Mini Moni ミニモニ。 (placeholder)

Mini Moni ( also known as MiniMoni., mini-moni., etc) was a subgroup of J-pop girl group Morning Musume. 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, their vocal harmonies, and their widely varied musical styles.

The group was founded in late 2000 by Morning Musume member Mari Yaguchi, who had an idea for a subgroup whose members were 150 cm 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.

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 Dai Hyakka 1 kan. 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 “MiniMoni Ass Grab”, in parody of the song title “MiniMoni Bus Guide”); and an Utaban appearance where Kago slugged Yaguchi in the crotch while Yaguchi was in the middle of a sentence.

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 MiniMoni are featured. The group recorded two songs especially for Hamtaro under the group pseudonymn MiniHams.

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 Koubou). 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 MiniMoni Ja Movie: Okashina Daibouken (MiniMoni 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 MiniMoni 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 MiniMoni’s The Brementown Musicians starring Takahashi, Tsuji, and Kago; Mika made brief appearances in two episodes.

The group was put on indefinate hiatus in May of 2004 after the graduation of Mika Todd and the release of one final single, “Lucky CHA CHA CHA!”

In February 2006 MiniMoni’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 MiniMoni; a manipulated picture of the Leno band member with MiniMoni (in their outfits from the cover of MiniMoni Songs 2) was aired as part of the sketch.[1]
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Post-MiniMoni member careers

• Mika Taressa Todd (ミカ, Mika Todd?) is currently in LA studying music, occasionally traveling back to Japan to perform in a jazz group with her pianist father Johnny Todd. She released a self-titled solo EP in 2005 that has been available only at her rare live performances.
• Mari Yaguchi (矢口真里, Mari Yaguchi?) quit Morning Musume in early 2005 and embarked on a solo career under the Hello! Project banner.
• Ai Kago (加護亜依, Ai Kago?) and Nozomi Tsuji (辻希美, Nozomi Tsuji?) graduated from Morning Musume in August 2004 and are both in a duo called W (Double You) under the Hello! Project banner.
• Ai Takahashi (高橋愛, Ai Takahashi?) is still a member of Morning Musume; her distinctive vocals have been more prominent on their past few singles and on their albums Ai no Dai 6 Kan and Rainbow 7.

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Discography
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Singles

• Minimoni Jankenpyon!/Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu Daisukki! (ミニモニ。ジャンケンぴょん, Minimoni Jankenpyon!/Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu Daisukki!?) — January 17, 2001
• Minimoni Telephone! RIN RIN RIN/MiniMoni Bus Guide (ミニモニ。テレフォン!リンリンリン/ミニモニ。バスガイド, Minimoni Telephone! RIN RIN RIN/MiniMoni Bus Guide?) — September 12, 2001
• Minihamuzu no Ai no Uta (ミニハムずの愛の唄, Minihamuzu no Ai no Uta?) — December 5, 2001
• Minimoni Hina Matsuri!/Mini Strawberry Pie (ミニモニ。ひなまつり!/ミニ。ストロベリーパイ, Minimoni Hina Matsuri!/Mini Strawberry Pie?) — January 30, 2002
• AI_{N Taisou/AI}N! Dance no Uta (アイ_{ン体操/アイ}ン!ダンスの唄, AI_{N Taisou/AI}N! Dance no Uta?), as Baka Tonosama (Ken Shimura) and Minimoni Hime (バカ殿様とミニモニ姫, Baka Tonosama (Ken Shimura) and Minimoni Hime?) — April 24, 2002
• Genki Jirushi Oomori Song/Okashi Tsukutte Okkaswi_{! (げんき印の大盛りソング/お菓子つくっておっかすぃ}!, Genki Jirushi Oomori Song/Okashi Tsukutte Okkaswi_{!?) — November 27, 2002}
• Minihamuzu no Kekkon Song (ミニハムずの結婚ソング, Minihamuzu no Kekkon Song?) — December 4, 2002
• Rock’n Roll Kenchou Shozaichi Oboechaina Series _{(ロックンロール県庁所在地}おぼえちゃいなシリーズ_{, Rock’n Roll Kenchou Shozaichi} Oboechaina Series_{?) — April 9, 2003}
• Minimoni Kazoe Uta (ミニモニ。数え歌, Minimoni Kazoe Uta?) — May 14, 2003
• CRAZY ABOUT YOU — October 16, 2003
• Mirakururun Granpurin!/Pihyara Kouta (ミラクルルン グランプリン!/ピ_{ヒャラ小唄, Mirakururun Granpurin!/Pi}hyara Kouta?) — November 19, 2003
• Lucky CHA CHA CHA! (ラッキーチャチャチャ!, Lucky CHA CHA CHA!?) — April 21, 2004

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Albums

• MiniMoni Song Dai Hyakka 1 kan (ミニモニ。ソング大百科1巻, MiniMoni Song Dai Hyakka 1 kan?) — June 26, 2002
• MiniMoni Ja Movie Okashina Daibouken OST (ミニモニ。じゃムービーお菓子な大冒険オリジナルサウンドトラック, MiniMoni Ja Movie Okashina Daibouken OST?) — 2003
• MiniMoni Songs 2 (ミニモニ。ソングス2, MiniMoni Songs 2?) February 11, 2004

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Moni”

Categories: Hello! Project | Japanese musical groups | Girl groups