The Cast of "Aishiteiru To Ittekure" (Say You Love Me) Then and Now

…One thing I have to mention about the drama Aishiteiru To Ittekure (Say You Love Me) that amazed me (as I re-watched it looking for a decent screencap of Kimiko Yo for the Aunty Michi post)  was just how YOUNG everyone in this cast was!!! I was simply stunned to see Takako Tokiwa, whom I generally regard nowadays as a fine WOMAN actor, back in her days as this ADORABLE young thing!!! Gads, I forgot how damn CUTE she was in this drama, no wonder so many of us fell head-over-heels in love with her back then!

 Really, to me it seems like not so long ago that I first watched this drama, but looking back, I realize that it’s been almost 20 years since that drama aired, and everyone had long since moved on up!!!  Suddenly intrigued, I decided to check out the latest dramas of ALL the primary cast members and see how they've changed since then! Fortunately, just about every actor and actress that appeared in Say You Love Me is still successfully working and it was easy locating most of their newest shows, and using my screencappin' skillz (LOL), I decided to take pics to show how our beloved characters have grown!

Etsushi Toyokawa

Above: Etsushi Toyokawa as Sakaki Kohji in Say You Love Me and as happy father Kinoshita Keisuke in 2012's Beautiful Rain (with Ashida Mana as Miu)

Takako Tokiwa

Takako Tokiwa as the adorable and innocent Hiroko in Say You Love Me, and as loving mother Misako in the 2013 Uchino Masaaki/Takeru Sato family drama Tonbi

Kohki Okada

As perennial “Nice Guy” and romance spoiler Kenichi “Ken-chan” Yabe in 1995, and as bankrupted merchant Itabashi in 2013's Hanzawa Naoki

Akiko Yada

Akiko as the devilish troublemaking Sayuri in Say You Love Me, and as Yurie Hamashima, one of the “Beautiful Women” in the fun 2013 comedy Nageki No Bijo (more on THIS drama later)

Yumi Aso

As fellow painter  Hikaru Shimada (and former love interest of Kohji) in Say You Love Me, and as Taeko, a Bar Mama in the same 2013 Takako Tokiwa drama Tonbi

Kimiko Yo 

As sexy and commanding Gallery owner Kanzaki Kaoru in Say You Love Me, and as the hilariously eccentric Rinko Kominato in the 2013 Rin Takanashi comedy Houkago Groove

 I just couldn’t end this essay without giving a mention to Dreams Come True, whose song “Love Love Love” not only totally MADE the drama into the heartbreaking masterpiece it is, but also provided the ANTHEM for our generation of J-drama watchers back in the 90’s!

In 2013, DCT are still going strong, and have just released their latest song "Saa Kane wo Narase" , the theme song for the fifth (!) series of the 1999 Medical Drama "Kyuumei Byoutou 24ji"! It seems the 90’s classics NEVER die and keep on coming!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Kohaku Uta Gassen 2009

This year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen was filled with sights and wonders to behold, featuring artists both old and new, and I thought I’d take the time to jot down some of the acts that really made the program for me!

Nana Mizuki

Among the many guests debuting this evening were the old-skool-jpop sounding tunes of Nana Mizuki and the first appearance of Johnny’s group NYC, whom most people saw and said “Who the heck ARE these guys?” With all the great Johnny’s groups still to appear on the Red and White, it’s odd that they chose this NEW act to come on!

NYC

Although I’d seen enka queen Fuyumi Sakamoto in “regular” clothes before (in Music Station clips featuring old group HIS, for example), this was the first time she’d come onto the Kohaku singing her songs without her traditional kimono and hairdo. She was lookin’ FINE!

Sakamoto Fuyumi

Backed up with Fuyumi was the ever stoic Takashi Hosokawa, this time belting out his awesome classic “Bokyo Jonkara”, the song I once dubbed “That song with the Fifty million Shamisens”, LOL. Truly EPIC to watch!

Hosokawa Takashi

Techno band Girl Next Door debuted last year, but this was the first time I noticed how fricking sexy and CUTE lead singer Chisa was! I thought it was great to see her looking so girlishly bouncy and giddy, doing moves with her fellow dancers like gals in a pep rally! Contrarily, my friend Car expressed disappointment that the cool rocker from last year had turned into this “idol”.LOL

Chisa, Girl Next Door

AKB48 had been slowly gaining a foothold into the “big-ass-girl-group” j-pop demographic for some time now, and it was with their kick ass song RIVER that I think they finally made it! After this year, they’d not only take over the “giant girl group” spot Morning Musume once held, but make fun and varied appearance throughout the entire show!

AKB48

One group appearing this year for the first time that I kind of liked was the very Def Tech sounding “Funky Monkey Babys” and their uplifting song “Hero”, such a great tune, I HAD to go look for it after the show!

Funky Monkey Babys

Next Yusuke came out, doing a catchy little tune called “Himawari” while looking like  Fun Boy Three’s illegitimate Japanese Brother. Really a great song, but sure a stretch from his SHUCHISHIN days!

Yusuke

Arguably the most anticipated act this year (it sure was at OUR household!), was the debut appearance of immensely popular Johnny’s group ARASHI. This has been a long time in coming, and they set it up real nice, with a cool little introduction clip before the boys came out to perform their first medley for the Red and White, performing their first single A-RA-SHI, Love So Sweet, Happiness, and Believe!

Arashi

…And then God came down and proclaimed Arashi as the new overexposed act of the new year…LOL

Besides loving Koda Kumi performing her rockin’ new single “Lick Me”, it got even BETTER when her little sister MISONO came out to duet with Kumi on their song “It’s All Love”! Loved watching the two try to out-sass each other!

Misono x Koda Kumi

 Arashi was trucked out to hold cards with the letters T-O-K-I-O spelled on them and reciting what the letters might stand for, a feat that was recycled from an older Kohaku, though THAT time it was SMAP themselves holding the cards. Nakai looks happy to be on the other end of the microphone for a change. Then TOKIO came out and rocked a bit, doing their song “Taiyo To Sabaku no Bara”.

TOKIO

Ayaka came out to do a touching performance of “Minna Sora No Shita” which brought not a few eyes to tears! Funny how much she looks like an older Nattchi Abe to me.

Ayaka

The closing acts of the night fell to veteran “Chairman Of The Board”  Saburo Kitajima for the White Team doing ‘Matsuri” and the impeccable DREAMS COME TRUE belting out an awesome “Sono Saki E”! Miwa looked great and Masato was beaming as usual, looking like the happiest bass player in the world…

Dreams Come True

Kohaku Uta Gassen 2007

Nakai and Shofukutei, note Sayumin looking adorable as heck in the background!

 Well, I have to say that this yer's Kohaku Uta Gassen (or, rather, the Red and White Song Festival) was a pretty straight forward event, and resonated (at least with me) as about as average on the whole scale of Kohakus, anyway. I should have known things would be  meh when I saw that for the first time, they were gonna use two GUYS as the Red and White Captains, respectively Nakai Masahiro for the Red (Female) Team and Tsurube Shōfukutei for the White (Male) Team. How off is THAT?

Apart from that diversion from the traditional, the show went off without hitch and there were a few acts I thought stood out for me...

The Princesses and the Queen:

Morning Musume started the show with an explosion of girlish playfulness...and then Kenichi Mikawa followed with this year’s example of excessive gaudiness! 

 

 

Once again, the Kohaku proved that Enka is still alive and well, and like last year, Yoko Nagayama did her always fierce performance of "Jonkara Onna Bushi", rockin' that Shamisen while growling out those lyrics and delivering the steeliest gaze ever...

And they had cute young girl groups backing up the seasoned pros, this time with Shoko Nakagawa and AKB48 backing up Natsuko Godai...

Kohaku Regulars TOKIO were back again, this time performing their rocker "Seisyun", that cool little theme song from the terrific Nagase Tomoya/Aibu Saki drama "Utahime"...

Nakamura Mitsuko was the one to ring in the “matsuri” stage…

The Shakalabbits- flavoured Mihimaru GT roused the crowd

WaT did their best Simon and Garfunkel….

We had the reunion of Kiyoshi Maekawa and Cool Five…

Enka goodness with Kaori Kozai

We got a TREAT with the reunion of the awesome KOME KOME CLUB, back in rare form performing their old classic hits like Kimi Ga Iru Dake and Roman Hikou!

Ai Otsuka came on to deliver the funniest, zaniest and most eccentric performance of the night, with the bouncy fun "Chu-Lip"!

K-pop Diva BoA wows! 

And speaking of WOWing, even Kimutaku can’t hide his awe at the epic pyrotechnics of Satomi Kobayashi!

 

A softer side of Kumi Koda...

A strangely ghoulish performance by Mika Nakashima…

Ayumi Hamasaki knocks it out of the park as usual

While Gackt does his Taiga Drama performance (in full get-up!!!)

Next we had 80's veteran Noriyuki Makihara come on, but wasn't his performance of his song "Green Days" that did it for me as much as the admiring gaze of adorable Yui Aragaki watching over him as he sang the theme to the drama "Love and Farm"...

Gakky watching Makihara perform

...she approves!

Speaking of which, there was not one but TWO cuties on the judges table this year, with not only Yui Aragaki, but Aoi "Atsuhime" Miyazaki in attendance!

 

 

For me, the absolute highlight of the evening was the incredible performance of "Winding Road" by the smooth sounds of Kobukuro duetting with the stellar vocals of singer AYAKA, man, such a  great song, such a COOL delivery, I loved it! Ah, and wasn't Ayaka just sooooooo PRETTY?! YES!

What Kohaku can be complete without seeing Saburo Kitajima with confetti in his hair (and,occasionally, in his mouth)?

But they seem to be shuffling around the younger acts in recent years, and instead of Saburo Kitajima, we had acts like the mighty Dreams Come True as the penultimate act...

...And having SMAP close the Red and White is definitely something I’ll have to get used to…. 

All in all a fun time!
Well, that was about it for me, We'll see what they come up with NEXT year!