Happy Sunday! Usually when I write up a Kohaku Utagassen-based article, I would use the thumbnail with the dramatic kanji for kohaku but as a bit of a lark, I've decided to go with a photo of the Black Garlic Ramen that I had with my good friend and fellow contributor Larry Chan last week at Touhenboku. One reason is that it's always nice to have some zesty ramen while reading a Kohaku article and for another, I wanted to give my own thoughts on the 72nd Kohaku Utagassen which hit the world a couple of days ago to complement Larry's opinions that he provided within his own article on New Year's Day.
I'll divide the article up into sections: 1) addressing some of the numbered points that Larry made yesterday as well as giving my own highlights and stuff that I wasn't too fond of, and 2) the possible elephant in the room which is the future of the Kohaku. Also, to give fair warning, the very brief videos that are displayed are from NHK's YouTube channel but again as was the case last year, I don't know how long they will be displayed and if/when they are taken down, I'll try to find an equivalent video elsewhere, and if that fails, I will put up my trusty apple pie placeholder as I started doing for the article on the 71st edition.
Beginning with Larry's Point No. 1, the hosts were fine although for the first time, the tradition of the Red captain and White captain was eliminated. There were officially the three hosts: NHK newscaster Mayuko Wakuda（和久田麻由子）, actor Yo Oizumi（大泉洋）and actress Haruna Kawaguchi（川口春奈）. I agree with Larry that Kawaguchi was rock-steady. She was invited to co-host a 4-hour-plus major live television event with a 70-year history in front of a live audience with a whole bunch of singers and bands...terrify much? And yet, she pulled it off with aplomb (although my eagle-eared mother caught her mispronouncing the title of Yoshimi Tendo's song).
As for Oizumi...well. Let's say that he's an acquired taste. I realize that entertainers in Japan have to be very loud and boisterous on any show that they do, but man, after Oizumi screamed out his umpteenth "BRAVO!", I was ready to stuff his mouth with some of the imo that I had for dinner. Not a huge fan, but the one moment that I enjoyed with him was when he was invited to sing with Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）.
Larry next addressed the eternal Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）when he did another rendition of "Ni-Oku Yon-Sen-Man no Hitomi" (２億４千万の瞳）with his incredible vigor and youth. The man is 66 years old! He is getting his pension now, and he looks 15 years younger than me. I was in elementary school when he first appeared on the Kohaku. I swear that this guy must have his own picture of Dorian Gray in a secret chamber in his house.
Point No. 4 was addressing the contemporary kayo vocal group Junretsu（純烈）. Although it isn't shown in the above video, some of the members decided to do a schtick where they greeted the audience and some of the judges with plastic hands and sanitizer. I wasn't particularly offended by this but thought "Ha ha ha...let's not talk of this again next year".
I had expressed in the earlier article that I was interested in who this Mafumafu（まふまふ）was. I wasn't disappointed. An incredible voice with raw power. I will have to cover "Inochi ni Kiwareteiru"（命に嫌われている。）soon.
Larry also mentioned the game/anime tribute at the top of the 2nd half which was divided into "Dragon Quest", "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）and "Evangelion". The best part of that was the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of excerpts of the "Dragon Quest" soundtrack including the theme by the late Koichi Sugiyama（すぎやまこういち）. It may even have had fans of the game getting a little misty-eyed.
To be honest, after watching the first several seconds of BiSH's performance, I quickly switched over to check out the news in Toronto. Nope I wasn't impressed but then again, I think that the whole thing about BiSH in the first place was to serve as an anti-aidoru counterpoint to the popular aidoru groups so the jarring performance did what it was supposed to do. If Joana reads this, I would love to hear her thoughts.
Also, I think that perhaps NHK might consider term limits on how long certain traditions within the Kohaku last. I'm glad that enka singer Hiroshi Miyama（三山ひろし）was able to top his Guinness-earning kendama performance for a second year in a row but after about half a decade, I think it's time to put this to rest along with Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子）multiple appearances in costumes that started to approach the size of Shibuya.
Being biased here since I'm a big fan of his, but I also enjoyed Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）coming back for a second year in a row. Last year's performance was a poignant one since he devoted it to his mother who had passed away not long before, but for the 2021 Kohaku, he gave out one of his doo-wop oldies, "Me Gumi no Hito"（め組のひと）, alongside his old Rats and Star buddies, Yoshio Sato（佐藤善雄）and trumpeter Nobuyoshi Kuwano（桑野信義）. I don't think that it was one of his most kickass performances, though, and I still wish that he will appear again so that he can perform at least one of his anime tunes or even something out of his slick 90s material.
Some of the other performers that I liked were Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）, the aforementioned Yoshimi Tendo（天童よしみ）, milet and Kaori Mizumori（水森かおり）. Awesome City Club were OK but I think that I enjoyed their earlier material before a couple of their key members left the band. One thing that I was glad about was not seeing a whole ton of comedians flood the proceedings as was the case in recent years.
The 71st Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 2020 stood out for the fact that it was done without an audience due to the pandemic and the ratings actually bumped higher because there were more people staying home and I think that there was the curiosity factor about how NHK would plan for such a situation. It was interesting to see the results. With the 72nd edition, although full capacity wasn't possible, it was nice to see the audience back in the seats again and the vast majority of the entertainers on stage together.
Now, it's time for the ominous stuff. After all of the glitz & glamour, return of audience members and some normalcy to the 72nd edition, the ratings have come out. They're not good. Since 1989, ratings for the Kohaku have been split for the two parts. Part 1 this time around scored an average of 31.5% and an average of 34.3% for Part 2 according to the Japanese marketing research firm Video Research Ltd. which are the lowest numbers ever recorded since this system was established.
Yesterday, I referred to a Sora News 24 article that I found via Wendy Tokunaga's Twitter feed which said that the Kohaku Utagassen was now on rather shaky ground according to "gossip" through the upper echelons of NHK. Certainly, the ratings for this year's Kohaku don't help. But if you ask for my two (non-existent Canadian) cents' worth, I think that there has been talk about cancelling the network's annual New Year's Eve special for years now, and even though through our brief exchange on Twitter, Wendy and I agreed that further changes would probably be good (the article described the show as "stodgy"), I feel that it would still take seriously bulbous cojones for the network to actually axe the Kohaku after 70 years. As Wendy pointed out, change is glacially slow in Japan, and even if it is eventually good to finish its history, I can imagine that there would be piles upon piles of planning committees discussing any potential cancellation along with some protests from citizens demanding that the Kohaku be allowed to survive.
Lest I be accused of not answering the big question, I'll ask it first: Should the Kohaku Utagassen be let go? The answer is NO. Yes, I'm sure that if I were the Chairman of NHK reading those Video Research figures, I would be left wondering why I'm throwing so much money for lightsticks and performers if I'm not getting my yen's worth. But at the same time, that research company also revealed that about 30 million people were watching the show at one point or another. Also, that doesn't include the numbers of people overseas who are J-Pop fans who may have become recent fans of the show. As someone who started watching the show in 1981, yep, I can feel that things have become stale (and there were years when I didn't watch the show at all when I was living in Chiba), but for those new viewers, the Kohaku may be a new amazing viewing experience. Although NHK may not agree, I don't think the overseas fans should be counted out.
On another point, as I mentioned in the very first article on the Kohaku back in 2012 (yeah, KKP is that old), the days of 80% ratings as was the case in the 1950s or 1960s are gone. 1950s Japan is vastly different from 21st-century Japan. There are simply many more alternatives to entertain oneself than to watch the Kohaku now (like a lot of folks, I went out with friends for soba and temple-visiting on New Year's Eve in Tokyo). But that begs the other question: If the Kohaku is canceled, would I miss it? The answer is YES...at least initially. Maybe it has long ceased to be must-see and must-listen TV, but there has been something comforting about having the Kohaku on while the family was making osechi and eating mikan at the kotatsu. Frankly speaking, I think that there would be higher-ups at the network on being given the suggestions by the kohai that the Kohaku be given the axe from which they would respond: "OK, but tell me, how are you going to fill four hours and fifteen minutes of prime time on New Year's Eve?". Not sure, and I don't think four straight hours of "Chiko-chan" will do it. Folks who are no fans of the network (and there are many) might just yell out that NHK ought to go dark on New Year's Eve.
It's quite the quandary. However, it's obvious that pitching all sorts of bells and whistles and entertainers hasn't improved things in several years. Perhaps the basic framework has to be changed and I think that it already is, especially with this edition's elimination of Red and White captains. The feeling of the Red-and-White being an actual battle between male and female singers evaporated a long time ago. Perhaps a new purpose has to be grafted such as making the event into something benefiting a charity or charities or demanding that the participants with NHK production assistance really put on one imaginative performance that can't be seen anywhere else to be rated by the viewing public.
Anyways, I ought to get off my soapbox before I get dizzy. The next few months at NHK ought to be interesting, though.
Hi, J-Canuck! Caught my name dropped around here.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch the entirety of Kouhaku's acts but I did watch BiSH's performance. Hence, my initial thoughts were that it was actually pretty good. But upon hearing everyone's opinions, I can see that this was probably based on my experience of watching BiSH over the years, rather than in the context of Kouhaku.
The main reason was that all their voices were actually very stable and well projected compared with past performances. They are not exactly good singers but they have distinctive voices, and I think that's what has been carrying Aina the End and Ayuni D (in the band PEDRO) as solo artists, rather than singing ability.
More than anything, I think their performance was symbolic. They had just announced they were disbanding in 2023, and their predecessor BiS had come close of being such a mainstream hit. The recent ties between WACK and AKB48 were even more of a sign that something like this would be happening.
Could almost write a post out of this, lol. Happy New Year to you and all KKP contributors and followers!
Hi, Joana and Happy New Year! I was hoping that you would chime in on BiSH because I was a little surprised considering the "mission statement" for the group and BiS that NHK would even invite them. However, although the song wasn't quite my cup of tea, BiSH was true to themselves which is fine.
DeleteI actually hope you can write a post regarding BiSH once you have more time.
Allan, you've made some really good points. I think I can understand why Kouhaku is so special.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in Hong Kong, there's a variety show called Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT) that the Jade channel broadcasted live every weekday night 9:00pm. It's like SNL. It's a live show with live audience. SNL is on a weekly schedule and there're long breaks in both winter and summer, but EYT was put on TV 5 days a week without break. So you can imagine how hard EYT's production crew was but I digress. EYT started in 1967 and in the mid 80s its rating started to dip. People started talking about ending the show. Like Kouhaku, there're many hardcore fans who wanted the show to continue. They tried to introduce new elements, change the format etc. The show finally ended in 1994. They revivied it a few times but on all occasions it only lasted for a few months.
As someone who grew up with the show, it was very hard to see it go. As Gary wrote in his comments, it's not the show but the people with whom you watched that's nostalgic. You want to hang on to that piece of memory.
I didn't grow up with Kouhaku. Watching Kouhaku was not something that I did with my family and friends on New Year Eve, in Hong Kong nor in US. I don't really have a strong opinion and I probably won't miss it although it has been keeping me up to date with Japanese music scene (at least part of it). However, I do understand why people want to continue the tradition, especially when everything is so fleeting and fragile in this day and age.
Hi, Larry. Good to see you here. Just going with what Gary said, I think an analogy for the Kohaku could be that quiet uncle who comes to every family get-together but isn't particularly popular with the kids. Then one day, he is no longer there because he has either passed away or he has moved away to another city. Then, the kids realize that maybe they actually miss the fellow. I think if the Kohaku does go, I will miss it initially but life will go on and perhaps NHK will make the efforts to bring something else in its place to start a new history.
DeleteI saw the PVR with my family last night and although the rest of them will never admit to it since they like to gripe about it, I think they will also feel a bit of a hole if the Kohaku is cancelled.
Incidentally, I think that you may have started something. Marcos is now putting his own views on the Kohaku up. :) Maybe NHK will take notice?
DeleteAfternoon, Brian.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the more serious event if they bring back the battle. As it is right now, it really should have been called "Kohaku Uta Matsuri" or even "Kohaku Uta Con" for the past several years. However, I also like your idea of mixing the top music makers of the year with some of the oldies of a certain year (that would also eliminate having the same singer appear over and over again for the most part), but for the top music makers, these should be confirmed by one of the gauges for music such as Oricon or Billboard Japan so we know that we're getting No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 for example.
I think for the Kohaku to try to emulate another show wouldn't look too good, in my opinion. It's going to be hard, but the show has to carve out its own niche to be taken seriously again.
Kohaku is a weird one for being a show that doesn't seem to want to make a niche of itself while necessarily being one due to its nature.
DeleteAllan, just read this article on Yahoo News Japan.
ReplyDeletehttps://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e6d74cee98aa097d82db51000889c77d1dd006a5
It pretty much echoes you and Marcos point that 30% rating is actually high in this Internet age.
Hi, Larry.
DeleteYeah, if we were talking about an episode of a TV show, a 30% rating would make it a major hit. But a lot of folks including the media and the Kohaku put the pressure about reliving past glories of the 1960s that are just not possible anymore. I think the producers behind the show should really just chill out and be OK that 30% is OK.
As someone who's mulling pitching a Kohaku-style contest to a local anime convention, I think what the show needs now is to find a new purpose. It does feel like the NHK is still running the show with the same train of thought as the old days, which isn't really great if you want folks watching.
ReplyDeleteIt somehow took them a while to adjust to changing music preferences (there were editions with tons of enka way in the 2000's!). Not that it's a great idea just to keep having recent tunes but it's something if e.g. it took until around 2003 for Heisei era performers to perform last regularly.
As for the traditions, the whole red-white competition thing has always been this extra bit that almost no one notices but is pretty much part of the program so it can stay, but I do agree more effort needs to be put in making the whole ordeal share-worthy. To use a bit of an example, the Eurovision Song Contest has given itself a reputation of wackiness and spectacle in the past couple of decades, though if you give the shows a deeper look these wild performances are not really its bread and butter.
This got a bit rambly so I hope I made sense, thanks.
Hi, Jenard. Thanks very much for your comments on the Kohaku. I think that there has been conversation about the show inside and outside of Japan for some years now, so no problems on your opinions. First off though, I think your idea of a Kohaku-style contest at your local anime convention is great and I hope that it does get picked up. I'm assuming that you know of at least some potential anison songbirds out there. :)
DeleteAs I noted above at that time, I really had thought that there was a possibility that the upper echelons at NHK could finally swing the axe on the Kohaku, but reading recent articles, No. 73 is on the way. They've announced the hosts and the theme of the show: "Love and Peace" to address all of the tumult going on right now.
I once came across a MENSA series of intelligence tests, one of which asked me to draw something artistic within an illustration of a small frame. It was small enough that I really couldn't do a good job. The "answer" for that was obvious and frustrating at the same time: the feat was impossible. Just go ahead and draw outside of the frame! I think that is one problem that is plaguing Kohaku organizers; they feel that they have to be creative but still stay within the lines which is probably not viable anymore.
I agree that the Kohaku lost its original purpose, probably as far back as the 1980s. The Kohaku was originally meant to cheer up folks who were living through a tough postwar recovery. As we know, the battle part has been gone from the Red-and-White show for some time and there's no real need to entertain the masses anymore since most of those masses can do other stuff such as watch other more entertaining programs, head out to restaurants, temples and other places.
However, I think that the Kohaku will continue on as long as its ratings keep above those of the average J-Drama episode. If they actually fall below them, then I think all bets are off. The Kohaku will eventually have to settle on some sort of new identity.
There's a bit I forgot to note: Maybe they should calm down on the gold(special) musical acts. With the amount of special singing performances they have these past few years they might as well count them on the main lineup.
DeleteYeah, to be honest, I haven't been particularly all that impressed with the special performances. For me, bringing a veteran singer on that has never been on the Kohaku before or hasn't been on for a very long time would count as special. Perhaps it should be more along the lines of one special performance every few years rather than a few special performances per year.
Delete