Kaela Kimura -- Rirura Riruha（リルラ リルハ）

 

Recently, I saw an episode of "Tsurube Kazoku ni Kanpai"（鶴瓶の家族に乾杯...Tsurube's Here's to the Family）, an NHK onsite variety show where rakugo artist and comedian Tsurube Shofukutei（笑福亭鶴瓶） and a guest visit some of the smaller towns and villages in Japan. The two then simply talk with the folks there and visit some of those folks' recommendations in terms of restaurants and shops, and if so inclined, Tsurube and guest can even entertain the populace, too.

That one episode featured singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）and she stated off-handedly that her son is now in high school which kinda threw me for a loop. It shouldn't have but it did because I'd always seen Kimura as the 2000s version of 80s aidoru Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）: a cute and cheeky kid with a lovely smile who could potentially cut you down with a sharp riposte. Of course, we're now older people in the 2020s and most likely, Kimura's kid is probably now armed with his own slicing bon mots. (P.S. It's quite ironically coincidental then that both Kimura and Koizumi appeared together on the September 27th episode of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）a few hours ago.)

I believe she was all of twenty years of age when she released her 3rd major single "Rirura Riruha" in March 2005. I could never remember the title for Kimura's biggest hit to date because of its weirdness, only to find out that it's an abbreviation of sorts for "Real Life Real Heart". What I do remember is the music video attached to the song which brings in a few effects such as the stop motion animation that had put Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" onto the map. 

But as it is, "Rirura Riruha" is a pretty melodic rock tune with those buzzy guitar chords underlying Kimura's high but strong vocals. It's the type of song that I think Avril Lavigne could have covered. The song peaked at No. 3 on Oricon, becoming a million-seller. It eventually became the 87th-ranked single for 2005. The song is also a track on her March 2006 2nd album "Circle".

Kaela Kimura feat. AI -- MAGNETIC

 

Last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was quite good. It was one of the occasional kakudai（拡大）, or extended, specials at 75 minutes with the overall theme of spring. The show had a good variety of singers including the first-time appearance, if I'm indeed correct, of pop singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）.

Kimura first performed her wedding-reception favourite, "Butterfly", and then she returned to do a rather happily eclectic number called "MAGNETIC" with a couple of dancers dressed like conventional U-shaped magnets. Then I saw the above video for which I realized that she hadn't been alone when she recorded this track for an album of the same name which had been released in December 2022. 

One thing about Kimura is that she can create tunes which are so catchy that everyone aged 5 to 99 can get in on the fun. For the little tykes, her voice and lyrics are the thing while for the older folks, it's the beats. I think that was the case for her 2020 "ZIG ZAG" with rapper BIM, and "MAGNETIC" is her collaboration with R&B singer AI. Her cute-as-all-heck sing-songy vocals are paired with AI's rap in the middle. Not surprisingly, both performers were responsible for the lyrics while Mito（ミト）, the bandmaster for Clammbon（クラムボン）, took care of music and arrangement. 

Kimura also did a First Take performance of "MAGNETIC" a couple of months ago.

Kaela Kimura feat. BIM -- ZIG ZAG

 

Had another pleasant talk with Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" earlier this afternoon, this time to review Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Variety" album from 1984, so hopefully within the next week or so, you'll be able to catch our podcast on his YouTube channel.

Although I can't say that I am as die-hard a fan of hers as I am Mariya's, there are a couple of songs by Tokyo singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）that I have enjoyed because of their catchy funky beat, and both of them were under Takkyu Ishino's（石野卓球）ministrations: "Jasper" and a cover of Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown". Now, I can get add a third song under my belt.

"ZIG ZAG" leans into the funkier side of things as Kimura and rapper BIM worked together to come up with the song. Her 2nd mini-album with the same title was released in March 2020 with the title song written by singer and the music provided by the rapper. There's some nice snappy rap banter from the two with the refrain appropriately and funkily delivered by Kimura. May I also compliment the music video work, too?

"ZIG ZAG" the mini-album peaked at No. 21 on Oricon. As for BIM, he's a Japanese hip-hop artist who helped start the group THE OTOGIBANASHI'S about a decade ago, but has also released his own solo works in the 2010s. Up to now, he's made one mini-album and two full albums.

Kaela Kimura -- Level 42

 

It was news that I had been dreading but wasn't all that surprised to hear when it broke a few hours ago. Perhaps for many people reading this blog, the name Alex Trebek isn't a familiar one. However for millions of Canadians and Americans, he was as familiar as that most cordial uncle since he appeared nightly on television as the host of the very popular game show "Jeopardy".

Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, the same province of my own birth and growth, I hadn't known for many years that he was Canadian since he seemed to be an eternal presence on American game shows but when I did find out, I had to go naruhodo since his personality just seemed to characterize that stereotypical Canadian sense of calm and politeness. I then expected him to blurt out "Sorry" every few words.

A couple of years ago, Trebek himself announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and when I heard the stage number and the name of that disease, I predicted the worst. However, he kept on working as the host of "Jeopardy" while undergoing a lot of treatment to stave off the disease. I was really hoping that he would somehow pull through but unfortunately, it was announced that Trebek passed away at the age of 80 today.

Game shows have been a staple on Japanese TV, too, although I don't get the impression now that they are quite as prevalent as they once were. As with their American equivalents, they can be just as bright and exciting, but the major difference between Japanese and American game shows is that the former usually has professional TV personalities as the contestants instead of regular folk. I had always wondered why when I read a newspaper article in which a game show producer in Japan was asked why tarento were brought in instead of citizens, and he rather snarked out "I actually want my show to be fun to watch." Ouch!😣

Anyways, one such game show that was pretty fun to watch was "Sarujie"（サルヂエ）, an NTV program that had started out as a late-night entry in 2004 before making its way to prime time a year later and lasting until 2007. It was the usual word-play quiz segments featuring some of the top celebrities hosted by comedian Takashi Fujii（藤井隆）and a couple of others dressed as if they had just come off the set of a "Planet of the Apes" sequel. Why? I've got no idea. The reasons that I enjoyed the show was that Fujii was basically the Jim Carrey of Japanese comedy at the time and "Sarujie" often put up some innovative quizzes that wracked my brain as I lay on my pillow.

"Sarujie" apparently had a rash of ending themes during its three-year run with the first one being Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）"Level 42". It was also Kimura's single released first as an indies song in May 2004 before getting a subsequent release as her first major single a month later. 

It's always fascinating hearing a debut single of someone that you have known for a long time for the first time, and it's certainly Kimura's sound with the pop/rock but there was something more plaintive in her vocals for "Level 42". Plus, she really looked like an adorable junior high school kid in that music video which had been filmed at Yushima Seido Temple in Tokyo (she was around 19 at the time). Written by Kimura and composed by Taiyo Yamazawa（山沢大洋）, according to J-Wiki, only 390 copies of that indies release had been put onto the shelf at 390 yen each at one outlet of the Shinseido music store in Kanagawa Prefecture but within three minutes, everything was sold out with hundreds of other people trying to get their hands on it.

At around the same time, Kimura had been the host of a weekday morning music-variety program "Saku Saku" on TV Kanagawa and it was from there that "Level 42" was born. Incidentally, the song title has nothing to do with the famous British band of the 1980s, Level 42 (of which I'm a big fan); apparently, Kimura thought up of the number 42 since it was the channel number for TV Kanagawa in its analog days. In terms of the lyrics, Kimura had wanted to sing about what life would be like for her in 10 years. Happily, she's gone far past that point in her music career. "Level 42" made it to No. 14 on Oricon and it's also a track on her debut album "KAELA" from December 2004 which peaked at No. 8 and ended up as the 101st-ranked album for 2005.

Anyways, to come full circle, here are some of Alex Trebek's moments as host of "Jeopardy".

Kaela Kimura -- Butterfly

When I first heard Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）"Butterfly", I thought it was the perfect pop song for a children's musical about the moral of a shy young girl metamorphizing into that beautiful and confident and splendid lady. Certainly the music video for the song helped in my impression (unfortunately the above video has been truncated).

But then, I started to hear about "Butterfly" being put alongside songs such as Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's（長渕剛）"Kanpai"（乾杯）and Yuming's（ユーミン）"Anniversary" as wedding reception-friendly tunes, and yeah, I guess there is a certain celebratory regality to Kimura's 1st-ever digital download single released in June 2009. And in fact, the whole project began when a friend asked the singer to write and perform a song at a wedding party which in fact she did. Pretty soon, the wedding-themed magazine "Zexy" picked "Butterfly" up as its campaign tune on commercials which led the single to not only hit No. 1 on iTunes and No. 2 on Sony's online music store mora for the entire year, but also get her first invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 2009.

The "Butterfly" snowball continued to gain speed as her Kohaku performance got even more love from the masses to the extent that the song had over 2 million downloads. "Butterfly" would get onto CD, though, as a track on her 5th major album "HOCUS POCUS" which came out in the same month as the download single. That album peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and ended up as the 37th-ranked release of the year. A couple of years later, the song would be used in a TBS matchmaking variety show hosted by the Osakan comedy duo 99.

Kimura did write the lyrics but the music and arrangement was left to Atsushi Suemitsu（末光篤）, aka SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH, the fellow who came up with the theme song for the anime version of "Nodame Cantabile" (のだめカンタービレ) in 2007. In coming full circle with my comparison of "Butterfly" to the ideal song for a children's musical, there is something very down-home contemporary pop in the verses, but when the chorus comes around, I keep thinking that there is also a Gilbert & Sullivan sensibility as if Kimura is singing alone on the stage in a prim Victorian dress while her hands are clasped in prayer and her face is pointing toward the heavens.

Kaela Kimura -- Happy na Happi（Happyな半被）

In recent months, there has been a bit of a schedule change on TV Japan's Friday night lineup. It used to be the fact that "VS. Arashi" held the 9 pm slot and our family is a big fan of the show. However, it's now appearing on alternate Fridays in tandem with an NTV variety program called "Sekai no Hate made ItteQ!"（世界の果てまでイッテQ!...Let's Go To The Ends of the World!）which seems to be, for fans who know their history of Japanese variety shows, a mix of "Naruhodo The World" and one of those Beat Takeshi programs in which his kohai end up getting involved in a number of hilarious and torturous games. Basically, a handful of tarento head to various spots around the planet to take part in some of the more unusual activities that humanity has to offer.

One of the current regular tarento is Daisuke Miyagawa（宮川大輔）who has the regular duty to participate in some of the world's weirder festivals. If I'm not mistaken, he's entered a frog-jumping contest in the States and some sort of oyster-eating competition. I saw the one featured above a couple of weeks ago in which he had to search for the elusive porcini mushroom in Italy. That was one of the less stressful challenges that he has had to endure.

Usually Miyagawa's segment begins with a show producer coming into his room and telling him about the next visit...usually to Miyagawa's chagrin. This time, though, there was a more pleasant twist in the visit (at least to us viewers...the tarento looked rather bemused at best) in that perky singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）suddenly popped out of his locker like a sprite.

Songs are often performed for Miyagawa, I assume, to get him to agree to the challenge and put his war face on. In Kimura's case, she sang the ever-so-sweet-and-jaunty "Happy na Happi" (Happy Happi Coat). I'm not sure whether she had created the tune specifically for Miyagawa and his festival trips but it certainly seems that way. Not surprisingly, the song has that Japanese festival atmosphere but it can pretty much fit into any songbook for elementary school children at the same time.

In any case, "Happy na Happi" was the bonus track on Kimura's 9th and most recent album "PUNKY" released in October 2016. The album did reach No. 9 on the Oricon charts. Kimura came up with the lyrics while AxSxE of the hardcore/free jazz band Natsumen came up with the melody.

Come to think of it, I wonder whether Miyagawa would consider coming by to take part in the annual busker festival here in Toronto. Heck, maybe even Fan Expo.

Kaela Kimura -- Funkytown

Oh my word...it was the best of times and the disco of times. "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. by virtue of its release year (1980) was probably one of the last gasps of disco. I had never heard of this band (from Minneapolis, Minnesota) and would never hear from them again. But they grabbed their 15 minutes of fame and squeezed for all its worth to worldwide success. I used to hear "Funkytown" all the time and then when Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part 1" appeared on the big screen, I saw Gregory Hines funking to it in the commercial...while he was playing an Ethiopian slave in the Roman Era (I did say that this was a Mel Brooks film).

Then, half a decade later, as I was watching local video show "Toronto Rocks" as a university student, I was introduced to the oh-so-80s even more kinetic cover of "Funkytown" by Australian band, Pseudo Echo....complete with mullets. I have to admit that I like this version even more than the original.

Then, when I was looking up material for yesterday's article on Takkyu Ishino's（石野卓球）"The Rising Suns", I came across Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）album, "ROCK" which was released in October 2013. It was an album of cover songs performed with artists such as Ishino and reformed J-funkster Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）. And these covers were of tunes from my ever-fading-past-the-horizon youth. There was stuff like Blondie's "Heart of Glass", Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"....and "Funkytown". 

Ishino helped out on Kimura's cover of Lipps Inc.'s big hit, and that collaboration I was very keen on listening to, remembering their work together on "Jasper". And yep, it was very much as I expected from the duo...the Ishino techno touch along with Kimura's bright and slightly clipped vocals although both of them kept things fairly faithful to the original version. Then when I heard her sing "Welllll...", I just thought Lipps Inc. had come on back to the fold. To be honest, I was surprised that in the land where disco never really died...or sucked..."Funkytown" hadn't really got its due from the singers there.

The above is just a highlight video of three of the songs from the album including Kimura's take on A-Ha's "Take On Me" with Okamura, "Funkytown", and "Sunday Morning" with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.

Kaela Kimura -- Jasper

I had a really good time listening to Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ） "Jasper" and even better time watching the official crazy-cool black-light video that I ended up getting the single.

Released in February 2008 as her 11th single, it was Kimura's first foray into the technopop realm, thanks to Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）of Denki Groove providing the earworm melody while the singer provided the lyrics and the earworm delivery. I had known about the British-Japanese singer before this single but I hadn't really gotten into her brand of pop-rock. For some reason, I've always seen her as being the Japanese version of Canada's Avril Lavigne. In any case, the video for "Jasper" is eye-catchy and feels like going through a mix of TRON and Alice's Wonderland. The single itself went as high as No. 9 on the Oricon weeklies.

As for Kimura's biography, you can take a look at the Wikipedia article.