What The HECK Did I Just Inherit? Figures Galore

 At my friend's workplace he shared with three other artists, someone's brother had donated a bunch of those anime/manga/hentai figures you see lining the shelves at shops like MiniQ, Razor Concepts and even BookOff, and since no one was "into" the genre, no one knew what to DO with them!

Glancing briefly at the full bag and seeing some decidedly risque and scantily-clad figures in the bunch, my friend remembered my obsession with artist Shunya Yamashita, (and in particular the lingerie-clad statue of his character "Shouko-san", which I gushed about here), and thought, "HEY, ya know what? Z would DIG these!"

Shouko-san

Dropping by the other day to go grab lunch, he reminded me about that bag of dolls and told me to see if there was anything I liked. His co-worker waved his hand and said, "Dude, you can take them ALL! It's just taking up space!" My friend nodded and said, "This has been sitting here for MONTHS and you're the only one who's even remotely into this kind of stuff!" And so it was that I hauled home that whole bag of ziplocked goodies!

Spent a whole AFTERNOON sorting through the contents, and after trying to figure out what went with what ( and only partially succeeding), I took the time to arrange them all to see just exactly what I had, and was ASTOUNDED at just how MUCH figures were stuffed IN there!

Will you LOOK at this MASSIVE haul!!!

I recognized some FINAL FANTASY and DRAGONBALL Z characters, but I gotta tell you...MOST of these characters, I had NO IDEA who they were! And STYLES- Man, this load of collectibles really ran the GAMUT of genres: Figures went from the Sleek and Cool, to Sexy and Alluring, toVery Shoujo Manga-esque…and even to the zany, KOOKY, and totally WTF!

 

I must say, there were quite a few figures that I really loved that will probably make its way to my CD.DVD shelves, but I have no clue what to do about the REST of it! This is the first time I'm going through Action figure OVERLOAD, LOLOL!

An Underwhelming Fall Season of Shows....

 Must say that I really have not been 'feeling it" this Fall Season and, outside of "Usotoki Rhetoric" as the sole show I'm watching, none of the new shows have really grabbed me. While I still hold out a sliver of hope for Zenryouiki Ijou Kaiketsushitsu to get picked up and subtitled, here are a list of Fall Dramas that I Checked out one episode of and then Dropped for lack of interest...

Takaramono

Checked out  for Wakana Matsumoto as a woman who is in an abusive relationship with her husband and ends up getting pregnant from a childhood love, but as I'm not a fan of cheating  spouses OR abusive relationships, there really is nothing going on for me here. Hated every character in this show, especially Kei Tanaka who I abhorred every second I had to sit through with him.

Sono Bisque Doll Wa Koi Wo Suru

As expected, I just couldn't get used to as the characters in this manga adaptation of "My Dress Up Darling. Though there are many rallying behind the choices, I think the leads (especially Riko Nagase) were horribly miscast. Gave it a shot but seeing the previews for episode 2, I realized I just loved the original manga/anime too much and opted to drop the LA.

Ano Kuzu wo Nagutte Yaritainda 

I LOVE Nao but I feel like I've seen this set-up of the pushed around character wheo steps up to become a stronger person through boxing a million times, and after watching all the cliched characters (jackass boyfriend, tsundere love interest etc) I feared what was coming, and when Nao began getting the usual bossy attitude from the members at the gym, I was out.

Updating my QLAIR Collection

 I had mentioned in an earlier post about how the 1991 Concert OTOMEJUKU MATSURI was the idol event that, though I grabbed it soely for the glory of COCO, ended up introducing me to a whole slew of Pony Canyon artists to fall in love with like RIBBON, Michiyo Nakajima...and a trio of girls called QLAIR!

 Qlair was one of those groups that only got a one-song chance to captivate the audience, and in this capacity, they wholeheartedly succeeded! They came out, groovin’ to this catchy as heck song, and I for one, just LOVED it! This was a PONY CANYON outfit, and if there was ONE THING they knew how to do, it was produce adorable Idols with kick-ass songs!!! Man, I just loved the song, and really wanted to get a copy of it!

As I recounted in an earlier post, by that time, all Qlair CDs were out of print, and I figured I had little hope in acquiring any of their albums or singles. But there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for me when the local Japanese CD shop BOOK-OFF in Shirokiya got a whole shipment of old and out of print used CDs and singles for sale. Besides making a KILLING with their ribbon stuff, I noticed that they had a lone Qlair CD called LES FILLES up for grabs. What were the chances of this one having that Ootomejuku song? Sadly, I never got to learn the name of the song (too much kanji for my then-just-starting-out Japanese) and so looking at the track listing in the back didn’t help any.

Les Filles

I decided to take a chance, and purchased that Qlair CD right there. I knew it was a gamble, but I couldn’t help but hope that I’d gotten lucky and hit the right one. After all, Qlair didn’t have a whole lot of CDs to begin with, and so the percentage of this being the album that had that song seemed to lean towards my favor, right?!

When I got hope, I nervously put the Qlair CD in my stereo player, and excitedly hit the “play” button… I sat back and closed my eyes, hoping to hear that beloved song…the first song began, and though it was nice, it wasn’t it. Then the next song, and the next…before long, I was starting to lose hope as the CD neared its conclusion… and then, sadly, it ended. The song wasn’t on this album. Sigh.

Though the songs that WERE on the album were pretty catchy, I have to say that I was SO disappointed with it, that I just never listened to it again, and there it sat on my shelf, sadly neglected for years. It wasn’t until later when a friend expressed interest in older Pony Canyon groups like Qlair that I dug out the CD and presented it to him as a gift!

“Are you sure?” he appreciatively asked as I handed to CD over to him. I assured him that it was perfectly OK , and related my story of how I’d purchased it in hopes of having that Otomejuku song on it, and had pretty much scorned the album since. “But the other songs are good” I added, hoping he’d enjoy the CD like I never could.

A few weeks later, and I’m having lunch with the gang, and I ask my friend if he liked the Qlair CD. He enthusiastically said he loved it, but then slowly added, “But you know what? That Otomejuku Matsuri song you like?”

“The one I was hoping would be on the album?” I asked.

“Yeah, that one. Umm…you know…”he drawled…

“Yeah?” I waited.

“Um, that song IS on the album,” He finished.

HUHHHH?!!!!! What was he talking about?!!!!

We got into his car, and he put the CD in, and said, Isn’t this the Otomejuku song? He pressed PLAY, and HOLY CRAP! Track1 of the album started, and – DAMN!- It totally WAS the song!!!! ARE???? What The HECK?!!!

Well, what must have happened was that when I’d listened to it that first, fateful time, I must have been so excited when I pressed the play button, that I pressed it TWICE, essentially FORWARDING the player PAST the Opening Track and straight to Track Two!!! And since I never listened to it again, It never had another chance to prove to me that it WAS the correct album!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Well, I let him keep the album anyway, since he was by then a big-time QLAIR fan, and I figured I’d just pick up another copy of  Les Filles when I saw it. Keep in mind by the way, that throughout all of this, the song was always and only referred to as “That Otomejuku Song”. It was only with the introduction of the internet and YOUTUBE that I was finally able to learn just what the heck the song was CALLED!

Besides informing me that the treasured song was called HITOMI IPPAI NATSU and that it was Qlair’s very first single, Youtube offered up a whole slew of awesome and cute performances of the Pony Canyon trio singing on a bunch of various TV  music programs, making my love for the song grow ALL OVER AGAIN!

Over time I've slowly been trying to rebuild back my QLAIR collection, and with the recent super-haul at Suruguya, I managed to grab not only their sophomore album CITRON and a BUNCH of their singles, but I also managed to acquire their three-disc CD/DVD anthology QLAIR ARCHIVES covering their entire output of singles, albums and videos!

With such a treasure trove of music to  get into, I've been spending the last few weekends listening to those tracks over and over, and with its pure-pop sensibilities, it's like I'm once again back in those glory days of Pony Canyon goodness!

My QLAIR collection now consists of:

SINGLES:

Hitomi-Ippai no Natsu

Onegai Kamisama

Sayonara no Chime

SPRING LOVER Dai Sakusen

Mabushikute

Aki no Kaigara

SUMMER LOVER Dai Sakusen

ALBUMS:

Les Filles

Citron

Palette

Qlair Archives

..and of course, one beautiful copy of BOMB! magazine with the girls featured on the cover!

This leaves only Qlair's last album Sanctuary to acquire to make it all complete! Best get on the lookout....

BLACKPINK's Rose and Bruno Mars Deliver a Cool and Completely CATCHY Song "APT"!

 
Though Jennie and Lisa seem to get the lion's share of BLACKPINK promotion on social media, the one people are buzzing about recently is Rose with her groovy, fun and TOTALLY CATCHY song "APT" featuring artist Bruno Mars!

A punny mashup of the Korean drinking game "Apateu" and the abbreviation of the word "Apartment", they've created a hit song which only gets BETTER with the groovy visuals of the accompanying Music Video of Rose and Bruno dancing up a storm!!

APT is the first single for Rose's upcoming solo album "Rosie" set for release in December, and with all the buzz the song is generating (the MV already has a whopping 50million+ views and counting!) it's SURE to be a smash hit!

Looking forward to it!!!

Usotoki Rhetoric

Usotoki Rhetoric is a very cute period drama set in the 1940's about a peppy detective named Soma Iwai (Ouji Suzuka) with an intuition for observation and details, who, though a competent detective, is always struggling with debts and looking for his next paying case!

Ouji Suzuka, Ryosuke Mikata

Meanwhile a shy but sincere young woman named Kanoko Urabe (Honoka Matsumoto) has arrived in town. Though she tries to hide it, she has the uncanny ability to tell when anyone is lying!  Because of this "curse", she has been shunned by the people in her small hometown, and has been more or less forced to move. Making her way to the big city, she can't get a break and passes out from hunger!

This when Detective Iwai finds her, and takes her under his wing, giving her food to eat and a place to sleep for the time being. The next day, she helps him with his work as a sort of assistant.

 Unfortunately for Urabe, during the investigation, she inadvertently uses her lie-detecting abilities when confronted with the slick-tongued culprit, and though this helps catch him, it causes Iwai to learn of her powers at last. 

Thinking Iwai would be abhorred of her curse, Urabe attempts to leave town, but unlike the folks back home, one thing a struggling detective in town can really USE is someone who can tell the difference between someone telling the truth or fibbing, and he hires her as a permanent partner immediately!

Set in the Showa era, the period setting alone makes Usotoki Rhetoric fun to watch and the characters are quite charming! A cute and lightweight drama to kick back and relax to after a long day....

Hikaru Nishida BOMB! Goodness (And a Dash of CoCo)

Though that's CoCo's Maki Miyamae on the cover of this issue of BOMB! magazine from June of 1994, the real excitement for me came from that name right next to Maki's left shoulder, that's right, a pictorial for Hikaru-chan herself!

The article, titled "Now and Then", promoted "Kitto Ai Ga Aru" (which I wrote about here), the single that would eventually become Hikaru's signature song, and documented Hikaru growing up from a child to the dazzling idol she had become!

From a toddler in California to her schooling as ASIJ (American School in Japan) and then starting as an idol...in her short haircut style years, ugh!

Thank goodness she didn't wait long to grow out those locks to become the stunning Hikaru I know and love today!

At the end of the article, they had information not only about the Kitto Ai Ga Aru single, but the CM that featured the song, a CM, that has special significance for me as Hikaru rode her bicycle RIGHT PAST my APARTMENT in it, a fact I've mentioned way too many times here!

They also promoted Hikaru's latest drama, the AWESOME "Ue Wo Muite Aru" comedy starring her and Tachi Hiroshi, as well as very young Takahashi Katsunori and Yuriko Ishida, a drama I love and wrote about here!

WOWWW, it seems that mid 1994 Hikaru-chan was still riding high as one of Pony Canyon's most popular and prolific idols!

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Ironically enough, this was the same issue that Pony Canyon princesses CoCo formally announced their break-up to the press, in which many tears were shed as they talked about their last single "You're My Treasure", their last tour, and their eventual final performance at Tokyo Bay NK Hall later that year....

They also promoted CoCo's upcoming (and at the time still unnamed) souvenir photobook timed to coincide with the Band's breakup. The photobook would eventually be titled "Mirai wa CoCo Kara~ CoCo Memorial Photobook"  and it would be SO useful and chock full of information to us fans that we would dub it the CoCo "BIBLE"!!!

Another important slice of 90's Idol golden days captured in this issue!