User:Eugh jei/MMrelease

"Naichau Kamo" (泣いちゃうかも) is the thirty-eighth single of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume under the Zetima label. Written by Tsunku, the song focuses on women who have romantic relationships that are on the brink of a break-up. It was released on February 18, 2009 in three editions. On February 25, the official music video for "Naichau Kamo" was released as a DVD single under the same label.

When it was released, the single landed on the third spot on the Oricon Singles Chart after selling 44,121 copies, while the DVD single took the tenth spot under the DVD category. It also charted on Billboard Japan Hot 100, peaking at number eight.

Writing and composition
In late 2008, Hello! Project producer and Sharam Q vocalist Tsunku wrote the lyrics for "Naichau Kamo." It centers on the emotional conflict women face as their romantic relationships begin to fall apart. During the writing process, Tsunku decided to name the narrator of the song. He used the name "Mariko" (マリコ) because he felt that it fit well in the song in terms of prosody. Morning Musume member Reina Tanaka described the lyrics "pretty sad" and "negative," and that it is about an "unspeakable feeling...a feeling [that is] hard to express." She believed that any girl can understand what the lyrics is about once they have a look at it.

According to Tsunku, he encountered problems looking for the right tune that would compliment the lyrics. The lyrics seemed fit to be given with a balladic tune, but he felt that the song would sound relaxed or boring when slow-paced. Therefore, with Kōji Kamada on guitars and Kaoru Ōkubo on programming, Tsunku decided to give the song with strong beats and a fast tempo. With the usage of the fast tempo, he also decided to transpose parts of the song to a higher key. Because of this, Eri Kamei commented on this decision, saying that she found it difficult to sing the chorus due to its key being "really high."

The song was led by the Morning Musume leader, Ai Takahashi, and Reina Tanaka. Tsunku picked sub-leader Risa Niigaki and Eri Kamei as minor vocalists because he believed that they have improved so much in terms of rhythmical sense and sense of pitch, and that they have shown versatility in both singing and dancing. Aside from these four girls, the other member who have solo lines in the song was Sayumi Michishige. She specifically asked for two lines because she personally liked them. She practiced the lines really hard and, in order to feel the emotions behind the lines, she would replace "Mariko" with her own name, "Sayumi," whenever she practices. Additionally, Takahashi and Michisge were responsible for producing the chorus effect of the song.

Release
Three editions of the "Naichau Kamo" single were released on Febuary 18, 2009: two limited editions and a regular edition. All three editions contain the same track list, but has different album covers. Meanwhile, the limited editions contain extra features. The regular edition holds no extra features at all, but the first pressings of this edition contained serial number cards that could allow the buyer to attend release events for the single. On the same day, Japanfiles.com released the contents of the single in MP3 form along with the launching of Morning Musume's music catalog for North American countries. This was in conjunction with the Morning Musume's plan to appear in United States for the first time at the 2009 Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California. Additionally, a DVD single was released on February 25, which contains the official music video of the song. About a month later, "Naichau Kamo" was re-released as one of the tracks in the group's ninth studio album Platinum 9 Disc.

Promotion
Promotional activities for "Naichau Kamo" began at the end of 2008 via Reina Tanaka's radio show, Five Stars, which also provided a short preview of the song later on December 31. Morning Musume also utilized other well-known radio and television shows, such as Collabo Rabo (コラボ☆ラボ) and Music Fighter (ミュージックファイター), to promote the single. Meanwhile, former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji promoted it through her blog, where she asked her readers to support and buy the group's new single.

Furthermore, Morning Musume held a release event at Osaka's Dōjima River Forum on February 21 and at Kanagawa's Yokohama Blitz on March 1. With the use of a serial number card enclosed in the regular edition of the single, buyers of the single would be able to apply in a participation lottery. Winners of the said lottery would be able to go to the event for free. Also, event-goers would be able to purchase "Naichau Kamo" goods and an event DVD that contains nine different versions of the "Naichau Kamo" close-up music video.

Music video
The music video for "Naichau Kamo" was directed by Hideo Kawatani (河谷英夫).

B-sides
"Yowamushi" is a duet between sub-leader Risa Niigaki and sixth generation Sayumi Michishige. Niigaki sang the first half of the song, while Michishige sang the second half of the song. At the end of the song, the two singers collaborated, with Niigaki singing the main melody and Michishige doing the harmonies. The rest of the Morning Musume members did the background vocals, but Niigaki and Michishige also did background vocals despite being the lead vocalists.

Personnel

 * Morning Musume
 * Ai Takahashi – vocals, chorus
 * Risa Niigaki – vocals
 * Eri Kamei – vocals
 * Sayumi Michishige – vocals, chorus
 * Reina Tanaka – vocals
 * Aika Mitsui – vocals
 * Junjun – vocals
 * Linlin – vocals


 * Additional
 * Kōji Kamada – guitar
 * Kaoru Ōkubo – programming