You know that January is racing by quickly when all that Kohaku Utagassen coverage from NHK on YouTube has suddenly disappeared like ghosts from the platform. The 75th edition is now nearly three weeks gone from viewing but I think one of the highlights is one that I've mentioned in my own article summarizing the New Year's Eve special.
There wasn't a whole lot of onsite performances this time around, but one that did stick out was when the kayo kyoku vocal group Junretsu（純烈）showed up just outside of a family's house in Gunma Prefecture to serenade the matriarch because she was such a huge fan of the guys. It was supposedly a surprise but since every TV show in Japan is planned down right to the second, it really wasn't although the grandmother fan was truly a very happy person and not suddenly having a heart attack at her heroes invading her home.
Junretsu's song of serenade was their April 2024 single "Yume Mita Kajitsu" (Dream Fruit), written and composed by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. A saucy little number about coveting and consequences, the official music video has that film noir quality, and I'm sure that the grandmother was over the moon when the guys gestured to her with the lyrics repeating "I love you".
"Yume Mita Kajitsu" went as high as No. 5 on Oricon. I hadn't been aware of this and I don't recall hearing about it on the Kohaku broadcast, but back last June, Junretsu member Hiroaki Iwanaga（岩永洋昭） had announced his intention to leave the group as of March 2025.
Junretsu is composed entirely of singers who are well known tokusatsu actors. Hiroaki in particular played Kamen Rider Birth and was also the new Shaider.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information, Kyle. I had always wondered how Iwanaga made his journey from being a Kamen Rider to becoming part of a vocal group. It turns out the rest of the group were probably Riders too. :)
Delete