Pinku Invasion Single Review

Hey y'all! I got Pinku Project's Debut Single, Pinku Invasion in late May/Early June, but I didn't do a review on it!  I also have some more singles to review, but I thought I would start with this one.

 Here's some pictures to start y'all out with:

 

The Cover

 

CD

 

Berricha's autograph on the lyrics card!

 An autographed Photocard of Berricha!

 The lyrics book

 DVD

Inside of the lyrics book

Moar lyrics!

A thank you letter from Berricha!

 The back cover

Okay, so to explain all of the extra fun stuff, when you pre-ordered their CD, you got to choose a member to autograph a photocard for you.  I chose Berricha! <3  She's such a sweetheart!  The packaging itself is super high quality!  And the design is super cute!  All of the pink and pastel colors make me really happy, and the girls look super adorable in their Pinkly Ever After clothes.

So the tracklist of this single is:

1) Magical Journey Ft. Yukapon

2) Pinku Invasion

3) Magical Journey Ft. Yukapon (Japanese Ver.)

4) Pinku Invasion (Japanese Ver.)

5) Bonus Track

The English lyrics were written by Baby Pinku, and they were translated into Japanese by Berry Pinku.  

I personally LOVE Magical Journey.  It's only sung by Baby Pinku and Yukapon, but their voices work together really well.  Baby has a soft and sweet voice, while Yuka's is more robust.  Cute, yes, but robust.  Baby's voice acts as the perfect catalyst for Yuka's voice whenever they sing together.  This song is a good one for Pinku Project to start off with, since it fits most idol music standards, such as twinkly sounds, full back vocals, a steady, but not overpowering beat, and the lyrics are about achieving your dreams, believing in yourself, and finding happiness.  

Pinku Invasion, on the other hand, is like idols on speed.  It's like someone took Pinku Project and put them into some strange idol-y rave.  Or at least that's what it sounds like to me.  The beat is heavier on this song, and there is much more going on with the instrumental.  There is also a steady "Pinku!" chant in the background, as well as written in wotagei (L-O-V-E Lovely Pinku)!  All four members of Pinku Project sing in this song, but the bulk of the singing still goes to Baby.  When I first heard the song, I thought the squeakiness and the "pinku!" over and over was annoying, but as I kept listening to the song, it became much more enjoyable.  There are some good harmonies in this song, which were done by Berry Pinku.  Nicely done!  Besides that, Berry and Peach only have one solo line, while I do believe Cotton has two or three, and Baby...sings a lot like I said, which isn't a bad thing!  My only gripe about lines in this song is that Peach's solo line sounds distorted.  Ah well.

Moving on to the Japanese versions of these songs. 

DEAR LORD JESUS NO.

NO, NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Let me explain.

Their pronunciation was perfectly fine, but their voices gave me CAVITIES.  Straight to the dentin I tell ya!  Especially Yukapon's.  That great robust quality that her voice had in the English version was COMPLETELY GONE and replaced by some whiny child.  It makes me sad that she distorts her voice in that way when she sings in Japanese, since she really does have a great voice on her own.  I guess it has to do with that whole Forever 13, "oniichan" thing she has going on.  I heard that she released an original single in Japan, so I'd like to get a hold of it and see what she did with her voice there.  Anyway, I do prefer the English songs to the Japanese ones, since the cuteness comes naturally, and isn't forced.

Now the bonus track is a solo version of Magical Journey done by Yukapon.

IN ENGLISH THANK YOU JESUS.

She sounds AWESOME!

For the stuff on the DVD, it's:

1) Magical Journey PV

2) Magical Journey PV photoshoot

3) Pinku Invasion Recording

The PV was what I expected.  Yuka and Baby being cute with a green screen.  And hey, I'm not complaining!  They did a good job with what they were given, and with a low budget, this was pretty much their only option. XD  The stuff they put on the green screen was cute and sparkly, so that was good.  

I liked watching the photo shoot as well, since we got to see all of the Pinku Project members, plus Yukapon.  Seeing all of the different outfits is really what makes this worthwhile, since it's mostly just them sitting there posing. XDD  Robin (Peach Pinku) does an AMAZING job with her fashion line, Pinkly Ever After.  Her clothes are such high quality and they fit in with her vision perfectly!  And they all fit the Pinku Project members very well!

The recording of Pinku Invasion was alright.  It was interesting to see them record for a bit, but in my opinion it ran on a bit too long, and we were seeing the same thing over and over again.  It would have been interesting to see them working on the choreography for the song as well as recording it.

Speaking of which, they did release a dance video with Berry Pinku's original choregoraphy to Pinku Invasion on Youtube:

For a debut single for a North American idol group, this was AMAZINGLY done!  I give this entire single an 8.5 out of 10, with the only points being taken off for the squeaky child voices in the Japanese version, and the recording bit on the DVD.

Also, Peach and Berry are having a duo mini live at Atomic Lollipop in Toronto this weekend!  If any of y'all are in the area, I highly recommend checking them out!

Another review will be up tomorrow!

<3