Hooray, Paul Thomas – and welcome, UFA

Aibon, far right, with Yaguchi and Abe in Morning Musume's 'Renai Revolution 21,' 2000

Like a floodgate, it’s all opening up big-time: Hangry & Angry to Seattle in April, Buono! to Stockholm in May, Morning Musume to the United States in July – and Hello! Project music available through JapanFiles. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Please, don't pinch me.

And, finally: JapanFiles has taken the plunge and not only knotted a deal with Hello! Project and parent company Up-Front Artists for music distribution in the U.S. – but invited one of the West’s most avid and enthusiastic blogging voices, Paul Thomas of Hello!Blog, to become a consultant.

Aika, left, Morning Musume's brightest new starlet, rocks with V-u-den, fall 2007.

The avalanche has begun, and it won’t stop until the excellence and artistry of Japanese music goes global – and I mean in every nation, on every continent.

Hey, Tsunku is already in Korea to conquer new worlds with two of his crack officers, Maimi of °C-ute and Captain Saki of Berryz Kobo, and just launched Taiwan-based Ice Cream Musume, which made its smash debut at the epic Elder Club graduation concert on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Idol music's sledgehammer assault on the West is coming at us from all sides, Hallelujah!

Morning Musume's Reina wreaks havoc on wota-world, January 2008, Yokohama Arena.

And to think I flew back from Japan in February with what turned out to be pneumonia, an empty wallet and some serious doubts as to whether all of this was really worth it. At least I had seen Morning  Musume eight times in two years, and this time around I was even able to penetrate the AKB48 mystique and see Teams B, A and K, in that order, at the rickety old Don Quijote Theater. But was this tremendous run finally out of gas?

In the words of Steve Martin, "Noooooooooooooo!" It's all suddenly paying off – in the biggest way imaginable. May the entire world climb out of its economic miasma on the “Happy New Power” (circa 2005) of the 60 fantastic voices and 120 dancing legs of the mightiest music company on earth, Hello! Project, and its proud parent, UFA.

Hey, Yankee boys: Morning Musume, here in fall 2007, is due in the U.S. in July 2009!

I just hope to live long enough to see the greatest song-and-dance ensemble of all time, Morning Musume, the musical equivalent of baseball’s New York Yankees, dazzle the world with what will surely be an explosive but all-too-brief visit to Anime Expo 2009, July 2-5, Los Angeles Convention Center. Register now before it's too late:

http://anime-expo.org

This is Rad signing off – for now.