It’s that time of the year again for NHK’s Annual Red and White Music Festival, and both Sho Sakurai and Ayase Haruka, old hands at helming the celebration, are back as this year’s hosts!
At this point it’s almost expected that you’ll see one of the ARASHI boys as host, but it’s always surprising to see Haruka Ayase appearing- she always seems to be so uncomfortable and “lost” during the show, but I guess she likes it enough. Plus, you can’t beat that Kohaku exposure!
Some Highlights of the Evening!
Things start off with Kid group Foorin doing a song called “Paprika”…
Don’t know if these kids have anything to do with EXILE but those dance moves sure have those vibes! Reminds me of Happiness’s Happy Talk.
Hiromi Go- a very bizarre performance with Hiromi walking through the lobby full of athletes as he sang his songs “2 Oku 4 Sneman no Hitomi” and “Go Go Japan”, the latter of which I’ve made fun of and jokingly sung since like forever! JAPAN!!!!
Next was Aiko up in the audience warbling her song “Hanabi” and-HEY! Is that Mr. AOI YU sitting there?!
Hmm, yes it IS, and of course they made sure to remind us, much to Yamasato’s delight!
It’s time to visit those judges, and we see cute Suzu Hirose sitting back from her hosting activities this year, Erika Toda is so grown up now that I hardly recognize her, and Kei Tanaka is there to remind us of how awesome ANATA NO BAN DESU was this past year!
Up next Nogizaka46 do their cute song “Kyun”
Hey! Say! Jump doing the classic Kyu Sakamoto song “Ue O Muite Aruko” labelled as a REIWA version….
Aya Shimazu does the classic Nakajima Miyuki song “Ito” and ARGH, this was so NATSUKASHI!!!! This was the theme song from the 1998 Issei Ishida/Noriko Sakai drama “Seiga No Koushin” and MAN , it had me crying my EYES out each episode. So sweet to hear it here!
Then we have the Kohaku debut of the oddly named KisMyFt2, guess when they hit number one with “Everybody Go” they just HAD to finally get them on here...
...but BOY, dancing with roller skates will NEVER look cool, will it?
Yoshimi Tendo does "Osaka Koishigure" and I am SHOCKED to find that “that guy in drag” Matt can actually play that piano!
Keisuke Yamauchi- Kuchibiru Scarlet. Attention Kiyoshi Hikawa- we have a NEW flamboyantly feminine crooner in the building!!
AKB48-Koisuru Fortune Cookie
Daichi Miura- Blizzard… Hey, this song was pretty great! Very contemporary compared to most of the J-pop here….
Speaking of Contemporary, If there’s one act that people have been buzzing about MOST, it HAS to be LiSA’s Kohaku debut, and her song “ Gurenge” from the anime “”Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba” didn’t disappoint! What a ROCKER!
PS: When Ayase Haruka was announcing LiSA, Perfume was onstage with her, and A-chan reminded me how much I love her as she playfully mugged for the cameras, LOL
Fuyumi Sakamoto is here to KICK YOUR ASS with her growling perf of “Iwai Zake Shuku”!
and then Midori Oka reminds us that Bijin Enka is also alive and well!
Masaharu Fukuyama- Once again Masa-Niichan phones it in from some stadium somewhere, but was kind of nostalgic hearing him do “Hello”, since it was the first song I ever knew from him waaaay back in 1995!
Yaaay It’s this year’s K-pop dreamgirls TWICE making their annual appearance! I was hoping to see them perform their terrific hit “Fancy” but unfortunately it was only a couple of verses coupled with TT. Least they looked/sounded great!
Too bad Mina couldn’t make it- she’d been battling anxiety and has been absent from stage perfs but I thought maybe she’d be here since she’s one of the three Japanese members…oh well, least we still got Sana and Momo to represent the Nihongo faction! Speaking of which, Sana was SO freaking adorable! Damn.
Hiroshi Itsuki does the “Fun” song this year with Viva La Vida where Shinji Takeda shows he’s still got that Sax
VERY intense performance by Little Glee Monster doing their song “Hero” where they sing their hearts out!
PS:I had seen the girls perform this song in this really cool black leather setup and was hoping to see something similar but they went with shiny silver, a look I guess more fitting to the Kohaku!
After that emotional song from Little Glee Monster, we needed something wacky and Da Pump are happy to oblige. The guys do a Medley with PARTY and USA but I’m still waiting for them to do “Rhapsody In Blue” again…
PS: these guys are getting less and less R&B every time I hear them…
Keyakizaka46- A strangely dramatic and captivating performance…somehow feels like as if they made an AKB48 group based out of Transylvania-Very theatrical!
This is a new one- Kaori Mizumori singing her song “Takato Sakura Michi”...while performing magic! WHAAA?
King and Prince-Medley where they look like they’re auditioning to become the next ARASHI, ha!
Would have been quite a surprise seeing KISS show up for a collab with X’s Yoshiki if I hadn’t seen them talking about this online all week! They do the classic “Rock and Roll All Nite” and did I ever mention that I learned that song as a kid from a K-Tel Record?!
Ringo Shiina- Ringo looked positively normal (and in fact, quite pretty) in her perf of Jiyudam and Jinsei wa Yume Darake…looking at her, one would never suspect how ODD she really is…
Sho and Haruka took some time to chat with Emiko Kaminuma and it was SO SWEET seeing her- Sho calls her “Dai-Sempai” and that’s a title I can agree on- she was the co-host of the first two or three Kohaku shows I ever saw and I strongly associate her with the event!! Just seeing her reminds me of her introducing “new” acts like Namie Amuro and Noriko Sakai…!
Kanjani 8 medley including “Tomoyo”, that song from the Tomo Ikuta show “Ore no Hanashi wa Nagai” which I just began watching! PS: Does anyone know why there’s only five of them?
It’s the Kohaku debut of yet another one of those ubiquitous 46 groups, Hinatazaka46, doing a song called Synchronicity…
Things get snowy with Sayuri Ishikawa during “Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyugeshiki”
Mariya Takeuchi- there was this dreamy haze over Mariya Takeuchi’s performance and until Haruka interviewed her after her perf, I wasn’t sure if she was really there!
An artist that still has a devout following (at least in the J-pop forums I follow!)
Ikimonogakari! Kiyoe and the gang reach back to 2012 for their Every Little Thing flavored “Kaze Ga Fuite”…a very “ganbatte!” song!
Special Arashi performance of “Kite” where they look liek they're channeling “Cool 5”
A blast from the past for Yuming fans as she dusts off “No Side” from her 1984(!) album of the same name, and can I mention how amazed I am when Yuming keeps appearing live at the Kohaku? Still seems unbelievable to me!
Kiyoshi Hikawa up next with a Medley to let Keisuke Yamauchi that there’s only ONE flamboyant crooner, and it’s KI-YO-SHII! Hmm, looks like he’s channeling TMRevolution here….and Kenichi Mikawa!!!
The first time I ever saw Seiko in one of these shows was performing a medley of her hits and the tradition continues here! Was thrilled to hear two of my all-time fave songs from her in the medley, "Jikan no Kuni no Alice” and "Rock'n Rouge”! (though the latter only two lines, boo) Takes me back…..
Last year, Misia did Ai no Katachi, “2018 Version”, tonight she does Ai No Katachi “Reiwa version”, a VERY glitzy affair! Shoulda paired her up with Hikawa….
Finally ARASHI are back with the song that started it all for them, A-RA-SHI and then their new song “Turning Up”. Didn’t realize til the confetti was dropping that they were this year's Kohaku closing act!
Then the votes we cast for the winning team (does it really matter nowadays?), and while they were waiting Sho made a "fighting face" and caused Haruka to erupt in peals of laughter!
Once the scores were counted and the winner announced (I guess I won't spoil it for anyone who cares), then it was time for the Japan Anthem to be sung. Everyone joined in but I had to laugh when they cut to TWICE and Sana was the lone girl singing, LOL!
I mean, the other girls only speak Korean (and Tzuyu who’s Thai) so that’s expected, but Momo's Japanese and she didn’t look like she knew the words at all, AHAHAHA! That’s my TWICE bias, ladies and gentlemen.
