I’ve always had the idea that producers never handle the double releases right. When they have two good ones they release them together. Natsume and Takizawa always do this. Seems to me that a second release spaced out effectively would insure great sales for both. Whereas a double release people don’t know which to buy.

That’s why they read me – (I hope)…

As for Hana – you’re right they didn’t have 20 good scenes, they had maybe 15. So they amped up Hana no Mai to basically have everyone eager for Haruhana. They probably knew that the 2nd one would suffer in comparison.

You do know that Hana will be in a I-One release from Line Communications slated for a July 20th release. cdjapan already has it listed but no cover image yet.

I gave a 3.5 more for Hana than for the quality of the director’s efforts. As for mainstream appearances, I can’t say much about this as I’m here in the States, but she’s kind of raw, she needs a bit more polishing.

But then again I’m not managing her career, or dating her, so what do I know?
As usual thanks for the comments.

jmm

On the other hand. 3.5 ain’t that bad… and Hana seems to be getting some mainstream (by gravure standards) exposure in an idol card game tv show and Weekly Play Boy and stuff. IF she chooses to move to AV, I’d like it to be because of her choice, not because their managers cornered there by keeping her doing raunchy stuff and providing zero mainstream-ish exposure (as it seems to be the case for many rookie idols).

With a figure like this in front of the camera, it seems like a no-brainer, that the finished product would be good, but I’ve seen enough idol DVD’s to know when the crew and the director have dropped the ball.

This DVD also goes to show you how Idol Marketing works. When Takizawa and Natsume give us a double release, you can count on both videos being well directed and produced. Some times it is difficult to even say which of the two is better because they’re both superb.

But in this case, they let a month go by. They knew the Hana no Mai would get good reveiws and good word of mouth, which would help the sales on this one.

The plan worked fine. Except for the fact that this DVD is disppointing.

Thanks for your insights and comments Agent Wax.

jmm