Morning Musume – Renai Hunter PV

Hello! Project’s flagship group has finally released the music video for their upcoming single Renai Hunter.

The preview images of the stage costumes showed that this time around they’re not pretending to be farm animals and instead have a slightly edgy (for Hello! Project shiny clothing, boots & gloves = edgy) look indicating a more mature side of the current Musume’s.

While this video does little to actually emphasize that other than the few close-up shots it at least gets a couple of things right. First, Gaki’s hair. I have always been in the camp that believed that once Gaki got a hairstyle that didn’t look like a blind Edward Scissorhands went ballistic on her head that she would graduate.

And lo and behold, we have this, her last official single as a Musume without helmet hair. In theory Gaki is the center of this song. Well maybe not vocally, but in the dance shots she is. Vocally we get the next generation of line whores in Reina & Riho with Sayu & the rest of the background dancers getting thrown a bone or two.

But that’s neither here nor there given the scope of this review. Anyway, the second thing done right is that the noobs get introduced properly through the clever (& this is a hard word to use when talking about H!P videos) use of the magazine cover effect. This is especially helpful for those who have no idea who any of these new girls are. It’s a lot better than hiding behind giant kana or dressing up as chickens right?

I did notice that apparently Aika is still part of Morning Musume. Although you can’t really tell from the dance shots unless she’s relegated to the back row or something. You do see her frequently in the close-up shots. Which is probably a little too much Aika to begin with, but that’s just my own personal bias.

Otherwise this follows the status quo template of idol videos and anyone using the words “amazing”, “spectacular” “superb” or any other type of gushing adjective to describe this run of the mill PV should probably watch this over again without being under the influence of the H!P Kool-Aid.

I really have nothing else to say about this video. My bar for Morning Musume videos has been lowered so much that saying, “This didn’t suck.” would be considered a compliment.

So yes, this didn’t suck.