Haromoni@

Haromoni@
Genre	Variety
Directed by	陳賛収 Kōzō Yamada Hiroko Tsuyuki Sato B
Presented by	TV Tokyo
Starring	Morning Musume
Country of origin	Japan
Original language(s)	Japanese
No. of episodes	76
Production
Producer(s)	Mitsuharu Seki
Editor(s)	Yūsuke Kanno
Location(s)	Tokyo, Japan
Cinematography	Hiroyuki Ikeda
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Picture format	NTSC (1080i)
Original run	2007-04-08 – 2008-09-28
Chronology
Preceded by	Hello! Morning (2000–2007)
Related shows	Hello! Morning, Futarigoto, Musume Dokyu!
External links
Website

Haromoni@ (ハロモニ@) is the title of the sequel to the long-running Japanese variety show Hello! Morning, which it replaced starting April 8, 2007, on TV Tokyo and later throughout the country on several other television networks, in High Definition. The show stars Morning Musume members, who incarnate the roles of several different animals working under the rule of the young and mildly despotic King Akachin (あかちん国王)—whose name derives from the Japanese word for "baby" (赤ちゃん, akachan)—ruler of the fictional Kingdom of Haromoni. The final episode of the series aired on September 28, 2008.

Concept

Haromoni@ marked a departure from its predecessor and related Hello! Project productions in that it was shot exclusively outdoors without being composed of a series of seemingly unconnected segments. In the first ten episodes, the show followed the form of a relatively cohesive narrative detailing the weekly accomplishment of a specific task, which generally consisted of the delivery of a given piece of hardware used in commerce and industry, on behalf of King Akachin.

Thereafter, the show's focus came to lay primarily on several distinct corners including Lying Queen (うそつQUEEN), Little King (チビッコKING), Hit Jack (ヒットの現場JACK) and Child Gourmet Joker (お子さまグルメJOKER).

Morning Musume members are usually split into two groups who challenge other Japanese celebrities to compete in a series of games, one or more for each of the aforementioned corners.

As such, on 'Lying Queen', for example, four Morning Musume members face off against a celebrity artist in a game to determine which one of them is lying about a given subject (past gastronomic experiences, among others).

At one point, a third group consisting of Koharu Kusumi and Aika Mitsui visited Chinese restaurants and China related events, in order to learn more about Eighth Generation members Junjun and Linlin's home country.

Other initiatives included the creation of an exclusive character design for the Kirarin Revolution anime series. Members were asked to draw the design for Tsukishima Kirari's pet cat Nā-san's antagonist and, among the works submitted, Sayumi Michishige's youma-inspired design was chosen.

Segments

From the January 27, 2008 episode until the April 27, 2008 episode, Haromoni@ had consisted of only a MouTube segment and occasionally a studio performance.

• Lying Queen (2007-07-29 – 2007-11-25)
• Little King (2007-07-29 – 2007-12-09)

This segment features a young child or young children who have special talents. The children show their talents and often challenge Morning Musume in the talent, with Morning Musume being required to complete much simpler tasks. The winner of the challenge is rewarded with a gourmet dessert.

• Hit Jack (2007-08-05 – 2007-09-02)
• Child Gourmet Joker (2007-09-30 – 2007-10-28)
• Collab Musume (2007-10-07 – 2007-12-09)
• Equal Viking (2007-11-18 – 2008-01-20)

Morning Musume members and several guests are seated around a circular table upon which certain dishes are placed. The girls and guests must each take a certain amount of food, until it is all gone. Each person's plate is then weighted to meet a certain quota. If the weight does not land within the required amount, the food is taken from them.

• MouTube (2008-01-13 – 2008-09-28)

External links

• (Japanese) Official website
• (Japanese) Official Social Network Service website

• (English) Haromoni@ episode summaries