DAIGO is a musician, singer-songwriter and humorous tarento who's been on Japanese television for years. He used to make it a point that his grandfather was former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita（竹下登） (thankfully, he's lost that habit) and his wife is actress Keiko Kitagawa（北川景子）. The Tokyo native, usually clad in rock-n'-roll leather, also had a few tics in him which distinguished him such as his famous lockstep move and the fact that he often delivered his punchlines in terms of initials. Generally, although he might look a bit scary, he actually comes across as a slightly odd but level-headed guy with a deadpan way of talking.
Interestingly enough, now that we are now on Jme rather than TV Japan, we've had access to a few variety shows that we never got on the latter service and that includes TV Asahi's "DAIGO mo Daidokoro"（DAIGOも台所...DAIGO's in the Kitchen Too）, a 15-minute program starring DAIGO doing his own cooking with a guest chef.
But let's get back to the music, shall we? This morning, when I watched "Uta Con"（うたコン）, I saw this fairly dandy figure in a flashy purple outfit with his hat rakishly covering part of his face. At first, I had assumed that enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）was making one of his usual appearances, but it was actually DAIGO as a new persona. He's been the lead singer of the rock band BREAKERZ in that leather get-up that I mentioned before, but apparently, he's now going for an old-style kayo kyoku look under the name of Daigo Ichinomori（一之森大湖）, inspired by past dandy singer Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）.
His first single as Daigo Ichinomori will be coming out tomorrow on the 10th, and sure enough, it's titled "Ichinomori Daigo desu" (I am Daigo Ichinomori) just to ensure that he has nothing to do with tarento DAIGO or BREAKERZ vocalist DAIGO. He even wrote and composed the song which indeed sounds like some good old-fashioned Mood Kayo although I also feel that tongue digging fairly deep into that cheek.
My wife is fond of DAIGO! I remember though that Daigo also played a character in Cardfight!! Vanguard, years ago. Also, I am glad to hear that that are some upsides to jme.
ReplyDeleteJme has been OK. I mentioned it in one other article but if there were some way to bring it back to the old regime, I would be happy to revert. My parents have been griping that they can't see as much Japanese music programming as before. I'm just wondering how Jme will handle the bimonthly sumo coverage.
DeleteI am sure you and your parents aren't alone in your frustration with Jme. Hopefully, others who feel the same way will petition Jme. And, maybe there is some other of getting around this?
DeleteAs a promotion and probably a test case to see how the new system is going, the first month for subscribers is free. So, there will be another nine days left in this free period. It'll be interesting how many people decide to stay on. I'll see if I can contact them directly once I get my overall feelings together on the service.
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