Crush Of The Day: Ayase Haruka

Just finished watching the cute drama Hotaru no Hikari starring pretty Ayase Haruka as the title character Hotaru Amemiya, the OL who’s an efficient and orderly worker by day but a lazy, carefree slob at home!

I just loved this show! Every scene Ayase Haruka was in just lit up with her eccentric and hyper behavior! Though she’s a well established actress ( in dramas such as Sekai no Chuushin de Ai o Sakebu), this is the first drama I’ve ever seen her in, and I instantly developed a HUGE liking for her!

I’m a BIG fan of pretty clothes on pretty girls, and I have to say, I don’t think there was a single outfit of hers that I didn’t absolutely LOVE…that is, of course, her worktime/going out outfits…

Unfortunately, these beautiful dresses and blouse ensembles were ALWAYS balanced each episode by an abundant amount of scenes of Hotaru in her beloved sportwear/jersey/ boro-boro’s!!! ARGH!

Simply amazing that they can turn this cute but frumpy “Himono-Onna”..

Into this pretty and stylish “Admirable Girl”!

Strangely enough, she’s kind of playing a role like Ryoko Kuninaka’s "Chisato Tamura" character in Brother Beat, a cute but shy girl who has a hard time expressing herself to the man she loves. That’s really ironic, as Kuninaka ALSO appears in this drama playing Yuuka, Hotaru’s too-perfect arch-rival for the prize-of-the-office-catch Makoto!

One funny thing about the backdrop of the show was that the office where Hotaru and her company resides looks EXACTLY like the office in both “Haken No Hinkaku” and “Shiawase Ni Naritai”! Ahahahaha! But that’s OK, when you’ve got a show with such a winning cast and heartwarming storyline, you could be shooting the show in a barn and still come up roses!

Ah, another show that made me feel lonely and sad when it ended! I wanted more!

Adventures in Cuteness: Aoi Yu, Pt.II

More fave scenes from the movie Hito no Sex o Warauna featuring Nagasaku Hiromi, Matsuyama Kenichi, and the uber-adorable Aoi Yu, this time the scene takes place in a ferris wheel ride!
It seems Mirume (Matsuyama) is depressed after finding out his teacher/lover (Nagasaku) is married. Part of him doesn't want to see her again, but he knows he'll be too weak-willed to refuse her if she calls him.
He decides to solder shut his cell phone (!) so he CAN'T answer the phone, however, this drives En-Chan nuts since (besides being secretly in love with him) she can't get ahold of him, and she has to grudgingly WALK to his house to talk to him.
After much badgering on En-chan's part, they make their way to the neighborhood fair, where she discovers the reason she hasn't been able to get ahold of him...Poor thing, she loves him so much, and the idea of him acting so ridiculously over this "older woman" frustrates her till she can't take it anymore!

This is a good time to mention that along with being cute as the dickens, Aoi Yu is also a very, very good little actress, and I have to say that she really KILLED me with this scene! Can't wait to see what she's going to come up with next!

Adventures in Cuteness: Aoi Yu, Pt.I

Just got finished watching Hito No Sex o Warau na, and I have come to the conclusion that actress Aoi Yu might be just about the most adorable thing alive. Really, they should bottle that cuteness and store it as an alternative energy source!
Granted, in this particular movie, they really had her playing the young innocent character aginst the mature aura of adult teacher (and rival for Kenichi Matsuyama’s affections) Nagasaku Hiromi, but she really went the extra mile for this one!

Take this scene for example: Sweet and naïve En-chan (Aoi) is invited to Yuri’s (Nagasaku) art exhibit opening. She doesn’t even really know why she came, and immediately feels like a fish out of water.

Yuri is delighted to find En-chan has decided to attend her exhibit, and after getting called away, tells her to browse around and enjoy herself…

But as soon as she's alone, she is completely lost! What should she do?

"Say...are those chocolates on that plate over there?"

This bears closer inspection! Scoot, scoot...

*whistles to herself* Scoot...Scoot...

"They won't mind if I try one, will they?"

"Mmmm!"

I'm sure they wouldn't mind If I had just one more...

*Mm*

*munch munch*

"I'm sure they won't mind."

Munch Munch...Everything looks so good!

...

Mnn *stuffs mouth full*

!!!

"Maybe all this chocolate wasn't such a good idea!"

And so it was that when Yuri came around to see how En-Chan was doing, she was nowhere to be seen..

...and the only thing left behind was an empty platter of chocolate wrappers!

Ahahahahahahaha! Oh my gosh this scene just killed! More fave scenes in the next post!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: TOKIO / Love And Peace

Next up is the theme song for the Masahiro Matsuoka Family Comedy/Drama of the same name, LOVE AND PEACE!
The show starred Matsuoka as Horiguchi Kenta, a young detective whose marriage plans fall to the wayside when his older brother and wife pass away, leaving him to raise their three precocious and sometimes ungrateful kids! Of course, as each episode goes by, they learn to rely on and trust each other, and by the final episode, they truly have become a “Happy Family”!

I also developed quite a hankering for actress Aiko Sato, who played Kenta’s fiancee Asuka, and one thing that really stuck out (literally) as one of her striking features were those ears of hers! In fact, I remember even in the drama, when Matsuoka imitated her, he spoke in a girly voice and pulled his ears out! OH my GOSH that was TOO FUNNY!

Aiko Sato would later appear as one of the teachers in the Norika Fujiwara drama NAOMI and would continue to make appearance on TOKIO shows like MENTORE G even YEARS later!

After about three episodes, the theme song for the song had pretty much turned into my favorite tune to listen to, and I knew I had to have it! I moseyed on down to Hakubundo that weekend, and picked up a beautiful specially packaged CD single of the song! The cover was a fold out, lyric sheet included, and they even had a card of the group inside!


If I thought the song was a fave when I only knew the TV show version, well, I was in for a surprise because the complete song was even BETTER! It was one of the few songs that I made a point to learn EVERY word of, so I could sing along with it!


A few weeks later, a friend of mine flew into town, and she suggested we all go out singing Karaoke, and I immediately agreed, exclaiming how I’d been just DYING to go! So we get down there, and after the preliminary preparations of ordering the drinks and snacks, set about flipping through the scattered karaoke books, looking for songs to sing.
My friend had already started on her second song before I realized a horrible truth…Love and Peace was TOO NEW! It hadn’t made it’s way into the latest karaoke books!


“Oh No!” I wailed, “The VERY SONG I came here to sing isn’t in here!”


Now this friend of mine wasn’t into J-pop in the least, the songs SHE wanted to sing were songs like “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins and “Incense and Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock(!), so it was no surprise when her only comment was, “So you can’t get what you want… so what!- GET OVER IT!” We all laughed, and I made the best of the situation by resorting to my “usual” songs to sing.

Later, she said she wanted to order a specific drink from the menu, and when she was told it wasn’t available, she said “, “Aw Crap, I really wanted to drink that!” Then I perked up, and in perfect mock tone of her earlier comment, said, , “So you can’t get what you want… so what!- GET OVER IT!” We ROARED with laughter, as she groaned, “Ooh…I HATE Taking My Own Advice!”!
Fortunately, by the next time I visited a Karaoke bar, LOVE AND PEACE was securely situated in the books, and I made sure I sang it not only THEN, but EVERY subsequent time I’ve EVER gone to sing Karaoke! Sure, It’s one of my fave songs, but I’m pretty sure the real reason I always make a point to sing it is out of SPITE, forever making up for the initial time it was denied me...!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ribbon / Ano Koni Yoroshiku

Ribbon’s ZOKU HARLEM NIGHT JOINT 1992 concert is without a doubt the live event that all Ribbon Concerts before and after must compare- the performances are 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 disc, 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! And while most of this set consisted of then-current songs like Deep Breath and Sensational Wind, the set also introduced me in a BIG WAY to a couple of their older songs that would go on to become big faves, including “Circus Parade” and ANO KO NI YOROSHIKU, Ribbon’s third single that would go on to become my favorite ribbon song of all time!

The girls performance of Ano Koni Yorishiku featured the girls in their final costume reveal- these short white dresses that was all the better of show off their lovely legs during their genki dance moves, and it was this combined with this wonderfully bubbly, catchy song that made for one of the best live performances ever!

It could have ended there, but a few months later I managed to get ribbon’s previous concert, the HARLEM NIGHT 1991 concert, and when the girls came strutting out and OPENED the concert with Ano Kono Yoroshiku, it was all over for me and the song was instantly propelled to the top of my charts!!

Going back and watching ribbon perform Ano Ko Ni Yoroshiku on their First Concert PARADE PARADE, it is amazing to see how much the singing and dance moves have evolved over time. In the first performance, the girls singing seems shaky and unsure of themselves and the dance moves seem regimented and stiff. Who woulda though just a few years later they'd be bursting with confidence, pulling the dance moves (which had changed to a more sexy approach) with all the swagger of the great idols they'd become!

And BTW, when I found that I even loved that extremely dorky PV of Ano Koni Yoroshiku (complete with sailor t-shirts and cartoon crabs), that's when I realized that this was my favorite tune from ribbon, and there wasn't NUTHIN' was gonna change it!

First Look: Fukada Kyoko as "Doronjo"

While my friend Car was online looking for video and song clips of "Believe", the new single from Arashi, she discovered that the peppy song was the theme song for the new movie remake of "Yatterman", starring (among others). Arashi's Keio University Newsman, Sakurai Sho!

When she came across the pics of the cast, she was amazed to see the actress playing one of Yatterman's major foes, Doronjo, was played by none other than a super sexy Fukada Kyoko, a fave of ours from WAY back! She immediately sent me the links, and I have to agree...She looks KILLER!

Don't really know when / if this movie is going to make its way to US theaters anytime soon (It just started in Japan), but this is one movie we'll definitely be on the lookout for!

New AAA Release "DepArture" arrived today!

       It’s been a long time coming, but my new AAA (that’s Triple A to you) Album finally came! It only got its' street release on February 11th  in Japan, so its’ arrival here only two days later is simply phenomenal! I woulda thought I had to wait at LEAST a week!


Although I only ordered the new album in December, I’ve been pretty much waiting for AAA to release  a complete album proper since “Music!!” and Zero came out! DEPARTURE is AAA’s first full-length album since AAA AROUND, which came out waaaaaaaaay back in September of 2007!


Well, it was well worth the wait- Not only did the first pressing release come with a bonus DVD of music clips including BEYOND Karada no Kanata, ZERO, JAMBOREE, TABIDACHI NO UTA and my favortie one, the PV for MUSIC, (as well as the “making ofs” for all of them) my package came from CD Japan with a promotional poster as an added gift!!! I wonder how many of these were given away! When my package came in the mail, I was shocked to see the box so LOOOOOOOOOOOONG! Then I opened it, and saw the poster and thought…COOL!

       Though I haven’t had the time to  give the album a real serious listen, (my preference to really soak in a new album is to drive around in the car and take in the music…I’ll probably do that later this week!) the one go-around I gave it is already catchy and rocking!


PS: Misako looks great on the CD cover and in the booklet, but GADS! What did Chiaki do to her hair? Her beautiful long hair is now chopped to a bob! BOOOOO!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Kuboh Ruriko / Otoko

I picked up a J-pop collection of theme songs for various japanese commercials and TV Show Theme songs (called, curiously enough, The TV-CF Songbook) primarily because it featured two songs by Kome Kome Club, a group that I rather liked at the time (And would LOVE a bit later) as well as singles from DREAMS COME TRUE and super cool MISATO. But it was the opening song that ended up being my favorite track off the album, an explosive rocker called simply OTOKO(男) by a gal listed as “Ruriko Kuboh”!

Now, I didn’t know just who this gal was, but judging my what I could make out on the teeny-weeny picture of the single in the CD booklet, she was very pretty indeed! Sure, I didn’t know her at all, but that was about to change pretty fast!
Shortly after that, I remember playing the song to all my friends who had even the slightest interest in j-pop, blasting the song loudly upon their unsuspecting ears…Ahahahahaha!

I finally got to see Ruriko Kuboh in action as she performed her single”Hayaku Shite yo” on the 1994 Kouhaku Uta Gassen (that year that also featured awesome performances by TOKIO, Moritaka Chisato, X Japan and…Mikawa Kenichi!) It was pretty cool, as Ruriko was one of the first five artists to appear on the show, and assured me that I was not alone in my love of this young lady!

And if I was happy to see her in the 1994 Kohaku, I was absolutely STOKED when I finally got a copy of the 1993 Red and White Songfest, and found out that not only did Ruriko perform “Otoko” on the show, it was the OPENING SONG!!! YES! I was BLOWN AWAY!

Give a listen to “Otoko”, and remember…TURN IT UP!

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?!