A Disturbing K-Pop Trend

T-ara N4

Hey, What De HELL is going on with all of these K-pop Girl groups making their comebacks in outfits that look like they raided the local Boy's Athletic Storage Room and ran off with their football and Basketball jerseys?!!!!

4Minute

Rainbow

Sistar

  I tolerated it with T-Ara N4, but then with 4Minute's "What's Your Name" and then Rainbow's "Sunshine"comeback and THEN even SISTAR's comeback with "Hey You", I'm all like, (in my Popeye voice) "I've stood alls I can stand, but I cants stands no more!!!"
At least Rainbow's outfits look sort-of like Cheerleader outfits, the others have this urban street style that make the girls look like Parappa The Rapper, MAN, these tomboyish/androgynous wardrobes have GOT to GO! 
Thank GOD there's Secret and After School to remind me not all is lost....
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nishida Hikaru / Kokoro Dake Sobani Iru~Here In My Heart

 With Hikaru coming back with her brand new single after all this time, I’ve been getting back into Nishida Hikaru in a BIG way, digging out all of my concerts and CDs, and have even been going online to hunt for any live television performances that may have been uploaded since I checked last! 

Well, this time I REALLY lucked out because there was this extremely awesome person who had uploaded a whole TON of awesome classic (re: early 80’s) performances from some of my most favorite artists including CoCo, Moritaka Chisato and Ribbon and among them all were four live clips of Hikaru, and in clear audio and crisp definition to boot! 

  Not only were these of such high quality, they happened to be some of my favorite songs, and at the top of the list was a song I’d NEVER seen performed live, her wonderful song Kokoro Dake Sobani Iru~Here In My Heart…MAN,watching this performance just hit me right in the feels and reminded me of why this girl is one of my favorite artists of all time! 

Back in the days when I was first getting into Hikaru and everything was new, I had chosen some of her albums (recorded onto cassette for my walkman) as my traveling companions for my long bus ride home from work, and her album “Esprit” was on as I made my way through my neighborhood towards home.

  By the time I’d reached my house, I’d listened to most of the album and was about to remove my earphones, when the keyboard chimes for the song Kokoro Dake Sobani Iru began, and it sounded so gentle and sweet, instead of turning the walkman off and going in the house, I sat in our garage listening to the whole song. What a sweet, comforting song, with sweet vocals and a guitar refrain that reminded me ever so slightly of CoCo’s “Wedding”, I was entranced!

  By then, the sun had begun to set, and the entire garage had taken on that hazy, orangey effect and I just had this warm, comfortable feeling as I sat there with that beautiful song playing. When it ended, I finally turned off the tape player and went in, but I couldn’t shake that magical feeling, and from then on, I always tried to listen to that song and album during the evenings to retain that warm, fuzzy feeling!

  Eventually, Esprit became my favorite CD from Hikaru, and one day listening to it I realized that not only was Kokoro Dake Sobani Iru my favorite song on the ALBUM, it was in fact my favorite song from her EVER! That feeling I had listening to it watching the sun set that one evening is the same feeling I now get listening to almost ALL of her albums, and I consider that period of my life a very special one, indeed!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Crayon Pop's Amazing New Feats of Wonder!

They've been so, so many comebacks these last few months, but I have to say that for the most part, I've been buying these new releases more because I like the ARTIST than that I like the song, but when I heard Crayon Pop was making their comeback, I hoped THEY would bring something interesting to the table...and HOLY CRAP, DID THEY EVER!!

 The Girls latest offering is the soon-to-be released comeback song "Bar Bar + Bar" (or Ba Ba Ba, depending on where you see it listed) and OMG, is it CATCHY!!!! Although not officially promoted yet, the girls did a highly energetic performance the other day at the Migliore Festival Live event, and it was a sight to BEHOLD!

Along with the regular catchy refrains, the song is accompanied by their always irresistible dance moves which, while always fun and snappy, have been upgraded to almost MOMOIRO CLOVER-Z eccentricities! Seriously, when they came out in helmets, I was all like WTH???! But then the song started and from the first beats in, I was hooked, and watching them jump around (and up and down) onstage, I was BLOWN AWAY!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Aw Man, out of ALL the comebacks going on, this is ONE that I'm sooo excited for! I first fell in love with the girls when they released "Bing Bing" last year, but was DENIED a real CD release (they releaased a remixed and remade version, both of which weren't as good as the original) I'm praying this is the album that really makes them, though so far, no lsiting for them at YesAsia, which isn't good news when you want to pre-order the album!!! C'mon, you guys, get with the program!!!

Itsuka Hi no Ataru Basho de

Been curious as to why my Naoko Iijima post has been getting so many hits in the last few weeks, and wondered if she’d recently appeared in some new super-popular drama, and that’s how, when investigating online, I came across her new drama Itsuka Hi no Ataru Basho de with Aya Ueto. Now, I hve no idea if this is the reason for Naoko’s recent surge in hits, but WOW, this was a drama I WANTED TO SEE!

The drama stars Aya and Naoko as Komoriya Hako (Ueto) and Eguchi Ayaka (Iijima), two women starting their lives over again after spending time in prison (Hako for scamming drugged clients out of their wallets and Ayaka for murdering her abusive husband) and the ordeals they must go through to re-enter the world. Watched the first episode and so far, seems like a very moving story!

So awesome to see Iijima Naoko still out there doing dramas (and like other actresses from the 90’s like Shinohara Ryoko and Mizuki Arisa, getting even BETTER with time!), and MY GOD is Aya Ueto more gorgeous than EVER?! 

Seems the more she becomes a lady and moves away from her idol roots, the more elegant she becomes! Even in this sad and bittersweet role, I find my self just in AWE of her beauty! Seems like melancholia suits her well!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Sending In My K-Pop Pre-Order...

To save on shipping, I wanted to wait until SISTAR, AFTERSCHOOL and Rainbow ALL had their albums up for pre-order, but I wanted to make sure I got my order in before Rainbow's release date (so my purchase would count towards their overall sales, though I'm not sure if Yesasia even reflects the Korean charts) and with only one day left to go (Rainbow's release is the 6th) they FINALLY pre-listed SISTAR's new album, so I made a mad dash to the site and put in my order:

Ah, should be a grand old time come the end of this month, I tell ya!!!!

Hikaru Nishida "Just Lovin'" is HERE!!!!

My Nishida Hikaru CD "Just Lovin'" Comes in Today!!!

YATTTTTTAAAAA!!!! Just spent the day off listening to some of my beloved Hikaru Nishda CDs (this time A File Of Life, Love For All Seasons and 2-4) and came home to the most AWESOMEST of surprises waiting for me on my doorstep- her brand new CD Just Lovin' arrived today!!!! WHOOOHOOO

Aw man, can't stay long to write much since I am going to go out cruising and listen to this album RIGHT AFTER I post this entry up! Already heard some of it through her promotional video clip, can't WAIT to hear how the whole Maxi-Single sounds!!!! 
OK, SEEYA!!!!

Hikaru Nishida "Just Lovin' Back Booklet Pic

EDIT:

Okay, just back from giving the album a few whirls, and AW YEAH, Just Lovin' is so damn GOOD! Man, I was happy to hear that she sounds exactly like the Hikaru I know and love; Her voice as warm and carefree sounding as ever, and these happy, upbeat tunes could have EASILY been on her earlier Pony Canyon releases, that’s how much she’s retained her signature sound!!!

From the album’s opening with “Egao No Tane~ Seeds Of Smile”, I was beaming from ear to ear (so I guess that song really DID have the power of growing smiles!), parts of the song even reminded me of her super-catchy “Dear My Soul”, but it was all mixed into this fresh new tune!

Followed by the cool, relaxing “Nagisa No Gradation” with its gentle samba “Antonio Carlos Jobim” vibe, this was perfect for driving along the beachside (which was good since that was EXACTLY what I was doing!) Note the appropriate picture accompanying the lyrics inside the booklet!!

When I read the tracklisting for the EP and saw “Over The Rainbow” coupled with “What A Wonderful World”, my first thought was, “Hey, is Hikaru doing a cover of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole? Shrugged it off, but when she began singing, I began LAUGHING, for that’s EXACTLY what it was! Though her version is so bright, summery and GENKI that I didn’t recognize it at first, the vocal arrangement is pure IZ (even down to the tru-hoo-hoooo’s), and this made Hikaru’s cover have a bit of a “Hawaii” flavor to it which was like an added BONUS for me! 

Gotta say that when the fourth and fifth tracks were only karaoke tracks, I was SOOO disappointed that my time with Hikaru had ended! NO problem- I went back to the beginning and listened to the CD TWO MORE TIMES before getting home!!! BTW, when I got in the car and first took the CD out to put in the deck, I realized there was one more picture of pretty Hikaru hidden behind the disc! Had to dig out my camera again to capture that!

Awesome CD, Hikaru, looking forward to many more!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Back On The Road With Galileo

The Masaharu Fukuyama Detective drama Galileo is back, and I gotta say that the thing that's got me MOST excited about its return is the new addition of uber- cutie Yuriko Yoshitaka as Kishitani Misa, Yukawa "Galileo" Manabu's new "partner" in crime-solving of the strange and supernatural!

When the show began, I actually wasn't sure how she'd would fit in with the overall feeling of this show since the dynamic Fukuyama and Shibasaki Kou had between them was what really made the original series, but it didn't take long for Yuriko's trademark "Manic Pixie" persona to come out and begin stealing the scenes!

The first episode eases us into the new situation nicely with Shibasaki's Utsumi Kaoru character showing her replacement the ropes before leaves to pursue crime in Oklahoma, of all places. I like the rapport between these two (with Misa reacting with disbelief at all the nutty things the seasoned Utsumi accepts as just another day at work), and in fact wouldn't have minded it they kept the formula like this! It coulda been like a Japanese Cagney and Lacey!!

But soon it's time for Utsumi to leave and finally Yuriko takes center stage. Her character "Misa Kishitani" is a person who regards herself very highly, and though she rubs people the wrong way, her heart is true, and soon Yukawa finds she really is someone who wants to make a difference, and a new "partnership" (of sorts) is born!

Oh, the show certainly has its serious sides, but the BEST scenes for me are the ones where she's her usual super-energetic self, arguing with Yukawa, and (most hilariously) with poor maligned Kuribayashi (Ikkei Watanabe) who finds himself at the receiving end of most of her venomous remarks and haughty attitude, LOL!  Ah, this show looks like a good one!

PS. Only gripe, where the heck is Maya Miki?!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Nishida Hikaru PV on DVD!!!

With this flurry of recent Hikaru Nishida activity going on regarding her  mini-tour and Maxi Single "Just Lovin", I thought it would be a good idea to check up on her CD Japan status to see if any other new releases were scheduled- and WHADDAYA Know?!! Hikaru's FINALLY releasing her PV Collection on DVD!!! WHy, I had JUST been watching some of her videos from her VHS Twin Collection- SOOOOSTOKED to finally have these clips in "hard" format!!!

  Taking a look at the cover of the DVD, it doesn't look like much- just a collage of screencaps from her various videos over the years, but then I looked closer and had to LAUGH as I spotted something that made this cover pretty COOL for me!!!
   Awhile ago, I had mentioned that Hikaru had shot her video "Kitto Aiga Aru" here in my state of Hawaii, and not only did she film it in my hometown, at some point in the video, she rides her bicycle right past my house! I call this my "Greatest Hikaru Moment"and screencapped it here:

Hikaru-chan rides right past my apartment!

Well, imagine my surprise when I saw that the very same scene featured on the cover of the Nishida Hikaru DVD Collection- Hikaru riding her bicycle with my apartment right behind her!!! LOLOLOL! Yes, True Believers, however miniscule- MY HOME IS ON THE COVER OF A NISHIDA HIKARU DVD!!!!

LOLOL, Okay, Okay, looks like the image CD Japan had up was only one of them "temporary" image holders and the actual cover of the Hikaru DVD will look a lot more...professional! AHAHA

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Yoona and the Chicken Feet

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
There've been many, many Yoona video posts online celebrating her birthday today and becoming an adult, some featuring tributes, songs and videos, but the one that made me laugh the most was this one of Yoona  trying to eat chicken feet for the first time! So cute and animated, no one is like our Dear Deer! Happy Birthday Yoona!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Tomosaka Rie / Escalation

Going through my files of past Blog entries, I was surprised to see that I'd somehow missed one of my old "Favorite J-Pop Singles" essays on Tomosaka Rie's song "Escalation" when I transferred everything over from my old VOX Blog, so I thought I'd just repost it again. Original post was in 2008... 

Back in 1995 or so, J-pop buyer Dave handed me a pre-order sheet of a new “talento”, a cute idol/singer who ws about to release her very first single. The artist name was Tomosaka Rie, and her single was a song called “Escalation”. “So, you want me to order that single for you?” asked Dave, to which I quickly replied, “Oh yeah, I’ll give THIS chick a whirl..she’s a cutie!”

A few weeks later, the single arrived, and I was pleasantly surprised with the song, since blindly ordering a single based on sheer looks was pretty much a gamble! Soon enough I loved the song, and in a happy coincidence, later that month, I found out that Rie Tomosaka was to appear on MUSIC STATION!  I couldn't wait!

WOW, seeing pretty Rie for the first time was awesome- She was just simply adorable, giggling and winning over everyone there, and my was she CUTE!Then she got up to sing…and I was TOTALLY shocked when, INSTEAD of Escalation, she sang a DIFFERENT song from her NEWEST single! The song she sang was a song called “Kushami” (sneeze), and cute Rie kept giggling throughout the performance, proving (at least) that she wasn’t a lip-syncher! Ahh! Here was a new, fun Rie Tomosaka song that I didn’t have! And though I searched in vain, at that time, the powers that be had decided I would not own a copy of that single! (I'd get a copy of it later from a friend)

Thus we return to the original single  “Escalation” , the song that while NOT the one I’d seen performed, IS the one that got me started loving her. Later, I would know her better as an actress in such shows as UE O MUITE ARUKO (with Nishida Hikaru!) and TABLOID (with Takako Tokiwa), and of course, nowadays people know her as pretty incense peddler Chika in the NHK Taiga Drama ATSUHIME! Going online recently, I was ECSTATIC to see that there in fact WERE clips of Rie promoting "Escalation" on music shows, and I'm finally getting to see them after all these years!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Ups and Downs with “The Romantic and The Idol”

Part One: Jihyun

I realize I’m hella late to the game as I’ve only finished watching the reality series “The Romantic and The Idol”, or, if you watched it on Mnet, “Romancing The Idol” which ended while ago (and has even gotten through a second season), but I have GOT to state for the record, WHOA MAN, is Jihyun one of the prettiest and sexiest k-pop stars alive or WHAT!!! 

Damn, from the first time I got to know the members of 4Minute I’ve known their sexy leader Nam Jihyun was a total BABE, but this show takes it to the next level! Watching the 4Minute reality series “Travel Maker”, Jihyunnie always seemed like the sweet, gentle, and soft-spoken member of the group, but watching this show shows me that this girl actually has some super sassiness to her that can cut down guys with one barbed comment if need be!

Jihyun is first paired up with Hyungsik of ZE-A, and her initial feeling was that she doesn’t like younger guys (Hyungsik’s two years her junior), but wouldn’t you know it, they continue to get paired together as if fate had something to do with it, and soon they were enjoying each other’s company.

It doesn’t take long for Hyungsik to fall for the smokily beautiful Jihyun, but Jihyun takes things one step at a time- hilariously calling him out for trying to talk informally to her, tying to initiate holding hands, and when he make the mistake of commenting that the “younger guests have a bigger advantage than us”, she rains on him with the sharpest icy retorts “Well, I’m sorry you got stuck with me!” to which a dazed Hyungsik can only respond mouth agape! AHAHA

After some time together though, Jihyun finally warms to him, and out of everyone on the show, these two beome the most stable pairing, one that you somehow KNEW was going to make it to the end! So much fun watching these two, and I was simply LOVING the show…
And then we move onto Part TWO of my essay on “The Romantic and The Idol”…

 Part Two: Seung Ah

At the same time I was getting into the couple relationship develop between Hyungsik and Jihyun, I suddenly began to realize how cute Rainbow member Seungah was! It seemed that as each episode went on, she was getting prettier and prettier! Man there was this one episode where she was wearing this lacy white dress, and I was all over that, soooo pretty!  

Strangely, at the same time I was beginning to like her, I began noticing that not only did none of the guys really care for her, they were downright mean and stand-offish whenever they DID happen to get paired with her...Whenever they would end the night with each member voting for who they liked, she was the only one of the 8 contestants who never received any votes, being the good-natured girl she is, she always laughed it off and took it in stride, but as the show went on, it got to the point where I thought it was becoming downright cruel- For example, when she was paired with Mir, he made it clear he had no interest in her as he jokingly insulted her and talked to her disrespectfully- Again, during the post-interviews, she laughed it off and played along, but it was the sign of things to come…

The guy “JB” she’d been paired with a few times had admitted he liked another contestant and when he had to go on mission dates with her, he made it clear that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her! Riding in the car, he’d keep his shades on and sit away from her, when walking to the lookouts, he’d walk ahead of her, slouched and never looking back…It was here I was getting downright PISSED OFF! I can sort of rationalize him refusing to do any missions since they were of the lovey-dovey type, but going out of your way to make sure the girl you’re with feels lonely and miserable is so freaking uncool! Seungah took the dates in stride as usual, even lending an ear as he talked about the other girl he liked(!) but when interviewed separately,  she’d tear up admitting how cold and unliked she’d felt during these dates. GRR!

  BTW,  I know that at this point of the blog entry I should be accompanying it with pictures of the scenes I’m talking about, with Seungah being ignored and/or getting her feelings hurt, but I just won’t. I had a hard enough time watching those scenes the first time, the last thing I want is to have screencaps of them on my blog since I never want to see them again! In fact, after watching some of the worst of the episodes, I had to actually spend the rest of the night watching live Rainbow performances so I could see Seungah vibrant and HAPPY again! 

Aw man, I started out loving this show so much because of Hyungsik and Jihyun, but by the time it was winding down, I was ending each night feeling so horrible, I barely paid attention to them (though of coure, they ended up just fine) and finished watching it “just to see what happened” with SeungAh.  (SPOILER ALERT) I'm happy to report that in the end, JB did the right thing, and though he clearly had no feelings for her, it was cool to see he wanted to make things good with SeungAh, I thought that was commendable. 
  So I ended up finishing the show with mixed feelings...You know what though, even though I was put-out so much of the time, I have to say that if it wasn’t for the show, I wouldn’t have come to love SeungAh as much as I do now- before watching this, she was just another member of Rainbow, and now when I watch those live performances, I see the sweet, thoughtful and PRETTY girl I came to know from the Romantic and The Idol!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Some Obligatory Seung Ah Pic Spam...

Because I'm not quite done with the feels I've been having for Seung Ah after that whole Romantic And The Idol debacle that made me totally fall in love with her, here is a bunch of obligatory Seung Ah Screencap Spam I've accumulated while watching Rainbow clips OVER and OVER again, in this case, the part of "Tell Me Tell Me" where she's doing a positively Hawaiian Hula Dancing Wave...

Hey, it occurs to me that not only is SeungAh doing a standard Hula Dance Move, in some earlier part of the song, the girls are even cutely making the "Shaka" sign! Did someone knowingly put in all these nods to Hawaii, or is it just my wishful thinking? LOLOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com