Aqua House Splash Girl Series Melon Chan!

We are back in Osaka but this is not a new trip. My first review with Zatoichi was done on the front end of a three week business trip. Initially, we discussed Nozomi Takeuchi and her DVD. But out of range of my micro-recorder, we also discussed some rising starlets for 2006. We agreed that we both thought the world of Hitomi Kitamura, but we decided to hold off on going public with a review until her second DVD came out. The boys went to town on this one, bouncing ideas off one another, agreeing, disagreeing, agreeing to disagree. Here it is, spread over the rest of AoV, and copiously illustrated. After a very pleasant interlude (for me) in another part of South East Asia, I returned to Osaka so Zatoichi and I could finish our discussion of Melon Chan, from Aqua House's Splash Girl Series, starring the busty Hitomi. Our review follows:

Z: We've talked before about this idol, Kitamura Hitomi. Didn't you describe her as having short hair like MEGUMI used to have, big boobs like Yoko, rounded hips like Harumi, short like Miri, and the same age as Rio? Some sort of super idol, perhaps?

JMM: A lovely Japanese girl with big boobies? Definitely super! She's in the Idol Business, but we need to see more of her before we can call her a Super Idol. You gave me the first pointer to look this lady up, and see what I thought of her looks as an Idol. What was your initial take on her?

Z: While I thought her first photo book, Yureru Omoi, was good, we agreed that her debut DVD of the same name was fairly mediocre, and didn't really live up to the potential she seems to have.

JMM: Yeah, like the Director knew he had something — but for whatever reason, he felt he had to keep her 'under wraps' and just give us some tasty peeks. Z: This is her sophomore effort, Melon Chan! When I looked at the cover art and back of the case, I was really looking forward to this one! From the images, it seemed to be moving in the right direction.

JMM: I agree, and I'm operating on a different level. When it comes to box covers, I still need a name in English, unless it is one of the top of the line models like Yoko, Rio or Harumi. But recognizing the names is only half of how to make me look closer. I need a striking front cover which reveals a healthy cleavage, as I'm not getting any hints if the cover only has Japanese script which I can't read.

Z: Well, on to the DVD. Here's Hitomi bouncing out of the Saipan sea and announcing, "I'm Kitamura Hitomi, 20 years old!" Then the opening montage.

JMM: In a brief but terrific opening shot, Hitomi runs towards us in a white bikini. It's late afternoon so the sun is low and to her right. This softens the light, as well as the blue of the sea. A gorgeous shot and it shouldn't keep you from noticing how marvelously her bosom heaves as she runs. You had to love this shot. Z?

Z: Let's see... do I love bouncing breasts? After some careful consideration, I'll have to say 'yes', Mike. A big yes!

JMM: Even the swing of her hips looks delicious. But enough of me swooning over the opening shot. The images swirl before us — not always correctly paced, and not always correctly centered. In short, the montage was flawed from an editing perspective; but still had more than enough mouth-watering images to really whet one's appetite for the model.

Z: I thought the opening montage was good overall, with a lot of nice shots of Hitomi's pretty face and spectacular boobs, but I thought the editors made some odd choices for preview shots, having a few really non-sequitur images, such as the shot of Hitomi's ankle. It was a little weird. JMM: Exactly! Another misplaced shot was in the supermarket where they show Hitomi bending over to pick up a huge pumpkin. One — it was the wrong shape for the pumpkin. A spherical or round one would have been better, and they cut off her head in the shot. Z: Following the opening montage, we get... another opening montage?!? I'm at a loss as to what the producers were thinking here: was there really a need for two tracks back to back which serve exactly the same purpose... to preview the rest of the DVD? It's like they're killing time.

JMM: Killing time or they said the first one sucked, we need more length to the individual snippets. Then they forgot to delete it.

Z: Well, my griping aside about the similarity of the opening and this track, what did you think of this overall — better or worse than the opener?

JMM: Well, my vote is that the second go at it was lengthier, and better, but not by much.

Z: Got it. Well, we have a third scene at the beach with the opening, again, being Hitomi bouncing towards the camera in a white bikini — she's doing that a lot so far. JMM: Yeah but the lighting was terrific at least at first — and this must have been shot on the last day to take full advantage of her gorgeous tan which is greatly intensified visually when you see it against the white bikini.

Z: I guess this serves as kind of an intro to Hitomi; the screen flashes her vital stats and various pieces of trivia about our buxom young star. There's not really a lot that happens in this scene, mostly Hitomi kneeling and playing in the sand on the beach — which does display some utterly spectacular cleavage though — and her walking along the shore.

JMM: Yup, Hitomi hates plum pickles and loves mango pudding. I wonder if those factoids helped develop her magnificent breasts. As far as action — there's not much variety to the action that can be delivered in a beach scene. I've seen Risa Shimamoto and Yoko Matsugane do the surfing bit. It's so nice to see a busty model cavorting in the sea, but they have to take care of those expensive cameras so we are pretty much shore bound. Maybe the problem wasn't what she was doing, but was really where and how they shot her. The camera placements were often too close so we'd lose her face in the shot, or the shot composition was poorly planned with the light source behind her, so her face was in the shadows.

Z: I'd definitely agree that the camera placements were ill conceived for many of the shots — if it wasn't for the high quality and resolution of the images, you'd swear that this was shot by someone on vacation with Hitomi, not by a professional cameraman.

JMM: That's right. What happens next? Z: Up next... more inaction! Hitomi in a hammock! JMM: In the opening montage, the hammock was swinging too fast — Hitomi was in the scene and then not, in the scene and then not. In the full hammock scene, it starts slow, maybe because she's "asleep".

Z: I have to admit, Hitomi looks really cute when she "wakes up" and gives the camera that faux "I'm annoyed" look. Anyways, she proceeds to have the hammock rocked back-and-forth and giggles all the while.

JMM: She's got a nice amount of cleavage on view. The suit fits her nicely. And she laughs nicely too. I like the sound of her laughter.

Z: But then, for reasons unknown, we cut abruptly away from the hammock and have her swimming in a pool. Off screen, a crew member throws a beach ball at her, and then they have a water pistol fight with Hitomi still in the pool... seems like a pointless exercise, as she's already wet! JMM: And it was the same music playing from hammock to pool to water fight. I think the point was not the literal water fight, but to get her laughing...

Z: These first few scenes really encapsulate one of my major problems with Melon Chan!: really mediocre camera work. It's not that's it is incompetent, but it's just boring. The director is always giving the viewer the same sort of full body shot of Hitomi, just following her motion and not really doing anything to make the scenes feel dynamic. Hey! Mr Director! You have a beautiful woman with a killer body and great boobs in front of the camera! Do something!!!

JMM: Absolutely... he's either too close, or he's on the wrong side. Betcha he can't spell composition either. I've a feeling that your take is spot on. He doesn't give her much in the way of direction. So he has no idea of what she'll do next. That puts him always in the reactive mode. That's why Hitomi is often partially off-screen or not centered appropriately. Disappointing.

Z: Up next, a short little bit with Hitomi doing an odd "work out" on the beach with a rubber beach ball — trying to balance on it, doing stomach crunches with the ball on her stomach. JMM: The scene was playful. Hitomi doesn't have great sport hands — you can see when she tries to bounce the ball. But all is forgotten when she gets down on the sand and has a close encounter with the ball.

Z: I'll say! One thing I did love about this track was the image of Hitomi lying on her stomach with her breasts squished up against the ball.

JMM: There were multiple close-ups of Hitomi's face in this girl meets ball sequence, and she is so darling.

Z: Then, much like the previous track, we suddenly cut away to a completely different scene — a sort of behind-the-scenes thing where we get a little of Hitomi doing a photo shoot. She's wearing the same bikini... I guess that's a kind of a connection between this and the beach scene.

JMM: I liked the cute part when the breezes are lifting her little skirt wrap. And Hitomi is trying to keep her skirt down lest we see the bottom part of her bikini. And I agree — this scene had all the earmarks of a behind-the-scenes series of clips. Did you notice her reaction when the cute little gecko lizard ran by on that ledge? "Could I have a lovely little lizard just like that? Please?"

Z: Very cute reaction shot there... surprised but not really scared. She really does remind me of Rio in a lot of ways: like Rio, she's got the "I'm cute and adorable" persona down to a T!

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