KOH+ -- Koi no Maryoku（恋の魔力）

 

Being a "Doctor Who" fan since Jon Pertwee's time in the role as the Third Doctor, I was surprised to find out through the social networking platform Mixi that there actually was a Japanese community of "Doctor Who" fans. One day, one question that I put out in the community was if there were a Japanese version of everyone's favourite Time Lord, which Japanese actors/actresses could play the different regenerations.

     

     

Well, I was rather excited to suggest the above three fellows. From left to right to down, we have Koji Yakusho（役所広司）(yes, it is Walmart and unfortunately the source has been taken down) from the original "Shall We Dance?", the manic Yo Oizumi（大泉洋）, and the leader of Arashi（嵐）, Satoshi Ohno（大野智）. The links for the names are just to acknowledge their sources.

Now, it's not as if I went through their entire filmographies to research this down; I just went on looks and hunch alone. The interesting thing was that although I didn't obtain much in the way of nibbles from those Japanese fans, one person did counter with actor/singer Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）. This was because of his role as the brilliant but eccentric physics professor Manabu Yukawa in the Fuji-TV drama "Galileo"（ガリレオ）based on the original novel series by Keigo Higashino（東野圭吾）. He has to bicker and work together with his partner in crime-solving, rookie detective Kaoru Utsumi, played by fellow actor/singer Ko Shibasaki（柴咲コウ）. Well, with that combination of weird genius and long-suffering partner, I gather that the comparisons with the good Doctor and companion would come to mind.

Anyways, the video at the very top of the article is the trailer for the next "Galileo" movie, due out this September titled "Chinmoku no Parade"（沈黙のパレード...Parade of Silence）. However, the very first season of the franchise debuted all the way back in 2007.

With both main actors able to perform behind the mike, the producer for the first season of "Galileo", Yoshihiro Suzuki（鈴木吉弘）, thought that having both of them record the theme song would be good so the duo KOH+ was born, and their first single "Kiss Shite"（KISSして...Kiss Me） was released in November 2007. This was followed by "Saiai"（最愛...Beloved） which was used as the theme song for a 2008 cinematic entry in the franchise.

Then, there was the second season of the series on television, and so KOH+ released a digital download single in May 2013 titled "Koi no Maryoku" (Magic of Love). Ironically, Shibasaki only guested on the first episode of this new season before passing the baton to another actress who would portray the good professor's new partner. Producer Suzuki had originally wanted that first theme song "Kiss Shite" to be as cheerful as possible to counter the fact that there was always going to be a death in each episode, and my impression is that "Koi no Maryoku" is following the tradition. Fukuyama wrote and composed the song; his role in KOH+ is guitarist and backing vocals (the "+" as it were), while Shibasaki is the main vocalist. It can also be found on the latter's BEST compilation "KO SHIBASAKI ALL TIME BEST" released in December 2017 which peaked at No. 33 on Oricon.

The above commercial was the first time for me to see Shibasaki back in the late 1990s, and I got a whole lot of twinkling eyes and beaming smile.