Oooh yeeaaah...😎
I feel like it has been a long time since Ikuzo Yoshi (吉幾三) released anything zany and comical. I believe the last silly tune he came up with was "NDA![んだ！]", the reggae-enka fusion from 2008. It's been the manly or depressing side of enka being touched on since then, that is, until "Otona no Tama Ire" came about in the middle of last month (16th August 2017).
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| Gotta love that "Otona no Tama Ire" face. |
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"Otona no Tama Ire" is a duet between Yoshi and his buddy George (Joji) Yamamoto (山本譲二), and just from the single jacket art with the former in sunglasses and the latter with a backwards cap you can tell that it isn't going to be some cry-in-your-sake or brotherly love enka. As the title implies, "Otona no Tama Ire" is instead about pachinko and a pair of oji-sans who are so obsessed with the game that they'd play it at any given moment. Accompanying the unorthodox (for want of a better word) premises is a glitzy disco score that has a touch of enka, and a whole lot of yelling and cackling. Then there's the hilarious MV to add the cherry on top of the nutso cake that never fails to crack me up. I don't know which is funnier: Yamamoto gloating over a win while Yoshi's face is contorted in disgust, Yoshi trying to walk a dog plushie, or the deliberately unglamourous closeups of their crazed expressions.
According to Yamamoto's blog entry regarding their new single, the idea for "Otona no Tama Ire" came about over some sake when one of them (not sure which one) suggested they'd create a funny song to sing together. The theme of pachinko was decided on after Yamamoto heard what Yoshi had composed, and I guess you could say the rest was history. F.Y.I., the first video is the slightly longer version of the song from Yoshi's record company, while the one here from Yamamoto's only has the starting bit but with additional comments about the MV from the two singers. It's really nice to see them cut loose and have fun again.
Here's a karaoke version of "Otona no Tama Ire". The only full version of the song I could find were karaoke versions, but the guy in this one did a pretty decent job.
Personally, I don't know all that much about pachinko. I've recently read that it's kind of like a pinball machine, but rather than preventing a ball from falling to the bottom, you're supposed to get as many little metal balls into cups (?), which are only slightly bigger than the balls themselves, as you can. Then you can trade whatever you've collected for a prize. Although it seems to be an institution in Japan and there are machines that feature celebrities like Yuzo Kayama (加山雄三) and Kiyoshi Hikawa (氷川きよし), I don't think I'll bother playing it - I don't have such luck or skill when it comes to games like this.
Hello, Noelle.
ReplyDeleteAgreed here. It's time to have Ikuzo making with the funny again...the surprise being George joining in the pachinko mayhem. I usually see the latter guy as being the ramrod-straight deadly earnest singer.
I've played pachinko a few times but never got into it. The noise and smoke couldn't have been good for one's health in the long term. However, a couple of my students actually took me to a parlor in Akasaka which was smoke-free and family-friendly!
One thing I learned though on TV once. If foreigners are looking for clean Western-style toilets, the advice is either look for department stores or pachinko parlors.
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteYamamoto does come across as rather intense and for the most part he is, but the moment you put him with Yoshi all hell would break loose. Case in point, "Otona no Tama Ire".
Wow, pachinko? Family-friendly? Now, that's a first for me! I guess the kids there can groomed to be future pachinko lovers.
Thanks for the advice on toilets. I know about the department store bit (it's one of the nuggets of wisdom Grandpa left behind), but I didn't know about pachinko parlors being another option. I think the chaos tends to have me avoiding the whole place all together.