This Celebration Doesn't Feel Very Asian...

Now that spring break is over and I have to return to the world of the socially active, why not do what I do best and review a PV that's been out for awhile that I should have reviewed sooner?

Sorry Berryz, I just didn't have the motivation to review the Asian Celebration PV thanks to Netflix and Avatar: The Last Airbender. But as the count for new PVs has been piling up and with it my review list, I figured I'd go ahead and take a look at this PV! After the decent but not awesometacular WANT! Berryz Koubou came back with a new song, one not of the same electropop style. That song: Asian Celebration. When I first heard the title of this song, I got excited; hell, anything with the world "celebration" in it makes me want to celebrate! And I was hoping that Asian Celebration would turn out to be another high-energy, over-the-top song like Cha Cha Sing. But what I was really hoping was that it wouldn't be an electropop song. Weird huh? The Perfume fangirl doesn't want an electropop song! I guess I just didn't want Berryz to get on this constant string of electropop songs that Morning Musume is on; it works for Momusu but I don't think it would work as well for Berryz. 

So good news for Nia: Asian Celebration for the most part is not an electropop song. There are a few parts that are a little electropop-y but we'll talk about those later. Asian Celebration is a pretty upbeat track but not as upbeat as I thought it would and has a nice funky sound to it. Still, there is a pretty solid amount of energy in the song which earns brownie points from me! Asian Celebration is a pop song, and an insanely catchy one at that. There are so many little sounds that are repeated in the PV that they just stick in your head from the "P-p-party! Party!" to the "Disco! Disco!" vocals backing the chorus. There's quite a lot to remember about this song and a lot of different elements going on. Now that being said, sometimes it feels like there's a little too much going on with this song. I'm all for musical variety but there are some parts where I felt like they could have toned it down just a little bit. I guess too much stuff in a song is better than too little stuff but even so, Asian Celebration is still a bit of an Asian Clusterfuck.

Another problem I had with Asian Celebration was at some parts, it got kind of annoying. I didn't like Miya's distorted talking bits, especially the way they were edited. They were annoying and felt forced into the song, along with some of the background vocals during the verses. I could have done without them. Some of the Autotune scattered throughout the song felt pointless too, especially during the third verse. But hey, at least the song has a third verse; that hardly ever happens in H!P songs! There's something else about Asian Celebration that I can't ignore: the song is being used in the Pretty Cure series. Which is kind of a huge deal. Actually, I found out that Berryz collaborated with Pretty Cure about ten years ago with Gag 100kai Bun Aishite Kudasai! While I think it's nice that Berryz is contributing another song to the Pretty Cure franchise, I can't say I really pegged Asian Celebration as a song that could relate to magical girls. But hey, who knows? Maybe they'll totally work together! I don't know much about Pretty Cure other than the fact that it's a pretty popular series that's been around for awhile now. I do know that it has a pretty big fanbase, probably much bigger than it was 10 years ago. Who knows? Maybe having Asian Celebration in the upcoming Pretty Cure movie will give it a little boost of attention! 

Then again, I doubt it. Perfume's Mirai no Museum blew in terms of sales (their first-week total hadn't been so low since Baby cruising Love/Macaroni) despite the fact that all this hype surrounded it being the theme for a Doraemon movie. If the super-popular Doraemon can't help Perfume sell their music, then I doubt the Pretty Cures will add much to Berryz sales. Still, you never know! It would be nice if this song did well on the charts, especially since Berryz sales lately haven't been quite as stellar as C-ute's. Regardless of sales, I think Asian Celebration is a pretty decent song and while it may not be my favorite Berryz song, it's catchy and fairly enjoyable! If you hate electropop with a passion you might go berserk at the bits of Autotune scattered around the song, but overall it's pretty pop-oriented song.

Now I wonder if the PV for Asian Celebration is just as hopping as the song... well, actually I know the answer to that since the PV's been out for awhile now but let's take a closer look at it anyways!

Ooooh, sparkly headphones! Nia wants them... but I gotta screencap this.

Wait a minute... am I experiencing deja-vu or have I seen this opening before?

Wow, Berryz ripped off themselves...

Man, the lighting's so red you'd think they filmed this shot in Dante's Inferno!

Miya's hairstyles are like a box of chocolates; you never know what she's going to get.

But I was really hoping she'd leave the Minnie Mouse buns behind with Zassou no Uta.

And is that a dance move I spy from Chocolate Disco?

It is! How many other PVs am I gonna have to screencap in this review!?

At least the accursed Momochi Pigtails didn't strike this PV!

Now why couldn't Miya's hair have been styled like this for the whole PV? She looks sane with this haircut!

I can't believe I'm saying this but... Risako and I have the same hair color.

"RAWR!!" goes the Sakiosaurus!

You know, I never would have paired zebras with Asian celebrations. Mainly because they're, you know, FROM AFRICA.

Put your hands up, Berryz! You're under arrest for stealing the sparkles from One Two Three!

Maasa's so awesome she avoided getting the worst of the zebra print!

Ah, robot moves. Only second to chicken moves in terms of how frequently they're used in idol dances!

Look, I'm glad the close-ups have stuff going on for variety's sake and all...

...but they're like copies of Dakishimete Dakishimete. With sparkles.

Saki will take over the world with DISCO!

Chinami, you're awesome and don't ever let anyone convince you you're not!

Hand-holding... I didn't know I was watching an after school friendship special!

Maasa: this generation's Flava Flav.

Can I just screencap the rest of Chinami's parts?

And things get crazy in three... two...

ONE!

And here we have Risako pretending she can DJ, Momoko celebrating the temporary loss of her pigtails, and Chinami happy because she stole Saki's disco ball!

Now let's cut back to more Chocolate Disco-style partying! Yayz!

What the- this song can't be played in public! It'll make ears around the world bleed!

What a lame party. You could probably only show up if you knew the choreography!

And the PV ends with a shot that I believe is the sparkly-fied set of Dakishimete Dakishimete.

I swear, every time I watch this PV, I get a strong feeling of deja-vu... oh gee, I wonder why because this PV is so original, isn't it? After all, that's what everyone's saying about it! Is my sarcasm self-test complete? Yayz! Yeah, more than one person has pointed out how unoriginal this PV is so that proves I'm not crazy! As far as you know. HA! Anyways, two of the biggest comparisons made to Asian Celebration have been Dakishimete Dakishimete and One Two Three. There may be a few other PVs it looks like but those are the big two and I can totally see why. I got a huge Dakishimete Dakishimete vibe from this PV. Even a few shots in both PVs are near identical, like the DJ shots in particular and the disco ball! I mean wow, I've heard of other idol groups copying each other but an idol group copying itself? Only in the cheap, tacky world of UFP! And Asian Celebration isn't even a good rip-off; I think Dakishimete Dakishimete had more going on than this PV does such as some of the visual effects. 

The Asian Celebration PV doesn't have anywhere near as much variety and the outfits in Dakishimete Dakishimete looked much less tacky. Asian Celebration falls into that category of generic club-styled PVs and pretty much just shows the girls dancing and partying in an in an incredibly empty club. Even then, it's a pretty dull club PV. Maybe I'm just not a fan of club PVs... I'm not even old enough to get into a real club so why should I care? There's no one else in the PV other than the girls and I think this PV could have benefited from a large crowd of enthusiastic partying club-goers. This Asian celebration sure is one lonely celebration, isn't it? The girls tried (some more than others) to look like they're having fun but it still falls flat. And do I even have to talk about the shamelessly edited sparkles? The sparkles in Asian Celebration look about as good as the sparkles in One Two Three. Then again, maybe I should be gratefully they're not as gaudily blinding as One Two Three's. I still don't like them at all; they make the PV look tacky along with the zebra costumes.

But you know what bothers me the most about the Asian Celebration PV? It doesn't feel like an Asian celebration. Okay, I guess I'm not one to talk about Asian celebrations since I don't even know what that specifically entails and obviously it can be open to many interpretations. But even then Asian Celebration just feels like a generic disco. And not even a one room disco. The song is called Asian celebration; why not throw some Asian flare into it? Maybe give them so kimonos; they'd be a hell of a lot better than those tacky zebra-print outfits. I swear, I hate zebra print in large quantities; hordes of people in the South adore it and I have no idea why. But I digress. Come on, would you have rather seen Berryz wearing those tacky zebra print outfits or something like this? If you picked the former, get out. I'm trying to make a point here!

There's just so much they could have done with this concept; Asian Celebration could have been like Cha Cha Sing only focused not only on Thailand but other Asian countries! The PV could have been filled with little motifs and visuals referencing other countries in Asia! How cool would that have been? Hell, even something like Kyarypamyupamyu's Ninjari Bang Bang PV would have been cool. But of course, any of those ideas would be way too complicated for UFP so they're just gonna slap a generic club PV for Asian Celebration! Once again, all we get is a standard, run-of-the-mill H!P PV that probably had the budget of a school play. I guess you could argue that the PV isn't supposed to be an Asian-themed celebration but a celebration of being Asian. If so... what a lame excuse for a celebration! That's like me celebrating that I'm Caucasian! Huh... Caucasian Celebration. That sounds even more lame! Overall, I am disappointed with this PV especially since the song was so much fun. The PV for Asian Celebration just sucks all the fun out of the song. The outfits are atrocious, the sparkles are gaudy and I'll probably forget about this entire PV when I publish this review.

I'll give Asian Celebration three out of five apples and I'm being generous. The song is good but the PV is lackluster and cheap. I hate that the potential for another H!P PV once again fell so flat but what else should I expect now? I swear, they've sucker punched me so many times, I'm surprised my guts aren't hanging out of my mouth by now! Oh... sorry, that was kind of a gross analogy. Tee hee... butterflies! Sparkles! Weeee!!!