Mami Kawada vs I've

Remember the two previous posts tagged KOTOKO vs Mami Kawada (v1.0 and v2.0)? So, as requested, here's a more extensive version, pitting Mami Kawada against the rest of I've (minus KOTOKO). Let the battle begin! 

Mami Kawada	I’ve Sound Girls
RIDE Cover Release: The Front Line Covers With lots of years to fill the gap, I’ve succeeded to modernize the song without taking away its signature. The jazzy elements and the instrumental layers worked wonders. The verses sounded catchier and livelier yet still ironically ballad-ish. Mami Kawada’s lower register was in stark contrast with AKI’s cutesy style, yet it works, in a different way, and breaks even with that of the latter. It had its own charm. It was a rare feat indeed for Mami yet she pulled it off. What gives this version its glory apart from the better arrangement, however, is the more expressive singing. The vibrato, the chants, and the vocal quality helped all the more. Verdict: Win	RIDE Original: AKI Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 2 verge A very old song with old school tunes. Simplistic. But one may find that either boring or enjoyable. Biases aside, it is never too hard to love the song on this aspect alone. AKI’s vocal performance, however, gives off a bittersweet feel. The denpa style works, but her vocals were far too robotic-sounding and monotonic. She makes it up for the more powerful chorus but in all, the song offers nothing memorable. Her singing could have been more expressive. It should have been. With that lack, the song’s mellow nature degrades down to just your typical synthesized song. Verdict: Lose
Days of promise Cover Release: The Front Line Covers Mami Kawada has been a great balladeer, ever since her earlier days, and this shows on her vocal performance for Days of promise. The gentler, toned down tinge brings out the innate melancholic nature of the song and makes it the star of the show. She steered the song into her own comfort zone, the wavelengths matched, and she killed it. A much needed diversion of perspective on this particular song. The issue of expressive singing kicks in again, proving how Mami is better at it than SHIHO. Well, for this song, at least. Verdict: Win	Days of promise Original: SHIHO Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 2 verge Vocal prowess and intensity are SHIHO’s defining characters, and these are very much apparent on her work on this song, eventually getting to define the song itself too. However, this made the dynamics tend more towards showcasing her signature vocals, overshadowing everything else. And the song genre distinction gets thrown into utter confusion: is it just your simple progressive music? A techno-ballad hybrid, perhaps? Partly to blame for this also is SHIHO’s failure to do justice on the very soul or nature of the song. You can’t go wrong with powerful vocals? You can. And this is a proof of that.   Verdict: Lose
birthday eve Cover Release: The Front Line Covers Oh no. Mami Kawada taking on SHIHO’s powerhouse, most popular song? You just didn’t do that, I’ve. But they did. And guess what? It was actually not a bad idea, after all. A brilliant idea at that, even. Her interpretation of the song let her versatility shine through. She delivered a strikingly powerful performance, able to flow with the hype and disco-like feel of the song, and the melodical ups and downs that go with it. The falsetto, the vibrato, the hums at the end, were all wonderfully executed. She made the song her own without diminishing its bursting energy, even accentuating the upbeat composition!	birthday eve Original: SHIHO Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 3 Disintegration SHIHO prides on power and grit and rugged vocals, and birthday eve is the perfect avenue to show off this signature. It was a perfect blend, undoubtedly. The song is teeming with fire and vigor, and so does the vocals exploding with hype. The nasality of the sound at some parts where it gets high up there was in moderation and worked impressively well enough. The progressive, climactic performance, and the vocal quality, in itself, stole the spotlight. SHIHO’s unique vocal register and sound was notably memorable and further amplified by the song. Truly, this marked a peak at her career.
At first, one may think Mami Kawada might not be able to take on such a song. Not knowing, perhaps, that she was able to do so herself with her anison releases, it was surprising that she did for birthday eve. She did it her way and she did it beautifully. Mami’s and SHIHO’s contrasting vocal qualities indeed suited the same song in different ways, in their own respects. Style-wise and considering their respective capabilities, both artists gave justice to the song. Verdict: Draw
Suna no Shiro –The Castle of Sand– Cover Release: Tribal Link L And now we have Mami Kawada pitted against her vocal teacher Eiko Shimamiya. And the former goes down defeated in more ways than one, for this particular song. For one, Mami’s Engrish has improved and is more understandable now, however, the diction is where the problem is. The way she utters the English words sound so unnatural, relative to how Eiko did it. It was uncomfortable to listen to. There were also parts where she sing a bit louder than necessary, with a bit more squeals than necessary. All these take away the refreshing vibe of the song. Understandability vs better sounding diction. By ear, the latter wins aesthetically. Verdict: Lose	Suna no Shiro –The Castle of Sand– Original: Eiko Shimamiya Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 5 OUT FLOW Suna no Shiro –The Castle of Sand– is a pop-jazz hybrid, one of the many songs in its league by Eiko Shimamiya. Also, a genre owned by Eiko herself, relative to the other I’ve girls. Having said that, it is no wonder why she did great with this song. The oriental feel of the song with the Western touch of Engrish worked out just fine. Her pronunciation is still a bit far from understandable, but it is, on a lighter note, not disturbing to listen to, at the very least. Looking past that, the smooth-flowing, relaxing vibe the vocals exude was top-notch. Refreshing, calming, soothing. The vocals may well be stand-alone! It is that good.   Verdict: Win
For our days Original Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 7 EXTRACT For our days has been near the top of the list of Mami Kawada’s best eroge songs, of all time. With such a subdued, seemingly boring tune, why is that? It is because this song has its own magic, mainly owing to Mami’s vocal performance. The soft, almost whispery tone in the verses makes the listener feel like floating on air. The eventual crescendo onto the chorus then progresses to give off a etar-jerking mood. It was a nice emotional treat, and the song shows us once again how great Mami can be at being expressive when she sings. The song takes it nice and slow and it was impressive at doing just that. Despite many songs of its kind, For our days succeeds at being memorable.	For our days Cover: MAKO Release: Tribal Link L MAKO’s balladeer spirit gave us excellent songs like Never forget this time and Treating2U –wrap up style–, way back in the days. Taking on another ballad like For our days was then easy breezy for her, as expected. Her sound and aura in her version of the song was as natural as it feels. The jazzy vibe was fitting and all the grit made the song her own. It was as pleasant to listen to as the original version, yet unique-sounding and still has her signature all over it. The accentuations were not over the top and brings out the emotional side of the song in her own way.
Two different vocal takes on a ballad: a softer, gentler take, and a jazzy take. Both works out great, in general, considering the difference in styles and preference of these two artists. Some may choose one over the other though, and that may only be based on personal biases and subjectivities. Verdict: Draw
The Maze Original Release: I’ve MANIA Tracks Vol. II The Maze is a techno song with a subdued tone, much like Lupe. Neither was it aiming to evoke ballad-ish feels nor inducing danceable moods, but an ethereal feel, generally-speaking. And Mami Kawada managed to exude such feel with her singing. Her Engrish pronunciation, this time, may not be as understandable as we want it to be, but it was more pleasant to listen to, as compared to her vocal performance in Suna no Shiro, as previously pointed out. It may be said, perhaps, that the way Mami sang the song (the melodies, the tune) overshadowed the lack in English pronunciation proficiency. It was a nice song, nonetheless.	The Maze Cover: Kaori Utatsuki Release: Tribal Link R Kaori Utatsuki has always been an underdog, the least noticed of all of the Love Planet Five girls. However, her vocal performance in her rendition of this song showed that she can be great too, that she can also work with a genre she usually does not work with. Her English pronunciation is way better, yes. More understandable, clearer diction. Her vocal tone was then at a lower range than that of the original, and still lower relative to her usual register, yet it still sounds pleasant. Still able to evoke the same ethereal feel innate to the song. This just shows that Kaori has some versatility up her sleeve.
English pronunciation-wise, Kaori wins. But the comparison is based not on that, but on the vocal performances. How well the two artists flexed their abilities to meet the demands of the song, how the two injected their signatures into the song and owned it to themselves, how they showed off their vocal prowess. Kaori and Mami have strikingly similar sounds and styles, perhaps, because of these two hailing from the teachings of one vocal coach. This manifests in their similar takes on The Maze. Verdict: Draw
piece of my heart –bitter style– Cover Release: Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate CD ‘piece of my heart –bitter style–‘ We all know how Mami does ballads, right? She does the usual thing, once again, with piece of my heart –bitter style–. Pulling off the song into her own zone, giving it her own sound, her own gentler, softer take, and the end product seems like the song was meant for her, in the first place. The famed Mamibrato, honed through time and experience, shines bright in this song. The controlled vibrato and falsetto, and the vocal control, in general, was apparent.   Verdict: Win	piece of my heart Original: Nami Maisaki Release: I’ve Girls Compilation Vol. 8 LEVEL OCTAVE As Nami’s debut song, piece of my heart set the bar high enough for her. Her vocal performance in this song was commendable, albeit surprising for a newbie. Her powerful vocals managed to embody the very mood of the song, unlike that of SHIHO’s Days of promise. However, there is a bit of room for improvement in terms of vocal and vibrato control. She sounds rather strained singing the higher notes. This was probably expected, as she was new to the industry back then. Looking on the brighter side, this song definitely showed us that this girl has a promising potential. Verdict: Lose

Must I say, this must be the hardest set of reviews and comparisons I have made, by far. It was hard to compare varying styles, even moreso harder to bring down the verdict on who wins and who loses. Notice that 3 out of the 7 battles were held at a draw.

Varying styles, sounds, preferences, added accentuation, fortes, vocal capabilities. Comparisons had to be as open-minded as possible, neglecting bias, shattering previously formed perceptions and perspectives. For instance, vocal power had to be carefully considered, as this character delves more to be a vocal style innate to some, rather than a mere choice that can be easily assumed by any artist. The focus then should be on what a particular artist did with what she had for the song, how well they fared given their personal styles and circumstances, how she owned the song.

Otherwise, if these were not the type of viewpoints, SHIHO would have won the battle against Mami Kawada on birthday eve, for the reason that SHIHO had greater vocal power than the latter. And that viewpoint is utterly mistaken. The same can be said on The Maze, where many may choose Kaori to be the winner because of better English pronunciation. However, it was previously justified why this should not be a basis for the battle, in the first place. It is not directly equated, in any way, to an artist's ability to sing. It may affect how pleasant a song is to listen to (leading to Mami's loss on Suna no Shiro), or it may not, despite not being able to make out what she's singing about (the case for the draw between Mami and Kaori).

It is also of emphasis that Mami's upper hand against Nami on piece of my heart was mainly due to the latter's still inexperienced singing, needing control and knowing her style more. Might have been Nami singing without such flaw, her vocal power would have suited the song better and gave her the upper hand.

In general, I've Sound had so much vocal diversity and flavor back in the days, with artists like SHIHO, MOMO, AKI, MAKO, Reina, among others. It then came to a point where three artists of almost similar sounds were active at a time (I'm talking about you Mami, KOTOKO, and Kaori), eventually leading to the point where only four girls were left (Mami and the LSP girls). It was great, however, that I've is open to a new generation of artists, by opening up auditions.

I've surely went through ups and downs and rough times over the years, but the group is still there. Will I've be able to come back to its sparkling glory, like before? No one can really say for sure. At the very least, it is interesting to see what I've will serve to the table in the future.