I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach this particular song and the incident that occurred partially because of it, but here goes.
Not 100% certain whether this sort of scene has come up enough times in the history of Hollywood to reach meme or cliché status, but I've sometimes watched a certain scene in a movie in which the main character or characters are all lined up in front of a figure of authority to get royally chewed out for some sort of malfeasance or misadventure, sometimes for humourous effect, as the list of charges is read out. Of course, being a Trekkie, the first example that comes to mind is the scene near the end of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" where Admiral Kirk and his loyal bridge crew get lined up in front of the Federation President as he reads the various charges for the misdemeanors that Jimmy T. and company pulled off in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" to rescue pop culture's favourite Vulcan.
I believe that I've also seen similar scenes play out in the Barbra Streisand farce "What's Up, Doc?" and Tom Cruise's "Top Gun".
Well, if you can bear with me for a number of lines, maybe I can replay that sort of scene for you. The two folks here will be rock singer/actor Koji Kikkawa（吉川晃司）and the head of his management company. Imagine Kikkawa standing ramrod straight in front of the president's enormous oaken desk. It's New Year's Day 1986 and neither of them pictured being in the same office together on that day.
President (barely containing his rage): Well, let's see, Mr. Kikkawa. I've got the following charges here from NHK.
Kikkawa (gulps): Uh, yes, sir.
President: You appeared on the 36th Kohaku Utagassen last night to perform your song.
Kikkawa: That's right, sir.
President (sarcastically): Yeah, that's right. You proceeded to run on stage, swallowing down a bottle of my champagne and then spitting a mixture of my Dom Perignon and your saliva all over the stage.
Kikkawa: Yes, sir.
President: Plus, that special cocktail got onto some of the audience.
Kikkawa: ...
President: You actually jumped into the front seats and crashed into an operating camera.
Kikkawa: ...
President: You then proceeded to run long in your performance leading to Miss Naoko Kawai's having to short-circuit her own performance because your hijinks ran into hers.
Kikkawa: Uh...I did apologize to her, sir.
President: And then you inexplicably lit your guitar on fire and exploded it, apparently unaware of the concept of blast radius.
Kikkawa: Well, not inexplicably, sir. I was trying to emulate my hero, Jimi Hendrix...
President: AND the next performers on the White Team, Shibugaki-tai, ended up slip-sliding all over the stage because of that amazing solution of champagne and spit that you left on the stage!
Kikkawa: Well, uh...
President: YOU HAD ONE JOB! WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!
Kikkawa: Ah...did I get the best ratings of the night?
Of course, the above is a purely fictionalized tale. I don't know what the aftermath of one of the strangest incidents in Kohaku history was, but all of the stunts that have been described actually did happen live according to the special section in Kikkawa's J-Wiki article, although supposedly the burning of the guitar was not picked up by the cameras. I am pretty confident though that someone around the singer probably gave him the biggest tongue-lashing since grade school, even if it hadn't been the president. And on top of that, he was banned from NHK for several years (pure speculation, but maybe Keisuke Kuwata gave him a thumbs-up😁), although it looks like he was finally forgiven going into the 21st century.
Former KKP contributor Jari first related the story of the Kikkawa Incident in his article on Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）"Debut" which was the song that she was supposed to have sung right after Kikkawa's performance (she ended up singing half of it). Indeed, Kikkawa did end up apologizing to the aidoru.
As for an explanation for the unexpected excitement as the top batter for the White Team, the singer stated that he had gotten rather miffed about the hullabaloo surrounding various music prizes probably being selected based more on the political power of the production staffs and record companies along with that small feeling of rebellion against the run-of-the-mill operations of the annual Kohaku Utagassen so he decided to shake things up a tad. He then admitted that unfortunately he let things get out of hand and by the time he realized that, it was already too late. The above here I was able to get via J-Wiki from various magazines and TV shows.
To be fair, though, the Kikkawa Incident hasn't been the only kerfuffle to have the NHK switchboard light up like a Xmas tree, but it certainly was one of the most memorable. But ironically, that wasn't the case for me. I barely remember the incident; actually, the one clear memory that I have from the 36th Edition is the performance by Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）.
All of that surrounds Kikkawa's 5th single, the pop-rock "Nikumaresouna NEW Face" (Could Hate That New Face) released in April 1985. In light of the incident, though, maybe the title could have been changed to "Nikumaresouna LOST Face" (sorry, sorry). In any case, this was Kikkawa's 2nd No. 1 in a row, following his "You Gotta Chance" that had come out earlier in January.
Written by Hideki Andoh（安藤秀樹）and composed by the rock band NOBODY, the whole song was arranged by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, who also performed on the song. Despite all of the controversy from that one New Year's Eve, "Nikumaresouna NEW Face" isn't too bad on the ears at all, and there is something pretty cool in Kikkawa's delivery. There is perhaps even something rather BOOWY-esque about it, and if the singer had only toned down the antics on the Kohaku, I think the song and performance would have been well-matched...if only he had left the champagne in NHK's Green Room. And cynically speaking, his performance may have even sparked a spike in sales at the record shops into the new year.
"Nikumaresouna NEW Face" ended up as the 36th-ranked single of 1985, and it can also be found in Kikkawa's first BEST album "beat goes on" which was released in April 1988. The album hit No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies. Now, at least, I've got another Kikkawa song that I know quite well, next to "Monica".
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