Please Stand By

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog posting to bring you this picture of Aragaki Yui eating an anpan.

We will resume regular blogging next week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Crush Of The Day: Suzuki Emi

Emi Suzuki

  I first set eyes on Japanese/Chinese beauty Suzuki Emi in the wacky Akanishi Jin series YUKAN CLUB, but although she was cast as the “pretty” girl of the group, she really didn’t seem to stand out for me, (strangely enough, it was Yu Kashi that floated MY boat back then…but I digress) and it wasn’t until her role of Remi in GALCIR that I realized what a “hot commodity” she was! And even then, she didn’t really “stand out” from the rest of the cast (a problem, I guess, when all her co-stars were all as cute’n’ pretty as her!)

As Kisakura Karen in Yukan Club

As Remi in GALCIR

No, it took ANOTHER drama to bring this whole “Crush” thing for Emi to bloom to fruition, and it was a show where she wasn’t even the main character in focus, but rather part of an ensemble cast! The show was RYOKITEKI NA KANOJO, the wacky-and-oft-times-irritating remake of the Korean drama MY SASSY GIRL starring Kusangai Tsuyoshi and Tanaka Rena as the leads, with  supporting cast of Tanihara Shosuke, Matsushita Nao, Matsushima Nahomi(!) and the former Yukan Clubber herself, Suzuki Emi!

As Kisaragi Haruka in Ryokiteki Na Kanojo

I think what really drew me to her character is that this is the first time I’ve seen her play someone so low-key- Though she usually plays these hot and sexy chicks with attitude, in this one, she seemed a bit more introverted and quiet. As Kisaragi Haruka, she’s mopey and sleepy in direct contrast to the zany shenanigans happening around the lab. And though she’s outwardly disgusted by the uber goofy Kazushima character (Tanihara) secretly she has a huge crush on him, and it was THEIR storyline that really intrigued me more than the “actual” Tanaka / Kusanagi one!

Ryokiteki Na Kanojo

So yeah, though the main storyline was about average, I still found lots to like about this drama, and wish they could have spent more time developing the college students more. Ah, what the heck, I liked it anyway. But you know what’s cruel? I’ll tell you what’s cruel:

What’s cruel is having luscious Emi Suzuki cosplayed out and all dolled up as fricking SAILOR MARS and not give me even ONE CLEAR SHOT of this MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY of SEXINESS!!

Hey, there' a Sailor Mars costume somewhere.

When Tanaka’s charaacter invites her workmates up to Tsuyoshi’s flat for a costume party, it went without saying that Tanihara was gonna be in some zany costume (he did) and that Matsushima was gonna be dressed up like a witch (she was), but when I caught a glipse of Emi Suzuki going into the room, I IMMEDIATELY JUMPED UP, saying, HEY! Emi Suzuki is dressed up in a SAILOR MARS costume!!!”

I was at FULL ATTENTION for the rest of that scene, and had my hands set on the screencap button, just WAITING to get some captures of this GLORIOUS event! But she kept it covert by being shot in the background behind others or  cutting away every time it was about to focus on her!!! ARGGGHHH!

The closest I got to capturing Emi as Sailor Mars

For the rest of that sad episode I waited and prayed, but before you knew it, the party was over, and get this: instead of simply leaving, she changed BACK into her normal work clothes!!!! GAH! That was just to spite me!!! AHAHAHA!

Ah well. But...HEY... That was back in 2008! Why hasn't Emi been in anything recently? Has she gone back to concentrate on her modeling career and put the drama stuff on hiatus? Mata Ne, Emi-Chan!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Hamada Shogo / Kanashimi Wa Yukino Youni

I had a friend who refused to sing karaoke because of a bad experience she had back when Karaoke was in its early days. Before the time of private rooms and home karaoke, most places you’d end up singing was in bars, in front of all the other patrons, a daunting task, to be sure! Anyway, my friend was urged to sing at one of these get togethers, and beign a big Bonnie Raiit fan, decided to sing “Runaway”. As her song began, she had a quizzical look on her face, as the melody pouring out of the speakers didn’t sound ANYTHING like the Bonnie Raitt song. The reason for this was that the song playing wasn’t the Bonnie Raitt song per se, but rather the original Del Shannon version !, She immediately realized it, but as the song  had started and everyone was watching, attempted to make a go of it, but it was too difficult- the two versions were just too different to wing! After struggling through a verse and a chorus, she had enough and gave up. “Never Again!” she adamantly stated!

 Now, I’ve never sung that Bonnie Raitt song at a Karaoke Bar (and would probably choose “Are You Ready For The Thing Called Love”, anyway) but I COMPLETELY sympathize with what she was going through. So often it happens that the version of the song you THINK you’re going to be singing isn’t ANYTHING like what’s being played, and a good example of this is a time when I attempted to sing Hamada Shogo’s awesome song “Kanashimi wa Yuki No Youni” at Karaoke for the first time!

I’d fallen in love with the song the way I fell in love with a lot of j-pop singles- by means of a Japanese drama, and the show this time was called Ai to iu Nano Moto ni [In The Name of Love], an emotional story of seven high school friends who meet up again as adults a la BIG CHILL and find life is harder than they thought it would have been when they were younger.

This 1992 drama starred (among others) Eguchi Yosuke, Karasawa Toshiaki and the ever adorable Suzuki Honami as the leads in the group of seven, and this tale of watching them grow up and face the harsh real world (with sometimes very sad and tragic results)  with only each other to rely on, really struck a chord with your heart. Naturally, the theme song that haunted you throughout the series stayed with you, and by its end, I needed to have it!

Strcitly speaking, there were actually TWO Hamada Shogo songs used in the drama, Kanashimi Ga Yuki No Youni and the title song, Ai to Iu Nano Moto Ni, but it was the former that I fell in love with, and I went in to Tower Records hoping to order the song through special order. Well, it seemed the single was out of print (of course) but my friend who was the Japanese buyer told me he had the Shogo Hamada album, and would bring it in so I could borrow it !! Cool!

I went back to work the next day and couldn’t WAIT to listen to that CD, but when I got home that evening, I was in for a surprise- the Album version of Kanashimi wa Yuki No Youni was DIFFERENT from the version used on the show!!! This version was brighter and peppier than the one I knew, and I was to find out later that the slower, melancholy one form In The Name of Love was in fact the SINGLE VERSION! D’oh! It wasn’t until months later when I spotted a used copy at a local Japanese CD rental store that I was able to obtain a copy of my own!!

So, fast forward a few months or so later, and I’m with a bunch of friends at a Karaoke room, and I get up to sing  the aforementioned Shogo Hamada song, and whaddaya know- it’s that OTHER , happier and FASTER version than the one I knew! GAHH!!

So I’m struggling with it , trying to find the right tempo to sing MY version along with THIS version, gads, what a piece of work!! But it’s the only version available, so if I wanna sing it, THAT’S the version a gotta go with!

Someday I’ll talk about a very SIMILAR story with MISATO’s “My Revolution”!!!

Ah, being a j-pop lover DOES have its dramatic moments! Anyway, here's the version I love:

Sentai Silliness

 I'm a huge, huge fan of the 1970's Jinzo Ningen Kikidaa series, and regard the 43 chaptered story of the Mechanical Man built to vanquish the Corps of Darkness as one of the finest, right up there with the Kamen Rider series (From Kamen Rider #1 through to V3), but the ONE sticking point that I've ALWAYS had with the Kikaida series is that very,very silly 3-D movie that came out  right before the incredible (and final) story arc of Kikaidaa VS Hakaidaa.


 As I've gotten older, the Kikaidaa series just keeps getting better and better, and as I analyze it more and more, I keep finding more and more reasons to love it. The 3-D movie, on the other hand, is something that I thought was just ridiculous from the first moment I watched it and it's been downhill ever since! Even as a seven year old kid, I knew I was watching a dumbed-down story that had NOTHING to do with the actual TV series.


I know there are those out there that DO regard this as part of the actual Kikaidaa canon, but really folks, Professor Gill breaking the fourth wall and arguing with the kids in the theatre audience? Uh-Uh.
You can tell me you think the movie is part of the linear story, but not once did I see any Dark Monster tell me to put on 3-D glasses before any battles I watched on TV.


Of course, as a kid, the thing that BUGGED the HECK out of me MOST was the zany ways Kikaidaa was destroying the monsters. You had just about every effin' one of them from Gray Rhino to Black Mole, but instead of an epic battle you had monsters politely lining up to be knocked down like dominoes! AHAHAHAHA, WTF!!!


I took my little Imovie program and edited together a short but sweet little digested version of what you could have expected to see if you'd gone into the theaters to check this one one all those years ago... Just the highlights, of course! AHAHAHAHA!

A Cup of Water Went By

Crush Of The Day: Kuninaka Ryoko

Back in February of 2009, I was still casually watching Japanese dramas, and it would still be two more months til “Hotaru No Hikari” would come along and ROCK MY WORLD and rejuvenate my entire j-drama watching obsession. At the time, I was enjoying a KIKU drama called “Brother Beat”, and wrote up a little article on how much I liked it, as well as my attraction to cutie Ryoko Kuninaka’s character Chisato Tamura.

Anyway. When going through all my old posts in an attempt to repost some of them to this newly up-and-running google blogsite, the screen-caps I used were taken from the TV and transferred to DVD recorder to Computer, VERY blurry and contrasty. I REALLY wanted to re-cap those pics!

Popping in the discs of Brother Beat that I’d downloaded from D-Addicts awhile ago, I now had some nice, clear episodes to capture from. But even more surprising is, MAN! I’d forgotten how much I LOVED Ryoko Kuninaka in this show! Before I knew it, I’d re-watched 4 episodes of the show, and was INSTANTLY turned back into Kuninaka-crush status!

After going crazy with the screencapping (must have capped about 20 pics!), I realized what an AWESOME character Ryoko’s Tamura Chisato is…Though I’ve seen Ryoko in lots of other dramas since, none are quite like her Brother Beat character… First off, of course, are the glasses. This is without a doubt my favorite look from her, I think she looks just fricking adorable with those specs on, and no one else (outside of Tina Fey) can make that look work so well, enough for me say, “Ehh, I prefer her with glasses on”!!

Plus, there’s the shy and quiet attitude about her- this scene where she’s at home ironing Tatsuya’s handkerchief seems SO sweet and melancholy. You wonder just how in the world a knucklehead like Tatsuya can keep from liking this girl. You just wanna sweep her up in your arms!

So we’ve got sweet, humble and shy… And you know what tops if off is Ryoko is just terrific at throwing out this cute “bewildered” look whenever she’s confronted with the “guy of her dreams” in those awkward situations!

The Tatsuya and Chisato plot is my favorite storyline of the show, and truth be told, I could have actually done WITHOUT the storylines with Riku and Junpei! Yeah, I know, the drama’s called BROTHER Beat, but well…everytime I would be getting into Tatsuya and Chisato’s latest story, I would groan loudly when it would shift to one of the other brothers’ boring-ass storylines! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! MORE RYOKO, PLEASE!

For Your Information: The original Feb 2009 Post:

When I first read the synopsis for the 2007 j-dorama Brother Beat, it seemed like a modern remake of one of my favorite dramas, Second Chance: Misako Tanaka as a single mother raising three boys, all who call her by her first name and do all the chores around the house because she’s too lazy! ( In fact, they even got Akai Hidekazu, who played the Dad in Second Chance, to play the father in the flashback scenes!)

Watching the show, though, I realized the show was more based on the Brothers' relationship with each other than Mom and kids, (given the title, I guess that should have been obvious) and the shenanigans the three siblings get into each episode was more than enough for me to see the show as an entirely separate entity!

There’s Tamayama Tetsuji as Eldest Brother Tatsuya, (the all-business one of the group), middle son Riku (the carefree ladies-man) played by Hayami Mokomichi, and youngest son Junpei (the innocent one who does all the cooking and cleaning), played by Nakao Akiyoshi. (he, of course, from j-dorama Dragon Zakura!) And of course Misako Tanaka, playing Harue, the tough, big-mouthed single mom, a forte of hers, to be sure!

The show revolves around the ups and downs surrounding the boys in their everyday life, and more often than not, involves some SEXY gals as well as a fair share of WACKY characters! For me though, my flat-out favorite character in this drama just HAS to be Chisato Tamura, played by actress Ryoko Kuninaka. She’s easily the most adorable girl in the series, and that’s saying a LOT, considering the crazy amount of super-fine chicks rotating through this drama! Humble and unassuming, she's the one I fell in love with and began rooting for as soon as her character was introduced!

She bumps into Tatsuya in front of the train station, and he accidentally knocks her glasses off, breaking them. He’s in a rush to get to work, and apologetically hands her his card, promising to pay for them. He hardly takes notice of the tiny slip of a girl, but Chisato falls hard for him, believing him to be the man of her dreams! Chisato is one of those girls-in-a-million, the “pretty chick-who-doesn’t-know-she’s-pretty” character, and is SO unconfident of her chances, she asks advice from one of her employees, who turns out to be none other than HARUE!! Twists like this keep me on the edge of my seat, and I’m always yearning to see “what happens NEXT!”

A Meeting In the Falling Snow

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Deeps / Happiness

So the story goes that once upon a time in the late70’s/early 80’s, there was a California punk band by the name of THE LOST, but when it came time to ink a deal, they’d found that there was in fact already some OTHER band recording with that very name!

On the spot to come up with a new moniker, they simply flipped the letters in their name and became TSOL. They even subsequently had fans come up with what the letters supposedly stood for, and the one they ultimately went with was TRUE SOUNDS OF LIBERTY.

Now, that may be nothing but hyperbole and Musical Urban Legend, but it’s a helluva story anyway, and it’s a tale I always think about when I try to imagine just what the HECK drove j-pop singers Aki, Chika and Eri to name their act the highly unusual (and even slightly derogatory-sounding) DEEPS. At a glance, It’s obvious that their name is SPEED reversed, and one wonders if they had the same situation as those California Punk Rockers oh so long ago…

“Hey, We’re SPEED!”

“Er, there’s already a group from Okinawa with that name.”

“Um, I mean, we’re DEEPS!”

HAHAHAHA, OK, that’s probably not how it went down. But still…one does wonder!

I mean, looking up the term “Deeps” online, and you find that Deeps means something like Mother of Life or something in Hebrew, but, Hmmm, I’m really not sure if that was what they were going for. In any case….

So anyway, the year was 1998, and the girl pop trio called DEEPS had just hit the scene, and by mid-year, my friend Golden was becoming a BIG fan of their work. One day we were talking about j-pop in general, and he asked me if I’d heard of DEEPS before. I said that I taped a Music Station performance by them simply on the principle that they were three super-cute girls, but hadn’t really paid to much attention to the song.

“You should really check this group out!” he gushed. “One of the girls, she sounds just like…Mikiyo!” Ehhh? I laughed, “You mean Mikiyo Ohno from CoCo?” Well, that was EXACTLY who he meant, and so I promised to find that VHS tape and watch that Music Station performance again, this time PAYING ATTENTION to the song!

So that evening, I got out the tape, and as soon as the song started and the first girl began singing, I STARTED CRACKING UP! Oh My GOSH, that girl DID sound JUST LIKE Mikiyo!!! I sat through that entire performance waiting for that girl to sing, and naturally, by the time that performance ended, I just LOVED THE SONG!!!

The song was called “Happiness”, but in true japanesey style, the girls sang it more like Hap’nes than ha-PI-ness, but I think that kind of added to the charm of the song. With the chorus catchphrase of “Ne, Darling?”, I just LOVED the way the song concluded, with the girls singing: Ne, Darling! My Darling! Haaaaaaaaaa……..P’Nesssss!!! Then right into the sliding electric guitar chords to a perfect pop ending- this song rocked!

The next day at work I saw Golden, and remarked, “Dude, You were RIGHT! That Girl sounds JUST LIKE Mikiyo!!!” He promised to make me a collection of their Videos in the future, and it was from there that I was later introduced to some other favorite songs from them, including Maybe Love, Love Is Real, and another BIG fave of mine, BRAND NEW HEAVEN, the latter of which sounded decidedly SPEED flavoured!

Later I was to reflect that my introduction to DEEPS showed less about how great they were, but how much me and my friend LOVED CoCo! I mean, there aren’t probably too many people out there who hear a new song and think, “Hey! CoCo!!!” , much less the rather obscure knowledge of exactly how Ohno Mikiyo sings!! So I chalk up my love of Deeps as a continuing extension of my love of those original Pony Canyon princesses CoCo!!

Miss Japan Goes to High School: Emiri Miyasaka

Being a fan of adorable Shida Mirai, I thought I’d better check out the new Hayami Mokomichi drama HAMMER SESSION, if only to see what Mirai-chan’s been up to. With the somewhat standard story of an unconventional character taking on an unruly classroom, this drama fit right along the lines of GTO or NAOMI, and though the stories themselves were interesting enough, there was ANOTHER reason I kept checking back every week...

You see, though each episode followed the perils of a different set of students and their problems, more IMPORTANTLY, there’s ALSO this running gag of Mokomichi making some inane reason to visit the school Health Room. And just WHAT could be the reason he just HAD to get down there each week? Well, It's easy to figure out when the Health Aide running the Health room looks like THIS: Yes, EVERY week, We got to see this lovely young Health Aide in all her seductive glory...HOLY CRAPOLA! After about the third episode, I just HAD to find out who this curvaceous gal WAS, and going online I was to find that this model-cum-actress was none other than Emiri Miyasaka, the controversial Miss Japan from 2009’s Miss Universe Pageant who made headlines for her maybe-too-revealing avant-garde kimono-dress! WHOA!

Check THAT outfit out! While I might understand how they might have deemed the costume too outlandish and over the top for the Pageant, it really told you right away that this was one TIGER of a girl! Kudos to whoever did that BRILLIANT bit of casting for her role in HAMMER SESSION- There’s nothing that could have stopped me if I knew SHE was gonna be down at MY School's Health Room every day! So I have to sympathize with

Mokomichi and say that I send him off to the Health Room with my blessings (and jealousy!)

Coming Up...It's Mayuko Fukuda!

in Zettai Reido 2010

One of the more interesting things about watching Japanese dramas for such a long time is that you get to see your favorite actors and actresses when they’ve just started out and can watch them as they grow and become better and better at their craft. This is even MORE amplified when it’s a child actor that you’re watching because their growth is both professional AND literal as you’re watching these kids grow up into teenagers seemingly right before your eyes! And one whose growth seem to be advancing with leaps and bounds is one of my favorite child actresses, Fukuda Mayuko- it seems like every time I see her in a new drama or movie, she’s advanced at least a grade up!

Zettai Reido

The first drama that I really took notice of her (though at the time mis-believing that she was Karen Miyama) was in dramas Joou No Kyoushitsu (2005) and Byakuyakou (2006), where she already was impressing me with her fine acting, and by the time she did “Enka No Joou” in 2007, I was a big fan of hers and couldn’t wait to see what she’d be doing next!

In Enka No Jouu 2007

In Byakuyakou 2006

In Joou No Kyoushitsu 2005

By the time she starred in movies “10 Promises To My Dog” in 2008 and “Heaven’s Door” in 2009, Mayuko was already fully on her way to “teenager” status, but somehow that still didn’t prepare me for HOW MUCH SHE’D MATURED when I saw her in the latest episode of ZETTAI REIDO! I almost didn’t recognize her, but then she started talking, and there’s only ONE girl with that gravely voice, yup, I INSTANTLY knew it was her!

Funny thing about that Zettai Reido storyline- After seeing the preview for the episode, Car said she wanted to know the identity of the young actress playing the “Suspect” in the next chapter. While talking to me on the phone, she looked up the credits, and said “Oh My God!!! I can’t believe that’s HER!” I said I didn’t want to know who it was, so I could be surprised when I watched the show. She then said, “Wow, I didn’t recognize her…she grew so much!” “Well if you say THAT, the girl MUST be Karen Miyama!” “Maybe not”, she demurred. And of course, it WASN’T Karen Miyama, but the OTHER child-actress-turned-teenager MAYUKO!

In an ADDITIONAL twist t my following of Mayuko Fukuda’s career, going onto Dramawiki, I was amazed to find that she’d been around a lot longer than 2005. Looking at her credits, I saw that her j-drama debut was in 2000 in none other than the Ryoko Hirosue/Domoto Tsuyoshi drama Summer Snow! Popping in the drama, I was beside myself with laughter watching a chiisana Mayuko Fukuda as little in-patient Yukari who was hospitalized along with Yuki. Little though she was, when she started talking, she STILL SOUNDED JUST LIKE MAYUKO FUKUDA!!!! AHAHAHAHA!!

In Summer Snow 2000

After the Zettai Reido episode, both Car and I had to agree- this actress is gonna go places! As a matter of fact, she was just about the best thing in that particular episode, a lackluster story saved by Mayuko’s awesome acting! We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for her future endeavors!

With Yamaguchi Sayaka and Ueto Aya in Zettai Reido

Sayonara, VOX Blog!

Was saddened (and honestly, quite shocked and irked) to find that VOX would be shuttering its doors after this month is over. VOX has been the best blogsite I've worked with out of the many I've gone through, easy Video and MP3 uploading,  easy custom designing and photo inserting. Sigh. So Long VOX, you were a good site!


From this point on I'll be slowly transferring all (or at least most of the ones I feel are worth the switch) of my earlier blog posts to this, my old (and heretofore rarely used) GOOGLE account, but I don't know what I'm gonna do about the original comments. For the moment, I'll try and save come of the more prolific comments and put them into the blog entry when I re-post 'em.


Ah, Komatta, na!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Moritaka Chisato / Ame

The first Moritaka Chisato Album that I purchased at the beginning of what would become a lifelong love of all things j-pop was Chisato’s awesome 1996 greatest hits package called, plainly enough, DO THE BEST. The album, which I had bought chiefly for her latest (at the time) single, FUTARI WA KOIBITO, was the gateway that would introduce me to all the other great songs that Chisato had, and with songs like Watashi No Natsu, Watarase Bashi, Natsu No Hi, and Watashi Ga Obasan Ni Nattemo, I eventually liked her enough to venture into getting all of her albums as well, and Moritaka-san soon became one of my favorite j-pop acts of all time!

Amidst the rock and roll tunes and zany novelty songs on DO THE BEST came quite a few of Chisato’s very best ballads, including the aforementioned Watarase Bashi, the incredibly melancholy Kyo Kara, and a sweet little keyboard driven tune called Ame.

Though a pretty song in its own right, It wasn’t until I saw Chisato performing it on the almighty LIVE ROCK ALIVE Concert that I really began to like it, and it wasn’t until a chance viewing on MUSIC FAIR that it became a song that I absolutely LOVED!

Viewers of MUSIC FAIR know how the format of the show goes: usually they’ll invite an older, seasoned artist and pair them up with a new and upcoming artist. They showcase the two artists performing together, then after a brief interview, the individual artists will sing their latest songs. At least, that’s the way it USED to be, I’m not sure what kind of procedure the show goes through nowadays…

Anyway, on this one occasion, they’d invited both Moritaka Chisato and the newly solo Okui Kaori (whose band Princess Princess had broken up a short time earlier)- Now, Moritaka Chisato and Princess Princess have always had a sort of close working relationship, (as witness the old clip of Puri Puri performing Chisato’s “Teriyaki Burger” with her), so you knew that you were in for something FUN and out of the ordinary!

Sure enough, that fateful Music Fair episode started off with a bang! The show opened on a somber setting with the two established artists sitting at back-to-back pianos, and after a quick opening of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”, the song segued into the most UNIQUE performance of “Ame” ever heard, as the Chisato song got the full Okui Kaori treatment! Kaori’s arrangement skills have always been a HUGE part of Puri Puri’s sound, and she didn’t hold back here-with swirling piano melodies decorated around Chisato’s straight forward playing, the song became a lush, dreamy body of work, all building up to an incredible, RICH chorus as Kaori sang harmonies along with the usually-solo voiced Chisato. WOW!!!

That would have been fantastic enough, but after the interviews with both girls, it came to the part where the artists sing their latest singles. But in an interesting twist, CHISATO sang lead on Kaori’s new song “Happyman”, with Kaori’ band playing background, and Kaori and her band sang Chisato’s new single “La La Sunshine”, with a bonus: CHISATO WAS PLAYING DRUMS!!! YES!!!

Ah MAN, what an awesome show that was!!!!!

After that show, I immediately dug up my Do The Best CD and listened to Ame afresh, totally seeing it in a new light! And you know, there are actually three or so different versions of Ame available on Chisato’s albums, so there’s a version for everyone!

I lean towards the rock version from THE MORITAKA album, but truth be told, whenever I hear Ame, the version I REALLY want to hear is that magical Music Fair take of the song!

Crush Of The Day: Takeuchi Yuko

First a full disclosure that up until this past month, Takeuchi Yuko was one of those actresses that I’ve always kind of known about, but never really took notice of in any of the things I’d seen her in. Whenever anyone’d mention Yuko’s name, I kind of said like, “Hmmm, yeah….I think I remember that girl…”, with only the vaguest image of her face in my mind.

But recently, it started to seem (At least to me) that Yuko was starting to appear pretty regularly in a LOT of the new shows that were coming out, and when Car mentioned to me that even Kazunari Nino (of Arashi fame) particularly loved Yuko and her work, I thought that I had better start paying more attention to this girl!

So it was that when they began uploading episodes from the new Yuko Takeuchi Show NATSU NO KOI WA NIJI-IRO KAGAYAKU (co-staring Nino’s fellow Arashi-er Matsumoto Jun), I made a point to check it out and find out once and for all what all this hubbub was about this actress!

My initial impression of Yuko (as her character Kitamura Shiori) was nice but decidedly unspectacular- Yuko was very believable as country bumpkin Shiori and her carefree demeanor was intriguing (to say the least), but once she came into town and began working as a talent manager for Jun, It seemed like they kind of lost focus of the character and I have to say I kind of lost interest.

That could have ended there, but by chance I came upon a drama trading site who had uploaded Lunch No Joou, an Eguchi Yosuke drama I’d heard about before, and when I clicked on the links and found Yuko Takeuchi starring in the drama as the titular heroine, I though this was a sign that I’d better give Yuko another chance to win me over…and win me over she DID!

A story of a harried work girl who stumbles upon a small but established family-owned restaurant with food that instantly touches her heart the very first time she tastes it, the drama reminded me more than a little of Nakayama Miho and Karasawa Toshiaki’s OISHII KANKEI, which in MY book is ALREADY a good sign! Focusing on both the joy of fine cuisine as well as the relationships between the family and co-workers, this was a show that grabbed my attention from the very beginning, and I remember telling Car, “Hmm, I think Lunch No Joou might be the next BIG drama on my list!” And it the drama itself wasn’t gonna be on my list of greats, the lead actress sure was! WOW, for the first time, I finally “Got” Takeuchi Yuko!

I don’t know if it was the way she held herself as a pretty-but-tomboyish girl or the pretty outfits they dressed her up in or the story and acting in general, but BOY the role of confident and sassy Mugita Natsumi seems to have been TAILOR MADE for Yuko’s talents! Yuko manages to steal every scene she’s in, and that’s quite a feat to sustain throughout an entire drama, especially one that ALSO features Misaki Ito!

Watching her at first I though she seemed like a Masami Nagasawa, but by the end of that first episode, she’d fully won me over as a radiant and charismatic actress in her own right, and that night, I laughed to realize I couldn’t get her out of my mind!

While getting totally infatuated with Yuko while watching another episode, I remember actually trying to figure out just what it was that made her so darn attractive to me, and one very good reason is Yuko’s ACTING and Line-Delivery. Every line she utters is said in this coy and mischievous tone to it that just makes me smile and think what a cool person this would be to hang out with! When she’s in a zany situation, you have to laugh out loud, when she’s sad, you really feel her pain, and when she’s playful, she’s REALLY playful!

Point Two: Her Outfits. I’ve reiterated many, many times (is what I just said redundant?) I just LOVE a pretty girl in pretty clothes, and whoever decided on Mugita Natsumi’s personal fashion sense seems to have tapped into EXACTLY the kind of stuff I JUST LOVE! Flowery Blouses and jeans are Natsumi’s usual ensemble of choice though she does throw in a pretty cocktail dress or two, but what REALLY moves me from episode to episode is her WORK OUTFIT! With a white blouse matched with a modestly short black skirt, the thing that makes this combination TOTEMO SAIKO for me is that leather choker she’s wearing around her neck, GAHHHHHH…SEXY, SEXY, SEXYYYYY!

Above: Problem for Eguchi Yosuke, Not for Me!

And then of course, there’s Yuko’s terrific looks! As most of my friends will attest, I’m not a fan of short hair on a girl, but this stylish shag she’s sporting in Lunch No Joou looks frickin’ GREAT on her, the first haircut that I think really accents her features and seems to give her face a more rounded out appearance than the long straight hair she had in Natsu No Koi wa Nijiiro Kagayaku (as well as most of her recent dramas) And MAN does she have smile that could just melt your heart, all toothy and chipmunk-cheeked! AHAHAHAHA! And when she scrunches her nose up to fully complete the picture, I simply surrender!

Ironically enough, looking over her dramawiki credits, I was surprised to find that, far from being unfamiliar with her work, Yuko’s career was one that I seemed to have been following from almost the beginning! From shows like IIHITO (which was only Yuko’s second drama appearance!) to cute-but-dorky Yuri in NANISAMA and up to her first big lead role in the NHK Asadora ASUKA (Yes! Her Father is Hongo Takeshi!), I’d been watching her play these cool and quirky characters for YEARS without really taking notice of the actress herself!

above: In Iihito

Above: In Nanisama?

Now, I’m not sure if my obsession with Yuko in Lunch No Joou will translate to her other dramas (especially since Natsu No Koi didn’t really grab me), but I’m now more open to checking out more stuff from her, and regardless of what the future may hold, at this moment right now, I am TOTALLY in Takeuchi Rabu-Rabu Paradise!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Miura Rieko / Arigato

While going through my VHS tapes looking for the Ota Hiromi Performance of "Momen No Handkerchief", I came across a whole treasure trove of other awesome videos that I'd completely forgotten I'd had, and I'll be trying to rip and upload some of them for you all to peruse!
At the top of the list was this very cool performance by Rieko Miura singing her latest single "Arigato" an incredibly catchy song that surely must be the best thing that came out of Rieko's brief union with Diamond "Tokyo Pop" Yukai who co- wrote the peppy tune! Arigato was just about the last "real" j-pop release from Rieko, and I have to say it's one of her best!

Reiko looks just fantastic here, and interestingly enough, during the short interview before she sang her song, Rieko mentioned that she was currently appearing as a beautician in the NHK Asadora AGRI! Why, that was right- she appeared as a would-be-thief turned apprentice in what would become my absolute favorite Japanese drama of all time! As you may have guessed, seeing as how Agri is in fact my banner picture! But I digress..

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Ota Hiromi / Momen No Handkerchief

Listening to Ayase Haruka's cover of "Momen No Handkerchief" made me want to listen to Ota Hiromi's original, and so I've been playing my 70's J-pop tunes in my car for the past few days. And as usual, listening to Hiromi sing Momen No Handkerchief (as well as her other hits like Akai High Heel) made me want to watch her performance on a 1970's J-pop Flashback Special I rented oh so many years ago.
In 1997 (or so), I was heavily immersed in my j-pop music with groups like CoCo, Ribbon. Moritaka Chisato and Princess Princess and Zard, not to mention the great artists at the time like Matsuda Seiko, Mr. Children, Dreams Come True and Amuro Namie, but it wasn't until I got this 70's Special that I finally got to see some of the more "classic" j-pop artists: Yamaguchi Momoe, Pink Lady, Candies, Teresa Teng and even Arai Yumi- WOW, this was really an eye-opener for someone fully into j-pop!!
Along on the show they'd invited a handful of 70's performers to appear, and so I got to see artists like Amachi Mari, Agnes Chan, and Iwasaki Hiromi sing their classic hits like "Hitori Janai No", "Hinageshi Na Hana" and "Romance"... All the songs were expertly performed with a live Big Band, and all of the ladies looked very pretty and refined (man, especially Iwasaki Hiromi...DAMN!) but out of them all, the one that REALLY blew me away was a sweet li'l tune by the name of "Momen No Handkerchief" sung by a pretty lady named Ota Hiromi! The song was 100% j-pop perfection with its violin intro and score with the bright guitar chiming throughout, but even more than that- something about the way Ota Hiromi gestured and sang- I was TOTALLY CAPTIVATED!

Needless to say, the very next day, I ran out and picked up her songs as well as a ton of other 1970's collections- From there my love of 70's j-pop only grew and I eventually expanded to collections from Pink Lady, Candies, Minami Saori and of course the mighty Momoe-san, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Ota Hiromi's MOMEN NO HANDKERCHIEF!!!