Favorite J-Pop Singles: Princess Princess / Seven Years After

There was quite a buzz back when girl supergroup Princess Princess decided to call it quits in 1996. Almost all the magazines covered some details about the last tour, and magazines like CD Data were particularly informative about the goings-on of the group’s final bow.

I remember reading with excitement the play-list for Puri-Puri’s Final tour, and at the time I remember being baffled at why they had decided to open their last concert with the song “Seven Years After”…

That was, until I SAW the last live concert.

The performance was SO ferocious that I was completely blown away. I could not IMAGINE a more kick-ass song to begin the final concert. Later when I thought about the content of the lyrics, it all made sense:

“Anata ni aete yokatta, imawa sou omou no”

"Looking back now, I’m so glad that I met you”

It’s almost like Princess Princess is saying a final farewell to their fans.

So it was a poignant song to begin the concert with, as well!

The impact this song made in the concert made me love it all the more, and over time, it has become my very favorite song of all time from Princess Princess!

“Seven Years After”, Princess Princess’ 12th single, off their DOLLS IN ACTION album, is famous for many reasons, not least of which was that this was the single where Okui Kaori chopped her  long hair and started wearing it short!  I expect it must have been quite a shock when she first did it! But by the time of their final concert, It was just the way I liked it, not too long, not too short!

The reason that I keep bringing that concert up is because the “Last Live” performance of “Seven Years After” has become THE version that all the others must compare to. The fact of the matter is, MOST, if not ALL of the songs performed at their last concert rival their polished studio counterparts (in my opinion, of course).

   (The concert performance is absolutely top-notch, with Puri-Puri very clearly showing their 13 years of experience onstage. From the opening of “Seven” through the classics “Go Away Boy”,”Sekai De Ichiban Atsui Natsu” and “Oh Yeah!” to powerful performances of “M”, ”Girl’s Night” and “Guitar Man” , an incredible Medley of Hits, and the sentimentally saturated performances of “Pilot Ni Naritakute”(!), “Fly Baby Fly”, ”Diamonds” and the great finale, “19 Growing Up”-An incredible concert worthy of bringing a brilliant career to a close!)

Comments from original post:·     

 

Yametekudasai wrote

Absolutely dead on with the LAST LIVE performance. Kyonchan has that powerful backbeat that never steps out of line. And Kaori's guitar solo is truly blistering! (an overused adjective co-opted by unimaginative music scribes; however it truly applies in this case.)

FWIW... I'm really fond of that action shot at Budokan. Even with the girly "princess" outfits they could still rock the house and engage the audience. There's really ACTION in that photo: Oh Yeah!

    * zdorama wrote:

I love the way that Koyko's frenetic drumbeat builds up and UP, till it climaxes with Kaori's guitar solo, that absolutely cool grimace on her face as she belts out those chords, while Akkochan does her traditional "rocking back and forth to the beat"!!

Notice how that crowd just ROARS when that solo comes up!

dayo ne!

    * dayo ne! wrote:

I couldn't have said it better, puripuri is still the best of their kind.

You are the one that got me into this group! For that I have to say

Thank you, thank you very much!

    * zdorama wrote:

I remember watching a Princess Princess retrospective on PopJam one Friday Night at your house, all those years ago...Ah, those were the days!

    * MorningBerryz wrote:

It still brings the biggest smile to my face just remembering those days of Puri Puri education where you were the teacher and I was the sloppy student who accidentally punched holes into the wrong side of the discography/history pages that we were putting together at your place. :P Watching their concerts and pvs cranked up at your place will always represent how Puri Puri became to be in my J-Pop/Rock fandom. Thank you for giving it another chance as I was too ignorant earlier on when you gave me those compilation tapes which btw are in hindsight, perfect for the new fan to dive in to the greatest female band Japan has ever seen and probably will ever see. If not for you...so much great music would have been missed, truly arigatou.

    * zdorama replied to MorningBerryz’s comment:

    We've always shared our favorite groups with each other, and I feel that the one who's benefitted the most out of introducing Puri Puri to you and Dayone is ME!

    Like, when I found a cool live performance of :Go Away Boy", though my first thought was, "My Gosh, this performance KICKS ASS!", my very next thought was "I gotta send this link to Morningberryz! I gotta send this link to Dayone! I gotta send this link to Saburo!"

    It is such a joy to be able to enjoy stuff from groups you love with people who appreciate the groups/artists as much as you do!

    PS: I remember when You loved Puri Puri so much, one night, you were doing play-by-play commenting online while watching the PLATINUM DAYS, at like 3:00 in the morning! after a whole slew of entries, one comment went something like "Why am I still writing about what I'm watching right now? It's LATE!" Ahahahaha

    * dayo ne! replied to zdorama’s comment:

Kick ass is right! in that clip the first time Kaori kicks up her knee and throws back her head you know its gonna be good, I was smiling ear to ear! Thanks my friend!

    * MorningBerryz replied to zdorama’s comment:

Oh no I'm much more in debt to your sharing Puri Puri!...haha we could go on and on. :P But I understand what you're saying...being able to share great music with friends really makes everything that much more special.

Oh that was some night back then...one for the ages! We really had a wild exchange going and in such rapid fashion too. That was really a lot of fun having such great comraderie like that and to have it all centered around Puri Puri! I find all Princess Princess to be "Level 6" songs!...heheh if you saw my level 1-6 explanantion. ^-^

zdorama

    * zdorama wrote:

Saburo ripped his DVD and now we are able to enjoy the performance in all its glory! ROCKING!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Shizuka Inou / Nakitai Kurai

         Back in the days when my favorite J-pop group was the Super-Monkeys offshoot group MAX, (that spectacular group featuring Mina, Rina, Nana and Reina) I was obsessed with getting my hands on anything and everything they appeared in! This led to a lot of introductions to great TV shows that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise, including Countdown TV, Utaban and a variety-style show called YORU MO HIT PARADE
The procedure was like this: The show would invite a variety of guest stars to sit on the bench, and they’d randomly(wink wink) choose some new song within the current top record charts by spinning a wheel, and the guests would take turns singing the different tunes of the day. There’d be a whole bunch of different musical guests every week, but one of the “house” guests, that is, some of the ones who were there every week, were Hide Nakamura, TV personality Marcia, and...yep, MAX!
  I loved MAX so much, it seemed like very time they performed some obscure song, I’d love it so much, I had to run out and buy the actual single from the original artist! This happened quite a few times, and one of the many singles I picked up was a low-bass little number called “Nakitai Kurai” by an artist I’d never heard of named Shizuka Inou.(and haven't heard from ever since, either!)

This is another one of those mysterious artists where all I have to go on is the pretty picture of Shizuka on the CD single sleeve, and not much else! Checking in with the handy Wikipedia, I came up with INFORMATION, at LAST!


Annie Shizuka Inoh (Chinese: 伊能静; pinyin: Yīnéng Jìng; Japanese: Inō Shizuka) is an actress from Taiwan. Born on March 4, 1969 in Taipei, Taiwan with the birthname of Wu Jingyi (吳靜怡), she changed her name after her mother remarried a Japanese man and then simplified it to Yi Neng Jing upon returning to Taiwan in 1988 to launch her singing career. She speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Japanese, English, and a little French. She married Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), a fellow Taiwanese singer and television personality, in the United States on 14th February 2000. Her height is 5' 3 1/2". She gave birth to Harrison on March 16, 2002 with husband Harlem Yu.
Wow! For someone I didn't know almost anything about, there sure is a LOT to digest!!!
I proudly present my favorite single from Annie Shizuka Inou: Nakitai Kurai!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: SMAP / Oretachi ni Asawa Aru

Oretachi ni Asa wa Aru was the very first song I ever liked from Johnny Jimusho’s crowning group SMAP, although the title was so long and full of confusing kanji, I couldn't figure out what the song was called, and simply referred to it as the “Some Guys” song.

The theme song for the Kimura Takuya / Hamada Masatoshi j–dorama Jinsei wa Jojo Da (Friends in Need, for you KIKU TV fans out there), there were actually two versions of this song, an album version as well as a single version, and they were both quite different in their own ways...

    At the time I fell in love with the song, I didn’t realize there were two version- When I first  decided I liked the song and wanted a copy of it, I went to my friend Golden, to this day probably the biggest SMAP fan I know, and he made a copy of the ALBUM version onto a cassette for me. The ending of the song went right into a song called “Anata No Yuuki Ni Naritai” by Mochida Maki, and I thought that was a PERFECT segue! Months later, when I found the SINGLE, I was disappointed to learn that the ending was different, and didn’t match my cassette version! Komatta! So two versions were needed!

 Just how different were the two versions?

  The single version begins with a staccato guitar-riff which leads into the song, and ends with a decidedly grungy guitar crunch. This one seems a bit more in the poppy style of most Johnny Jimusho groups.

The version off  SMAP's 8th Album TACOMAX (SMAP 008) begins with a drum snap that leads right into keyboards that take you into the first verse, and ends with someone (probably Takuya) groaning like someone slugged him in the gut! Also prominent use of saxophones and horns. Also, the song arrangement is different, and the verses/bridges are in different order!

  I remember we rented a MUSIC STATION Special and took the tapes to make copies of our favorite performers. We taped Namie Amuro. We taped Mr. Children. We taped Chisato Moritaka. We taped TRF. Then SMAP came on, and I said "Hell, tape this one for me, too", to which they went, "HUH? Are You Serious?!" I told 'em I was, much to their disapproval!

Of course, in the coming years, SMAP really grew as artists, and started releasing the most terrific songs! Even they had to admit liking them later! Nowadays almost everyone loves at least ONE or two SMAP songs, and many of these songs will probably appear on my blog, as well

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Chisato Moritaka / Kibunsokai

      One night years ago, a whole bunch of us who were fervent J-pop aficionados made our was down to the local japanese Karaoke place- this time, a room situated in the Hilton Hawaiian Village (the name of the place is lost to me), and the ten or twelve of us squeezed into a room and each of us began belting out his or her favorite tunes.


  The  great thing about this was that you got to share what you liked and got to learn a whole bunch of new songs as well! At this point, I’d just started liking Chisato Moritaka with her latest single “Futari Wa Koibito” and wasn’t too familiar with her back catalog, so when Ray (yes, a guy!) started singing one of her older tunes called KIBUNSOKAI, it was my first time hearing the song, and had no preparation for what was to come next!!


As Ray sang the catchy, very Beatle-sy tune, suddenly he sang out “Beer de KAMPAI!” and everyone in the room shot their right arms up in a “toast”, and as the song went into the chorus, everybody began waving their hands back and forth to the beat of the song- Eh?????? I was flabbergasted! Talk about being the kid left out of the gag! I had to laugh as another friend explained to me that the song was about drinking a toast, and in the promotional video, everyone holds up a glass and toasts to the beat of the song during the choruses… Then when Chisato began performing it on shows like Music Station, everyone in the AUDIENCE would shoot out their hands and sway along, too! Oh my gosh, this was such a happy, fun song, and I had to have it!

Of course, acquiring this single was no easy task, as it was an older single, and so I trekked on down to that old CD rental store (the same one where I found my copy of Eri Hiramatsu’s single) and was rewarded with my very own copy of the song!

Next, I rented a few older Music Stations and got two performances of Chisato doing Kibunsokai, and sure enough, whenever it got to that rousing chorus, everyone in the audience got their toasting” arms up and swayed in unison…I even remember one time TOKIO (those jokers) happily swaying along in the artist bench, much to the irritation of those sitting around them!

  Kibunsokai (Fine Feeling) was written by the guys of L<->R , and the song is about Chisato celebrating and drinking with her friend because her friend’s gotten the guy of her dreams- the twist is, Chisato’s liked the guy, too, but strangely enough, is happy for the both of them, and wants her friend to celebrate!

“Tomorrow, You’ll have a date with him.

Hold hands and walk side by side - (Darn You!)

Tomorrow, I’ll be all right…

Strangely enough, I feel really fine!”

It was quite a scene to see the entire audience do the wave on the Music Station Christmas special, but then came what I feel has to be the most incredible performance ever, when Chisato opened her 1996 tour concert at the Yokohama Arena with Kibunsokai, and saw the ENTIRE ARENA swaying their arms in unison…in was just awesome to see! Wow! What an Opening!

 On a subsequent Music Station Special, Chisato was one of the guests who were part of a campaign where fans could send in postcards, voting for their favorite songs from their favorite artists. The artist would then perform his or her latest single, and also perform the song fans voted their favorite. I think Chisato’s latest song at the time was “So Blue”, but then came the countdown to her fan fave songs, and the song voted as her most beloved song was, of course, KIBUNSOKAI!

A “Fine Feeling” Indeed! This is a song guaranteed to make you smile!

A cute NG moment singing Kibunsokai:

Favorite J-pop Singles: B'rouge / Growin' Glory

This is a single by a group that I know almost NOTHING about! In fact, the ONLY information I have on this pretty vocal duo is the info that is on the 3" single sleeve! So here goes: B'Rouge is a duo consisting of two vocallist: Ritsuko Kurosawa and Michelle A. Key. Oh, it also states that it is  the Campaign Song for "Mizun(?)" Mizun? Am reading that right?
OK, so how did I ever come across this obscure song? Well, years ago, someone at my workplace threw this song on a j-pop mix cassette tape for me, I think HE got it off a sampler they circulate to the j-pop buyers. I seem to recall "Itsumademo" by Chisato Moritaka was on that same sampler! After a few listens to that cassette, I had the single special ordered for me thru Tower Records, cause I knew I had to have a "hard" copy!
Anyway, It is a TOTALLY infectious catchy little tune, featuring some terrific voices, slightly reminiscent of Kohmi Hirose (for you Kohmi fans like me!)...check it out!

Favorite J-pop Singles: Shinohara Ryoko / Heibon Na Happy ja Monotarinai

Me and my friend Car are about halfway through the j-dorama Haken no Hinkaku [ハケンの品格], starring the lovely Shinohara Ryoko as uber-temp Oomae Haruko, and I have to say how wonderful it is to see Ms. Shinohara finally getting the recognition and accolades she deserves for her work after all these years.

  I was first introduced to Shinohara Ryoko in 1995 as the sexy student in the drama Kagayaku Toki No Naka De [輝く季節の中で], and soon after became a fan of her music. As I recall, at the time she was a pretty big deal for singing a Tetsuya Komuro song for Street Fighter II. My favorite song of hers was a tune called Motto, Motto (also penned by Komuro), a song I loved enough that I even tried to sing it at karaoke, with cringe-inducing results! Then came other singles like Lady Generation, and who can forget Dame! The singles just kept on comin’!

  Soon after, she appeared in the drama “Pure” with Wakui Emi as a foiled lover, then a stint in "Nanisama?" with Yasuko Matsuyuki. Aoi No Jidai, Kirakira Hikaru, it seemed like all she’d ever end up doing were these bit-parts in dramas, and after awhile I really didn’t hear too much from her, and I guess part of me thought she’d retired fom the biz or something (Silly Me)

   It wasn’t until 2006 or so when Car started watching a new show called Hanayome wa Yakudoshi [花嫁は厄年ッ！] that I was surprised to see she was still around, and starring in her very own drama, to boot!

 Well, the show was about halfway through so I didn’t bother trying to watch it, but Car said “You should check out this show-that girl is really good!” She was quite  surprised when I informed her that Ryoko Shinohara had been around since the mid-90’s- more than a decade ago! Car said “She doesn’t look that old”, and when I glanced at a random episode, I had to agree… in FACT, if anything, Shinohara Ryoko had gotten even PRETTIER with age!

Haken No Hinkaku

  So when Haken No Hinkaku started up, we jumped on that drama, and I have to say, Shinohara Ryoko is just WONDERFUL in it!  Playing a role suited for an Esumi Makiko-type of character might have seemed like a stretch at first, but I think she pulled it off magnificently! Smart, Sexy and Tough, she's completely won me over all over again! Going online, I’m seeing that there’s been a huge surge of love directed towards her (at last), and I can’t say enough how happy that makes me!

And speaking of happy, another one of my favorite songs from hers was a peppy song called Heibon Na Happy ja Monotarinai [平凡なハッピー じゃ物足りない], another impeccable pop tune crafted by the incomparable songstress Hirose Kohmi!

 I remember the first time I got to see Shinohara Ryoko perform the song on MUSIC STATION, she had come wearing these sexy purple nylons and a VERY skort sparkly dress. When the camera panned her outfit from her feet to her head, she gasped in a horrified voice as she shoved her skirt down saying, “Ah! You can see my panties!!” Everyone had a good laugh but I was going: “Damn, that’s one fine-ass chick!”

 This SEXY performance of Heibon Na Happy Monogatari features Ryoko slinked back on a pink silk bed with her heels kicked off (plus pet bulldog in tow), and despite her concerns about keeping her panties under wraps, no matter how she twisted and turned, she inadvertently kept on exposing them throughout the song!

An Ultra-Hot Shinohara Ryoko on Music Station

Needless to say, this was a performance that I watched over and over and OVER again, and of COURSE it soon became one of my favorite songs and I had to run out and buy the single- What guy out there could EVER refuse such an AWESOME endorsement like this one?! AHAHAHAHAHA!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ribbon / Taiyo Ni Hi Wo Tsukete

A Quick recap on how I first fell in love with Pony Canyon idol girls ribbon:

1: My Love of CoCo led me to purchase the “Otomejuku Matsuri” festival concert, where CoCo and other Pony Canyon artists took turns performing.

2: Ribbon came out and did two amazing performances of catchy songs “Taiyo No Yukue” and “Wakatte Nai Ne.

3: I try to purchase ribbon’s greatest hits “Delicious” which has both of the songs, but am informed that it is out of print. A co-worker tells me she has a copy of ribbon’s SECOND greatest hits, called MORE DELICOUS, and gives it to me as a gift!

4: While the second greatest hits doesn’t have the two songs from the Matsuri, it introduces me to a whole slew of new incredible Ribbon tunes, including “Deep Breath”, “Sensational Wind” and an amazing rockin’ little tune called Taiyo Nihi Wo Tsukete”.

5: I now have a desperate need to see THESE songs performed live, and pick up the live ribbon concert ZOKU HARLEM NIGHT JOINT, which promptly blows me away and makes me a ribbon fan for life!

The Zoku Harlem Night concert is without a doubt the live event that all ribbon concerts before and after must compare- the performances absolutely ROCKING- the girls are in top form, pretty and enthusiastically singing their hearts out, and having a terrific live band playing behind them just made the songs come alive!! And special mention MUST be made for the girls’ outfits in the last set, which started out as a neon patchwork oversized suit, but slowly peeled down to a micro-short dress! The “suite” in which this costume dress-down occurred filled up most of Side Two of the Zoku dics, and ended up closing the concert, as well. This awesome run of songs included songs that would go on to become my all-time favorites from ribbon!

This performance is of ribbon’s 9^th single Taiyo Ni Hi Wo Tsukete, the song that was my favorite song off of the More Delicious compilation, and remains in my top five ribbon songs of all time! Nice looks, moves and singing by the girls, and boy does that guitarist go for it in this one! Coming in right after their fun performance of "Circus Parade", the show was picking up speed as it sped on down to the show's conclusion!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Judy and Mary / Overdrive

As I mentioned in an earlier, I was first turned onto Judy and Mary through their awesome ORANGE SUNSHINE album with the pop perfect tunes like Cheese Pizza and Radio, all courtesy of my J-pop guru Dan. For the longest time, all I knew of them was the casette tape copy he made for me, and the  only visual I had of the band were the pics included in the Orange Sunshine CD…

   The first time that I actually got to see Judy and Mary on TV performing live was during the Japan Record Awards (Recordo Taisho) that New Year’s. It was 1995, and the band was promoting  MIRACLE DIVING, the album that would ultimately be their “Sgt. Pepper’s” i.e. the album that would explode them into the mainstream audience! The song up for the award that night was a single from the album called Over Drive, a tune that up until that point I hadn’t heard before…but BOY would I remember it afterwards!

  The Record Taisho usually had a mix of live performances and video clips featured throughout the show, and so it wasn’t unexpected that when Judy and Mary’s song was announced, a huge screen was dropped down to show the Over Drive PV. Once the song started though, the announcers danced over to the screen, and lifted it up, revealing the band playing right behind it!

   There was Takuya on Guitar, Onda on Bass, and Kohta on Drums…but where was Yuki? Why, she was in a carrier sailing over the audience as the band played! By the time Takuya got to his blazin’ guitar solo, she’d reached the stage, sashaying out of the cage, revealing a cute kimono outfit! In fact, everyone was dressed up in very matsuri style costumes as befitting the occasion!

  Once all together, the band got into it in earnest, and MAN… I had known how zany the group was already, but for some reason, I still didn’t expect the amount of energy and passion that the group would radiate! It was truly a heartfelt performance!

I Love YOU!

Years and years ago, I purchased a set of Pony Canyon collections that showcased greatest hits from their catalog of the 70’s and 80’s. Along with Pony Canyon greats like Shizuka Kudoh, Hikaru Nishida and the mighty Checkers, the CDs also featured a quirky new wave group with a peppy anime-voiced lead singer- the group was FAIRCHILD, and the vocalist was a girl named Ehara Yukiko, better known as the charismatic YOU!

    This group was pretty spectacular, for along with YOU’s interesting (to say the least) vocals, the band also featured respected session musicians Seiji Toda on Bass & Keyboards, and Hirokazu Kawaguchi on guitar! Through this introduction I got to know hits such as Chiisana Hoshi, Sagashiteru Noni and the super-catchy Jelly Eyes wa Amakunai (My all-time fave song from them!)…Here, Check out this awesome live Fairchild performance of Jelly Eyes at Hibiya-Yaon (yep, THAT arena that Princess Princess and Ribbon fans alike will instantly recognize!)

Nowadays, most people know YOU through her famous starring role as the dead-beat mother in the popular movie Daremo Shiranai (Nobody Knows), but it was through her frequent guest-appearances on (of all things) Kinki Kids’ Domoto Tsuyoshi’s show Shojiki Shindoi that I fell in love with her!

   It’s hard to explain to someone not familiar with the show how loose and carefree the set-up is for the program. Tsuyoshi does this thing called the “Shindoi Walker”, where he’ll get dropped into some various town and he and a guest will simply walk from venue to venue, sampling the restaurants, happenings, and secluded haunts, soaking up the atmosphere.

   I’d gotten used to the sassy, raspy voiced YOU’s antics on Shojiki Shindoi before, but a special three-part Shindoi in *HAWAII* is the one that knocked me out! She was SOOO funny, so naughty and HELLA SEXY! Besides her devil may care attitude, she had these quirks that always made me smile- when she and Tsuyoshi would be eating something delicious, instead of just saying “Oishii”, she’d  stop with her mouth full and hit Tusyoshi!  He’d just snicker and blow her off, just the way she expected him to! SO ENTERTAINING-I’d watch these Shindois OVER and OVER again!

  Even after that, YOU’s appeared on the show several times since,  always winning me over with her  crazy ways! And I think it’s saying something that she’d be on a show with someone like uber-boobed Eiko Koike and I’d still only be staring at YOU!

 YOU was just on Shojiki Shindoi again a few weeks ago, and when I decided to write up a little entry on her, I was stunned to find the lack of pictures of her on the internet. Despite her LONG legacy in Fairchild and her work with DOWNTOWN, it seemed like the ONLY pictures available were the stills from Daremo Shiranai! I downloaded the best ones I could find, but sadly, she didn’t look so great in the movie. After all, she was a slummin' Mommy, and she really wasn't painted in that great of a light...I was bummed that these were the only shots I could get of her!

 Then fate stepped in, as I wandered one weekend through the store that carried used japanese fashion magazines… and there, in the front row, stood the very magazine you see scanned here, the February issue of IN RED!!!

My heart leapt up, and even though I got some funny looks from the lady ringing me up, ( what’s this guy doing buying a japanese girl fashion magazine?!) I threw down the seven bucks with pride and triumphantly left the store with my treasure! Its time to share!

A Song to Brighten Your Day: "Himawari" by Sugar

Sugar-Himawari

A few years ago there was this Kyoko Fukada drama co-starring Yuki Matsushita about a poor girl who goes to work as an apprentice in a major Television studio, called Shiawase Ni Naritai. While the drama itself wasn’t anything too spectacular, (although Fukakyon was adorable as usual) the theme song was a catchy little pop tune called “Himawari”, and I'm telling you, this song really MADE the show, so cute and catchy that I found myself actually anticipating hearing the song at the end of each episode!

The song was sung by a Korean J-pop quartet called Sugar. I’d never heard of this vocal group before, but that song was a must have! A single from their album COLORS 4 WISHES, it was one of those songs  that stuck with you even after the show had ended, and it never failed  to bring a smile to my face!  In fact, I’d even confess that towards the end of the show, it was the main reason to keep tuning in to the drama!

Later, I was able to download the PV of the song, and was blown away by how gorgeous these four girls were! Featuring the talents of Ayumi, Soo-Jin, Hye Seung and Haleen, I was kind of surprised that this group didn’t have a bigger following, as their look seemed part Morning Musume and part MAX!

I was saddened to find that the group has since split up, but with songs like Take It Shake It, Real Identity, Go The Distance, Heartful, and Loveaccele, they’ve left behind a few great little singles for us to enjoy!

My Latest Gift To Myself: Minami Saori!

Another fine 1970’s j-pop singer that I love and have been re-discovering through the magic of YOUTUBE is the always cute and rocking MINAMI SAORI, sometimes better known by her christian name of CYNTHIA!

While I’ve known her singles Irozuku Machi, Asyuu No Page, the rocking  Jyunketsu, and of course the incredible 17才 (Juanansai), it was through the viewing of Youtube that I was turned onto other terrific pop-perfect tunes of hers like Natsu No Kanjyo, Yureru Gogo, Shiokaze no Melody and Kizutsuku Sedai.

 I was in heaven! The songs were peppy and catchy, really radiating that "natsu" feeling, and Saori was such a cutie!

 By the time I’d collected about 8 videos of hers for songs I didn’t have, I knew that I had to get a better retrospective of Cynthia than the five J-pop compilations singles I was getting by with...

  Going online, I found that the SONY series “GOLDEN J-POP-THE BEST”, which I had quite a few in my collection, had also released a pretty definitive Saori Minami double CD set. Checking over the track listings, I was pleased to see that it contained almost every one of the new Saori songs I’d just discovered! An order was due!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Seishiro Kusunose/ Shiawase Madakai

What do the two family dramas Pokka Poka and Makasete Darling have in common?

Well, they’re both shows that feature a family comprised of a mother, father and little girl, but more importantly,

both shows feature terrific theme songs! Yes!

First up we have Pokka Poka, the drama based on the heartwarming manga by Jun Fukami. This theme song is “Shiawase Madakai” as performed by Seishiro Kusunose. This is an updated version of the song which graced the beginning of Pokka Poka1. The original version is a bit more relaxed, a slower tempo that shocks you when you are trying to sing it at karaoke! But both are fine, just fine!

Asami Tadokoro: Nanase Natsumi (truly adorable, she out-cutes Asuka!)

Yoshiko Tadokoro: Haba Yuichi

Asuka Tadokoro: Kamiwaki Yuu

The opeining credits to Pokka Poka 2 features Seishiro Kusunose's song while scrolling over home movie footage of the Tadokoros’ wedding, building their life, and the birth of their daughter Asuka! This song just hits you in all the right places when you combine it with those visuals! One of the best drama openings ever, at least in my opinion!

Asuka's growing up: