{"id":5454,"date":"2012-01-01T17:03:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T03:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/?p=5454"},"modified":"2013-01-01T21:16:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T07:16:24","slug":"62nd-annual-nhk-kouhaku-uta-gassen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/01\/01\/62nd-annual-nhk-kouhaku-uta-gassen\/","title":{"rendered":"62nd Annual NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, it&#8217;s that time of year again.\u00c2\u00a0 Wonder how things will be this time.\u00c2\u00a0 I imagine the earthquake and tsunami will be an underlying theme this year.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m doing this live again, so this post will be continually updated over the next several hours as the program progresses&#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Special guests are the Japan National Women&#8217;s Soccer team.\u00c2\u00a0 Uh-oh&#8230; here&#8217;s the opening &#8220;special stage&#8221;.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hamasaki Ayumi &#8211; No!\u00c2\u00a0 Just no!\u00c2\u00a0 Off-key yet again, especially in forced vibrato.\u00c2\u00a0 Repetitious melody within the song, in fact, it sounds like any of her other songs with different lyrics and orchestration?\u00c2\u00a0 Weak.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no idea why she is still in the industry.<\/li>\n<li>NYC &#8211; on-key pretty boys.\u00c2\u00a0 Are they actually singing live or lip-synching to a pre-recorded track?\u00c2\u00a0 If that was actually live, they are pretty good&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Angela Aki &#8211; here&#8217;s the &#8220;let&#8217;s cheering up&#8221; theme for the victims of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.\u00c2\u00a0 As usual, her performance is flawless, but I totally don&#8217;t go in for her style.\u00c2\u00a0 Still can&#8217;t take looking at her&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>flumpool &#8211; student choral backing for this song is well done, but the vocals of the actual flumpool members\u00c2\u00a0are terrible &#8211; painfully forced.\u00c2\u00a0 Mystery keyboard?\u00c2\u00a0 Still unimpressive after three years.<\/li>\n<li>AKB48 &#8211; I guess their melodies aren&#8217;t especially challenging, and the weak are drowned out in the flood of the masses, but they are yet again very good and surprisingly on-key.\u00c2\u00a0 This is all the more amazing considering all the choreography they have to do while singing.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m going to stop writing for a moment so I can enjoy this!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first &#8220;Ashita wo Utaou&#8221; special section &#8220;Kodomo Special&#8221; &#8211; Uh-oh&#8230; Mickey Mouse?\u00c2\u00a0 Good.\u00c2\u00a0 He&#8217;s gone.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Ashida Mana and Suzuki Fuku.\u00c2\u00a0 Ashida\u00c2\u00a0is in the L\/A version of Usagi Drop.\u00c2\u00a0 No!\u00c2\u00a0 Disney has taken over!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The Shiro-gumi leaders, Arashi join Disney characters in a brainwashing rendition of the &#8220;It&#8217;s a Small World&#8221; corporate theme.\u00c2\u00a0 Noooo!\u00c2\u00a0 I don&#8217;t want!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FUNKY MONKEY BABYS &#8211; on-key and forceful.\u00c2\u00a0 Even moreso with the Ouendan backing!\u00c2\u00a0 Still no turntable action&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Nishino Maya &#8211; generic pop, though she&#8217;s got really good range and tight pitch.\u00c2\u00a0 She could really take off if her producers give her some interesting material, instead of TV drama theme song material.\u00c2\u00a0 She&#8217;s scary-skinny &#8211; like Enomoto Kanako.<\/li>\n<li>A A A &#8211; is this the theme song for some yaoi Sunrise robot fighting anime?\u00c2\u00a0 Goofy dancing.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the male singers is really off, such that it makes the other three and the two female vocalists seem really on.<\/li>\n<li>Kawanaka Miyuki &#8211; the\u00c2\u00a0vibrato queen of enka is back again.\u00c2\u00a0 Goofy comedic ballroom backdancing!<\/li>\n<li>Hirai Ken &#8211; performs his magnum opus theme from the drama &#8220;Jin&#8221;, &#8220;Itoshiki Hibi yo&#8221;.\u00c2\u00a0 Pitch perfect even in\u00c2\u00a0falestto as we&#8217;ve come to expect from Hirai.<\/li>\n<li>Fuji Ayako\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; grand stage enka performance<\/li>\n<li>Hosokawa Takashi &#8211; continuing the grand enka stage with the AKB48 girls and a nebuta theme<\/li>\n<li>Mizuki Nana &#8211; the Okui Masami of the aughts is back again for her third year.\u00c2\u00a0 Her early enka training shows through in her perfect pitch.\u00c2\u00a0 Three years on the Kouhaku is pretty good for a anime-theme-song crossover &#8211; not that she lacks talent, but the industry is generally hostile\/dismissive to anyone who comes from the anime side.<\/li>\n<li>Pornografitti &#8211; flashback to &#8217;80&#8217;s power rock sounds surprisingly like a sentai\/tokusatsu show theme song&#8230; The vocalist is at least on key, although this is pretty unremarkable.<\/li>\n<li>Inawashiro-ko&#8217;z\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; acoustic folksy tribute to Fukushima.\u00c2\u00a0 Can one really say a song for the victims of a disaster sucks?\u00c2\u00a0 Although well-intentioned, this piece was weakly written and not well performed.<\/li>\n<li>Kodai Natsuko &#8211; As expected, a solid enka performance.<\/li>\n<li>L&#8217;Arc en Ciel &#8211; good guitars: lame vocals. This might be a good studio track, but they suck live, and the general feel of the song seemed too pompous.<\/li>\n<li>Mizumori Kaori &#8211; her wide vocal range will ensure her a place in the ranks of the enka greats.\u00c2\u00a0 Her low notes are especially powerful<\/li>\n<li>Mori Shinichi &#8211; emotively breathless at times, his emotionally charged tribute to Kesennuma, Miyagi was well received.<\/li>\n<li>Shiina Ringo\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; acoustic-backed contemporary vocalist\u00c2\u00a0 breaks into big-band ballad in the second half.\u00c2\u00a0 She doesn&#8217;t really have a strong voice, and tends to break at higher and lower ranges.\u00c2\u00a0 Still not done yet?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The second &#8220;Ashita wo Utaou&#8221; special &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221; -\u00c2\u00a0a tribute to children born during the Tohoku disaster with Natsukawa Rimi and operatic tenor Akikawa Masafumi.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>KARA &#8211; K-pop 5-girl idol group. They seem on-key, but it may be just lip-synching.\u00c2\u00a0 Fabio might like this, but I&#8217;m totally not interested.\u00c2\u00a0 Totally marketing driven and not talent driven.<\/li>\n<li>Tokunaga Hideaki\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; contemporary male vocal. Not quite pitch-perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 For some reason I felt his performance was lacking on the emotive front.<\/li>\n<li>Perfume &#8211; even with the autotune vocals and their terrible shoes, I really can&#8217;t hate them as much as I used to.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s so hypnotic&#8230;\u00c2\u00a0 Man, they are really not pretty girls.<\/li>\n<li>TOKIO &#8211; Like SMAP, these &#8220;old men of boy-pop&#8221; struggle with the pitch now that they aren&#8217;t teens and twenty-somethings anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 When they all sing together in the chorus it is a little less apparent, but it&#8217;s still there.<\/li>\n<li>Shoujou Jidai (<em>Sonyeo Shidae<\/em>\/Girl&#8217;s Generation) &#8211; heavily choreographed K-pop ensemble girl group.\u00c2\u00a0 Song is not vocally challenging, so their abilities aren&#8217;t really tested.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of &#8220;we&#8217;re same but different&#8221; visuals.\u00c2\u00a0 Lip-sync?<\/li>\n<li>Go Hiromi &#8211; the 57-year-old Go still holds the notes through this inspirational medly of past hits.<\/li>\n<li>Aiko &#8211; generic pop.\u00c2\u00a0 This one better suited her vocal range, as she only went off key in the low ranges.<\/li>\n<li>Yuzu &#8211; has the pop duo finally learned two-part-harmony?\u00c2\u00a0 Nope.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they&#8217;re destined to be forever ordinary.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the choral backing can&#8217;t save this one.<\/li>\n<li>Kouda Kumi &#8211; she has such a good voice that it is a shame that she is totally stuck in a tiny pigeonhole in the pop genre nowadays.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s totally marketing, although the press will spin that it is the directon that her musical growth is taking her: This is all dictated by the producers and recording companies.\u00c2\u00a0 At least she still performs actually live &#8211; note the mic bump at the end.<\/li>\n<li>Tohoshinki (TVXQ) &#8211; sounds like these K-pop guys found Perfume&#8217;s autotune processor.\u00c2\u00a0 The rap portion was surprisingly good, considering how terrible K-rap usually is.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The third &#8220;Ashita wo Utaou&#8221; segment,\u00c2\u00a0&#8220;Nippon no Arashi&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; Arashi performs their uplifting, &#8220;Furusato&#8221;.\u00c2\u00a0 Intercuts of people from the affected areas singing along in the background show that recovery is taking place.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably the most positive message of the entire show, in contrast to the &#8220;gambatte&#8221; theme that is being hammered in at other times.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hirahara\u00c2\u00a0Ayaka\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; contemporary female vocalist flawlessly sings her theme song from the NHK drama &#8220;Ohisama&#8221;.\u00c2\u00a0 Her rich voice never fails to imress.<\/li>\n<li>Sen Masao &#8211; sings his &#8220;Kitaguni no Haru&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The fourth &#8220;Ashita wo\u00c2\u00a0Utaou&#8221; segment &#8220;Sekai kara no Message&#8221; features uplifting messages from personalities around the world, including Jackie Chan<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kobayashi Sachiko &#8211; her performance is one of the &#8220;must see&#8221; acts every year.\u00c2\u00a0 This year is no different.\u00c2\u00a0 Bedecked in gold, she almost resembles a Kannon figure.\u00c2\u00a0 The stage becomes an animated lion mask that engulfs her and she rises from its head.<\/li>\n<li>Nishida Toshiyuki &#8211; more well-known as an actor playing goofy, comedic though warm-hearted characters , he comes to the stage to sing a tribute to his hometown Koriyama, Fukushima.\u00c2\u00a0 His voice is distinct, and his singing ability is great.<\/li>\n<li>Ayaka &#8211; pop?\u00c2\u00a0 Contemporary female vocal?\u00c2\u00a0 She&#8217;s a little on the breathless side on this one.\u00c2\u00a0 She pushes her range again, but isn&#8217;t quite pitch-perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 Song is rather generic -\u00c2\u00a0beginnig\u00c2\u00a0sounds like the opening theme from some anime&#8230; can&#8217;t remember\u00c2\u00a0the name.<\/li>\n<li>Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi &#8211; contemporary male vocalist.\u00c2\u00a0 Active in the recovery effort, he sings live from in front of a gutted school building in the stricken area.<\/li>\n<li>Wada Akiko &#8211; Like last year, it&#8217;s still good to see her even\u00c2\u00a0though her pitch is going.\u00c2\u00a0 It wouldn&#8217;t be a Kouhaku without her&#8230; of course I said the same thing about Mikawa Kenichi, and here we are.<\/li>\n<li>Arashi &#8211; they&#8217;re still young enough to hold a note on songs simple enough to break SMAP.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact for the most part they are all singing the same part does help mask the flaws though, but here and there they actually are harmonizing, which is more that can be said for either TOKIO or SMAP.<\/li>\n<li>Ikimonogakari &#8211; is this a movie or TV drama theme song.\u00c2\u00a0 Sounds like a cover of a The Indigo track&#8230; but a little off-key.<\/li>\n<li>Itsuki Hiroshi &#8211; the technical master of enka sets the standard that all others must be judged\u00c2\u00a0by.<\/li>\n<li>Matsuda Seiko\/Kanda Saeko\u00c2\u00a0&#8211; oh man.\u00c2\u00a0 Matsuda is still around?\u00c2\u00a0 Isn&#8217;t it bad enough that we have to suffer through Hamaguri Ayumi?\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s a\u00c2\u00a0duet with a new artist, so maybe it won&#8217;t be too bad&#8230; Oh man, it&#8217;s &#8220;Ue wo Muite Arukou&#8221;!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I can&#8217;t tell who&#8217;s off-key.\u00c2\u00a0 Is that bacon?<\/li>\n<li>Hikawa Kiyoshi &#8211; woo hoo!\u00c2\u00a0 What says &#8220;enka&#8221; more than a mariachi band and a matador suit?!\u00c2\u00a0 Aweseome staging and a solid performance.\u00c2\u00a0 Okay, the Mexican theme was weird, but what the hey!<\/li>\n<li>Sakamoto Fuyumi &#8211; wow.\u00c2\u00a0 Her version of &#8220;Sakura, Sakura\u00c2\u00a0&#8220;, &#8220;Yozakura o Shichi<\/li>\n<li>Fukuyama Masaharu &#8211; whee.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet again I&#8217;m unimpressed.\u00c2\u00a0 At least this year he&#8217;s not lip-synching.\u00c2\u00a0 He <em>can<\/em> sing, but <em>should<\/em> he?<\/li>\n<li>Matsutoya Yumi &#8211; contemporary female vocal.\u00c2\u00a0 Her long career spans many genres.\u00c2\u00a0 Otaku may recognize her voice from the theme song from the original language version of Studio Ghibli&#8217;s Kiki&#8217;s Delivery Service.<\/li>\n<li>EXILE &#8211; they&#8217;re on key for a change&#8230; no, wait &#8211; I spoke too soon.\u00c2\u00a0 The shave-head guy is way flat.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess the mass-effect during the chorus hides the off-key-ness.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s like Swedish-disco-revival.<\/li>\n<li>Tendou Yoshimi &#8211; she successfully channels Hibari Misora as nobody else can.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the best 5 female voices in enka.\u00c2\u00a0 Somebody pass the tissue&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Kitajima Saburou &#8211; oh great enka no kamisama!\u00c2\u00a0 With choral backing, he renders a new arrangement of &#8220;Kaero ka na?&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 He&#8217;s still got it.<\/li>\n<li>Ishikawa Sayuri &#8211; a fitting end to the red team&#8217;s presentations comes Ishikawa&#8217;s flawless rendition of her eponymous &#8220;Tsugarukaikyo Fuyugeshiki&#8221;. \u00c2\u00a0 Wow.<\/li>\n<li>SMAP &#8211; I give them a hand for trying.\u00c2\u00a0 They even make a working attempt at multi-part-harmony!\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s hard to pick out a &#8220;weak link&#8221; since they&#8217;re all so bad, but again this year, Nakai and Kimura take the cake for flatness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In all (with the exception\u00c2\u00a0of the K-pop groups), this year was better than last year.\u00c2\u00a0 The &#8220;Gambatte Nippon&#8221; message was ladled on rather heavy-handedly, but I did find the segments showing recovery to be inspiring and comforting.\u00c2\u00a0 I think coming off\u00c2\u00a0the disaster, a certain amount of &#8220;just fun&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0elements have to be incorporated so as not to foster a &#8220;dwelling&#8221; feeling and promote a more &#8220;moving forward&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0goal without &#8220;forgetting&#8221;.\u00c2\u00a0 Finding that balance is difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 I think they got pretty close.\u00c2\u00a0 &#8230;oh, yeah, no monkeys this year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, it&#8217;s that time of year again.\u00c2\u00a0 Wonder how things will be this time.\u00c2\u00a0 I imagine the earthquake and tsunami will be an underlying theme this year.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m doing this live again, so this post will be continually updated over the next several hours as the program progresses&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[7,12,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJYlx-1pY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6765,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5454\/revisions\/6765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}