j1m0ne's blog

I wasn’t really planning on checking out HiNA since I am not really a fan of Hinagiku (I prefer Maria) or Ito Shizuka’s singing but Shizuka (and Hayate’s seiyuu Shiraishi Ryoko) made an amusing appearance on Anispa last weekend to promote the CD and other Hayate-related goods, and I thought some of the Hinagiku songs they played weren’t that bad. So I thought I might as well give it a shot a week ahead of the release of mangaka Hata Kenjiro’s selected anison covers album by the Hayate seiyuu (which is what I’m looking forward to).

Probably most amusing to me is that Shizuka has to sing in character, ie singing in a register high above her comfortable range – ‘I couldn’t breathe and thought I was going to die’ was her own assessment of her condition after recording Steppin’. Now I’ve got an image of a hyperventilating Shizuka stuck in my brain…

Actually, I am pretty surprised that they (referring to Tanaka Kohei, Kumano Kiyomi & Matsuda Akio) managed to coax those vocals out of her – she’s not a great singer by any stretch of the imagination, sometimes her singing can border on Noto Mamiko-levels of terribleness. Although there are a few shaky moments on songs like Ashita no Watashi, Steppin’ and Heart of Flower, Shizuka’s vocals are generally pleasant, even melodious at times.

The album is divided into two halves stylistically – the first 5 tracks are all upbeat, cheerful songs that capture Hinagiku as schoolgirl, student council president & kendo master. The latter half portrays Hinagiku as a normal teenage girl, the lyrical content dealing more with her feelings towards Hayate.

Shizuka had a go at writing lyrics for the first time ever (with the help of Kumano Kiyomi) on NOTICE – she hilariously describes the words as ‘disgusting’ from the viewpoint of Ito Shizuka, but alright from a Hinagiku mindset, which is what she kept thinking of when writing them. I don’t normally bother to read the lyrics but NOTICE’s are pretty banal (I wanna fly but I can’t fly etc), not to mention the song is tuneless and boring so I suppose it’s ‘disgusting’ from every angle for me.

Most of the other tracks are middling – Steppin’, School Days and Perfect Nanka Janai! are all fun in their own way, but don’t exactly stand out and I’m not sure I’ll remember them a week from now. Jounetsu starts off very nicely with a very 90s anison feel to it but sadly gets ruined by an oddly-phrased chorus (or is it a bridge?) and squeaky synth effects.

Ai to Jounetsu no Carnival is a horrible salsa number with random, bizarre Italian phrases scattered throughout the song – Babelfish tells me ‘buono pescatore’ means ‘good fisherman’… yeah, whatever. I thought Latino songs were supposed to be hot and sexy – this is however, colder than a polar bear’s nails and flatter than Mizuki Nana a pancake.

My three favourite songs all come in the second half of the album – tops is Omoi tachigataku, Hatsukoi narigatashi, a mid-tempo pop song with a totally catchy, totally hummable chorus. The other two are also ballads – Ashita no Watashi is cute, especially Shizuka/Hinagiku’s whispered baka and Heart of Flower is also very nice (ignore that high note that she doesn’t quite pull off towards the end) though I wish they’d stop harping on with the flower-related lyrics (Hinagiku is Japanese for daisy), it’s kinda cheesy.

The best stuff is left on the limited edition extra disc – Matsuo Hayato (FFXII, Front Mission 3) strings four of the songs together with a grand orchestral arrangement and it oddly works. Granted, the instrumental version actually sounds much better, but it at least proves that Tanaka Kohei and co’s songs are versatile enough to survive a change in style.

Overall HiNA is an average, mildly enjoyable pop album and I would wager that only Hinagiku fans (I know there are a lot of you guys around) would be inclined to fork out the cash for this. I have to say though, that hearing Shizuka in (or attempting to be in) cute Hinagiku mode is reason enough to give this a listen. The only time I’ve ever remotely thought Shizuka was cute was when she went to that ghost house as a batsu game for Yabou Jinja – otherwise she’s just a drunken old man in young women’s clothing…

HiNA debuted in the top 20 today (at No.17) which is pretty good – Okui Masami’s new album Akasha made #31 and Noto Mamiko’s character song best CD #36 as a comparison.