A Cute Reminder

Watching the sassy and adorable antics of utterly narcissistic Michishige "Shige-chan" Sayumi on Himitsu No Arashi reminds me of why I liked her so much back in the day...choo kawaii

NEWS' "Be Funky" at LAST!

It's been a few MONTHS since Shigeaki Kato's TROUBLEMAN ended, and during that whole time I hve been DYING to get my hands on a copy of that AWESOME ending song "Be Funky!" and FINALLY after a LONG wait, i've finally gotten it!


Funny, the whole time I was waiting for the song to be released as a single, but somehow it ended up being nothing more than another track on NEWS' new CD "Live" (which isn't live, so...WTF?), but whatevers, I've got it now, and it is kick-ass! A song to be played on full volume, for sure!

Youn-a on Mannequin Five

ONE of the great perks of watching Arashi's "Mannequin Five" segment on Himitsu No Arashi-Chan is the beautiful guests they invite to participate in the judging/lambasting of Arashi's fashion outfits.

On one particular episode, guest k-pop singer and model Youn-a was on, and made  everyone laugh by her constant proclamation that Nino was "So Kakkoi!" I noted that she herself was a pretty fine lookin' lady, but it wasn't til her next appearance that I really sat up and took notice of what a frickin' BABE she was! Yow!

 

 Man, even just standin' there she looks sexy as heck! Could it be that black number she's wearing? WhatEVER the case, this is ONE simply StunningWoman!!!

Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso

Downloading Episode Three of “Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Usso” (Psychic Odagiri Kyoko’s Lie), a new drama I rather like, starring pretty Ishihara Satomi as a Celeb Psychic who really uses Detective Work to solve her seemingly supernatural cases.

The show is cute and fun, and with Shosuke Tanihara as Kyoko’s zany sidekick, reminds me at times of Mop Girl (that OTHER paranormal comedy he was in!),and another HUGE bonus is sexy Rieko Miura as a diabolical secret agent out to get her hands on a true medium…

And The Winner Is...Fukigen Na Gene

Yamada Yu and Takeuchi Yuko

Finished watching three dramas this past week : Hotaru No Hikari2, Fukigen Na Gene, and Massugu Na Otoko (the latter of which I began watching as far back as April!)...All were comedy/romance dramas  featuring actresses I loved (respectively Ayase Haruka, Takeuchi Yuko and Fukada Kyoko) as eccentric and fun characters that followed their romances and ended with "Will-they-Marry-or-not" last episodes.
Though I was really excited to watch the conclusions to both Hotaru No Hikari2 and Massugu Na Otoko, in the end, they both had only "so-so" endings that were long in the teeth and short on the action, and actually bored me a bit. That was sad because I was SO jazzed about both of those shows when I began watching them!
Strangely enough, the one that came from behind was a lesser-known drama called Fukigen Na Gene, starring Yuko Takeuchi as a cute insect-crazy researcher named Yoshiko who has a rocky on-and-off relationship with sempai Masaaki Uchino. This show was the opposite of the other shows , as the beginning of the series seemed  slow and as it got closer to its conclusion, seemed to pick up speed and get more and more interesting.

Uchino Masaaki and Takeuchi Yuko

Now, without giving away any spoilers, I have to admit that the ending of Fukigen Na Gene wasn't any more exciting than Hotaru or Massugu, but the bittersweet way it was done left me feeling really melancholy and LONELY!!! I remember when the show ended, I thought, "well, there's got to be more than that, right?", Imagine my surprised when it faded to black and the ending credits began rolling! As I sat watching the credits scroll, I thought to myself, "Actually, that was a good way to end that show", and the more I thought about it, the more PERFECT that end became!

Takeuchi, Kobayashi Satomi and Odagiri Joe in back

Ah, now I'm lonely and I'm once again in love with Yuko Takeuchi...what is it about her that makes her so darn ENDEARING?!!

Ayase Haruka eating Ice Cream

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Lindberg / Believe In Love

Up next is LINDBERG executing an explosive, emotional performance of BELIEVE IN LOVE, a kick-ass rockin’song that must surely rate as one of the Ten Greatest J-pop songs of all time- or at least in MY opinion!

From my friend Dan, I knew the group to be a pretty good  Rock’n’Roll act with songs like Aitakute~LOVER SOUL, and then from another friend Dave l learned other Lindberg classics like Imasugu KISS ME and JUMP!, but little did I know that the BEST was yet to come!

Renting an old MUSIC STATION video (for Shinohara Ryoko and Moritaka Chisato, natch), it was an added bonus when I saw that Lindberg was one of the featured guests, but their performance would eclipse everything else on that episode!

Taking a look at the group at this time, I was surprised at how “Garage-Band” looking they were, and I figured (rightly) that this must be quite an early appearance. The drums kicked in and the band took off, and I realized that I was looking at the band at the peak of their powers- they are fully GOING for it!!! And though the Music Station guests usually mime their instruments to a track (with a live vocal), this performance of Believe in Love sounds 100% LIVE!

“Believe in Love” would go on to become Lindberg’s signature tune, and I would see them play this song on just about every special they were on, whether it be on the Hey Hey Hey Music Champ or the FUN Showcase show and no matter how much times I hear it, every one of them rocks the house!!

Suzuki Emi eating Udon

Crush Of The Day: Nonami Maho

So as I’ve mentioned before in the previous post, I’ve been watching the extremely entertaining MOTEKI starring Moriyama Mirei as the dorky guy who’s experiencing his “popular” time in his life, where several of his past crushed have been suddenly wanting to “get with him”.  Among the girls are the aforementioned Matsumoto Rio along with Mitsushima Hikari, Kikuchi Rinko and Nonami Maho.

Nonami Maho’s character of Doi Aki appeared in the first episode of Moteki, and though she was extremely pretty, it wasn’t until the later episodes 6-and on where we really got to know her character and she got to strut her stuff a little more, and when a girl like Maho struts her stuff, you MUST take notice, because that is one Fine looking gal!

Reminding me a bit of Suzuki Sarina (ah, man did I have a crush of HER back in the day!), as radiant and outgoing Aki, she’d always be duked out in the prettiest outfits, sexy dresses, leather boots and even the occasional bra and panties(!), and it’d be all topped off with a hyper, tigress attitude, making for a killer combination! In fact, she was so animated it was HELL trying to get any kind of clear screen caps of her since she was bouncing and moving around ALL the time!

     Once I found out that gorgeous Nonami Maho was listed in the Masahiro Matsuoka 1998 drama Love And Peace, I just HAD to dig those VHS copies outta my closet to check them out, because while I remembered Matsuoka having to take care of a teenage girl, I had no recollection of what she looked like!

So I pop in the cassette, and from the first moment Shiro Sano comes in with his kids in tow, as soon as this 13 or 14 year old girl walks through the door, I start cracking up, because, though she’s still just a young girl, the FACE was DEFINITELY Maho’s!!!

as Hazuki in Love and Peace 1998

Telling the tale of a young couple about to be married, Kenta and Asuka (Matsuoka and Sato Aiko) get faced with a dilemma when Kenta’s older brother dies and he finds himself with the responsibility of taking care of his brother’s here rebellious children, an older Daughter, and Middle son and a cute little girl.

Back then, this was one of my favorite shows, and as I’ve recounted in a past post, this drama’s opening credits (which featured crayon-scrawled animation reminiscent of SECOND CHANCE and RENAI KEKKON NO RULE) made me fall in love with TOKIO’s theme song aptly titled “Love and Peace”, a song that’s still a HUGE fave to this day!

 Simply amazing that this cute girl became THIS gorgeous gal:

And in a strange relation to Second Chance, I remember at the time (back in 1998) I used to think that the girl playing Hazuki was Akina Miyagi, the same actress playing Second Chance’s Noda Kimiko (and whatever happened to that girl?), how funny that it turned out to be Maho!

Nonami Maho with Toma Ikuta, 1998

It’s so omoshiroii seeing Maho as this cute rambunctious teenage girl, knowing she’d grow up into this sultry sex kitten in later year, and what’s even more amazing is that the boy playing her even littler brother turned out to be none other than TOMA IKUTA!!! Crap, one look at HIM, and it REALLY hits you how OLD this drama is! AHAHAHAHA!

Kneel before Goddess Maho!

Okay, looking forwards to watching even more Nonami Maho dramas and movies in the future!

Motokariya Yuika eating a Celery Stick

Ito Misaki eating Nukazuke

Crush Of The Day: Matsumoto Rio

Been spending my days watching the absolutely hilarious MOTEKI, starring Moriyama Mirei (he of Sekai No Chuushin Ai wo Sakebu and Kiken Na Aneki fame) and have been going slightly insane from the constant barrage of pretty girls in this! I’m not kidding, from the first episode when they sprung sexy-as-hell Nonami Maho on me, it’s been a constant whirlwind of babe-ness, and the real highlight of the series for me just has to be when they introduced beautiful vixen Komiyama Natsuki, played by an actress that I hadn’t heard of before, the beautiful Matsumoto Rio!

After watching her awesome 2- parter episode, I just HAD to find out more about this girl, and went online to see if by chance she’d starred in anything else. I figured she was a new, up-and-coming actress and might have two or three other dramas listed, if I was lucky…

Boy, was I wrong!

This was no newbie idol-turned-actor wannabe- this gal had some serious CREDITS to her!  And far from just starting out, she’d been appearing regularly in dramas since 1995, which was just about when I started watching Japanese dramas! 

Proposal Daisakusen

Galcir

Her massive list of credits included appearances in a bunch of shows that I’d recently seen, like GALCIR, Proposal Daisakusen and Gokusen to older shows like REMOTE and Stand Up, but I was in for a BIGGER surprise when I saw listed on her credits:

“Seiga No Koushin”

Seiga No Koushin?! MAGI DE?!

Seiga No Koushin, the melancholy drama starring Ishida Issei as a mentally handicapped Boy who goes to live at a factory with a group of other kids under abusive and violent conditions was an early favorite drama of mine (and frequently reduced me to tears!). But who in the world would Rio Matsumoto have played? She must have still been a KID, since this drama was like 13 years ago! The dramawiki site listed her character as "Rin"...but I couldn't recall just who that was!

Then it hit me- Oh My Gosh, I’ll bet she was Ando Masanobu’s cute little sister!

Matsumoto as Rin

Now, for those of you who haven’t seen Seiga No Koushin, I’m here to tell you that the character of Takahara Rin was like the most SWEETEST and ADORABLE thing, like, ever! As one of six handicapped children (including Issei, Ando, Hinagata Akiko and Kokubun Taichi) she was EASILY my favorite character in the show, soooo innocent and pure, and the way she was always in the back or foreground of each scene gathering shiny objects and clutching her plastic jewelry like they were real, she just melted your heart!

as Rin in Seiga No Koushin

 I have to say that this revelation that Rio Matsumoto was the actress that played Rin just BLEW ME AWAY!! Who would have ever thought that that sweet little thing would turn into such a luscious, gorgeous creature! DAMN!!!

There are a bunch of dramas featuring Rio (and say, when did she change her name to “Rio”? Back in the Seiga No Koushin days, she was simply known as  “Megumi”) that I acquired awhile ago, shows like Hitonatsu No Papa E, Taiyo No Kisetsu and even Psychometre Eiji (!), and I REALLY have to make some time to check these out so I can get better “Acquainted” with my newly re-discovered interest in Rio!

 A Last Temptation that I surely would have failed

PS: Thanks to Hamanosilence for the awesome suggestion to check this show out!

PPS: Man, just realized Nonami Maho was the sister in Masahiro Matsuoka's 1998 drama LOVE AND PEACE! Damn, they jus' bustin' out all the cuties from yesteryear on me!!!

Ueno Juri eating a Sandwich

Mizukawa Asami eating Gyudon

Gohan, Interrupted

Aibu Saki eating a Rhubarb Mousse Cake

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ohguro Maki / La•La•La

When I first got into j-pop, everything was about those Pony Canyon gals CoCo, whether it be laserdiscs, CDs, singles or books, and I really hadn’t thought about buying anything from any other artists, but with the  help of friends and J-pop Music Shows, my eyes were soon opened to all that J-pop had to offer!

The two main sources of my original j-pop music came from both my friend Dan (who was the one who introduced me to J-pop, after all) and co-workerr Dave, who’d regularly make me cassette mixes of the latest “hits” out there. And as it happened, I was listening to a mix he’d made for me featuring the jangly pop anthem “La La La” by artist Ohguro Maki on the day that I had some extra change in my pocket and decided I wanted to try listening to something new!

 Already becoming pretty well known for it’s use in the then-currently-airing Japanese drama Aji No Ichimonme (Masters Of Taste) starring the then-up-and-coming Nakai Masahiro, Ohguro’s La La La became the very first non-CoCo j-pop song I ever bought, soon to be followed by others!

Nakai Masahiro in Aji No Ichimonme

With its bright and peppy guitar chords and Maki’s tuff and powerful voice, you had a song that instantly grabbed you and without even knowing what those Japanese lyrics meant, got the “GANBATTE!!!” never say die feeling! (And makes you want to cheer Nakai on as he goes on to become a master chef! AHAHAHA)

I was recently reminded of just how sweet this song is when I was watching the latest episode of ZETTAI REIDO, that detective drama starring the always enjoyable Ueto Aya. The show was about a investigation team that dealt in “Cold Cases”, that is, murder cases that have not been solved, and for the moment have been shelved. Since they are almost all cases that have happened years ago, the flashbacks are entertaining because of its “tiemcapsule” format!

Anyway, in this one episode, Aya is trying to retraced the footsteps of a girl that was murdered in the mid-nineties. She reads through her notes: Victim went to the Music store and borrowed a CD single. Aya repeats what the victim did, rents the same CD, puts in the disc in front of the record store, and while walking, tries to guess what the person did while listening to the music.

As Aya retraces the steps of the girl, suddenly, the beautiful chords of La La La start, and I have to say, I totally got goosebumps! It was at once SOOOOOO NATSUKASHII and also so bittersweet in the context of the drama. Aya walks , stops and breathes in a breath of fresh air, and turns and observes the cherry blossoms overhead…so sweet! Before she knows it, the song has led her to an important clue!

Ah man listening to that song took me ALL THE WAY BACK to 1995, suddenly I was back in Tower Records and picking up what would be the beginning of a lifelong love of j-pop music! “La La La- YAPPARI!”

Fukada Kyoko eating a Croquette

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ozawa Kenji / Tsuyoi Kimochi-Tsuyoi Ai

Singer Ozawa Kenji was always one of those artists that I didn’t know too much about and never quite figured out, as he seemed so much NOT like a guy who should be rockin’out onstage! Looking more like a frustrated kindergarten teacher than a pop singer, when he gets into the song and starts flinging about, he reminds me less of Roger Daltrey than David Byrne in the “Once In A Lifetime” video as the sweaty and harried science teacher!

But one thing that I never could deny is that the guy had a LOT of heart and seemed to put 100% effect and sincerity into his performing, and there’s no better example of that than in the wonderful song “Tsuyoi Kimochi-Tsuyoi Ai”, the quirky song that won me over and made me an Ozawa fan before I knew what was happening!

Listening to the song, Kenji’s vocals are always sung like he was out of breath from running around the studio a few times, which somehow makes the effect on his voice seem even more honest, and the hook of the song never sounded more like he wanted you to believe as he ended each chorus with “Ima No Kono Kimochi…Honto Dayone!!!”

And I love how in the very last verse he repeats over ad over: Tsuyoku!! Tsuyoku!!!

Then ends the familiar line  with: “Ima No Kono Kimochi, Honto Dayone…eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! 

Performing Tsuyoi Kimochi Tsuyoi Ai on Hey Hey Hey:

Yamada Yu eating Beef Cutlet

Takeuchi Yuko eating Omurice

Ueto Aya eating a Melon Pan