Sunday, January 3, 2021

J-Canuck's Own Thoughts on the 71st Kohaku Utagassen for 2020(第71回NHK紅白歌合戦)

 

I've mentioned in past articles that the Kohaku Utagassen editions that I was really keyed into were the first three that were actually broadcast here in Toronto, namely the ones for 1981, 1982 and 1983. And then, the annual New Year's Eve NHK special became that program that our family would watch and tape on VHS but not really pay much attention afterwards. Then, heading to Japan for all those years, it was often the case that I didn't even bother watching the show since I was actually out with friends enjoying the coming of the new year at places like Zojoji Temple in downtown Tokyo. Coming back to Canada a decade ago, I got re-acquainted with the Kohaku again since my parents were still taping the show with the usual customs of them griping about the quality of the participants and then my brother quickly fast-forwarding through the vast majority of stuff until he stopped at places where he wanted to confirm someone's identity.

(February 3, 2021: Sorry to interrupt but should let you know that not surprisingly, much of the YouTube footage of the actual Kohaku has been taken down so I've tried to replace them with some of the participants' songs from other shows. Otherwise I'll just have to use my apple pie placeholder.)

Of course, I'm not one to talk either since I haven't really put up anything regarding the Kohaku Utagassen in terms of my reactions over the past several years, and that's because there wasn't really much for me to talk about the show as a whole, although I have noted singers and songs that I got to know for the first time because they were invited to come onto the program. That hasn't changed for the 2020 edition either if you've noticed my articles on Kohaku newbies milet and Eito(瑛人). The Kohaku followed the same pattern year after year: NHK Shibuya Hall, a full audience, a gaggle of hosts, the mix of new songs and old favourites, comedic sideshows and then the final announcement of which team won followed by the standard rendition of "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光).

Well, things were quite different this year and that was known pretty early on in 2020 when NHK announced that due to the pandemic, the Kohaku would be held without an audience for the first time in its long history. Now, people including me started to wonder how a mid-pandemic Kohaku was going to come off in the age of social distancing and daily mask usage. And just a week before showtime, there came the news that the group Snow Man had to pull out of the Kohaku since one of them tested positive for the virus.

However, the national broadcaster basically said, "The show must go on!" and it did. It started up at 7:30 pm December 31st on schedule and despite the lack of an audience, the four hosts showed up in their finest clothing. The overall hosts arrived in the form of comedian Teruyoshi Uchimura(内村光良)and NHK announcer Maho Kuwako(桑子真帆)along with Red Captain, actress Fumi Nikaido(二階戸ふみ), and White Captain, actor Yo Oizumi(大泉洋). Ucchan, who's now a veteran of the show, was fine, Nikaido was charming and even provided some of her own singing during the Disney bit, and Kuwako wasn't seen all that much. As for Oizumi, well, I think there have been captains in the history of the Kohaku who've been more exuberant, but going into the latter half of the show especially, I started fearing that the guy may have been hitting the caffeine a little too hard. It wouldn't have surprised me if some of the other hosts may have wanted to grab the Visine since they were rolling their eyes a little too much.

With this COVID-influenced Kohaku, one of my predictions for the show had me thinking whether there would be a larger number of remote performances with singers doing their thing from other prefectures; perhaps even performing from home. However, NHK decided to retain some of that past epic feeling by keeping things basically at their home with performers still showing up on the big stage at NHK Hall, but then also having them perform in the neighbouring NHK Broadcasting Centre's CT-101 Studio and CR-509 Studio with the latter having a full orchestra. The judges even got their own elaborately-staged room in the complex.

Even before the show went on, a few weeks previously, there had been a feature on the news about slightly expanding the space on the big stage because there wouldn't be any audience. Usually with the big stage, there would be grand stairs coming down through the middle or from the sides toward the audience or to stage centre. But this time around, the staircases came down at an interesting angle toward one side of the stage. The video above with Juju's performance doesn't have the stairs but that stylistic barrier surrounding her and the string octet does give the overall shape.

In a strange way, the COVID restrictions may have actually freed up the set designers and the rest of the production staff in terms of the camera positions and movements and where participants could sing. As I mentioned in that milet article last night, having her perform on that rising stage where the audience would usually have been gave a bit more heft to her presence.

Incidentally, all of these videos that I've brought in from YouTube can and will probably disappear after a short while so after that, we'll have to go with memories and imagination. Anyways to continue on with how the new logistics affected the performances, another example is Masayuki's Suzuki's(鈴木雅之)appearance. In last week's article on Chanels' "Tamashii no Brother"(魂のブラザー), I had expressed some disappointment that Martin wasn't going to perform the two anime-based hits or a medley on the show, instead going with "Yume de Aetara"(夢で逢えたら). Well, I'm wearing the equivalent of a massive shoe heel over my head right now since the reason that he chose to sing this ballad was in tribute to his mother who had recently passed away and the song was one of her favourites.

In any case, singing the more uptempo stuff probably would have been wasted on an empty hall but with "Yume de Aetara", the camera view of the back of Suzuki while singing to the seats and the lights as if serenading his mother up above was perfect for the poignant mood. And of course, Suzuki hit it out of the park.

There was plenty of poignancy in the show. Along with the fact that this was being broadcast in the middle of a pandemic, there was the point that the 71st edition would be the final show at NHK Hall for at least a year since it will be going under major renovations. The 72nd edition will be held at Tokyo International Forum. Also, Arashi(嵐)got their final swan song right in the middle of the broadcast. I had wondered whether the top of the Johnny's heap would stay on for one more year since 2020 was far from a normal or happy year but yes, their performance on the Kohaku was the final one together.


Other highlights for me included Hiroshi Itsuki's(五木ひろし)performance of "Sanga"(山河)in commemoration of his 50th appearance, LiSA's dynamic "Kimetsu no Yaiba"(鬼滅の刃)medley (although TV Japan had to block out the latter half of the performance...😒), and Kaori Mizumori's(水森かおり) appearance in that truly oceanic dress designed by former 90s teen terror Tomoe Shinohara(篠原ともえ). 

Then, there was the tribute to the recently-finished NHK morning serial "Yell"(エール)with not only much of the cast providing a moving mini-musical version of the songs performed on the show, but even the mysterious GReeeeN showing up since they had provided the theme song for "Yell". Viewers were probably wondering they would actually show their faces for the first time or would they keep them hidden. Well, apparently they discovered a third option.

Along with the performances on the big stage in NHK Hall, I thought that the performances in CR-509 Studio with the full orchestra were also fine and added that different and old-fashioned feeling simultaneously because of the use of those orchestras on the main stage in past Kohaku editions. One example was with Keisuke Yamauchi(山内惠介)with his "Koi Suru Machikado"(恋する街角).

There will always be a few issues here and there for me when it comes to something as big as the Kohaku. In addition to Captain Oizumi's overabundance of personality in the latter half of the show, I wasn't too thrilled with Hiromi Go's(郷ひろみ)so-called tribute to the composer Kyohei Tsutsumi(筒美京平) who had passed away last September. Tsutsumi is the most prolific composer in kayo history but "Uta Kon" has yet to provide any sort of tribute to him and Go only performed the two songs sung by him that Tsutsumi had composed back in the 1970s. There was nothing wrong with Go's performance, but even under the tight logistics of this year's edition, I felt that there should have been a more special farewell for the man who provided so many kayo hits over many decades.

The last thing that I'll add is another showstopper in the broadcast being the performance of a cover of X Japan's "Endless Rain" with YOSHIKI, Queen's Roger Taylor and Brian May, SixTONES, LiSA, BABYMETAL, milet, and Sarah Brightman.

Of course, there were many more performers and among them, I will probably cover their performances in separate articles. In any case, my congratulations to the Red Team for winning the banner this time around. No. 71 was certainly one different edition and I will be even more interested in seeing how the Kohaku appears at Tokyo International Forum on December 31 2021. From what I've read about the ratings for the show, there didn't seem to be all that much difference although there was apparently a slight bump up. However for me, I thought that under the circumstances, NHK managed to pull off a successful broadcast, a few hours leading into the new year to help us forget the continuing medical drama that's playing out all around us. Perhaps for those who also watched the Kohaku a few nights ago, you may have your own highlights and other opinions. Feel free to share!

6 comments:

  1. Happy New Year again! Thank you for writing this. This year, I was watching Kouhaku on New Year's Eve via a Chinese web site (not live though). Yes, I pretend to be Japanese :)

    A few personal observations:
    1. So many boy groups! They all look the same and none of them made an impression on me.
    2. Nigaido Fumi is talented. Besides acting, she can host and sing as well. In the past few years, Red team's hosts have not been performing well in my opinion so Nigaido is a surprise.
    3. Oizumi is definitely on drugs. Just looking at his exaggerated facial expression made me laugh.
    4. Speaking of hosts, I wonder if some individual members of Arashi would be invited back in the future.
    5. They said Babymetal is very popular in the US and even reached No.1 on the billboard. I didn't search to check out. When I hear something like this I always wonder because foreign singers usually fail in the US market. IN any case, I think Babymetal's performance is good even though rock is not my kind of music.
    6. Milet and Eito made really good impressions on me. I've been using Kouhaku as a way for me to learn about what's new in Japan in the past year.
    7. I actually like the Endless Rain performance by Yoshiki. Would like to hear what you have to say in the upcoming article. I admit that it feels strange to mix in Queen and Sarah Brightman.
    8. Fukuyama Masaharu and Misa took the honor to perform last for White and Red team respectively. I really feel old because now my generation is being honored :)

    I hope I'd be able to visit Toronto some time later this year.

    今年もよろしくお願いします。

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    Replies
    1. Hello, Larry.

      Quite a few topics to chew on for this Kohaku. To be honest, although AKB48 wasn't on this past edition, there were still a lot of boy and girl aidoru groups so that I didn't know where one ended and one began. I will have to check out the individual group and song on their own.

      I was surprised about Nikaido since I'd assumed that she did have some singing experience considering what I heard during the Disney segment and her acting role in "Yell" which required her to practice her vocals. As it turns out, though, she is a model who has turned to acting.

      I don't particularly mind Oizumi coming back if he can tone down his excitement but I figure that he was there as the "cheerleader" of the trio.

      As for your comment on whether individual members of Arashi may return in a hosting capacity, I was having that same conversation with Danny...whom you met at a Kingyo lunch. We figured that perhaps Aiba-kun might do so since he has Captain experience. Ono-kun will probably be happy enough doing his art or fishing.

      Babymetal actually performed in Toronto a couple of years ago which would make them the third act that I know about that has done so and performed on the Kohaku (after Sachiko Kobayashi and Hiroshi Itsuki).

      Agreed on milet and Eito. I wish them continued success.

      One of us will have to tackle "Endless Rain" soon enough since it has yet to be written about. :)

      It used to be that it was always the eldest enka veterans who had the final performances but things are changing. No complaints from me, though. Fukuyama's song is something that is already up but there is still a Misia article that has to be done for her "Ai no Katachi".

      Let's hope that things improve enough so that you can come and visit us in Toronto again.

      こちらこそ今年もよろしくお願いします。

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  2. Oizumi hosts a local Hokkaido variety show that's aired here in Hawaii for some time so I guess I was prepared for that persona of his.

    I'll say this: I'd LOVE be at karaoke with him!

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    1. Speaking of which, I know that you are a karaoke fan from your page. Do you have any favourites that you perform?

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    2. I have two separate J-Pop phases: early-to-mid 1970s and 1990s. So my karaoke repertoire a mix of old and *super* old. I've tried to learn the popular classics (#JPopCanon songs, as I label them) from both time periods -- it's always a cool feeling when I punch in a song that gets that strong reaction of familiarity from the Nihonjin in the room. It also useful to have a large inventory in case someone else "steals" one of your favorites.

      Too many to mention specifically but I'd say my regular tunes include:

      Most Saijo Hideki, Go Hiromi up to 1976-ish. You'll "get it" if you were alive back then.
      Most Fukuyama Masaharu up to 2003.
      Mr Children: Dakishimetai, Tomorrow Never Knows. Most of their tunes are too verbose.
      KAN: Ai wa Katsu. EVERYONE knows this but no one else I know sings it.
      Ulfuls: Banzai, Asobou. A friend of mine recently added Guts da Ze to his karaoke rotation so I've retired it from mine.
      Southern All Stars: Manatsu to Kajitsu. A more recent addition.
      Unicorn: Subarashii Hibi. Will punch this in when I begin to run out of songs to sing
      Kobukuro: Wadachi. Ditto from above.
      Field of View: Kimi ga Ita Kara. Glorious 1990s J-pop song, one that really grabbed me back in the fold.

      I could do this for hours!

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    3. Hi, Saburo. Good list and I know most of your choices. I've sung "Ai wa Katsu" and "Manatsu no Kajitsu" since the tempo is something that I can handle. I wouldn't even dare any Mr. Children...their songs are pretty challenging for me. Ulfuls' songs are great ways to rouse up a group at the karaoke box.

      I made up a couple of articles about my karaoke experiences: https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2014/12/j-canucks-5-go-to-karaoke-tunes.html

      https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2017/01/j-canucks-5-attempted-but-failed.html

      Plus, my fellow contributor, Noelle Tham, has her own article about karaoke: https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-sugamo-karaoke-experience-part-2.html

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Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.