Okayu -- Shibuya no Maria（渋谷のマリア）

 

One of my biggest fears with technology is that for whatever reason, the TV or the Internet goes out. It didn't get quite that bad but for a few hours until just 20 minutes ago, TV Japan had the equivalent of the hiccups. Our image was stopping and starting every several frames so it looked like we were getting our version of stop-frame animation. It was annoying as heck, and it went deep into tonight's episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）. I'd wondered about having to do another reset of the receiver when TV Japan pretty much proved the problems were on their end by suddenly switching to another device broadcasting smooth-flowing television once again but at a slightly lower resolution. I'll take that.

But one happy observation is that it looks like "Uta Con" is almost truly back to its old pre-pandemic self. The audiences have been returning to the two venues in Tokyo and Osaka for a while now but it's been evident for the past couple of shows that all of the guests are appearing en masse with the hosts once again as opposed to the plastic barriers that had been splitting them apart for a couple of years and going further back, when they had to sit in completely separate audience seats in empty halls a couple of folks at a time. I hope that it never goes back to that again, and perhaps the producers can return some of the more ambitious sketches that the guests performed before early 2020.

Singer-songwriting balladeer Okayu（おかゆ）was on the show tonight and she spoke about her younger self whose dream was to be a Shibuya gyaru. She even showed everyone what she looked like back then, and she was just like you see in the above video supplied by egg Channel. Wow! 

Then, she performed her most recent single "Shibuya no Maria" (Maria of Shibuya) which may be somewhat autobiographical, although the singer herself actually hails from Hokkaido. Released last month with words and music by Okayu, she sings about Maria, born and raised and perhaps raising hell in the Youth Mecca of Japan as she sees her friends gradually finding life outside of the neighbourhood while she seems to remain the stalwart resident.

Okayu's music has been interesting because her songs have been categorized as contemporary types of enka, kayo kyoku and pop. Just for the dramatic "Shibuya no Maria", I can hear aspects of rock, Mood Kayo (which includes the lyrical tradition of giving shoutouts to landmarks in the area such as Spain-zaka and Dogenzaka) and simply kayo kyoku. Maybe it can even be called Neo-Kayo. I can also vouch for it possibly being considered to be a modern form of New Adult Music which, according to J-Wiki, lies somewhere between kayo kyoku and enka. 

Regrettably, her performance tonight on "Uta Con" was in the stop-frame animation zone but the audio was still perfectly fine so it got me to write about her.