Amaiwana -- I'm Crazy

 

When my brother and I were kids and our birthdays came around, it was the usual tradition to get birthday cakes from the local supermarket. They were the ones spackled with the blanket of thick white icing with blue or pink writing and those rosebuds to finish things off. In a way, those cakes almost finished us off since they were so supremely sweet that our teeth vibrated when we ate a slice and we were bouncing off the walls once the sugar officially hit our system. 

Seeing Amaiwana（アマイワナ）make that cake in her music video for the song "I'm Crazy" reminded me of those birthday cakes, and yeah, I guess in retrospect, I was crazy for liking those. I'm more of a plain apple pie guy now.

Anyways, up to now, I've been covering the relatively more recent Amaiwana outings when she was collaborating with Neo-City Pop or synthy 80s singer-songwriter Ginger Root for "Loneliness". "I'm Crazy" actually hails to the earliest point in her career that I've written about so far, although it's only back to 2022. From her October 2022 mini-album, "Baby Bedroom Punk"（ベイビィ・ベッドルーム・パンク）, the song starts off with a percussive pounding that made me wonder whether Amaiwana was going Art of Noise on me but then the rest of the song opts for something more down-to-earth funky synthpop. Written by the singer and composed by Atsumu Wonderful（アツムワンダフル）, "I'm Crazy" is about one woman's stream-of-consciousness and then sung opinions of what she thinks is society's unfair attitude towards things that she believes are perfectly fine and sane. The lady admits that she's on the borderline between her like for all things sentimental but also for that dangerous music. With the bouncy synth melody and the lyrics, I guess that's what it means to be baby bedroom punk.

For the record (no pun intended), I don't think Amaiwana is crazy at all...just an 80s lady in her 20s in the 20s.

Amaiwana -- Chocolate Lemonade（チョコレートレモネード）

From the Great Canadian Superstore

Chocolate and peanut butter? Yeah, I've liked them separately and I've liked them together. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the ultimate collaboration in sinful calories. Come to think of it, I've enjoyed a cool tall glass of lemonade during the summer as a splendid thirst-quencher. Chocolate and lemonade together, though? My jury is still out on that one.😨

"Chocolate Lemonade" the song? Well, that's a whole different animal. It's a track from singer-songwriter Amaiwana's（アマイワナ）latest mini-album from October 2023, "Sweet Sweet Sweet" which is alongside "Shanghai Rendezvous"（上海逢引）, the song that I posted last month.

Written and composed by the Kyoto-born Amaiwana, it's got that fine bloopy technopop sheen that I heard in "Shanghai Rendezvous" but I think there is also some of that Shibuya-kei from the 1990s imbued in the arrangement. KKP viewers might think that's a stretch but if you look at the video of a day in the life of the singer, Amaiwana is leafing through a a book on 60s French pop and she's donning a lot of fashion that speaks to that decade in question which are cultural ingredients in that particular genre. At the same time, I can't help but feel that there is still some of that Ginger Root influence, although apparently his involvement this time was restricted to the music video.

Speaking of that video, I enjoyed it a lot for its time travel into the nostalgic. I had wondered whether Amaiwana was taking a walk in Shimo-Kitazawa or Nakano in Tokyo but the explanation underneath the video stated that she was in a number of establishments including the Koenji branch of Village Vanguard, a store famous for its stock of the old-fashioned and eclectic. I'm so glad that it's still around especially after the Odaiba branch got closed down a few years ago.

Amaiwana -- Shanghai Rendezvous（上海逢引）

 

As I've mentioned in some of the articles over the past little while, Tokyo has been undergoing some changes in different areas. Although most of them are of an architectural nature, this one here has been one of culture and language. I've been hearing that the northern part of Ikebukuro, an area that I've yet to explore although I've visited the eastern side many times due to the Sunshine 60 Building, has grown a Real Chinatown, a neighbourhood so steeped in Chinese culture and cuisine that even the native Japanese need a Mandarin-speaking friend to make their orders in restaurants. There are videos like the one above but I first found out through some segments on variety shows via Japan TV.

It's almost as if one doesn't even need to leave Tokyo to visit places like Shanghai. Shanghai has already arrived in Tokyo perhaps. Speaking of which, earlier today I wrote on singer-songwriter Amaiwana（アマイワナ）with her 80s aidoru take on "Loneliness", a twinkly tune created by Ginger Root as both collaborated on the latter's Nisemono arc of songs and videos.

Well, I didn't want to finish off this KKP day without providing a true Amaiwana tune without the trappings of her character Kimiko Takeguchi（竹口希美子）in the Nisemono arc, so I was able to find this digital single of hers that came out earlier in May this year. "Shanghai Rendezvous" was written and composed by Amaiwana and it has a 60s girl pop feeling filtered through 80s synthpop and it doesn't sound like a Ginger Root tune. 

I don't know her real name but Amaiwana was born in Kyoto on New Year's Day 2000 and according to her J-Wiki profile, she specializes in dance music, pop and dream punk. She began giving live performances when she was just 14 years old although it wouldn't be for another five years before she took on her current nom de plume. As for why she chose it, she just said that it was easy to remember and it sounded cute. She has had an affinity for Showa era culture including the music and fashion. Besides her singing, she has also worked as a model and an actress.

The YouTube channel Angura did a segment on Amaiwana just a few weeks ago so you can give that a look as well.

Amaiwana as Kimiko Takeguchi -- Loneliness

 

Well, it's been a little over a couple of weeks since I introduced "Kayo Kyoku Plus" AI representative Kayo Grace Kyoku（旭花耀）. I wanted to have her seen in other environments other than the Xmas ones that I was able to concoct before the AI art generator started poking at me to subscribe on one of their plans. To quote this week's ROY article: no can do. I tried it out forgetting to put in the anime filter after requesting "a dark-haired Japanese 80s idol singer drinking in a bar". Not sure what that cocktail is, but man, her hair is all kinds of 80s-level BIG. Good on ya, Kayo!

Speaking of manufactured 80s female aidoru, I bring you back to the just-finished Nisemono（偽物...Fake） arc of Ginger Root. When last we were here, it was back in June this year when I posted the song that concluded the arc, "Everything's Alright". Ginger just became a star but idol Kimiko Takeguchi（竹口希美子）, who he took over for when she had some temporary cold feet about her career, returned to take responsibility of it with no hard feelings from everyone concerned. All's well that ends well.

I guess to tie a nice crisp bow on things, Ginger Root has also decided to have Takeguchi, played by singer-songwriter Amaiwana（アマイワナ）, sing the song that she was supposed to have sung in the first place, "Loneliness", which actually got vocalized first by the Root Man himself when the aidoru had gone AWOL. 80s aidoru-dom is back in the video and Amaiwana has got the twee high-pitched delivery just right. The only thing missing in the video is the reappearance of "The Best 10" host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi（黒柳徹子）thanking her at warp speed.