Matsuda Seiko STYLE!

Yes, She's still around. Yes, She's had more new image makeovers than Madonna. And YES, I think she's SUPER HOT! :) From the Seventies all the way up 'til the present, we are always blessed with the ever changing Seiko Matsuda. And that's a good thing! From the moment I first laid eyes on her flouncing around onstage with a stuffed-teddy bear backpack belting out her many hits of yesterday, she's been dear to my heart!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Kome Kome Club / Subete wa Honto De Usso Kamone

Theme song for the romantic comedy Shinkon Nari, starring Mikami Hiroshi and cute Riho Makise as newlyweds who have to move in with the groom’s domineering parents!
This was really a zany show, and the theme song by Kome Kome Club sums it up nicely with the title called (roughly), “Entirely, Absolutely, a Lie…Maybe!" Hahaha! Nice touch on the single, too: A beautiful white dove...and a BAT!
Supporting characters like Koji Matoba and SUPER SEXY Senri Yamazaki appear as the “foils” who are trying to break up the new marriage for their own wants, and as an added bonus, we have Kobayashi Akiji (beloved Tachibana Tobei of the Kamen Rider series) as the doddering father of the groom!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: DEEN / Hitomi Sorasanaide

When I received my 5^th J-pop cassette Mix from my friend in April of 1996, I was blown away by not just one but two new Hirose Kohmi songs, two new Mr. Children songs, and a couple of songs from a cool rockin’ band I’d never heard before, DEEN! What a terrific group this was!

In a way it was like getting a crash course in DEEN goodness because the two songs that opened up side two of that cassette mix were just about their best songs ever: the dramatic rock ballad LOVE FOREVER and the catchy whimsical HITOMI SORASANAIDE!

Though it was known to me that Izumi Sakai wrote (or, rather, co-wrote) Hitomi Sorasanaide, I didn’t think that there was a ZARD version of the song out there. Though later it became pretty common to hear ZARD’s take on songs later, (especially in regards to FIELD OF VIEW with songs like Kimi Ga Itakara, Totsuzen and DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku which all appeared on TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY) at the time I didn’t expect it, and so imagine what a pleasant surprise  I had when I first listened to ZARD’s “Forever You” CD, and this gentle, sweet acoustic version of Hitomi Sorasanaide closed the album!

After hearing these DEEN songs, I just had to have them, but at the time was only able to get Love Forever, and no matter where I ordered Hitomi Sorasaniade from, I kept getting the dreaded “OUT OF PRINT” message returned. It wasn’t until years later when a friend managed to get that rare DEEN single for me, and he had to go by hook and crook to acquire it! For that he has my eternal gratitude! AHAHAHAHAHA

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Judy and Mary / Cheese Pizza

When my friend Dan introduced me to CoCo all those years ago, he also introduced me to a handful of other groups that he was listening to at the time, and zany j-pop pranksters Judy and Mary was one of them!
I fell in love with the single "Cheese Pizza" as well as the parent album Orange Sunshine, featuring other great singles like "Radio", and just think- songs like "Sobakazu" and "Overdrive" were still around the corner!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Koizumi Kyoko / Beautiful Girls

Wonderful opening tune for equally wonderful drama Mada Koi wa Hajimaranai starring Kyoko Koizumi, Kyon Kyon's song "Beautiful Girls" is, in my opinion, one of the all-time GREATEST J-drama themes EVER!

Mada Koi wa Hajimaranai tells the tale of two lovers in Feudal Japan who, because of class and upbringing, are forbidden to be together. With nowhere else to go, they commit suicide, swearing that they will find each other again in the next life...Fast forward to present day Japan, where the two lovers have been reborn, and are just waiting for fate to bring them back together again...but it's not as easy as it seems! First off- neither of them know that they are past lovers, and it is only through chance that the two meet at all! Will destiny bring the two together at last?

Mada Koi Wa Hajimaranai

Coming out  in 1995, Mada Koi featured early roles for some of who would become Jdrama royalty, including Nakai Kiichi and a very young Takenouchi Yutaka, Tokiwa Takako, Sakai Maki,  and Kusanagi Tsuyoshi among others! ALL would go on to have illustrious careers!

They've even got Nishimura Masahiko in a hilarious role as the rascally unseen "narrator" of this modern day fairy-tale, who lets the viewer know at the beginning of the first episode that, even though the two fated lovers have finally been reunited after all these centuries apart..."Love STILL Hasn't Begun!" Cue music, and then we're swept away...

Mada Koi Wa Hajimaranai is firmly entrenched as one of the GREATS, and its theme song one of my absolute favorites!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Dreams Come True / Love, Love, Love

Here’s my personal vote for GREATEST J-POP SINGLE OF ALL TIME, Dreams Come True’s Love, Love, Love which was the theme song for the j-dorama Aishiteiru To Ittekure starring Toyokawa Etsushi and Tokiwa Takako.

Incredible, moving song, and I can’t remember a time when any other theme song was so intimately interwoven throughout the show. Even now, just hearing that harpsichord intro takes me back instantly to the drama!

HEY! HEY! HEY! Music Champ rated Love Love Love as the #2 song of 1996, I would have pushed for that little nudge to get them where I REALLY thought the song belonged! Ahahahaa...

This song has become the band’s signature song, and you can frequently hear them include it in their repertoire, (such as on this past year's Kohaku, among others) and Dreams Come True even performed this song on the LIVE 8 concert, albeit in “english” mode.

Favorite J-Pop Singles: TOKIO / Love You Only

The highlights of the 1994 NHK Red and White Fetival, or Kouhaku, as they call it, were Sakamoto Fuyumi's ikebana styled "Yuzakura Oshichi", Matsuda Seiko's girly-girly "Kagayaita Kistetsu E Tabidatou", X-Japan's rocking "Rusty Nail" Moritaka Chisato dancing on a cake performing "Suteki Na Tanjoubi", and the first-ever performance I ever saw of Johnny's band TOKIO singing their debut single "Love You Only"!

At the time, I was all about the Otomejuku Idol girls like CoCo, ribbon and Wink , but there was something irresistably catchy about this TOKIO song! It had such a hook that It made me ignore the fact that these were a bunch of dudes, all dressd up in white costumes trimmed with bird feathers! But what WAS it?

We were to find out that the musician who wrote the music for "Love You Only" was the writer responsible for MANY of our beloved CoCo and ribbon songs, too (I think CoCo's ONEGAI HOLD ME TIGHT was one of them!)! It's like they say...everything's connected, well at least as far as j-pop in the mid-nineties!

This song has ALWAYS been an absolute favorite to sing at karaoke: the better drunk to belt out those catch-and-call choruses...KIMI GA, KIMI GA ATSUI KOISURU NARA!!!!!!

Of coure, TOKIO was just the beginning, and I would go on to love groups like SMAP as well as groups that came along a lot later like ARASHI, V6 and the unstoppable KINKI KIDS!

"One More Time!"

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nakayama Miho / Hurt To Heart

Another fantastic single introduced to me via those groovy J-pop mixes my friend at work would make for me, this time the dramatic HURT TO HEART by Nakayama Miho!

Whenever I’m talking about these J-pop Mixes, I say that Dave “made the j-pop mix for me”, but I should clarify that he was actually making the tape for HIMSELF… As j-pop buyer, he would get a whole lot of new j-pop singles each month, and he’d make tapes of the ones he liked to get to know them better, and since he knew I also loved j-music, he’d simply make a duplicate copy of the mix for me!

He would come into my section and hand me a brand new cassette and offhandedly say, “Hey, I got a new J-pop mix for you.” YATTA!!!

The only problem is that while he knew who and what was going on the mix, I had no idea at all since what he gave me was always a bare cassette with no labels. Only when he had time would he go home and copy down all the names and titles for me, a BIG headache for him, so sometimes I’d wait for weeks without knowing who or what I was listening to!

Anyway, so it had been a week or so of listening to the latest j-pop mix with this melancholy Nakayama Miho song, and I was really liking it, pretty soon I’d find myself singing the chorus to myself as I worked. So one day Dave’s walking by and hears me singing, “Heart…To…Hearttttt!” He came into my section and said, “Ehhhh…It’s actually HURT to Heart… I’ll write down the titles tonight, okay?” HAHAHAHA! D’OH!

Nakayama Miho was a very frequent guest on Hey Hey Hey back in the day, and I was thrilled to see her performing this beautiful song one evening!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nishida Hikaru / Melody

My first exposure to Nishida Hikaru was through a zany comedy on NGN called “Natsu! Depart Monogatari” starring TOKIO’s Tatsuya Yamashita and Hikaru. Though it barely showed Hikaru at all in it (more of a cameo character), she did sing the ending song "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon," which piqued my interest!

Then during a chance viewing on MUSIC FAIR, I caught Hikaru singing a variation of Oldies with fellow guests Uchida Yuki and a woman whose name I can't recall for the life of me , including an extremely cute rendition of "Kissing On The Phone", before she broke out her new single “Melody”…and boy, did that voice blow me away! Sultry and silky, I had to have that single, so immediately went out and got it!

It could have ended there, but I loved that song  so much (as well as the Natsu Depart Monogatari song),that I was DYING to hear her other stuff!

At the same time, Golden, the Tower Records J-pop buyer in town, told me he'd ordered Hikaru's entire catalog of stuff, which got sent to the wrong store and did I want to go along with him and pick it up? Hell YEAH! Seeing All of Hikaru's wonderful back-catalog, I couldn't WAIT to purchase them and start DIGGING IN!

Clear, Esprit, Nineteen Dreams, Silhouette, Sundance, File Of Life, Love Always…. Over time, I managed to acquire her entire back catalog of CDs and Singles, through Tower Records, Shirokiya's BOOK OFF and the good old OTOKICHI PREMIUM, and I have to tell you that each and every CD and single has incredible sentimental value to me. I’d just moved to another town, and I spent many days taking walks around the neighborhood, listening to my walkman, Hikaru as my only and dearest companion!

Probably my greatest Hikaru moment was watching a video collection of hers. In the PV for her song “Kitto Aiga Aru”, she is riding her bicycle through what I immediately recognized as my own town! She rode past my neighborhood park, down my street, and THEN RIGHT PAST MY APARTMENT! I was in utter shock! Hikaru-chan had ridden right by my house ! Where the heck was I at that time?! :)

Hikaru-chan rides past my apartment!

I know that you all are wondering how it is that I even can tell that it's my apartment Hikaru's ridin' past in this screen capture. While it's true that there really isn't too much to go on, the CM for Kitto Aiga Aru shows a few different camera angles of this scene, including a pulled-back shot where you can clearly see Hikaru and my humble abode! 

See that second story window up there? That was my apartment and that's my air conditioner hanging out of it, LOL

 

AHAHAHAHAHA!

I moved out from there some time ago and last I checked, the apartment had been renovated into a bank establishment....

Favorite J-Pop Artists: Princess Princess

How did I first get introduced to all things Puri-Puri? Let's See...

The first song I ever knew from Princess Princess was “Dakara Honey”- The J-pop buyer for  the record store I worked at had thrown it onto a compilation cassette ( I guess to fill up space) from a Drama Theme song CD he had,( Dakara being the theme song for “Double Kitchen”which actually had an episode featuring Puri-Puri…but I digress) and the quirky enka-style vocalist certainly caught my ear… At the time I had a mental picture of the group being two old ladies (hence the double princess) singing novelty songs for a living!

    A few months later I was at my friend  Daniel's house, where I flipped through the latest issue of his KOKIKU magazine. In that issue, there was an article reporting that the Rock Group Princess Princess was calling it a day. The article featured the cover of “The Last Princess” and that was the first time I saw them. In fact, I wasn’t sure it was the SAME group, seeing as THESE gals looked cool, and I didn’t think they’d have sung a novelty song like “Dakara Honey”.I remember reading it and going "whoa!" to Daniel, and also talking to the J-Pop Buyer at work the next day about the article.

Farewell Concert

 Princess Princess was set to start promoting their last CD and final tour, so in the coming weeks, Puri2 was to appear on numerous shows, promoting their latest single and saying their farewells.

   Back then I didn’t have access to NGN, so weekends were to hang out at Daniel’s House (J-pop Central ) to watch “Pop Jam” and “Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ”, cheering on then-newcomer Namie Amuro or booing the very flamboyant Sharan Q. It was on Pop Jam that I first got to see Princess Princess moving and breathing.

     And what a sight it was. Pop Jam had created a montage of Puri Puri performances right from the beginning, and I remember thinking that the young bushy-haired Kaori might be Hawaiian! Looking at the classy ladies on stage, I came to the conclusion that the  girls in the montage wasn’t them, possibly girls they had managed? Of course later I was to find out that it in fact WAS them,in one of their many “looks” over the years.

    As Hiroko Moriguchi interviewed the girls, I thought there was NO WAY these were the same artists that did “Dakara Honey”,and felt foolish that I thought they WERE...But then Princess Princess got onstage to belt out “Fly Baby Fly”. The SECOND I heard Kaori’s voice, I KNEW they were the same band that did “Dakara”, and what’s more, I liked THIS song, too! What a revelation!

Princess Princess b

   When J-pop Buyer Dave found out I had more than a passing interest in Princess Princess, he made another Cassette tape for me, this time with the Puri2 single “KISS”. I was convinced. No longer would I ever think they were a novelty act. This lush piece of pop perfection with the soaring harmonies just killed me. It became my favorite song on the tape. At this stage they might have been a group I admired and liked a few singles, but it was an appearance on the show MUSIC FAIR that changed my whole outlook on Pri2.

   Like the other music shows around that time, Music Fair had prepared a special “farewell” episode just for Puri Puri. Guests included, along with Puri-Puri, Hiroko Moriguchi, Chisato Moritaka, and Arisa Mizuki. Together they sang "19 Growing Up","Diamonds", "M", "Sekai De Ichiban Atsui Natsu" and "Oh Yeah". Then Puri Puri did "Papa","Seven years After" and "Natsu No Owari".

     Needless to say, I was blown away, plain and simple. It was then that I realized that this group was extraordinary, and I hurried down to the Record store to pick up SINGLES 1987-1992…and thus began the Puri Puri obsession! I remember riding around Diamond Head with a friend, listening to the Singles Collection, and laughing upon hearing the REAL Puri-Puri versions, as all we knew about some of the songs were the ensemble-style versions they performed on MUSIC FAIR.

Moritaka Chisato Ramblings

Random Ramblings: :

1. My Favorite Album By Chisato:

 

Do The Best

This is the first album I ever purchased by Chisato! Featuring such faves as "Kibunsoukai", "Watarase Bashi", "Watashi Ga Obasanni Nattemo", "Natsu No Hi", "Watashi No Natsu", and my favorite Chisato song of all time, "Futari Wa Koibito"!

The Album Where Chisato Looks FINE:

Pepperland

This album is a decent release from Chisato, but more importantly,she looks just KILLER here!

Words cannot describe how fine I think she looks in these pictures.IMNSHO.

More pics from the CD booklet below:

DAMN!

@$@#$...DAMN!!

Mmmmm... Chisato.I think I've Made My Point.

Comments from Original Post:

yametekudasai wrote:

I've been DAMNED as well...

I had NO IDEA that this was the "Pepperland" Chisato. "Rock Alive" lives!

zdorama replied to yametekudasai’s comment: 

Yes, on the third day, Kamisama created a "girl". And it was Chisato. And he saw that it was fine.

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Fujii Fumiya / Time Machine

Single from Fujii Fumiya, the man best known as the lead singer for the Checkers as well as the man that my co-worker Wayne once called “The Japanese Bryan Adams” No word on whether that was a compliment or an insult from him!

Time Machine was one of the very first songs I ever attempted to sing at Karaoke,and oh man, if Fumiya Fujii was there to have heard that, he would have jumped into that Time Machine and gotten his butt outta there as fast as he could!

I remember after trying to sing it, seeing this performance of Time Machine off of POPJAM, and I don't know WHAT Fumiya's doing in this perf, busting out Michael Jackson moves, posing dramatically and and spinning around on his butt, but it was very silly indeed! When I went over that night, we both watched Fumiya doing his wacky moves before they said to me, "This is that song you were singing, huh." AHAHAHAHAHA

Check out the zaniness yourself:

Still an occasional karaoke fave to butcher, by the way!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Tube / Yuzurenai Natsu

Another one of the very first songs I ever attempted to sing at Karaoke, a song that absolutely leaves me out of breath… maybe this is why lead singer Maeda’s face is always so red!

During the bridge of the song, Maeda sings positively: “Yes… KEEP HOPE ALIVE!”, but the karaoke subtitlers phonetically transcribed it as “Yes… Keep Hope ARRIVE!” On this, there has not been ONE SINGLE time that I have sung this song that someone hasn’t laughed and pointed it out “Hey, look, they wrote ARRIVE instead of ALIVE…FUNNY!” Yep, Har Har. First time I ever heard THAT one! Now do you mind if I go back to turning my face red?

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Amuro Namie / Chase The Chance

Ahh...the kickin' theme song for that crazy MacGyver of the Kitchen show THE CHEF, starring Noriyuki Higashiyama and Kokubun Taichi! Actually one of the very first j-doramas that I ever watched!
I'd already loved the song because of the show, then I was properly blown away by Namie Amuro (and Super Monkeys) performance of this song on that year's KOHAKU as well, solidifying me as a solid Amuro fan from then on!

On The Subject Of Nagasaku Hiromi

While I was going through my Ribbon stuff for yesterday's post, I came across my collection of japanese magazines featuring Hiromi Nagasaku on the cover. Kind of interesting to look at, her appearance changes so much all the time, yet it's the same baby faced girl we all know and love.

Sadly, only the first two Weekly Playboys as well as the last one feature Hiro-chan in a photo spread. The other three only featured her on the cover. Smart Magazine execs! They know what sells the book!

Comments from original post:

* MorningBerryz wrote:

Wow I didn't know that you had so many Hiromi covers!! I really like the last one here. I'm wondering if I have this issue too. It looks so familiar for some reason. I don't know maybe It's my imagination. All grown up...heheh same 'babyface.'

* zdorama wrote:

I bought two of those older magazines at that Japanese Bookstore that was on Beretania near Hawaiian Graphics, the one in the garage...for some reason I can't rememebr the name of the shop, wasuretta?

That last Weekly Playboy with the cover you like? The inside photos are promoting her U.K. ASAGAN shashinshuu, I think U also bought this one?

* MorningBerryz wrote:

I don't even remember a store being there heheh but then again I only knew of a few places. Yes I have that shashinshuu and I like how the wrapper has the book title on it as that's quite original even though the photographer's name has begun to rub off a little. lol. I've been meaning to check my bookshelf as I really think that I have that issue too.

Ribbon: The Final (Pony Canyon) Frontier

ribbon: Aiko Sato, Hiromi Nagasaku, Arimi Matsuno

My introduction to RIBBON began with my love for CoCo. I had purchased a laserdisc called “Otomejuku Matsuri” that featured a whole bunch of Pony Canyon idol artists together for one Big Concert. The roster included CoCo, Qlair, Nakajima Miyuki, Horikawa Sanae, Hanashima Yuki. and the Pony Canyon party girls RIBBON!

You first meet the stable of Pony Canyon idol Groups as they get off the tour bus, and right away Ribbon stands out from the rest of them. As each girl gets off, they say “Ohaiyo Gozaimasu!” to the camera, but then Hiromi Nagasaku gets off and cries “GOOOOOOOD MORNING!”Aiko Sato follows with “OhaiYO!”and then Arimi Matsuno comes out with a happy “HELLO!

As you watch the backstage footage of the girls introducing themselves, it is pretty much the same thing: In contrast to the sweet and proper CoCo, the gals in Ribbon seemed zany and talkative (very oshaberi) and even then you could tell that they were probably a pretty interesting group to get into!

Unfortunately for my first impressions of Ribbon, their actual performance started off on the wrong foot. Their Stage outfits...hmmm, welll, they were NOT to my liking, additionally, Arimi and Aiko had these weird curly permed hairstyles which didn't help!

But ONE THING that you COULDN'T DENY was that the SONG they were singing, “Taiyo No Yukue”, was TERRIFIC! Then right into the swinging “Wakatte Nai Ne”…These girls KICKED ASS! 

The songs were so good, and they gave off such real stage presence when they were on, that I dismissed the bad hair and costumes, and wanted to find out more about them! Now, these two songs were on a ribbon Greatest Hits package called "Delicious" and I tried to order it thru Tower Records. I was to discover, however, that it was sadly out of print!

With that sad setback, my interest in Ribbon could have ended there, but then my friend and co-worker Holly came with a consolation prize of sorts! She looked upon my new interest in ribbon with some bemusement, and told me she had an old ribbon CD which she offered to give me for FREE!  I gushed with GRATITUDE for THAT, and the next day she came in with what would be my very FIRST ribbon album, their SECOND Greatest Hits Collection called (what else) “More Delicious”! This was an AWESOME package, and I listened to it EACH and every day!

It didn't have any of the songs I had heard from the girls before, but it instead introduced me to a whole slew of NEW fave songs to love! Songs like “Be My Diamond”, “Do You Remember Me?” “Sensational Wind” “Deep Breath”, and the incredible “Taiyo Ni Hi wo Tsukete”...  I loved these songs MANIACALLY, and soon craved seeing them performed LIVE...

Back then there were these huge catalogs which listed all J-pops CD and Laserdisc releases, and looking through the ribbon info, found a concert where ribbon performed live all the new songs I'd just been introduced to! It was a Laserdisc called “Zoku Harlem Night” and thanks to HEAVEN, I was able to backorder and purchase a copy from Hakabundo that weekend!!!

I was on pins and needles waiting for that disc to come in, but when it DID, I wasted NO TIME checking it out, and it BLEW ME AWAY!!! Holy Toledo, this  concert was SO GOOD! And unlike my earlier Otomejuku Matsuri experience, the girls looked FANTASTIC here, pretty as HECK and OOH those outfits were sleek and SEXY to boot!

 And the songs. What can I say. They were just PERFECT! The live performances of the songs I wanted to see like “Sensational Wind” “Deep Breath”, and “Taiyo Ni Hi wo Tsukete”" were alll performed IMPECCABLY, and while watching and REWATCHING the concert, introduced me to a whole bunch of NEW favorite songs, tunes such as “Heart Dake Ga Universe”, “Wish”, “Circus Parade”, and “Ano Koni Yoroshiku”, a song which remains to this day my all-time favorite Ribbon track!

It seemed like everything I heard from these girls was solid gold, and I realized that I wanted, no, NEEDED, to get ALL of ribbon’s back-catalog!! But as I'd learned trying to get "Delicious", all of ribbon's catalog was mostly out of print! What to do!!!

But JUST THEN, as if FATE stepped in, the local Shirokiya just got a HUGE back catalog of old CDs and magazines (like, literally SHELVES of stuff!) and what do you know- thee were a BUNCH of ribbon CDs in there as well!

 I picked up Lucky Night (1st CD), Wonderful Deikou (2nd CD) Jessica (3rd CD), Knight (5th CD), Merry-Hurry (7th CD) and…drum roll…The Elusive DELICIOUS Greatest Hits CD!

I gotta tell you, the girl at the register had this baffled look on my face as I plunked the stack of CDs onto the counter!

This was the beginning of my RIBBON OBSESSION and I've never looked back!!!

At the height of my mania, I made a Ribbon cassette tape mix for a friend Sab because I just knew he’d like ‘em too! He was initially skeptical because he just hated the Otomejuku performance. But once he saw the Zoku Harlem Night performance, HE fell in love with them, TOO! And here was the key: it was because we were trying to complete our collections that we found out about the wonderful CD store Otokichi Premium, and it was through owner Masa that I was FINALLY ABLE to get all the CDs and Singles I was missing! Not to mention the Laserdisc collections! Through Otokichi Premium, I acquired:

CD Albums:

R753 (4th CD), and Hoshi No ki No Shita De (6th CD)

CD Singles:

Soba ni Iru ne, Taiyo no Yukue, Sore Wa Ii Wa Nai Yakusoku, Deep Breath, Taiyo ni Hi o Tsukete, "S"ENSATIONAL WIND", Do You Remember Me?,Be My Diamond!, Yoru Kenanteiranai and Hiromi Nagasaku’s “My Home Town”

And Laserdiscs:

Parade Parade (First Concert), Harlem Night , and Ribbon EXTRA!

Over time, I began to see them as the direct sister act to CoCo. Where CoCo was the flagship Pony Canyon Otomejuku idol group, Ribbon were the more edgy rock flavored group. The two groups began to become part of a bigger thing: The whole Otomejuku-Paradise-Go-Go Pony Canyon explosion that I will always remember as my first BIG foray into J-Pop!

Comments from original post:

yametekudasai wrote:

woooo.... more memories...

Some quick notes.

No, I am STILL NOT fond of the "Otomejuku Matsuri" songs. They MUST be popular with fans cause they always show up on compilations but they never endeared themselves to my personal sense. But boy how you NOT love how looney tunes they were in that concert.

However it WAS the "Zoku Harlem Night" concert that became the HOLY GRAIL for me. It had those great "KNIGHT" songs ("Mitsu no Negai", "Naitari Mou Suru") that may have never been done again in concert. The backing band "FOUR BOYS" sounded tight and got a back beat, you can't lose it. And the last set outfits, stripping layer after layer... I'm surprised there wasn't a meltdown in the audience when they revealed... well, I'm not sure I should be posting spoilers here! (No, I'm NOT going to discuss Aiko's solo.) Getting that laserdisc was like winning a major sports championship (I STILL have to make a proper DVD transfer, btw).

Hey did anyone ever get that "Hong Kong" laserdisc? Cause the last one I got was that offbeat nature video where they had more images of fuzzy sunsets than the girls themselves...

yametekudasai wrote:

I just rechecked our fave song lists (04 May 2003) and I REALLY hammered the "Otomejuku Matsuri" songs. I had "Wakattenai ne" at #71 (out of 84) and "Taiyou no Yukue" #76. Both of you had them comfortably in the upper tier.

Of course, I made up for it with the album tracks from "Wonderful de Ikou," especially "Shi-gatsu no Silhouette" which had perhaps the greatest deviation in terms of song ranking.

 MorningBerryz wrote:

zdorama thank you for sharing this with us. I wasn't aware that you were trying to get some of their releases back then until you officially introduced their music to me. I just remember you had gone to Shirokiya and found a whole bunch of their releases. I went down and saw that nothing was left! Doh! And yes Otokichi single handedly completed my Ribbon album & single collection. He even got me Nagasaku Hiromi's solo releases including an interesting first pressing which came in a flimsy cardboard case. lol. The Otomejuku Matsuri concert is something that you guys are much more familiar with than me. One thing is for sure it's a very very important concert. Just to know what this concert inspired. zdorama a very big thank you for turning me on to the awesome music of Ribbon. And of course for teaching me everything there is to know about CoCo. I don't think that I would be the fan I am today of CoCo if I hadn't met you. So thank you Holly too! :)

And those Ribbon lists! I'm glad that we did those back then. I just took my Ribbon folder out and I really don't think that I'd change anything about my list today. It still seems right. 

 "Mittsu no negai" and"Naitari mo suru" are songs that we both really love! Both of these songs are in my top 10. "Sayonara ga owaru made" always blows me away too whenever I listen to it. Heheh it's just me I see. But then again I've always been known to have different taste in songs from groups that we all love. Such great songwriting here. We all love "Anoko ni yoroshiku"!! The PV is so cute too!

Another thing to note about Ribbon is how well each member sings! I mean they all sound awesome! No weaker vocalist here. Nagasaku "Babyface" Hiromi will always be my favorite member! :)

zdorama wrote:

Saburo- i'm waiting for you to rip that Ribbon Concert! I would love to upload that perf of "Ano Koni Yoroshiku",as it is my favorite perforamcne of that song.

Morngingberryz-Yes, ribbon was exeptional in the fact that they had great singers. Hirochan and Arimi just belted out those songs!

yametekudasai wrote:

FWIW... I've already recorded the "Zoku" concert to DVD. I just have to chapter the whole thing and decide how fancy the menu should be.

This is, of course, one of a dozen video projects I should have finished a year or so ago. So much stuff, never enough time...