Tribute to Regain（リゲイン）

 

Uh...nope. Not quite the Japanese vitamin drinks I was hoping for when I brought my request to the almighty Bing just now, but it'll do.

From NHK

In any case, I had heard that the once-booming industry of Japanese vitamin drinks has now noticeably shrunk and fallen on tough times. And please correct if I got the message wrong, but I also caught wind that the famous vitamin drink Regain has been discontinued. That's pretty big news. Mind you, during my years in Japan and no matter how tired I got, I never became a regular purveyor of vitamin drinks of any kind aside from the odd Regain or Oronamin C. 

Still, it's a shame to hear that the familiar bumblebee colours of Regain will no longer be seen again. Its commercial blitzes were a wonder to see, and one ad became so famous that it even made CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" to show how industrious Japanese workers were. I will now show three of the commercials and songs and artists that were part of the Regain media machine along with the catchphrases that accompanied them at the time.

(1999) Ryuichi Sakamoto -- energy flow

Tamatta tsukare ni.（たまった疲れに。...For your built-up fatigue.）

The commercial was actually for the Regain tablets but the healing arrangement of the Professor's "energy flow" in itself was probably effective for the ears and mind and soul for the exhausted masses of corporate Japan. It's almost as if Sakamoto（坂本龍一） were playing just for you by the side of your futon.

(1992) Masahiro Motoki -- Higashi e Nishi e （東へ西へ）

Zenryoku de iku. Regain de iku.（全力で行く。リゲインで行く...Go with all your strength. Go with Regain.）

Honestly, I hadn't known that Motoki's（本木雅弘） cover of "Higashi e Nishi e" was part of the Regain experience. Actually, I knew that song more for the former member of Shibugakitai's（シブがき隊） notorious performance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen. It may have been December 31st but the network's switchboard was most likely lit up like a Christmas tree and not merrily so.

(1989) Saburo Tokito -- Yuuki no Shirushi （勇気のしるし）

Ni-juu-yo-jikan tatakaemasu ka?（24時間、戦えますか。...Can you battle it out for 24 hours?）

But for me, Regain will always be represented by Tokito's（時任三郎）character of Saburota Ushiwakamaru（牛若丸三郎太）singing the ultimate challenge song to all those in the company trenches attempting to make that sale or seal that deal. In contrast to Sakamoto's comfortable warm blanket approach, the original big theme for the drink is the call to arms to business battle, fueled by all those vitamins and minerals (and maybe caffeine?) like a chemical arsenal for body and mind.

Yosui Inoue/Masahiro Motoki -- Higashi e Nishi e （東へ西へ）

When it comes to the Kohaku Utagassen, the first few years that I viewed the program were the ones that I generally have a good idea about what happened there. I guess it's as the saying goes, "You always remember your first one". After the mid-80s, it was more about which highlights/lowlights I remember throughout my viewing history than the actual particular year's performances. So, of course, I can recall Sachiko Kobayashi's（小林幸子）appearances in dresses bigger than Godzilla, Rie Miyazawa's（宮沢りえ）cringeworthy cover of David Bowie's "Game", and Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）triumphant return from serious illness singing "Den'en"（田園）with the band TOKIO.

Then there is Masahiro 'Mokkun' Motoki（本木雅弘）. I remember him from his days with Shibugakitai（シブがき隊）appearing on "The Best 10" and "The Top 10". And of course, many years later, there was his starring role in the Oscar-winning "Okuribito"（おくりびと...Departures） as the jaded cellist who finds a new calling as a mortician. However, Motoki entered my list of special Kohaku performances when he appeared on the 1992 show for the first time as a solo act. Until I looked up his article on J-Wiki and found out which year it was, I had completely forgotten when he made that notorious appearance. I certainly remember what that appearance was, though.

He sang "Higashi e Nishi e" (To The East, To The West) and the lyrics I recall were "Ganbare, ganbare"（がんばれ、がんばれ...Keep on going）. However, what probably had the audience in NHK Hall in Shibuya and millions of television viewers lollygagging was him dancing about seductively with a necklace of gigantic condoms filled with stuff. I wasn't quite sure whether he was channeling a mix of Klaus Nomi and Prince, but the piece de resistance happened during the musical interlude when he turned his back on the camera and promptly unzipped his butt. GOOD NIGHT, EVERYONE! I bet the NHK switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree....as perhaps did his ardent fans during his aidoru jidai. According to that J-Wiki article, Mokkun had intended to send a message about the AIDS situation.

"Higashi e Nishi e" was Motoki's 2nd single from May 1992. What I hadn't known until I started looking up the information last night was that the song was originally by singer-songwriter Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）, all the way back to his 2nd album in December 1972, "Yosui II Sentimental". Instead of the rock treatment by Mokkun, "Higashi e Nishi e" started life as a folk song in which Inoue was giving the young rebellious man's view of why people around him were just running in all directions like ants studying like crazy for university, and then once graduated and into society, why they were expending all that energy as corporate cogs or executroids day in and day out. From the way that he was singing it though, I wasn't quite sure whether he was being sarcastic or perhaps envious. In any case, I could easily imagine him strumming his guitar in front of Shibuya Station just watching the hordes zip around him everyday. Of course, Inoue wrote and composed the song but what really stuck out was the inclusion of that French horn near the end, giving the original song some more gravitas.

As for "Yosui II Sentimental", it peaked at No. 10 on the album charts, but it became the 8th-ranked release for 1974 and then the 15th-ranked album for 1975. Good ol' staying power there.

Apparently the above video features Inoue's performance of "Higashi e, Nishi e" at NHK Hall itself in March 1982. I actually like this rolling arrangement most of all out of the three versions I've featured. Aside from Motoki, Tomoyasu Hotei (2004) and Ayumi Nakamura (2010) have also covered the song. 

Wink -- Samishii Nettaigyo （淋しい熱帯魚）

Since arriving in Japan for the JET Programme, this was a song that just about flooded the airwaves and the soundstages for the remainder of that year. And it was my introduction to the world of Wink. "Samishii Nettaigyo"(Lonely Tropical Fish) was the duo's 5th single and breakout song, released in July 1989. Any music show or variety show just had to have Wink on board for a performance of the song....or if they couldn't make it, a couple of other TV personalities performed the karaoke version.

Sachiko Suzuki（鈴木早智子）of Saitama Prefecture and Shoko Aida（相田翔子）of Tokyo first joined up after they had both entered a magazine beauty contest back in 1987. Suzuki won the contest while Aida was one of the runners-up. Some months later in 1988, Wink was officially on the J-Pop map with their first single, "Sugar Baby Love", a cover version of a 1974 pop song by British group The Rubettes (the same song was covered by another legendary 1970s female aidoru group, The Candies). Wink would follow a pattern of covering songs by foreign singers while also performing original material.

Another Wink characteristic which stood them apart from other aidoru groups of the time or even female aidoru duos from other eras was their delivery style. A decade before Wink's arrival, the legendary duo Pink Lady was well-known for their bright smiles, frenetic choreography and roller disco fashion. On that level, you might call Wink the anti-Pink Lady: emotion-drained faces, robotic moves utilizing mostly their upper bodies, and Lolitaesque dresses. They looked just like porcelain dolls given life. Whoever came up with the idea of this counter-intuitive approach at the girls' talent agency probably earned a hefty bonus at the end of the year. My thought on seeing Wink several times on TV was that time really had passed by between Pink Lady and them.

Wink would become forever connected with "Samishii Nettaigyo", and for good reason. The song hit No. 1 and ended up as the 7th-ranked song of the year. It also earned the Grand Prize at the Japan Record Awards, and earned the ladies their first appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen. And I could imagine that a lot of the year-end parties in 1989 involved drink-filled women (and maybe some men) performing the song....with stiff choreography intact.

BTW, the single was also a track on Wink's 3rd album, "Twin Memories" released in December 1989. It peaked at the No. 2 spot on Oricon. The song was written by Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）and composed by Masaya Ozeki（尾関昌也）.