Mini Moni ミニモニ。
Mini Moni, 2003.
Background information
Also known as	Minihams, Minimoni to Takahashi Ai
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genres	J-pop
Years active	2000–2004 2009–present
Labels	Zetima
Associated acts	Morning Musume, Tanpopo, Coconuts Musume, W (Double You), Baka Tono-sama to Mini Moni Hime
Website	Hello! Project.com
Members
Linlin Kanon Fukuda Akari Takeuchi Karin Miyamoto
Former members
Mari Yaguchi Mika Todd Ai Kago Nozomi Tsuji

Mini Moni (ミニモニ。^?, also known as Minimoni., mini-moni., etc.) is a former subgroup of J-pop girl group Morning Musume, and a current group within Hello! Project. They were one of Morning Musume's most popular subgroups for their entire existence, because of the combination of their outrageous music videos and live performances, and their widely varied musical styles.

[edit] Original Mini Moni (2000-2004)

The group was founded in late 2000 by Morning Musume member Mari Yaguchi, who had an idea for a subgroup whose members were 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in height or shorter. Yaguchi, and Morning Musume's songwriter and producer Tsunku, selected two of Morning Musume's newest members, Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji, for the new subgroup, and the trio began performing in concerts as Mini Moni. American-born Mika Todd of Coconuts Musume was later added into the group to give the group "an international flavor", and Tsunku made them official. Their debut single, "Minimoni Jankenpyon!", was a #1 hit.

An interesting side note is that Mika Todd usually wore drastically different costumes than her bandmates (While the other girls wore skirts and bows, Todd was often seen wearing jumpsuits or typically more masculine outfits.) This could be attributed to her being the tallest member of the group, just making the height requirements at the bands start. It is also possibly due to her being from Hawaii as opposed to the other members.

While Mini Moni was initially directed towards younger listeners (in spite of the fact two of the members, Yaguchi and Todd, were in their late teens), they also had an older fan base consisting of older Morning Musume fans (especially of Yaguchi, Kago and Tsuji) and the parents of the younger Mini Moni fans.

The quartet released several singles in 2001 and 2002, and most of these tracks were compiled into their first album Minimoni Song Daihyakka Ichimaki. The album's musical styles spanned wildly from track to track, defiantly incorporating such diverse styles as blues, electronica, march music, jazz, reggae, and horn-driven 60's soul music.

The group's almost anarchic presentation would also carry into some of the group's television appearances, many of which are circulated online, especially amongst the band's non-Japanese cult audience; these antics have included: Kago playfully saying "big doo-doo" (in English) in response to a Japanese TV interviewer's question (a bleeped version of the clip has been misidentified as "Kago says fuck you"); band members collectively grabbing the buttocks of a female assistant backstage at a concert (dubbed by some Western fans as the "Mini Moni Ass Grab", in parody of the song title "Mini Moni Bus Guide"); and an Utaban appearance where Kago slugged Yaguchi in the crotch while Yaguchi was in the middle of a sentence (which was actually a Morning Musume appearance for the song "Souda! We're Alive").

Simultaneously with their single releases, the band became the subject of a series of short cartoons of their own, Yarunoda Pyon!, in which they supplied their own voices. They also contributed their voices to the Hamtaro cartoon series, in which hamster versions of Mini Moni are featured. The group recorded two songs especially for Hamtaro under the group pseudonym MiniHams.

All five members of Mini Moni in a still from Okashina Daibōken (2002).

In 2002, Mari Yaguchi graduated from Mini Moni to take on leading the subgroup ZYX, one of the first Hello! Project groups to incorporate the Hello! Project Kids (including a couple of then-future members of Berryz Kobo and °C-ute). Another Morning Musume member, Ai Takahashi took Yaguchi's place, while Mika Todd, as the oldest member of the current lineup, took over as the band's leader. That same year, all five members of Mini Moni filmed the movie Mini Moni ja Movie: Okashi na Daibōken! (Mini Moni The Movie: The Great Cake Adventure), part of the storyline of which, in the context of the movie's fantasy setting, "explains" how Yaguchi ended up leaving Mini Moni to begin leading ZYX and how Takahashi ended up in the band.

They started to have a more mature, modern R&B-heavy sound to their music with the single Crazy About You, a style the group explored more heavily on their second album Minimoni Songs 2. However, their silly side was also well represented on the album with two more songs they contributed to Hamtaro as MiniHams. Former member Yaguchi also appears on three cuts, two of which previously appeared on the Okashina Daibouken soundtrack. They also starred in a mini-series called Mini Moni's The Brementown Musicians starring Takahashi, Tsuji, and Kago; Mika made brief appearances in two episodes.

The group originally disbanded in May 2004 at the graduation concert, Hello! Project 2004 Haru THE BEST, of Mika Todd following the release a final single, "Lucky Cha Cha Cha!"

[edit] Mini Moni's revival (2009-present)

On May 26, 2009, Mini Moni's original leader, Mari Yaguchi, posted a blog discussing how the head producer of Hello! Project, Tsunku, had contacted her asking for permission to bring the group out of hiatus.^[1] Tsunku would later post his own blog, confirming that Mini Moni would be revived with an entirely new line-up, confirming s/mileage member Kanon Fukuda as the first member.^[2] Morning Musume's Linlin was announced later as the group's leader.^[3] It was later announced that Akari Takeuchi & Karin Miyamoto would be the final two members in the new line up of Mini Moni.

[edit] Post-Mini Moni careers

• Mari Yaguchi (矢口真里^?) continued as sub-leader of Morning Musume after she left Mini Moni, and she also formed the short-lived unit ZYX with five members of the Hello! Project Kids. In April 2005, she resigned from Morning Musume and embarked on a solo career under the Hello! Project banner.
• Mika Todd (ミカ^?) is currently living and studying music in Los Angeles, and she occasionally travels to perform with her father, jazz pianist Johnny Todd. She released a self-titled solo EP in 2005 that has been available only at her rare live performances.
• Nozomi Tsuji (辻希美^?) and Ai Kago (加護亜依^?) graduated together from Morning Musume in August 2004 to form a new unit, W (Double You), under the Hello! Project banner. Kago was suspended in February 2006 and then terminated in March 2007 after a series of tabloid scandals, she came back on April 6 but no longer under the Hello! Project banner. She has recently finished shooting a movie in Hong Kong, Kung fu Chef which will be released soon. She has also released a photobook called Super Cargo. Following Kago's suspension, Tsuji continued as a soloist in Hello! Project until May 10, 2007 when she announced that she was engaged to actor Taiyou Sugiura and already two months pregnant with his child. She is currently on personal leave from Hello! Project, but will graduate in March. On November 26, 2007, Tsuji gave birth to a girl named Noa Sugiura (杉浦希空, Sugiura Noa^?).
• Ai Takahashi (高橋愛^?) continued as a member of Morning Musume, and she is the current leader of the group. Her distinctive vocals have been more prominent on their last several singles and on their albums Ai no Dai 6 Kan, Rainbow 7 and Sexy 8 Beat. Ai is the only past member of Mini Moni still active in Hello! Project.

[edit] Mini Moni in American media

In February 2006 Mini Moni's name was invoked on American television (NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno) during a skit claiming that one of Leno's house band members had started out as a member of Mini Moni; a manipulated picture of the Leno band member with Mini Moni (in their outfits from the cover of MiniMoni Songs 2) was aired as part of the sketch.^[4]

In June 2007, an excerpt from an early 2001 appearance by Mini Moni on Hello! Morning of a prairie dog turning his head suddenly, became the basis for the Internet phenomenon The Dramatic Chipmunk. ^[5][6] A parody of the Dramatic Chipmunk clip, including lookalikes of Mini Moni, appears in Weezer's music video for their 2008 single "Pork and Beans". The real Mini Moni did not appear because of licensing issues, their lack of mainstream recognition in America, and other logistical difficulties (including the fact that both Mika Todd and Ai Kago were no longer contracted by Up-Front Works by that time).^[7]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] References

[edit] External links

This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.

• Hello! Project.com: Official profile, Official discography