Favorite J-Pop Singles : Matsuda Seiko / Sutekini Once Again

Seiko Matsuda "Sutekini Once Again"

Legendary Sony Records artist Seiko Matsuda has been recording and making music on the J-pop scene since 1982, so she was one of the few Japanese recording stars that even I’D heard of, but it wasn’t until the 1995 Kohaku Uta Gassen Red and White Songfest that I got to see her for the first time…and I gotta say, she hooked me right from the start!
 They started out Seiko’s segment with a short medley of a couple of her early 80’s hits, and though they were catchy enough, what really intrigued me was Seiko herself: She was so damn pretty and her OUITFIT! She was dressed in this cutesy little girl fairy dress and strapped to her back was a fuzzy Teddy Bear backpack! With white sneakers she performed with such playful gusto, jumping and stamping around, it was this image that made me say “I think I love Seiko Matsuda”!

  It helped that the song she was promoting was a really great song, a little ditty called “Sutekini Once Again”. My friend Dave had made a J-pop mix for me with a couple of her songs “Let’s Talk Again” and “Don’t You Wanna Dance” and so I was expecting her to do those songs, but I wasn’t disappointed at all with this one! A fun and cloying song, or at least, that what it SEEMS like since that’s how Seiko was BEHAVING anyway!!!

 PS, I remember talking to my friend Golden about Seiko and her performance at the Red  & White, and he laughed, saying, My Mom was watching it with me and when Seiko came out, she exclaimed, “WHO IS THIS OLD LADY WITH ALL THAT MAKE-UP ON PRETENDING TO BE 10 YEARS OLD!” LOLOLOL, I admit she might have a point, but MAN, this is JUST the kind of gal I LOVE! Seiko, You're the BEST!

SPEED Cake Capers

Now that I’ve finally gotten around to ripping some of my old VHS tapes, I’m coming across some gems that I’d heretofore forgotten about!

Here’s a cute short clip from Utaban of years past, back when j-pop supergroup SPEED were just starting out  and had come on to promote their new single White Love.

The last time SPEED had come on, Hiroko had baked a few homemade cakes for Nakai and Takaki as omiyage. When asked how it was, Nakai (in his usual jokingly insulting way) stated that it was pretty bad, to the laughter of all the girls except Hiro-chan, who hid her face.

 Everyone continues laughing, until they realize Hiroko has actually had her feelings hurt by Nakai’s remark, and as the girls in SPEED soothingly console her, Takaki and Nakai nervously glance at each other as if to say “Holy CRAP! She was really hurt by that!”

Back to the present, and Nakai tells Hiroko that he REALLY felt bad about that last time, and so has come with a present for her to make it up to her, a beautiful long  suede jacket, and her happiness upon receiving the gift makes Nakai feel a little better about what had happened before.

 Suddenly, Nakai realizes he’s fixed Hiroko’s problem, but has neglected to bring anything for the OTHER girls!  When he admits he should have got them something, too, cute Takako pipes up, “I want a dog!” AHAHAHAHA!!!

 At the end of the show, Takaki tells the girls he’ll get all of them something,a nd the mischevious Nakai says, “That’s your Papa, girls!” To which all four girls call out “Papa! Papa!” to a wincing Takaki!! AHAHAHAHA, too funny!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ozaki Yutaka / Oh My Little Girl

There was this general agreement going ‘round in the 80’s that Boaz Davidson’s THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN was the most depressing movie of all time, at least in the books I read and people I talked to at the time… (I didn’t agree, for me, the most depressing movie was Woody Allen’s PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO-but I digress)

And on the suject of “Most Depressing” awards, It’s time to talk about the j-dorama KONOYO NO HATE (The End of the World) the UBER depressing 1994 drama starring Mikami Hiroshi and Suzuki Honami!

This is without a doubt the most tragic drama I’ve ever seen, and with all the surprise death conclusion/hero-lies-in-coma endings I've seen, that’s saying something!

“But what about Oni No Sumika, that drama where Kyoko Fukada has to work as a practical slave to her relatives?” a friend asked.

“I said Depressing,” I retorted back, “not a load of crap!” You see, the difference was, though both had sad storylines, Oni No Sumika was a terrible drama. Konoyo No Hate, on the other hand, was great. It just had like the biggest downer as its plot!

Attn: Spoilers Below!

Mikami Hiroshi stars as Takemura Shiro, a brilliant world famous pianist who falls hard for cutie Suzuki Honami (and really, who could blame him) as Sunada Maria, and amidst the hurdles of their tumultuous lives, begin courting each other. Eventually them become an item, but soon enough the relationship goes south (as all relationships in any drama are wont to do), and in one of the most disturbing and bizarre actions since Van Gogh , Takemurai decides to prove his everlasting love for Sunada by taking razor sharp shards of a broken bottle and slicing his hands to ribbons! ACKK!!! From there....well, that about says it all, dunnit? Holy Toledo, this one just...affected me!!!

Tonikaku.

Out of this carnage of a drama, however, came probably one of the most poignant, sincere songs ever, the beautiful “Oh My Little Girl” by the late Yutaka Ozaki. Off of the SEVENTEEN’S MAP album, It’s about as basic a song as you can get, but the FEELING this song conveys are oceans!

I remember I loved this song so much after watching the drama, and really wanted to get my hands on the single for “Oh My Little Girl”, but by the time I saw Konoyo No Hate, it had long been out of print! Fortunately, my friend Golden was a HUGE fan of Yutaka Ozaki, and he burned the entire awesome album for me! I was even surprised to find the only other song I knew from Ozaki, a song called “I Love You”, was ALSO on this album! Yatta!

from youtube:

Always a favorite to sing at karaoke, I remember one day at work, me and J-pop buyer Richie were sitting around, and I started singing the opening lines of Oh My Little Girl aloud: “Konnani mo..sawagashi..” Then Richie grinned and chimed in with “Machinamini tatta zumu kimi ga…” then before you knew it, we started belting out the whole song there, laughing our butts off!