2022 Kohaku Uta Gassen Artist List Announced!

The official artist list of the upcoming Red and White Songfest is up!

Gotta say, out of all of them, the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Official Hige Dandism and Gen Hoshino, naturally I'm hoping they're gonna do their songs from SPYxFAMILY!!!

SPYxFAMILY opening Theme: "Mixed Nuts" by Official Hige Dandism

SPYxFAMILY Ending Theme: "Comedy" by Gen Hoshino

Would LOVE to see these songs done LIVE!

Meanwhile the second cour of SPYxFAMILY (featuring songs by Bump of Chicken and Yama) is on its halfway point and continues to entertain!

Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu: Ganbare Jinrui! Shinshun Special!!

 Just caught the Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu sequel "Ganbare Jinrui! Shinshun Special!!  where we see the happy couple Mikuri Moriyama (Yui Aragaki) and Hiramasa Tsuzaki (Gen Hoshino) dealing with the unexpected surprise of a BABY on the way!

As the couple goes through things like surname-changes, job-leave of absences and the prospect of raising a young baby in today's world, we touch upon all the past characters of the show and see what they are up to...

 Nice to see all the familiar faces again!

PS: and of course they updated the "Koi" Dance Routine ending credits, what would Nigehaji BE without that!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

MIU404 Musings

Speaking of Kumiko Aso, I’m ALSO watching her in ANOTHER Crime Detective show, this one a lot more serious than Jikou Keisatsu Hajimemashita, the buddy Cop Drama MIU404...This is one that has been constantly praised and loved by fans on forums for the past few months and I was curious to see what the hubbub was all about! 

Starring Gen Hoshino as Kazuma Shima as a straight arrow detective who, paired with Kohei Jimba (Jun Hashimoto) make an able team. But the word from above (Namase Katsuhisa) dictates new partnerships, and so Jimba is paired with new guy Yohito Kokonoe (Kenshi Okada) and Shima is paired with a man of unscrupulous reputation named Ai Ibuki (Go Ayano, last seen by me as the “monster” in Frankenstein’s Love)

Hmmm, The Straight Edge Cop gets teamed up with the Wild, Loose Cannon Cop but despite their differences, they end up making a great team? I JUST saw this exact premise with the Kento Nakajima/Sho Hirano drama “Miman Keisatsu”, and those were far more likeable people than these guys...

Kimiko Aso rules the show, though- as Kikyo Yuzuru, she is the absolute coolest as the perennial “Amanda Waller” to these gangly detectives, the one “tuff chick” that even THEY  won’t go up against!

Will watch a few more…

Notes on the 2016 Kohaku Uta Gassen

It’s funny to think that once upon a time, the Kohaku was simply teeming with artists I loved, performing songs I was dying to hear them sing live, but as I get older, the less I know about the “current” music scene out there and I really just watch these to ‘catch up” on the latests groups and songs….but happily there were still LOTS of familiar faces and tunes from my golden age to keep the show interesting! Some highlights I noted….

This year’s show was hosted by Arashi’s Aiba Masaki and adorable actress Kasumi Arimura, whom i first saw as a cute policegirl in Keizoku SPCEC and then as Matsumoto Jun’s sister in “Shitsuren Chocolatier” and then Aiba’s sister in “Yokoso Wagaya E”….my how she’s grown! Such a Doll!

They started things off in a zany fashion, with Johnny’s clown princes Kanajni 8 opening the show with the song “Zukkoke Otokomichi”….

And for the red team’s side was none other than PUFFY! Just saw these gals here in Hawaii earlier this year and they’re still as great as ever! Did the classic Asia No Junshin and Nagisa, Matsubara, etc, big faves of mine!

Next up was AAA, whom I still find a real thrill to see appearing on the Kohaku. I have to admit taht “Hurricane Lily, Boston Mari” wasn't one of my favorite AAA songs, but hearing a song I knew so well after expecting to hear a new song was pretty exciting and got me in the mood!

From there we got the sexy n stylish “EGirls” Conglomerate…

and then the AKB Conglomerate with Keyakizaka46…

Back in the day, I always looked forward to Mitsuko Nakamura’s  fun and “matsuri" style songs, nowadays it seems Enka singer Yoshimi Tendo has taken over that slot!

As usual, I really liked Ayaka’s performance, this is one gal whose voice I absolutely love…

Balancing out Ayaka’s perf was Go Hiromi with a VERY pretty young girl doing some sultry interpretive dance around him….had a hard time catching her name...who IS this gorgeous thing?

V6 returned to to show Morita Go continuing his attempt at out-scuzzing TOKIO’s Nagase Tomoya  with his forever scrubby facial hair… (frankly, he looks like he's turning into a kind of Japanese David Spade)

 ...and then the boys giving me a treat by bring out one of my all-time fave karaoke tracks, "Honey Beat" to sing! They only did this a part of a medley, man, would been great to hear it whole!

Huh. When even my co-workers that didn’t listen to any j-pop came up to me to show me “this funny video”, PPAP by Piko-Taro, I should have expected to see this silly song performed here. Save by the cuteness of Kasumi’s reactions, giggling throughout.

I should say that for what its’ worth, the Kohaku really does  encapsulate the “Year in Japan entertainment” pretty well, and the appearance of group Radwimps coming on to perform Zenzenzense made note of the movie “Your Name”’s impact on this year on movies! Can't wait to see this movie.

Hmm, didn’t realize there were going to me more than one of these AKB association acts here, we had Keyakizaka46 and now we have Nogizaka46. Better pay attention to these girls, some of them are guaranteed to become the stars in movies and dramas we watch in the future!

And here's yet another phoned in performance from Masaharu Fukuyama….will this guy ever set foot on Kohaku soil again?

...and then a big shock from me when I found out that actor Kenta Kiritani was a singer! Man, that guy giving hell to Mayu Matsuoka in Suizokukan Girl was a musician? Huh!

And continuing on with the AKB train we finally come to the originals, AKB48, I liked that they sang “River”, a song I’ve always liked from them, but as a guy who doesn’t really know them, I wonder how many members onstage singing are part of the original song? With their graduation system I wonder if it’s like watching an all-new gen Momusu singing Morning Coffee.

Holy COW, am I FINALLY witnessing the actual DEBUT of KinKi Kids on the Kohaku??? Unbelievable! Ya know, considering Tsuyoshi and Koichi were among the first Johnny’s guys I ever saw on the Kohaku (in 1995, dancing for Masahiko Kondo), I never dreamed I’d have to wait two DECADES before they “officially” entered the Kohaku arena! About Time!

Didn’t expect to see Perfume still around! But then again, their appeal is so broad that I actually have K-pop friends who, though they only buy K-stuff, also purchase Perfume CDs, so they must be more famous than I thought. Funny to read that the guy who wrote Kyary Paymu Pyamu’s “Pon Pon Pon” is the writer for all of Perfume’s stuff. This guy knows how to write a catchy tune!

Ikimonogakari is back and Kiyoe still has the sweetest and most happily infectious smile ever! Awww, look at that smile!  

Wheeee! And now we come to the highlight of this year’s Kohaku for me!!! You know, when I began watching the show, it never occurred to me that I might get to see Gen Hoshino singing the theme song "Koi" from “We Married As A Job”, but when I saw Yui Aragaki as one of the judges, I did have hope! And then when Gen came out earlier in the show, I thought to myself- HEY! Gen Hoshino is there! the’ve GOT to have him sing the song, right? 

And indeed they DID! What a fun, happy song, and as expected, they had a slew of background dancers behind him to do all the dance moves that made the show’s ending credits so beloved.

And beloved it was! It was pretty amazing to watch the audience and see that every there was doing the moves right along with the song, and of course, when it cut to Gakky, she was shyly dancing along as well! SO AWESOME!

...then back to Sobretown with Fuyumi Sakamoto, singing the moody song I first fell in love with her…

And then TOKIO, the continuing scuzzy version. They performed Sorafune, which was a surprise, I thought they were going to do “Ai I Wanna Be With You”, from drummer Masahiro Matsuoka’s crossdressing detective drama Kaseifu No Mitazono!

Nice to see Kana Nishino still out here. Is she still as popular as she was back in her "Best Friend" days?

Then we had Seiko Matsuda performing with Yoshiki. An interesting combination, then it occurred to me that maybe X Japan was going to perform at the show this year as well…

…and sure enough, it wasn’t long til the original J-rock Boys hit the stage!

Mariko Takahashi singing "Gomen Ne". Whoo, man I love this song! A song that takes me back to the good old days! A pretty song from an elegant lady.

When I saw that the next performing artist was going to be Utada Hikaru in the little square at the bottom of the screen, my heart leapt in my throat- HOLY CRAP, Hikky was debuting this year? I was stoked! But then the song began, and though I really love "Hanataba o Kimi ni “, I was instantly brought down when I realized “Aw, she ain't there…it’s another phoned in performance!!" Aw, it really takes the glow off.

Then it was time to wrap up the show, and the red team called on their big gun, the great Enka-queen herself, Sayuri Ishikawa, belting out her classic “Amagi Goe” once again! I was just watching some old B&W performances Sayuri did of this song from Kohakus of many years ago, and it blows me away- she's one of the few stars here who have the "weight" to close a show.

And then, it was the white team’s side, and  paired up against Sayuri was….Arashi??? Seriously??? I mean, I love Arashi as much as the next guy, but are they really suggesting these guys are on par with Sayuri? Very Weird. Really missing Saburo Kitajima about now!

Arashi pulled out a medley of their hits and it was very nice and touching, but seriously, this should have been SMAP’s final stage tonight. Having Arashi close the show just didn’t have the impact it should have. And given that very unbalanced ending,  it was no surprise which team pulled the most votes in the end- the Red Team, though Kasumi was so spaced out she didn’t even know they won and seemed the least emotional about it out of everyone! LOLOL, too cute.

PS, as the camera panned over the performers as they sang the Anthem, them panned across Egirls, and DAMN, that Sayaka is looking more and more stunning every time I see her!

LOL, OK, that’s it for this year….

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com