Notes on This years’ NHK Red and White Song Festival, with Horikita Maki and Arashi as your hosts. Maki looks absolutely gorgeous here in a sultry and sexy dress, conversely, Arashi's outfits look a bit like a passing unicorn flew overhead and crapped magical rainbow poop all over them...LOL! Now, onto the performances that piqued my interest....
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| Horikita Maki and Arashi |
Was thrilled to see that AAA has gone back to their fun and happy style of singing before they turned all their new releases into AVEX TRAX style of THUMP THUMP THUMP House Beat tracks…songs like 777 (Let's Sing a Song!) remind me of their more carefree tunes like Chu, Endless Summer and Sunshine and had me remembering why I liked them so much in the first place! Ehh, could have pumped up the music track a bit louder, though.
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| AAA |
A stunning Ayako Fuji in another one of her beautiful non-kimono performances doing the sweet song Wasurenai set against the backdrop of some doggie animation... This perf wins the Ayaka Hirahara Overly Dramatic Stage award!
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| Ayako Fuji |
Momoiro Clover Z...I have to say that I really like these girls! They’re so uber genki all the time and they never fail to put a smile on my face! From their first appearance participating in Hosokawa Takashi’s performance, they already had me laughing and I couldn’t wait for their actual performance!
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| Hosokawa Takashi and Momoiro Clover Z |
I also liked Kana Nishino’s fun song “Go For It”, which is quite a diversion from her earlier introspective stuff, or at least it seems to me… and is it just me or does it seem like there’s always ONE artist who is delegated with the “Cheerleaders” backdancers?
Well, I guess in this case, the choreography matched the song…
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| Kana Nishino |
Kohaku producers find ways to keep the younger guests interested when the seasoned performers are onstage, as evidenced by Godai Natsuko’s AKB48 enhanced performance. (and its funny because I can remember when Godai Natsuko was considered one of the “younger” acts!)
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| Godai Natsuko and AKB48 |
Out of the whole festival, probably the biggest WTF moment was Kaori Mizumori singing from the top of what was supposed to be a Sachiko Kobayashi / Kenichi Mikawa type special effect dress but looked more like a huge-ass pile of strawberry shave ice...
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| Kaori Mizumori |
While I love Kanjani8 I haven’t really gotten into a lot of their more recent tunes, so I was happily surprised to see them close their set with one of their older classics, the zany “Musekenin Hero” which suited their nutty style to a T!
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| Kanjani8 |
And speaking of zany, just as Car had predicted weeks back, the equally zany group paired up with Kanjani8 was none other than hyper girls Momoiro Clover Z, and I have to say, this act really STOLE THE SHOW for me! The girls opened their set with the song I was hoping to see them sing on Music Station Super Live, the Kitagawa Keiko drama Akumu Chan’s rockin' theme song “Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimi Tachi Yo” and it was even BETTER than I hoped! So energetic and FUN!!! Then they fully turned on the krazee with their Super-Sentai performance of “Ikuze! Kaito Shoujo” SO MUCH FUN!
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| Momoiro Clover Z |
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| Performing Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimi Tachi Yo |
Cool Enka singer Fuyumi Sakamoto came out to perform her classic “Yozakura Oshichi”, a song that I absolutely loved back in the day, though nowadays I sometimes wish she’d sing some of her other hits! The way she's been singing this lately, you'd never guess she had so many other good songs!
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| Fuyumi Sakamoto |
After seeing Yui appear on the Music Station Super Live Special and NOT singing my favorite song from her, it was a bit of a relief to see her finally sing “Goodbye Days” on the Kohaku before she goes into retirement (hiatus?), I'm so glad I got to see this awesome song from the “Taiyo No Uta” movie at least once!
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| Yui |
I gotta say I was pretty impressed with AKB48’s “Uza” and wish they could have performed the whole song instead of cutting it in half medley form. But I guess that they always try to balance their perfs with a balance of cool and cutesy. Medleys…Medleys Everywhere…Man, what the heck is up with all of these acts doing freaking Medleys? Doesn’t ANYONE come on to promote ONE song anymore? LOL
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| AKB48 |
Then it finally came time for ARASHI to hit the stage officially, and they did it in a big way with their super catchy song “Wild At Heart” (from that uneven Matsujun drama Lucky Seven) as well as their dub-steppy “Face Down”… so cool, and they even got Ms. Hotaru Amemiya herself to introduce the boys!
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| Ayase Haruka and Horikita Maki |
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| Arashi |
Then it was time for the older acts of J-pop past to make their appearances, and for the first time, Princess Princess appeared on the Kohaku, here performing “Diamonds” in decidedly odd looking “Diamond” themed outfits, and with all the medleys going on, was surprised that PuriPuri didn’t back it up with another tune or two. And hey, SOMEBODY should have turned up the volume on Kanako's Guitar, that shizz was WAY too soft! Gotta let that gal ROCK!
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| Princess Princess |
And then as they’ve been doing for awhile now, SMAP came on the close the Kohaku Show. They did their songs “Moment” and “Sakasama no Sora”, while both were nice, somehow it couldn’t come close to their MS Super Live performance, in my opinion. Now THAT one was a concert closer!!!
Well, that wraps up another year, and tallying my scorecard, I have to say that the hands-down winner of THIS round goes to Momoiro Clover Z...those girls are just too damn adorable!
Even just watching them standing on the side of Maki Horikita as she MC'd, I kept laughing to myself watching those two girls smiling and giggling with happiness! Definitely made me smile this Kohaku!
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| Those adorable Momoiro Clover Z girls beaming next to Maki Horikita |
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Even just watching them standing on the side of Maki Horikita as she MC'd, I kept laughing to myself watching those two girls smiling and giggling with happiness! Definitely made me smile this Kohaku!
