A Time Capsule of 90's Idol Days: "BOMB!" Magazine!

With physical media in general waning over the years as everything moves to digital, including books, movies and music, it's hard to remember a time when magazines were some of the best selling periodicals out there, with a shop's entire magazine section packed full of people perusing the dailies every day!

In the 90's, Idol business was booming, and so were the magazines that featured and promoted them! Though there were far too many titles to mention, the BIG ones for us J-pop fans (at least here in Hawaii) were Up T0 Boy and BOMB!

Of them all, BOMB was the one we liked most as it seemed to cater towards the artists WE loved, those Pony Canyon artists like CoCo, ribbon, Qlair, Nishida Hikaru, etc, etc. I  had mentioned before how BOMB! was the magazine that first introduced me to idols like Kyoko Fukada, Hiroko Anzai, and even Ayumi Hamasaki (!!), and so it was worthwhile picking it up even if you didn't know who was on the cover 'cause you never knew who you'd learn about next!!

In 1996, I grabbed the latest issue which featured actress Kanako Enomoto (and WHOA, remember her? She was quite popular there for a while!) and was thrilled to find that, as a bonus for hitting 200 issues, they had included a fold-out poster showing ALL of the covers from issue 1 up to present!

MAN, just poring over that poster, it just KILLED us to see all those great issues featuring CoCo and Ribbon that we'd never be able to get our hands on! Ah, the days before internet and things like ebay and YahooJAPAN auctions- Back then all we could do was dream!

click image to see larger

BUT in this modern age, you can use those aforementioned dealers to get your hands on just about anything if you have the time, money and patience- and case in point: when recently perusing Suruguya, I saw they had a whole smorgasbord of BOMB! back issues, and I wasted no time diving into their stock to see what they had to offer!

I was overjoyed to find they had MANY of those issues we'd wistfully looked on fondly back in the day (featuring artists ribbon, Qlair and of course CoCo, CoCo, and MORE CoCo!!!), and every one of them went into my shopping cart! WELL, just today they arrived and I have to tell you, the old Pony Canyon Idol Fan in me just couldn't be more pleased and giddy! They are as beautiful as I'd dreamed, furthermore, each one was just CRAMMED full of 90's idol goodness, instantly taking me back to those days of the mid-90's when EVERYTHING was about those idol gals!!!

For example, take this  issue featuring QLAIR on the cover. Sure, there was a nice Qlair pictorial in in, but there was SO MUCH MORE, promotions and pictorials for books and concerts that painted a very SPECIFIC time in my life- seems like everything they promoted this issue was something I excitedly purchased and was totally excited about back then!

Tri-fold out CoCo poster right on the inside cover, starting off the issue with a BANG!

After the QLAIR pictorial, they BLEW ME AWAY with coverage of the collosal OTOMEJUKU MATSURI concert, those who follow me know how dearly I hold this concert- it was the one which I got for CoCo and then introduced me to acts like ribbon, Qlair and Michiyo Nakajima, acts who ALSO became HUGE faves! 

Would have LOVED to have had this issue back then to go along with the laserdisc- chock full of photos and group/member information, it's practically a PROGRAM for the event!

A spread promoting ribbon's awesome 1991 HARLEM NIGHT concert, one of my FAVE live concerts from the trio!

Promoting their album "Jessica, they performed ALl the hits from the release and then some! They even OPENED the show with "Ano Ko Ni Yoroshiku" my number ONE song from them!!

Such a great concert...Who knew that they'd top themselves by releasing "Zoku Harlem Night Joint", their ultimate masterpiece just a year later!

...then some short coverage of both WINK and Nishida Hikaru's concert releases, the latter for Hikaru's "1991 Manatsu Jouzu Concert ", the concert release of hers I consider her BEST!

then a promotional pictorial for Reiko Miura's photobook "Virgo"

...and a promotional pictorial for Azusa Senou's "YOKAN" photobook!

a cute Erika Haneda pictorial which, according to the info, is promoting her solo single "Maigo Ni Sasenaide"...

Coverage of Reiko Miura's small drama appearance (with Ayumi Ishida!!)

CoCo Game Night where the girls play games against each other! I had already seen most of this coveragein a CoCo Collection BOMB! Memorial Book released to commemorate the band's breakup, interesting to see it here in "real time"!

Tennis challenge with idols including Michiko Nakajima and Sanae Horikawa!

Besides all those Pony Canyon girls, they also had behind the scenes coverage of a Noriko Sakai drama appearance...

...some news on Eriko Tamura...

Miho Nakayama update...

a Yumiko Takahashi pictorial (MAN, she was everywhere back then!)

...and if that wasn't enough, the issue also included 3 pages of...IRON ONs!!! Holy COW, remember those? They were such the rage back in the day!!! 

They even cutely give information of how to iron those onto your t-shirts, for those not familiar with it, LOL

BOY, can you believe this was all in just ONE ISSUE??? MAN, from COVER to COVER, back then they really gave you your bang for your buck! No WONDER it was such a popular magazine!!!

PS: I don't know exactly how deeply connected BOMB! magazine was to Pony Canyon, but I DID notice that every time one of the artists got the cover, the BACK cover was an advertisement for that artist's latest release! 

Front Covers:

Flipping them around, BACK covers;

Did BOMB give the group the cover if they paid for the ad in the back? I never noticed this happening in later issues, MUST have been an early thing. But I'll bet the fans didn't complain,  the ad just became MORE pinup material! I mean, look at that ad for ribbon's single "Yoake Nante Iranai"...that picture is bigger than the entire actual single itself! Definitely collectible on its own!

Yep, the 90's were a real heaven for idol fans!!!

Mada Kekkon Dekinai Otoko: Kuyashii!

When I first heard the synopsis for Mada Kekkon Dekinai Otoko and found out they'd written out Yui Natsukawa's character and basically voided the ending for the series that had made it one of my top faves, I was extremely irked and irritated. They'd taken one of the most touching and wonderful conclusions to any drama and basically did a Thor/Jane Foster (where an aloof Thor tells Loki "it was a mutual dumping" to explain why Natalie Portman had been written out of the series, despite the fact of their love being the main point of the first movie)...

They'd basically wiped all three main characters out of the series and replaced them with three all-new women to once again go on the merry-go-round of dealing with Abe's eccentricities, and I was inclined to pass on the new show until I read that Yoshida Yo was going to be one of the three new ladies. Yo Yoshida!

In my heart, I KNEW that Yoshida Yo going up against Abe was going to be an amazing drama to watch and so I HAD to check it out!
Well, there was a reason I loved the first one so much, and even in this sequel, the three things that “made” the show for me as still here: the warm characters, engaging dialog and zany plots. In many ways this drama feels more like a soft reboot than a sequel proper. I mean, there ARE things that have advanced, but for the most of it, it’s like it’s totally re-creating the same set-up as before:
There’s the older professional woman with Yo Yoshida as a lawyer (replacing Yui Natsukawa’s Doctor role) and just like Natsukawa’s character, he is constantly bothering and annoying her while at the same time intriguing her.

 

We have another young wide eyed and innocent girl living next door to Kuwano, the adorable Saki Tonami (Mai Fukagawa), and though she ’s spooked by the odd Kuwano, JUST like the first series, she starts becoming more and more dependent on him...and perhaps even becoming attracted to him?

Then there’s the Izumi Inamori character of Yuki Okano, who, though not really much like Reiko Takashima’s character, still takes the place as the middle character who is aggravated and yet sympathetic to Kuwano’s antics...She's the one whom seems most attracted to Kuwano (and him to her, so there's that...).

with able assistant Rumi (Mion) in the background....

I think the thing that made me feel most like this was a remake was when they shoved the three ladies together as best friends. It seemed organic in the first series, but in this one I felt like they would not have much in common and were put together “just because”. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes are still funny, but I couldn’t help but remember all the similar scenes with Natsukawa, Takashima and Kuninaka spying on Kuwano and making fun of his nuttiness...

Aside from the three main ladies, the rest of the cast from the first season has returned, and the scenes showing the gang at the workplace are always fun to see, such as Eiji (Takashi Tsukamoto), who was once Kuwano’s underling, now a full partner in the company, and new employees such as Yuta(Atsushi Arai), Sakurako (Miyu Sahiki) Eiko (Atsuko Anami), and the incomparable Nao as Shiori!

 Haha, trust me, these scenes are as funny as they look!

Kuwano’s family is back too, and once again it is nice to see former CoCo princess Reiko Miura again in her role as Kuwano’s ever-suffering younger sister Keiko.

  Mitsuko Kusabue is back as Kuwano’s Mom and we have cute Yuna Taira as Yumi, Keiko’s daughter, who finds her eccentric uncle entertaining to say the least!

As I said before, the main reason I watched this was for Yo Yoshida, and oh boy, she’s so good in this drama. Really like an extension on her smart and savvy lawyer character Reiko Baba  form HERO2, in my opinion she’s the show’s main character (if there can be such a thing) because almost everything is an action or reaction to Kuwano’s interference!

And I mentioned how happy I was to see actress NAO here.  She stole my heart in the drama Anata No Ban Desu with her adorable shenanigans, and she is JUST as cute here!
The show is so slapstick that she is given many opportunities to show off her spazzy facial reactions, some of which I’ve captured here.

Just looking at them has got me cracking up again!

So YEAH, as VEXING as it is to say, the show continues to be one of the most well-written and hilarious dramas out there, and I HAVE to admit that it's easily one of the BEST shows on right now!

DAMMIT how I HATE to admit that! I felt like Linus in the old PEANUTS strip when his favorite teacher Miss Othmar leaves, and out of principle he tries to hate the new teacher, but she's so nice that he sadly thinks “My memories of Miss Othmar are going up in chalk dust!” as she selects him to pound erasers, LOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com