Loverin as the Center! A Review of Morning Musume's "Sou Janai" MV and Song!

Fans of Makino Maria, this may be your lucky day. Makino Maria (also known as Loverin to her most dedicated fans) has been chosen to be the center of one of Morning Musume's A-sides known as Sou Janai. It has been awhile since the last time I actually done a review on Morning Musume. To be exact, it's been two years.. two years. What the heck. What has gotten into me? For my 'comeback' (not rlly) review, I'll be taking a look at this song. Do I like it? Do I hate it? You'll have to read the entry to see!

From my general observation, it seems that Maria is the fan favorite among the 12th generation. Although, Ogata and Miki do have a lot of fans too.. But I feel like Maria has a tiny bit more fans than them. Since her debut in the group, I personally feel – and from my own perspective – that Maria's been very slowly pushed into the spotlight. She's a very pretty girl; she's slowly getting more screen time and a few more solo parts here and there (if you squint). It seems to me that with the departure of Riho, the management is trying to find a new ace within the overall group. For this song, Maria is chosen to be the center. Now, is she cut out to be center material? Is she cut out to be the new ace of the group? I've seen some fans where they think Maria is perfect to be the new ace. Nonetheless, let's get into the review and see whether she is made to be center.

I'll be very honest right now. I don't particularly like the music video. Yes, I will agree that the management has been putting some money into these music videos and they're becoming a bit more high quality compared to music videos of the past. This music video is mostly very polished, clean, and simple as a whole. And while I do like very simple music videos, when I take a look at the individual parts of it – I just find things that I don't like or doesn't seem to make sense or seems out of place. All those individual parts that I dislike just adds up and makes me dislike the music video.

So let's take a look at the dance first. Since the agency doesn't release dance shot videos anymore, I had to rely on the dance scene snippets from the music video as well as live performances. Okay, if you're someone who enjoys making dance covers – this dance may not be that difficult to learn. It just mainly consists of a lot of upper body movements, a lot of hand movements basically. I guess you can say that the hand movements are a key signature move when it comes to this dance. Personally, I don't like the choreography for this dance too much. I find it to be similar to other dances – there was one move that reminded me of Renai Hunter. There wasn't enough pizazz (do people still use this word? I feel so old, oh my god) in this dance. It just feels like it's a compilation of previous dance moves all into one.

But hey, if you're a fan of Maria – you'll be happy to know that she has her own solo choreography (kinda)! If I'm correct, I don't think Riho got her own choreography – aside from her own graduation single, I guess. /shrug; I don't know.

The setting is pretty nice. It's good knowing that the management is really filming these music videos into actual locations. I don't particularly remember the name of the place they filmed. If you want to find out, I believe they listed it in the wikia page so you can check that out. I can't really comment much on the location aside from the fact that it really nice and suits the whole polished, minimalist kinda theme they're going for with the music video. However, it kinda irks me that the setting was so dark when it could have been really nice and bright (editing the banner was a nightmare for me because the setting was too dark). And I don't really understand why they went for a sepia tone for the individual member dance scenes. The setting is really nice, I wish they could've kept it nice and bright like what they did for the dance scenes.

Now, let me go off on a tangent here and take about the actual "storyline" that was supposed to take place within the setting. Okay, people who created this music video and edited and directed it or whatever– what the heck is going on in the music video? I do not understand. Like we had Maria walking it and then we had these liquid things that turn into the rest of the members. And then Maria was screaming at one point towards the end, and happy a few seconds later. While the geometric shape scenes look cool, it felt really out of place? Can someone please explain to me what was supposed to go on in this music video? At this point, I just feel like it was just a random mess of scene that was supposed to look cool and all.

This is just a random comment from my boyfriend (who's not really a J-pop fan), but when he watched the video- he said that everyone looked dead in this video. I kinda agree with that. There was a lack of personality in that video. In my opinion, because Maria was center, that was a lot of that lack of personality coming from her.

Okay, now let's move onto the outfits... I can be pretty neutral-ish (more leaning towards dislike) for things like the setting and the dance, but if there's one thing that I completely dislike about this music video– it would be the outfits. Did they ran out of money when it came to the making the outfits? You can clearly see that they kinda recycled a few past outfits to create this one. I can see The Vision mixed with Oh my wish! with that weird umbrella outfit they used for Michishige☆Eleven Soul thing.

The outfits doesn't flatter everyone. Only a handful of the group actually looks great in those outfits, in my opinion. Haruna was beautiful as always, as well as Haruka too. Mizuki doesn't look that nice in the outfit and as for our center- this is probably just me being weird, but the outfit makes her appear disproportion (is that even the right weird). Like her head looks kinda smaller than the rest of her body in that outfit. Then there was Sakura - with her new haircut and that outfit - she looks like a square. Or a rectangle if you wanna be precise. I don't know. This is just me being a weird kid, okay?

Overall, I don't like this music video. I feel like the dance and the outfits weren't really that original and didn't stand out. There were a few scenes that felt really out of place, like the geometric shapes and the sepia-color dance setting. Also, I don't know if there was supposed to be a storyline or something. There were a lot of things that didn't really make sense. As a whole, the entire music video just resembled a mess. Could it have been better? Yeah. It had potential. For now, it's just a jumbled mess of a video.

Now, after a long long long section concerning about the music video– let's take our time to focus on the song. My first impression of the song... I did not like it at all. Okay, when the concert rip of the song was released- I never knew that Maria was the center. I just listened to it and it was not my cup of tea. I wasn't technically a fan of the vocals and the song wasn't really that catchy. I remember that about halfway into the concert rip, I just couldn't listen to it anymore. That's how much I didn't like it. Then when I went onto Facebook, I learn that it was a Maria center song.. Oh boy.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not dislike the song because it has Maria as center. I literally just said that I dislike the song before even learning it was a Maria song.

The song really isn't my cup of tea, which is weird because the song reminds me of Dakishimete Dakishimete by Berryz Koubou (especially during the chorus). I don't know if I mentioned it but it's one of my most favorite song from Berryz Koubou and it was the first song I listened to from them. Even with decent vocals, the song itself just wasn't that great. I find it to be very forgettable. It was just not catchy. Decent vocals cannot save this song at all. If Sakura was center or Masaki was center.. It doesn't matter who's center, it still wouldn't save this song.

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it seem like the lyrics were kinda contradictory or kinda off? I couldn't really follow the lyrics so well. Judging from the title of the song and a few lyrics that I saw, I'm assuming this is a song about just not judging people based on appearance. However, when it came to the parts of the chorus and verses.. I was like "Okay, what are you supposed to be telling me? I'm not clearly following you here." Is it just me? Am I that much of an airhead that I can't really follow the song? Maybe it's just me. I like things to be straightforward, straight to the point.

Since this is Maria-center song, let's try discussing her vocals in this song. We all know that the other members like Masaki or Sakura are more superior in terms of vocal prowess, that's a given. Now Maria.. even though it has been two years since she joined the group, I deem her vocals to be just average. It's not great but it's not that terrible. I'm not a huge fan of hers. She was okay in the song. After all, this song was created specifically to fit her vocals. For her first real center song, she did alright. However, I do think she can improve more.

Okay, this song overall- I'm sorry I couldn't really comment much about it, but all I can say is that I do not particularly like this song. It's not my cup of tea. I find it to be forgettable and it doesn't have that catchy hook. I couldn't really following along the lyrics. Maria did okay in this song, since it was designed specifically for her. However, I personally feel like she could improve more.

I do not like this song. I do not like the music video. Is it all because I dislike Maria or something? No, of course not! It is not because of Maria. No matter who is center of the song, no matter what- I find this song is beyond saving and the music video was not that great. Masaki or Mizuki could have center of this song, and I would still dislike it. It's not a great song and the music video, despite the nice quality, didn't make sense to me. Could it have been better? Yeah, it had potential.

With Maria as center, I know there are fans that are really happy about this – saying that she should be the next ace or the main visual of the group. After watching the video so many times this past week and listening to the song, I personally feel that Maria isn't quite cut out to be ace in the group. She did an okay job with the song, I will admit that. Her vocals are okay, but she can improve more. And although she's very pretty, I don't think having good visuals makes her cut out to be ace. In the music video, she was pretty but her acting felt off and there was only so much lack of personality I can take. Could she become ace material? Maybe, who knows what can happen in the future. For now- I think she shouldn't be ace or the main visual of the group right at this moment.

Who knows? After some time, she would finally bloom and become the next Michishige Sayumi. Now wouldn't that be nice?

So, what are your thoughts on the song? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you think Maria did a great job as center or do you think she needs more improvement? Who do you think should be ace of the group? I want to know what you all thought about it and your reasons too. So that's it for this entry. Until my next post, jyaa ne~