Kaela Kimura -- Level 42

 

It was news that I had been dreading but wasn't all that surprised to hear when it broke a few hours ago. Perhaps for many people reading this blog, the name Alex Trebek isn't a familiar one. However for millions of Canadians and Americans, he was as familiar as that most cordial uncle since he appeared nightly on television as the host of the very popular game show "Jeopardy".

Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, the same province of my own birth and growth, I hadn't known for many years that he was Canadian since he seemed to be an eternal presence on American game shows but when I did find out, I had to go naruhodo since his personality just seemed to characterize that stereotypical Canadian sense of calm and politeness. I then expected him to blurt out "Sorry" every few words.

A couple of years ago, Trebek himself announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and when I heard the stage number and the name of that disease, I predicted the worst. However, he kept on working as the host of "Jeopardy" while undergoing a lot of treatment to stave off the disease. I was really hoping that he would somehow pull through but unfortunately, it was announced that Trebek passed away at the age of 80 today.

Game shows have been a staple on Japanese TV, too, although I don't get the impression now that they are quite as prevalent as they once were. As with their American equivalents, they can be just as bright and exciting, but the major difference between Japanese and American game shows is that the former usually has professional TV personalities as the contestants instead of regular folk. I had always wondered why when I read a newspaper article in which a game show producer in Japan was asked why tarento were brought in instead of citizens, and he rather snarked out "I actually want my show to be fun to watch." Ouch!😣

Anyways, one such game show that was pretty fun to watch was "Sarujie"（サルヂエ）, an NTV program that had started out as a late-night entry in 2004 before making its way to prime time a year later and lasting until 2007. It was the usual word-play quiz segments featuring some of the top celebrities hosted by comedian Takashi Fujii（藤井隆）and a couple of others dressed as if they had just come off the set of a "Planet of the Apes" sequel. Why? I've got no idea. The reasons that I enjoyed the show was that Fujii was basically the Jim Carrey of Japanese comedy at the time and "Sarujie" often put up some innovative quizzes that wracked my brain as I lay on my pillow.

"Sarujie" apparently had a rash of ending themes during its three-year run with the first one being Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）"Level 42". It was also Kimura's single released first as an indies song in May 2004 before getting a subsequent release as her first major single a month later. 

It's always fascinating hearing a debut single of someone that you have known for a long time for the first time, and it's certainly Kimura's sound with the pop/rock but there was something more plaintive in her vocals for "Level 42". Plus, she really looked like an adorable junior high school kid in that music video which had been filmed at Yushima Seido Temple in Tokyo (she was around 19 at the time). Written by Kimura and composed by Taiyo Yamazawa（山沢大洋）, according to J-Wiki, only 390 copies of that indies release had been put onto the shelf at 390 yen each at one outlet of the Shinseido music store in Kanagawa Prefecture but within three minutes, everything was sold out with hundreds of other people trying to get their hands on it.

At around the same time, Kimura had been the host of a weekday morning music-variety program "Saku Saku" on TV Kanagawa and it was from there that "Level 42" was born. Incidentally, the song title has nothing to do with the famous British band of the 1980s, Level 42 (of which I'm a big fan); apparently, Kimura thought up of the number 42 since it was the channel number for TV Kanagawa in its analog days. In terms of the lyrics, Kimura had wanted to sing about what life would be like for her in 10 years. Happily, she's gone far past that point in her music career. "Level 42" made it to No. 14 on Oricon and it's also a track on her debut album "KAELA" from December 2004 which peaked at No. 8 and ended up as the 101st-ranked album for 2005.

Anyways, to come full circle, here are some of Alex Trebek's moments as host of "Jeopardy".