Just when you thought Morning Musume had finally run out of steam, the Japanese idol group Hello! Project invades the Cpop market with Ice Creamusume! The all-girl group is a Taiwanese reincarnation of those beloved (or annoying, depending who you ask) Musume girls that have made millions in Japan and worldwide.

Ice Creamusume is both a Jpop and Mandopop group, singing classic (or ridiculous, depending who you ask) Morning Musume hits. Just like Morning Musume, the Ice Creamusume girls were discovered from publicized talent auditions.

This isn’t the first time Hello! Project has tried the Cpop market. Morning Musume members Li Chun and Qian Lin were definitely a warm up to going after the huge Chinese music market.

Ice Creamusume’s first mini-album “1st Best!” was released earlier this year in both Taiwan and Japan. It has the TW cuties singing covers of Morning Musume’s hit single “Renai Revolution 21″ (恋愛レボリューション21) now translated as “Lian Ai Ge Ming 21″. Ice Creamusume sing one new song — “Lian Ai Deng Chang” (戀愛登場, “Entering Love”).

The girls sing two versions of the old Morning Musume hit 早安咖啡 (Morning Coffee). Gotta say, the Mandarin version sounds like a well rounded range of voices. And the Japanese version doesn’t sound nearly annoying as when Morning Musume sang it. (Hi Everybody! We’re Morning Musume were every girl has to sing the same pitch! Kawaii! Now shoot me!) Vocal talent winner: Taiwain!

[Ok, in all fairness, later generations of Morning Musume did recruit girls of wider vocal ranges. But it was too late. I was scarred for life.]

Being a joint TW-JP music project, Ice Creamusume has a few different versions of their name: アイスクリー娘 (Japanese), Aisu Kuriimusume (Romanji), 冰淇淋少女組 (Chinese), and Bing Qi Lin Shao Nu Zu (pinyin). The girls have Taiwanese names, Japanese stage names, and their own respective ice cream flavor names! Is this too much, you ask? Maybe!

Meet the girls! There will be a quiz later.
Wu Si Xuan aka Shen Shen – Blueberry
Zhong An Qi aka Anchii – Coffee
Ceng De Ping aka Pei Pei – Vanilla
Zhao Guo Rong aka Youko – Strawberry
Qiu Cui Ling aka Rei Rei – Mint Chocolate
Gu Yun/Guu aka Chan – Mango

Check out the Ice Creamusume official site here.
If you’re not fluent in reading Chinese, an anonymous fan updates a site with English translations of the Ice Creamusume blog. Find it here.