I used to go over to my friend Dano’s house to watch Japanese music shows on NGN like POPJAM and Music Fair, but probably our favorite show was HEY HEY HEY, where we got to see not only the latest acts, but got updated on the Top Ten Chart Action as well.(with Video clip accompaniment!)
We learned a lot of new faces just watching those top ten segments each week, and there were a few that always seemed to be at the tops of the charts. Some artists we liked (like Amuro Namie and trf) while others were mostly unknown to us (like Globe and the mighty B'z), but there was ONE artist that would always elicit jeers from Dan, and that was SHARAN-Q, the rock group led by the then-relatively-unknown vocalist TSUNKU.
Every time they would show up on the screen, Dan would groan and say, " Sheesh, it's that group with that dude who dresses up like a GIRL again!" I'd look at the screen and laugh, for that guy on the TV was indeed the most flamboyant performer there (and in the mid-nineties, that's saying something!) and at the time I actually wondered if Sharan Q was part of that (at the time up-and-coming) Visual Kei acts.
A few weeks later I receive a new j-pop mix from my friend at work, and I'm instantly taken in by the beautiful opening song by Dreams Come True called "Thank You" (or Sankyu if you gonna get all technical on me) and am floating on a cloud...til I'm suddenly yanked out of my haze by the blaring opening horns of the next song, a zany and wackily sung jazzy number called "Zuruionna" (Cunning Woman), and I have to say I wasn't all that surprised to find that the group singing the song was none other than those ethereal girly men from the charts, Sharan Q themselves!
That song itself was followed by another beautiful song with Okamoto Mayo's Tomorrow, and this perfect blend of styles complimented each other so well, that I listened to it all the time and then soon enough(Dan forgive me), I actually started to LIKE Zuruionna! Then came their performance on that year's Recordo Taisho and the Red and White , where I was to realize: They ain't Visual Kei- they jus' KRAZEEE!
