Favorite Hikaru Singles: "Pun Pun Pun"

Silly song name, but CATCHY tune! As the opening track for Hikaru's third album in 1990, it immediately grabbed you...til you thought about the title and went "...whaaa?" Song credits say it's written by CHAGE. Is this like, CHAGE of CHAGE and ASKA? Did he write this for Hikaru? We need info!

I remember talking to Golden about Tokimeki No Prologue and him sheepishly saying "Hey you know, that Punpunpun song...it's pretty good!" I had to laugh and wholeheartedly agree!!!

"Ue O Muite Aruko"

When I first got into J-pop, the J-pop Buyer  at work made me a cassette (the first of many, it would turn out) of the latest j-pop singles out at the time, and it was then that I first heard artists I would later come to love, like Nakayama Miho, Hiramatsu Eri, and Koizumi Kyoko!

Anyway, the mix began with an explosive little number called “Shiawase Wo Tsukamitai (which I’ve gushed about in an earlier post) by quirky singer/songwriter Hirose Kohmi, and that wasn’t all, as the second song on that cassette mix was yet another Kohmi song, but this one was a lot more fun and playful, a GREAT contrast to the previous ROCKIN’ tune!

 The song was called “Dramatic Ni Koishite” and for a while I ‘d thought my friend had simply put the Shiawase Wo Tsukamitai single and its B side together,(as they almost seemed connected) but it wasn’t, as I was to find out when I actually purchased the Shiawase Tsukamitai single and found a DIFFERENT song entirely as the B side! It wasn’t until I picked up Kohmi’s stellar HARVEST album that I finally GOT the happy Dramatic Ni Koishite tune in my possession!

Anyway, fast forward a few years, and I’m not only quite heavily into j-dramas, but have reached the point where I’m trading with other j-drama enthusiasts online. It was there that I hooked up with someone who had a copy of a wacky little comedy called UE O MUITE ARUKO, which I was DYING to see because of my burning love for its lead star, Nishida Hikaru!

Nishida Hikaru in Ue O Muite Aruko

 Ue O Muite Aruko is the story of a gofer named Chiaki (Nishida) at a zany TV station where she’s the perpetual slave to the station’s snobby and bossy Sports Commentator played by Tachi Hiroshi; from the get go, they are at each other’s throats, and the running gag is that he calls her “Kobuta” (Piggy) and she retaliates by calling him “Wani”!  With a supporting cast that included Katsunori Takahashi, Ishida Yuriko, the ever-zany Ibu Masato, as well as a very young Tomosaka Rie, this show was as fun as it could get!

Nishida Hikaru as Chiaki "Kobuta" Hosoi

And with every fun drama, comes an equally fun theme song and opening credits, right? In this show, I was kind of expecting the theme song to be the latest single from Hikaru herself, or (most likely) some rendition of the famous Kyu Sakamoto song that the show was named after! So I’m sitting there watching the show, and as it goes into its wacky opening credits, who do I hear, but Ms. KOHMI HIROSE, belting out DRAMATIC NI KOISHITE!

 I just fell over- THAT SONG WAS JUST PERFECT!!!! Sooo much fun as the song follows Nishida Hikaru battling against Tachi Hiroshi in the grand  “Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner style- it REALLY matches the visuals as the two chase each other across the cartoon town, ultimately coming to a Three-Stooges-style ending with the title proclaiming (in “Looney Tunes font): The KOBUTA and WANI Show!!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Below: Hikaru, Hiroshi Tachi and Yuriko Ishida magazine promotion for Ue Wo Muite Aruko!

This must have been only the fourth or fifth drama Yuriko Ishida ever did...who could have guessed from these humble beginnings what a terrific career she had ahead of her!

Various GORO Magazine Covers

 

Various GORO issues which Hikaru has graced the covers of.
Definitely some of the better covers, some of my FAVORITE covers of Hikaru have been from GORO.

I remember there was one I desperately wanted Groinksan to get me from Japan, Hikaru looked SO goddamn fine on it!!!

Oh, The Irony...

Ah, CD Japan, you just keep me in stitches! It's funny enough when I'm getting deluged with alerts for releases that have barely any connection to the artists I've ordered (order an Arashi CD once, and you get weekly alerts for months when someone even remotely associated with Johnnys appears on a magazine cover, and you have no idea how many times Ohno Satoshi's been on a magazine cover this year!), but it's even more funny when I randomly check in on an artist that I DO love, and find that they've released something new months ago with nary a peep from them! AHAHA!

  This happened before with both Nishida Hikaru and Ribbon when Pony Canyon released special "Complete Single Double Disc collections: by the time I found out about it, only the regular single disc was available! I was able to get the Nishida Hikaru one via ebay, but the ribbon one remains out of my grasp to this day! Since both artists were on my list of alerts, I'm wondering if the day they sent to email my smap filter was on high and directed it to my trash bin, or if they simply didn't bother! 

  Case in point: So I'm browsing through old favorite Yumi Matsutoya's catalog, and I was pretty surprised when I saw that not only had Yuming released a new album called ROAD SHOW, it had come out last July!!! LAST JULY?!!! GADS! So I hurriedly sent out that order, and unless there was some kind of limited edition that I missed out on (seeing as how the CD I got was a regular cased release), it looks like I caught the tail end of that order in the nick of time! I'll be sure to give y'all a proper analysis of this new album but i'll need time to catch my breath! WHEW!

The "19 Dreams" Corner

Back when I was living in Mililani, there was this grove of trees at a street corner that I walked past every day that would remind me of the inside sleeve of one of Nishida Hikaru’s albums. It could be simply that at the time, Hikaru Nishida was my favorite artist and so perhaps I simply had “Hikaru on the Brain”, nonetheless, I thought of the album every time I saw the corner, and in fact, subsequently, several songs on the album REMIND ME OF THAT CORNER now!

The album in question was 19 Dreams, Hikaru’s wonderful fifth Pony Canyon release, featuring such fave songs as Happy Dream, Meguriai, Hohoemi Ni Yakusoku, and one of my very VERY fave songs from her, Ikiterutte Subarashii, so you can bet I listened to that album a LOT back then.

Recently, I was listening to the CD, and of course the music took me back, and I began reminiscing about that old corner. Just HOW MUCH did it actually look like the picture in the booklet? To satisfy my curiosity, I drove out there the past weekend, and visited that corner to see for myself!

First, the actual Booklet picture:

And “The Corner”…

AHAHAHA The Verdict? Well, I don’t know if the tress and shrubs/foliage grew or changed a lot since the 15 years when I lived there, but MAN that corner wouldn’t remind ANYONE of the Hikaru album, would it? AHAHAHA, at least, anyone except a Hikaru-obsessed fan! LOL!

Well, OK, squinting my eyes and focusing purely on the trees in the background, I can sort of see what probably made my brain think “Ah! 19 Dreams!”, but it’s not close enough to make it worthy to blog about, for chrissakes (whoops, too late…gomen)

Young JUMP 1995

 

Favorite Hikaru Songs: Kimi No Yukini Kampai"

I had mentioned how Mochida Maki's song Anata No Yukini Naritai reminded me of Nishida Hikaru's song Kimi No Yukini Kampai, and I thought that there may be a few of you out there who'd like to hear just what that song sounded like!

While this song was never released as a single, it's one of the best songs (on a record already filled with great stuff) on Hikaru's 1991 album ESPRIT, and in fact has been one of my favorite songs of hers for years! I went ahead and ripped the track into an MP3, then figured, what the heck, I'll get out my Hikaru Laserdiscs and share a performance of her singing the song in concert as well!

This genki live performance off of Hikaru's 1991 Concert Manatsu Jouzu!

PS: Wonder if we'll ever get an official DVD release box set of all Hikaru's concerts. Some real gems in them and would love to have them on DVD or (if we're dreaming ) blu-ray!

Favorite Hikaru Songs: “Til The End Of Time”

 “Til The End of Time” is the sweet and melancholy final track off of Hikaru’s “19 Dreams”,  an awesome closing song to an altogether stellar album! Already in a sombre mood from songs like “Meguriai” and “Tomodachi Ni Naritai”, Til The End Of Time really hits it home with the feels.

Hikaru herself penned the lyrics to the song, and while they are very basic and straightforward, there is real sincerity in her singing, and she is accompanied by a wonderful backing track, starting off with strumming guitars and building up to a swelling violin as she sings “The secrets taht we share…I Promise You” before dropping off to a gentle”…til the end…of time.”

And adding to the grandeur of this closing track, they have this nice little instrumental refrain of the song with some nice “power ballad” guitars, bringing the album to its final note!

I always thought it was nice that Hikaru had written the lyrics to the song, however I was to find it not so appealing to others when I made a mix of some Hikaru songs for a friend.He listened to it once and when I asked him how he liked it, he responded with a smirk, “You know that song…”Til the End of Time? Bet she wrote those lyrics herself!” Well, it was true and said so. “That’s what I figured!” he said, calling out it’s “amateur” prose, OUCH!

That’s always the risk when you are sharing something you love with someone. Part of you hopes they will see what makes the thing special like you do, but  at the same time, you leave it open for judgement and insulting comments. It’s a real shame too because 19 Dreams is one of my top2 Hikaru Nishida albums and i still consider Til the End of Time a grand closing song. But no matter how many people I meet who love the song, no matter what, It’s that comment by my friend that I think of whenever I play the album. Sigh.

Scorer 1991.12

 

Scorer 1990.08

 

Scorer 1990 04.26