18 April 2012

Hey! Say! JUMP - Aiing -Aishiteru- PV review

I was debating on whether or not to include these video clips with my PV reviews but figured I might as well as it was meant to be a PV of sorts.

To go into a little history about how the B-side for OVER got a PV, when the single was first announced there were only two versions announced to be released, which at the time was the norm for Hey! Say! JUMP. Then one of the AKS sub-units announced that they would be releasing a single the same day as HSJ. HSJ was not as strong as sales at the time as they are now so shortly after that announcement a second LE version of OVER was announced. (As proof of this if you look at the numbering on HSJ CDs the LEs have lower numbers than the REs except for this 2nd LE for OVER.) To entice fans to buy this new version they had one of HSJ's concert songs, Born in the Earth, as a B-side and made a "PV" for the B-side of the RE version of the single, Aiing -Aishiteru-.

It is difficult to see how much this move helped as it was right before the single was released the under age smoking scandal with Morimoto Ryutaro broke out so there is no telling how many fans decided to buy more copies to try to support the group during this time, or how many people may have picked it up out of interest because of the scandal. But I think the fact that all HSJ singles after have had three versions since and sell more than most pre-OVER singles point to the extra version helping.

Why I do not completely consider this a PV will be explained during the review.

I will note that I do like Aiing -Aishiteru-. It is one of those cute songs that HSJ tends to have as a B-side and has some rather interesting choreography to it for the concert performances as we shall see.

HSJ's cheapest PV ever.
Honestly this screen cap should give an inkling of what to expect from this PV. Especially the groups' name there.

I guess the bubbles washed out Chinen's face.
And if you had any hope of a decent PV let this screen cap dash that. This is pretty much what we get throughout. Concert footage with cheap computer graphics. Also to note the picture quality seems to be lacking as well as it was impossible to get a nice clean looking screen cap from the DVD for me at all.

I don't think it's that kind of song Takaki.
I actually do not mind a concert PV, especially for a song like Aiing -Aishiteru- which shines more with the performance. So I do like these parts, unfortunately they are constantly interrupted with cuts to...

Weirdest looking sun ever.
 ...things like this. Which is probably only so terrible in the fact that the CG comes off as really cheap.

Somehow I don't think those fairy lights were actually at the concert.
And then you get mash up screens like this that make me think of a fanmade video and not something someone actually spent money on.

The green gaseous cloud just wants to hug you.
Then you get these lyric screens that I have no idea how to take. I know I like lyric videos if they are well done, but this PV, well nothing is well done.

I have great respect for the photographers that are able to get decent group photos of HSJ.
I guess screens that have all ten members like this are okay, except that it seems impossible to get a screen shot of all ten of them looking decent.

My favorite space cadet.
And a Takaki Yuya screen cap, just because. I wish I could have gotten a better one but honestly none seemed to have come out right.

I really have no words for this part of the choreography. So I won't even put a caption for it and let you make your own.

Raise your hand if you could have done this on your computer.
I actually like this part of the PV, as the images of the guys pop up on the screen but more as something I would like to see as a DVD menu screen and not in a PV.

Nothing says 'I love you' than party balloons. 
And the grand finale of the PV is this. Yes, this looks-like-a-fanmade-computer-background-image is how we end on this PV. Well actually the balloons and guys rise up off the screen, but the image does not change from this as that happens.


If it was just the concert footage I would have been okay with this. But it is so easy to see that this thing was a rush job so there could not be a lot of time to make it. In fact the packaging of the LE has much of the same feel when compared to the originally planned LE that has some unique packaging to it that is completely missing from this second LE.

The only saving grace for me was that I like the song and it is always nice to see concert footage for those who cannot make it to the group's concerts.

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