The Voice of the Hello! Project idol

I wrote this essay last night and I typed and revised it now (I just felt it was necessary. It makes up for my lack of "pure wotaism"). Oh, and no offense to fans of any of the idols I mentioned in a somewhat indelicate manner (especially Sayumi fans - remember, Sayumi needs you).

Now, we, the Hello! Project fandom- no, music fans in general (even if we like an idol solely for looks) have always identified an aspect of said idol on the basis of one thing: the voice. Ah yes, the voice. It is what separates the Abe Natsumis, Maki Gotos, Takahashi Ais, Melons, and Mitsui Aikas from the Ishikawa Rikas (even if I found her voice to be cute and never really noticed its weakness), Konno Asamis (same deal here), Michishige Sayumis (I am not much of a Sayu fan mainly because of her voice but I applaud her improvement), and Kusumi Koharus (ironic since she’s my favorite current Musume but I feel in love moreso with her image and character. Plus, if she had vocals a la Takitty, she’d sound weird. Same goes for the rest of the mentioned). Back onto my topic, we have often defined idols on voice. Of course, being idols, other factors (I.e. looks) come into play but a good chunk of the idol population is singers. (In fact, it is one of the things an idol has to have in order to appeal to me, second to “a certain something”).

As I have already stated, one of the defining points of an idol is the voice and it is one of the things that must appeal to me in terms of Hello! Project members. When I became a fan in 2003, many of the “classic” members of Morning Musume were still in there. Yes, I came in a little bit after the CD single debut of the 6^th Generation but I still had the pleasures of Yoshizawa, Ishikawa, Ogawa, Yaguchi, Nono, and Aibon. Also, since “Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~” could not satisfy my Hello! Hunger, I went a-searching for older tracks. From “Ikimasshoi!’ to “Koi no Dance Site,” “Happy Summer Wedding” to “Morning Coffee,” I craved Morning Musume. In fact, they were the second Hello! Project group I became hooked on - the first, with the song “Oshaberisukiyanen,” was Mini Moni (which was the root of my love for Yaguchi, Takitty, Mika, Nono, and Aibon).

Vocals are important, yes - even becoming the defining point of the idol. This happened with most of the Hello! Project (particularly Morning Musume members, as you can see from this slanted pseudo-essay). Thanks to the projecthello.com lyrics site, along with various releases and (mostly) the “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari” remixes, I was able to recognize the voices of every Morning Musume member prior to the 8^th Generation and I can now recognize the distince voice of Mitsui Aika. I am beginning to with recognize the Pandas but I’ve only heard one song with them, of course it’s going to take a while. Their voices are those that are memorable though).

Having rambled about “the Voice of the Hello! Project idol” (with significant bias towards Morning Musume since they stand out to me most at the moment, I pose a question to you, the Hello! Project fan community - which Hello! Project member do you sound like? As for me, I not entirely but I think it’s a subtle blend of Kusumi and Takakashi with a bit Iida mixed in. Of course, I am quite unsure but I will open the floor for discussion now.

(There was originally going to be a sound clip of me singing the first verse and chorus for “Onna ni Sachi Are” but my microphone records my voice rather low, even when I sing close to it. Ah, the curse of having a soft voice and crappy technology)

Anyway, I open the floor for discussion and I'm curious: is there a Hello! Project idol you sound like? If so, who and why?