This year’s FNS Kayousai was really a treat for those like me who were really getting into J-pop music in the mid-to-late nineties! With Performances by LINDBERG, KOHMI HIROSE and NOKKO (among others!), it really was a nostalgic night, but for me, the highlight just HAS to be the appearance of one of my all-time favorite j-pop artists Chisato Moritaka (whom I’ve gushed about many times before!) in a cool medley with awesome fellow j-artist alumnus Noriyuki Makihara and featuring a whole slew of artists in for the ride!
Starting things off with a bang with Arashi performing Makihara’s “Fuyu Ga Hajimaru yo”, an AWESOME tune that just gets everyone in a genki mood, the boys themselves look like they’re enjoying it to the fullest!
Soon they’re joined onstage by Makihara himself, and he simply jumps in~ keeping up with the cool and swinging vibe! Watching they perform together, it strikes me how similar their styles are~ it looks like Noriyuki’s up there with younger versions of himself! Once the song is over, Arashi bows out stage left and are replaced by two pretty vocallists in the form of JUJU and Aoyama Thelma, and they get together with Makihara to perform a ballad with the backing help of the girls in SPEED and the Hexagon All-Stars!!
As they sing, the camera pans out into the audience, and over Noriyuki’s shoulders we see petite Chisato Moritaka enjoying the song, and no sooner has the song ended when they start up with a fave Chisato song, the fun WATASHI GA OBASAN NI NATEMO! It really was a treat to see the gals in SPEED taking turns singing this song, but the funniest part of the performance has to be when Noriyuki harmonizes with Hiroko, and they sing to each other: “When I’m an Old Lady, You’ll be an old man, too!” Then he pats his stomach as he harmonizes with Eriko singing the line “You won’t be so cool…and You’ll have a pot-belly!!” AHAHA!
Then Noriyuki departs to let the girls take over, and SPEED leads the chorus of gals in a rousing rendition of “Junanasai” before the princess herself, Ms. “Lovely Legs” Chisato Moritaka herself comes onstage to close the medley with one of her very best songs “Watarase Bashi”!!! WOW!!! What a Set!!!
Then Noriyuki departs to let the girls take over, and SPEED leads the chorus of gals in a rousing rendition of “Junanasai” before the princess herself, Ms. “Lovely Legs” Chisato Moritaka herself comes onstage to close the medley with one of her very best songs “Watarase Bashi”!!! WOW!!! What a Set!!!
