Favorite J-Pop Singles: Wink / Itsumademo Suki De Itakute

Another incredible group introduced to me by Dano is the group Wink, featuring girls Sachiko Suzuki (鈴木早智子) and Shoko Aida (相田翔子). He had collections of Wink Promotional videos on Laserdisc, and the song Itsumademo Suki De Itakute was one of the ones that I loved the very first time I heard it.

I always referred to Itsumademo Suki De Itakute as “That Umbrella Song” because in the video, the two girls are singing under a big kasa as the rain sprinkled gently over their heads. I remember going “Oooh, I LIKE this song!” Dayo quickly made me a VHS dub of his precious laserdiscs so I could have copies of the videos to watch at my leisure…what a gent!

I didn’t know it was such a popular song though, til one night I happened to go karaoke singing with a bunch of people, and one of the girls brought a romanized songbook of popular tunes, and there among the latest songs from trf, Moritaka Chisato and even Teresa Teng, I spied the romanized Japanese lyrics for Itsumademo!

Not that I was gonna try and SING it or anything (though I DID try to sing Motto Motto” by Shinohara Ryoko…what’s up with ME!) but it made an impression that this pretty little group Dayo introduced to me was bigger than I knew…in fact, I was to find that they’d even won the Recordo Taisho a few years back! Wow!

An Awesome Score!

Hey! Remember  a few weeks back I was raving about the latest art book from japanese illustrator Shunya Yamashita? And I posted up a couple of my favorite shots from said book, including the one of Shoko (above pic)?

So, the other week, me and my friend Jas were walking through our neighborhood comic store, and while I was perusing the latest comics (picking up the newest comic adaptation of Stephen King's THE STAND), Jas laughed out loud and said to me, "Hey, check out this statue of this girl- she looks TOTALLY like the kind of girl you like!"

I walked over and just about did a double take when I saw THIS sitting on the shelf:

It was a sculpture of super-cutie Shoko, the "Pink Negligee" pin-up I'd scanned just a few days earlier! Holy CRAP!

I'd seen various statues modeled after Shunya Yamashita's characters before, but every single one that I'd ever seen was of his Final-Fantasy style warrior women, and it just never crossed my mind that there were others!

I have to say, this is a HELLA well made figure here. Look at the details in her legs, the frilly lace on her gown, heck, even the heels are removable...in fact, they're packaged individually, so I had the strange joy of slipping them on her feet! I paid strict attention to the fact that on the extended leg, the shoe is meant to be dangling off her foot, so I had to hang it just right!

Another thing that is always interesting about statues like this is, the sculptor had to imagine what the backside of these characters looked like. You have to have a pretty good imagination for stuff like this. I remember when they made figures of the Muppet Show characters, It was SOOOOO interesting to see what the sculptor created for the Muppets from the waist down!

Oh, and by the way, the statue of Shoko was priced at $54.00, but the figures were on sale that day, and I was able to pick up the statue for $26.00! Yeah, Whatta Deal! Think I'll display this one above my computer monitor...

Favorite J-Pop Singles: KinKi Kids / Zembu Dakishimete

By the time Morning Musume had released their 7th single “Manatsu No Kozen”, I loved them so much I ran out and bought “Zembu Dakishimete” by KinKi Kids!

EH?

Yes, My Love of Morning Musume got me to buy a Kinki Kids Single! But Why?

Well, for most of you, the reason I did this is probably glaringly obvious, but for the sake of this blog, here’s the story of how an obsession with Hello Project ended up with me buying a Johnny’s Jimusho CD single!

I wasn’t really a fan of Morning Musume when they first came out, but when a sub-group of MM featuring members Iida Kaori, Yaguchi Mari and Aya Ishiguro called TAMPOPO appeared on Music Station, I was instantly taken in by Aya (Ayappe, as they called her!) They were on to perform a single called “Motto”, and the song really stuck with me, too! In the end, I dubbed that video rental, and later that week, trucked down to the local J-music store and bought Tampopo’s first CD.

From there I had to have everything Ayappe was in, and of course it didn’t take long till I started buying all the Morning Musume stufff with her, too! Pretty soon I was a big fan of both groups,and wanted to see more!

Right in town there were (at the time) about five or six places you could rent the latest japanese music shows that frequently had Morning Musume on as guests, including shows like MUSIC STATION, UTABAN, HEY HEY HEY, COUNTDOWN TV, FUN, and…

LOVE LOVE AISHITERU!

Yes, the variety show hosted by Johnny Jimusho’s dynamic duo KinKi KIds and wackily co-hosted by ever-suffering Tomoe Shinohara was a GREAT place to see the latest musical acts, and to that end, Morning Musume AND Tampopo regularly made visits, so much so that at one point, it occurred to me:

1. Hey, I’ve watched that show so much, I remember the theme song!
2. Wow, I really LIKE that theme song!

In the end I loved the song so much that I special ordered the single, ZEMBU DAKISHIMETE, the “catchy song with the unbelievably hard-to-sing speedy verses” and amidst much ridicule by friends who thought it wasn’t “cool” to be buying Johnny’s, ran out of the store clutching my CD single with a cackling laugh!

The cool thing about it is years and years later, after watching the awesome Akai Hidekazu/Tanaka Misako drama SECOND CHANCE, my friend Car fell hopelessly in love with Tsuyoshi Domoto, and I was able to turn her on to Tsuyoshi and KinKi Kids in general through this awesome song, even thought the show itself had long been replaced by its seemingly similar show “SHIN DOMOTO KYOUDAI”!

We even got a kick out of watching old live performances of Zembu Dakishimete on Music Station, and realizing the background dancers featured future members of NEWS, T&T, ARASHI and KAT-TUN! How many can YOU recognize?!

Notes on Kohaku Uta Gassen 2008

Yukie Nakama and Masahiro Nakai tackle the reins for 2008's Year End Kohaku Uta Gassen!

There were many fine, fine acts this year last night to see and hear, including the debut of American Enka sensation JERO…

…A sweet and poignant rendition of the Aibu Saki/Mokomichi Hayami drama Zettai Kareshi theme song “Okaeri” by pretty singer AYAKA…

And a rousing, crowd pleasing performance of the singalong friendly enka rocker “Shimauta” by The Boom…

The thrilling debuts of girl-led power pop acts Ikimonogakari and Girl Next Door dazzles! Looking forward to seeing more from both of them!

 

K-pop Act Tohoshinki makes its Kohaku debut…

 

…as does electronic trio Perfume:

Mitsuko Nakamura brings the “Matsuri” Festival to the stage once again...I might add that Mitsuko was one of the very first enka singers I really dug with her fun and catchy songs!

Beautiful Ayako Fujii does a smoky, sultry performance of “Akai Ito”

 

Two "gutsy" performance by Fuyumi Sakamoto...

...and Yoshimi Tendo!

Sachiko Kobayashi looks like she’s channeling Inazuman enemy Quintuple Bambara….

Once unstoppable SPEED make a rare appearance to the show...

and TOKIO perform “Amagasa” looking like they just stepped out of the NEWSIES set…

(seriously, da heck....?)

Koda Kumi doing her Namie Amuro- flavored “Taboo”...Oooh, love this song!

All the acts this year had something to give, but for me, there was ever only one and ONLY one reason to be tuning in to THIS year’s telecast, and as regular readers of this blog ALREADY KNOW, it was about the appearance of Hexagon super-unit ALADDIN, comprised of the fun ‘n’ goofy trios SHUCHISHIN and PABO!

The entire night was centered around sightings of those three adorable and oh-so-spacey cuties that comprise Pabo, the outspoken Yukina:

The sensible and straightheaded Mai Satoda:

And my drool-inducing favorite, the curvy sugar coated gravure idol Suzanne!

I just wrapped myself in every appearance they made in this broadcast, and they were many! From cruising backstage, grinding on eggrolls or giggling together in the sidelines, they really made my night!

As you all may recall, I was really hoping they’d choose Aladdin’s song “Hiwa Mata Noboru” as the Kohaku opening song, though they didn’t, it was still nice to see it used as sort of a silly “Half-Time” show. And while it’s true that the actual performance (which started with Shuchishin singing their highly Shonentai-ish epynomous anthem before segueing into the actual song) which started off bright and fun ended up degenerating into a zany, jaw-dropping, insanity filled HEXAGON ALL STARS Spectacle, you just couldn’t deny the FUN they were having and exuding!

From there we got to see, Saburo Kitajima getting seasick riding the S.S. Smappie…

"Okay, you can stop rocking the boat...I need to get off." 

And you know it’s getting towards the end when Sayuri Ishikawa dusts off her classic Amagi-Goe with her "steely gaze off into the distance"....

SMAP came on with Kono Toki, Kitto yume Jyanai” and though they closed last year’s show…

…this year it was Akiko Wada belting it out for the Red Team...(By the way, look at how freakin’ sexy Sayuri Ishikawa looks in “regular” clothes…DAMN)

and the show’s finale was Kiyoshi Hikawa with his crowd-pleasing theme song “Kiyoshi no Zundoko Bushi”!! KI-YO-SHI!!

...And a Splendid Time was Had by All....

A couple of awesome Christmas Gifts!

Got a couple of terrific gifts from Car this Christmas, both books and both Japanese, to boot! Now, I'm the kind of guy that, when I like something, I'm manic about collecting everything about it the moment it becomes available, so it's always a happy surprise when she picks up stuff I didn't even know existed!

Knowing of my love for that Aoi Miyazaki show, she got me the third and final of the Companion books from NHK’s Taiga Drama ATSUHIME! I hadn't even realized they MADE a third book! Although I haven’t really been all that excited about Atsuhime ever since the Shogun died, It's still the only japanese drama I'm watching right now, so it was pretty cool to get this book- look at that beautiful cover! Lots of great shots of the latter cast and crew, plus the obligatory “out of costume” shots of Miyazaki Aoi, always a draw for me in ANY photo shoot!

Kind of interesting to note that in Atsuhime, there’s a geisha played by actress Natsuki Harada named Okoto who has a fling with Eita’s character Tatewaki (and gives bitrth to his child...yikes!), but she wasn’t featured in either of the first two books. I thought, "Gee, maybe if they made a THIRD book, she’d be in it”. Then when I saw that there WAS a third book, I figured, finally! She MUST be in this one, RIGHT?!…but I was wrong!!!

EDIT: As Vincent-Sama and others have pointed out to me, Natsuki Harada WAS featured in the second book, as well as the character index in the third book! I've GOT to read these books a bit SLOWERRRRRR...I'm missing too much!

Car ALSO got me the latest picture book from my favorite japanese illustrator, SHUNYA YAMASHITA! I’ve long been a fan of Yamashita’s[山下しゅんや], whose art style seems to be a meld of 1950’s Good Girl art and 1970’s Japanese Anime (a unique formula that yields the sexiest, cutest gals you ever laid eyes upon) and the pin-ups featured in this book do NOT disappoint!

Called WILDFLOWER, the book is broken up into chapter sections featuring his all-encompassing work on figures, character design, video, card games, and more, but for me, the highlight was the "unpublished" section of the book, featuring all the sketches of his sexy GIRLS! Man, the artwork here is just unbelievable- I swear there isn’t ANYONE out there who has a style quite like Yamashita’s!

Sorede, I’ve scanned a couple of my favorite pin-ups here for you all to check out! Enjoy~

In the immortal words of Jellyfish in the zany masterpiece Ignorance is Bliss, I say: "I think I've made my point!"

Favorite J-Pop Singles: IZAM with Astral Love / Sunaona Mamade

I’ve mentioned quite a few times on this blog about how certain j-doramas (YES, I’m calling them j-Doramas, what’s it to you, bub) become even better by having a kick-ass ending song, and  The Esumi Makiko comedy SHOMUNI hits that one the head TWICE, having both a killer Ending song AND an awesome OPENING song, as well!

The opening song is a rocking little number  called “SORE JYA BYE-BYE”, a slightly gangster-ish sounding tune performed by group SURFACE. In this opening, we see the cameras speeding in to the Business Building and zooming up to the various “members” of Shomuni, From Esumi Makiko through to Kyono Kotomi and Atsuko Sakurai(!), leading up to doddering old Leo Morimoto as he closes the ratty Shomuni basement door.

The ENDING song to SHOMUNI started off with a close-up of Esumi Makiko’s feet, and as the credits start rolling, the camera starts slowly pulling back until you eventually see all six of the SHOMUNI members in their “Kakkoi” stance”, and they looked VERY cool indeed!

The  pullaway shot of the Shomuni Girls was intercut with various “stills” from the week’s episode, as the eighties flavored (Think “Be Near Me” by ABC and “Red Red Wine” by UB40) song drawled over the visuals…such a perfect mix! This song ALWAYS made the endings even better!

My earliest memory of seeing IZAM was back when Tower Records was selling J-pop Calendars, and this one girl went up to one of our managers, and showing him the calendar of SHAZNA, asked him which girl he thought was the prettiest. After  perusing the calendar for a minute or so, decided on the lead singer. “Her, I Guess”, he offered, handing back the calendar to the girl...She sweetly took it back and  said, “Oh, you think that one? Cool.” She was about to walk away when she turned and added, “Oh, By The way…these are guys.” My Supervisor made a stern face and then levelly but irritatingly said, “Don’t Do That.”. Ahahahaha! The “girl” he had picked was none other than IZAM!

Years later, when  Me and Car dug out those old VHS tapes of SHOMUNI out to watch, she liked the songs so much I went to go look for live performances I had of both “Sore Jya Bye Bye” by Surface, and “Sunao o Mama De” on MUSIC STATION.

Car's been a BIG Culture Club fan from way back, she just LOVED Izam's flamboyant ways, but our 6 year old kid summed up the IZAM experience succinctly and dismissively by flatly stating out loud to us, “That singer looks like a girl!” Ahahahahahaa!

SHOMUNI itself would go onto spawning a couple of sequels and even a SPECIAL! The legend of those crazy Shomuni girls lives on!