Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

I wish I had the archives from MotokoAoyama.com v1.0 when Paul posted his original poll over at Hello!Blog, but unfortunately, since hair metal has never been given (let alone deserved) a favorable light in the same space as Iggy fuckin’ Pop, Morning fuckin’ Musume, or Miles motherfuckin’ Davis on this blog, I can’t compare my old results to my present ones, so I might as well get right to talking about my present choices.

1. Reina Tanaka. Obviously, this has not changed. Reina is still my favorite MoMusu. I mean, she’s the personification of my writer’s muse, and I started a worship blog for her in time for her 18th birthday, for Chrissakes! She’s just getting better with age.

2. Ai Takahashi. I know a lot of Western fans like to hate on Takitty, but I simply can’t. Takitty has a great voice and so far she’s handled herself well was leader since Miki Fujimoto pulled a disappearing act.

3. Koharu Kusumi. My future geinou adopted daughter. Her two character-driven solo albums are two of my favorite albums of late – the first one of my top albums of 2007 due to it being a great selection of pop and the second a beautifully, wonderfully twisted melange of music that would have the Residents scratching their eyeball-masked heads in awe. (Yes, I’ll finish the Kirarin Land review soon.)

4. Sayumi Mishishige. Not the best vocalist in the band (although she’s a lot better and a lot more listenable than a lot of people are willing to give her credit for. If she had been in Hello! Project around the time of the second shuffle units, she would have been perfect for San Nin Matsuri. For further platitudes on “Sayummy”, ask her biggest fan Langdon Alger.

5. Li Chun. Her and her fellow Panda Musume Qian Lin need to start standing out more on MoMusu’s records (something I’m sure will at least start to occur with MoMusu’s ninth studio album later this year), but visually, she seems to be the one who gets my attention first.

6. Aika Mitsui. Aika had the vocal skills from day one (witness her lines on “Egao YES Nude”) but over the past several months she’s been maturing rather quick. Have you seen her insert card in the “Mikan” single? In a few years, people will be looking at her and going, “Hello, heartbreaker!!!”

7. Risa Niigaki. Damn, Risa, how’d you get so low on this list? No disrespect, girl, but that’s just how things worked out. I’m sure Langdon still loves you, though.

8. Eri Kamei. Dear Eri, don’t ever cut your hair that short again unless you’re going to frame your face with long bangs a-la Tionne Watkins.

9. Qian Lin. No disrespect to you, either, Lin-Lin (seems like you, Risa and Eri are in a three-way tie for last) but like I said for your fellow countrywoman, we’ll see how things stand after the 9th MoMusu album has been in my CD player and iPod for a few days.

Oh yeah, I should mention that I didn’t really do the Berryz Koubou and C-ute polls, so I’m not going to post them, at least right now. I’m much better at naming which songs of theirs are my favorites than putting names to most faces in both bands.