bit irked. I wonder if anyone else have this same thought as me. Or maybe it's just me, I'm weird. That's how I am. /whacked;

Nonetheless, back to the music video. Seeing as the original film took place in Rome, it was nice to see that the setting of the music video had some European-esque architecture when it come to both the outdoor and indoor scenes. It was aesthetically pleasing for me. If I was there, I would probably taking pictures of Instagram everywhere and nonstop. That's how much I actually really like the setting.

For the indoor scenes, like the stairway as well as the dance shot, the interior reminds me of a palace interior. I like to interpret this as before when the princess(es) are still confined inside the palace and reluctantly follow royal protocol (in the beginning with Ann and her tight schedule). I really like the outdoor scenery and I hope to see more scenes done outdoors in the later parts of the music video (like the girls just running out and about, nowhere near the "palace." Perhaps, they all could go out to eat gelato)– so that perhaps it could be interpreted as the princess(es) breaking free and venturing outside (like how Ann goes out and tours around Rome).

I believe that all the girls look very charming and lovely in this music video. I personally think they all look like dolls. It was really nice to see that the outfit and the hairstyle are made to reflect the fashion from the film. The dresses the girls wore, while not identical, looked similar to the outfit that Ann wore. It's very girly and looks pretty flow-y, in my opinion. I like this outfits and I think it's a cute touch that the skirts are the members' colors. Similar to the dresses, the hairstyles are – while not identical – similar to Ann's shortcut in the film. Most of the girls look charming in the hairstyle (especially Sasara!), the look doesn't suit all the members (looking at you, Nana. Sorry).

While I really like the – I'm going to call them "colorful skirts" – outfits, I really do hope to see the girls actually wearing the princess gown which is shown in the individual members' cd covers in which they are all wearing the ball gown similar to the one Ann wore in the film. Spoiler alert, in their previous single, the girls had these gorgeous mermaid outfits that they wore for the individual mmebers' cd covers. They never used them in the music video and I am forever bitter about that. Tsk tsk tsk. 

I honestly can't really comment much on the dancing because there really isn't that many dance scenes- there were a few glimpses of it in the beginning and most of the scenes were mainly towards the end. From what I can observe, the dance is a very cheerful and jumpy dance. There were lots of little hops, especially when it came to the chorus. In addition, there were also lots of hand movements as well. For those who are interested in the learning the dance in the future, I wouldn't particularly say that this is a difficult dance to learn. I watch the music video a few times and I find the choreography easy to follow (I can follow along with the hand movements).

And now, let's talk about the song.. I like this song! I actually really like this song. I know for sure that I like it more than Seishun Mermaid. Sorry to all the fans that loved that song. It's a very lovely song with a good moderate beat. I like the usage of the piano, the bells, and the violin to give the song a more princess-royalty-class sound despite it being the general bubblegum pop song (with the guitars and the drums in the background). This was a really catchy song and perhaps my favorite song from the group this year. I need the full song now! I need it!

In terms of vocals, Maika never disappoints me. I personally feel like this song really suits Maika's vocals very well (their last single was all Maika, by the way). And then whoaaaaa- Sasara. I never really followed the cadets closely, but Sasara- holy shxt, she was amazing in this song. Someone, please give her more solo lines. I really like her voice. She must sing more! I'll be very honest, I won't try to sugar coat it, but Nana wasn't really the best in this single. She sounded out of place for me. I personally never really liked her vocals, but knowing that she has the largest fanbase in the group - I understand why she's still a prominent vocalist in the group.

Overall, I really enjoyed the song and the short music video. I really do hope that the rest of the music video continues to be great. If I had money, I would definitely buy this single. But alas, I am broke. ;-; So that's it for this entry. Until my next post, jyaa ne~