Throwback Thursday: C-ute - Aitai Lonely Christmas

    This week's Throwback Thursday post goes back to Christmas 2010. Not as far back as I usually go for these type of posts, but it's Christmas time and I want to change things up just a little. It's 2010 and Hello! Project idol group C-ute was on track following single "Dance de Bakoon" which featured a more dance-anthem style. This sound was hinted at in this song "Aitai Lonely Christmas" and would be best represented in their next single, "Kiss me Aishiteru".  In short, these three songs would come to define what C-ute's sound would ultimately be over the next few years until now. "Aitai Lonely Christmas" was sandwiched in the middle, but that's okay, it was the weird song in the bunch after all. It was the Christmas song.
    I have a soft spot for Christmas songs and I like that most of the Japanese ones, idol or otherwise, don't always tread down the cliche, sappy routes, but usually have songs that have a Christmas "feel" or motif to them instead of being simple a song about Christmas. This song doesn't fail to deliver and five-member C-ute (this reduced line-up was still barely a year old at this point) were in great form on this single. Their dancing skills were starting to become a central focus and with good reason. Focusing on this point, it is interesting to note that not a single shot of the dance made it into the full PV that I am sharing here. There is a dance to this song, and there is in fact a dance shot PV, but those shots exist solely there and not in the video proper. This is one of the few times that Hello! Project and UP-FRONT has done this and it's all the more interesting that it was done to C-ute. Back to the video itself, what it lacks in dance shots, it make up for in oddly-creepy house shots! The house here looks like it came out of a Tim Burton movie, but look nice and not totally out-of-place nonetheless. The shots of the letter-writing do an okay job of breaking up the monotony of a dance-less video though the action in the video seems a little lacking. The outfits are a nice choice as the girls are clearly cold shown by their hats and ponchos, but apparently they are comfortable enough to be in shorts and skirts in the falling snow... Did I mention the odd out-of-place instrumental break that seems empty without a corresponding out-of-place dance break? Yeah, there's that. Watch it and see for yourself! Oh yeah-Merry Christmas!!

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