Welcome to the Hey!Hey!Hey! Music Champ Log!

This is a frequently updated log of Hey!Hey!Hey! Music Champ, a popular Japanese show featuring the hottest singers. Many of you know the show, but for those of you who don't, it's a music based talk show hosted by "downtown." Downtown is made up of two comedians named Matsumoto Hitoshi (my personal favorite) and Hamada Masatoshi. They are also published authors and actors. You can go to the official website for pictures and more. For information on what channel HEY!x3 is available in your area, go to http://www.fujisankei.com/ The staff there responds very quickly to questions concerning their shows. This journal is so that the people who get the shows AFTER the east coast gets them can see whats going to be coming up. And those who have already seen it can talk about it. It's also for me to blab on about the only show I watch on TV. Either way I hope you have fun reading it. This page is maintained by CD-Rose.

Hey!x3 Review for Episode #409: Chiharu,Kou,Kiroro,M&S

Posted by CD-Rose on 04.21.2004 at 22:31

Hi everyone, sorry for the delays on the reviews, my cat died and I had my tonsils removed, so.... Not really I'm just making excuses for my laziness, but seriously I have been very busy in the world outside the forum. Anyway I'll have some reviews up, and #405 up soon since I didn't watch it but like I previously done.... you guys know what's up. Well here: #409 which aired on January 5th ===== Tonights guest are: 松山千春 (Matsuyama, Chiharu) - 4th appearance 柴咲コウ (Shibasaki, Kou) - 2nd appearance Kiroro - 13th appearance コザック前田と泉谷しげる (Kozakku, Maeda & Izumiya, Shigeru) - first appearance note: to quickly reference the list of songs and performances use "Ctrl+F" and type [quicklist409] without the brackets. ===== Matsuyama segment: Tonights special guest is Chiharu Matsuyama. As he comes out he is already annoyed at Hamada's antics. This is the kind of guest that stands up and fights back, most of the respected artist usually do. Hamada continues to get on his nerves that he almost goes after him, and of course Hamada cowards away. After some more of this nonsense, it was time for Chiharu to make his first performance. First Performance: Chiharu's first performance was a song called "恋 (koi - Love)". A ballad that is a little in the enka-ish side, I didn't mind it it was very nice. He was playing his guitar, sitting in front of some musical notes (which are obviously just for show, it's not like he just wrote this song), a small table beside him with a rose in a vase, a glass of water and something else I couldn't make out, but that is not important. This was overall nice. Interview: After that it was time to have a talk with Chiharu. I'll be honest I had no idea what was going on and I really couldn't pick up on anything. From body language alone one could see how overly annoyed he was with Hamada, he kept making fun of something or just not letting something go. This almost felt like it was forever, but I'm sure someone out there enjoyed it. I tried looking for some info on this guy since the Hey!x3 site made errors on the guest of this show, all the links are "not found". Unfortunately I couldn't find a profile on Chiharu but I'm there is someone out there who is a hardcore Chiharu Matsuyama fan and who at this very moment is building a website dedicated to this particular Japanese musician. Well there was one highlight out of this, near the end of the interview we got to see Hamada sex face, it was both funny and disturbing. Second Performance: For his second performance he sang "最後の涙 (saigo no namida - The Last Tear)". Almost the same setup as the first performance but with a different song. Again he sits and plays his guitar, my guess would be that he sang one right after the other but was then edited. Anyway this was another ballad with the same kinda enka-ish vocals but without the overexaggerate in the vibrato. His songs were nice to listen to, I give him a 8/10 overall for both performances. ----- Shibasaki segment: Interview: Next up was the very beautiful Kou Shibasaki. Like with most female artist, the camera guy pans a shot from toe to head, to get a good look at Kou's nice figure (in some cases when the artist is wearing short skirts and if you look carefully, you can make out a little bit of their panties. Yeah a bit perverted but I bet the camera guy is thinking the same thing.) She mentions something about being backstage and watching Hamada and thinking of something painful, maybe it was his face? Anyway there wasn't anything that was worth while or notable since this little talk was very short, they did do some funny walk but that's about all. Born August 5th 1981 in Tokyo made her television debut on a commercial about orange juice in 1999. She then made her movie debut in "バトルロワイアル (Battle Royale)" of 2000, then moved on to television dramas like "GOOD LUCK!!". She made her singing debut with the single "Trust my feelings" on July 24th 2002. Her first album was released February 11th 2004. Performance: Tonight Kou performs her latest single "いくつかの空 (itsuka no sora - Several Skies)". This is a nice ballad with nice instrumentals, as with all great pop songs, she had her very own violin section. I really enjoyed watching the performance of this song, it was very nicely done. Anyway if any of you gets the chance to listen to this song you may probably become a Kou Shibasaki fanatic, or at least purchase her music. I give this performance a 9.25/10. ----- kiroro segment: Interview: Up next is that lovable duo Kiroro. The talk portion was very short and had no exciting highlights. Kiroro are: 玉城千春 (Tamashiro, Chiharu) who is the vocalist and lyricist. she was born on April 17th of 1977; 金城綾乃 (Kinjou, Ayano) who is the pianist and keyboardist, she was born on August 15th of 1977, also on the same year! Both met in Okinawa in Yomitan High, one was a talented singer the other a great pianist, as a result Kiroro was born. An indie single was given to a radio station that caused a great amount of unfulfilled requests due to the limited release. In 1998 Kiroro make their debut with that indie single, "長い間 (nagai aida)." After four album releases, these talented ladies will have their 14th single release. |Official Website| Performance: Kiroro performs their 14th single, "もう少し (mou sukoshi - A little more)." Another great ballad release, I have always enjoyed listening and watching Kiroro perform, it's a double treat of talent, instrumentally and vocally. This was a very nice performance, probably the best of the night.... yeah the best! I give them a 10/10. ----- Maeda & Shigeru segment: Interview: And last and certainly least (yeah that was mean, but so what.) was a pair of old guys, Kozakku, Maeda and Izumiya, Shigeru. Both Hamada and Matsumoto seemed to be very friendly with them as they came out, almost as if they were old buddies, they probably were, but who cares. At this point I was very tired and just wanted some sleep, but someone did get slapped on the head so it was all good. I'm not familiar with these guys so I'm not going to get into them, as their talk was very short. Performance: Tonights other duo performed "生活 (seikatsu - Life lit. one's daily existence)." This song was alright, kinda like blues rock, best way to describe it I guess. Since I wasn't too into it and I wasn't feeling it, and also just too finish this review, I give them a 7/10. If you like this style of music or you are a fan of this duo or Maeda and Shigeru, you would have enjoyed this performance a great deal. ===== This weeks PICK UP artist: "Kinki Kids" part 1 and "河口恭吾 (Kawaguchi, Kyougo)" for part 2 ===== Perfect Ranking: 10. 堀込泰行（キリンジ）(Horigome, Yasuyuki [Kirinji]), 、 畠山美由紀 (Hatakeyama, Miyuki)、 ハナレグミ (Hanaregumi) - "真冬物語 (mafuyu monogatari - The depth of winter story)" 09. 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "雪の華 (yuki no hana - Bloom of Snow)" 07. EXILE - "Choo Choo TRAIN" 07. 森山直太朗 (Moriyama, Naotaro) - "さくら （独唱）(sakura ~dokushou~ - Sakura ~vocal solo~)" 06. 河口恭吾 (Kawaguchi, Kyougo) - "桜 (Sakura)" 05. 森山直太朗 (Moriyama, Naotaro) - "太陽 (taiyo - Sun)" 04. Mr. Children - "掌 (tenohira - Palm)" 02. 平原綾香 (Hirahira, Ayaka) - "Jupiter" 02. SMAP - "世界に一つだけの花 (sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana - 'The one and only flower in the world' or 'Only one Flower in the World' or 'In the World, there is only one flower' which ever you like best)" 01. YOSHII LOVINSON - "SWEET CANDY RAIN" note: There are ties sometimes and the order that they are put don't reflect in anyway it's position, two at number seven and at number two are equal in points they received. ===== Quicklist409: For easy reference here is the list of guest and the song they performed: 松山千春 (Matsuyama, Chiharu) - 4th appearance performed: - "恋 (koi - Love)", "最後の涙 (saigo no namida - The Last Tear)" rating: 8/10 for both performances 柴咲コウ (Shibasaki, Kou) - 2nd appearance performed: "いくつかの空 (itsuka no sora - Several Skies)" rating: 9.25/10 Kiroro - 13th appearance performed: "もう少し (mou sukoshi - A little more)" rating: 10/10 the best for tonight コザック前田と泉谷しげる (Kozakku, Maeda & Izumiya, Shigeru) - first appearance performed: "生活 (seikatsu - Life lit. one's daily existence)" rating: 7/10 if you were a fan you'd give them a 10 ===== Enjoy! @'~<(^-^v)

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No room for Johnny... [Read important information]

Posted by CD-Rose on 02.25.2004 at 21:50

I have just received a response to my e-mail I sent a couple of days ago to FCI concerning the recently skipped shows and certain artist that have been edited out. My e-mail: ===== Hello, I have a simple question. I have notice that some shows have been skipped, episode #403 and #410, also I have notice that certain artists were edited out of the Special Christmas show. The artist in the shows that were skipped share something in common, they are part of the Johnny's Entertainment group. "NEWS", "TOKIO", and "KinKi Kids" were recently absent in these showings. I was just curious why are these particular artist are being skipped and left out? In some shows that were skipped I was looking forward in seeing some of the other artist. Anyway, I am really curious about it and I hope to get a respond. By the way, I am a big fan of your programing. ===== Their response: ===== We can't show any visual image of some artists who belong to a certain Agent (EX: Johnny's ..) due to copy right problem. Thank you for your understanding. FCI/LA ===== So as it turns out, due to legal problems FCI can't air any of the "Johnny's Entertainment" artists that appear on Hey!x3. So any episodes that have or will have any of the Johnny Groups: V6, TOKIO, KinKi Kids, Arashi, Tackey & Tsubasa, SMAP, Kat-Tun, and Johnny's Jr., take a note that they will edit them out if they are "chumps" and completely skip the entire show if they are "champs". Arashi was this weeks "Champ" that aired Monday 23rd, episode #414, this show will most likely be skipped. EDIT: So as it turns out they will end up airing this episode after all but will have Arashi completely edited out of the show. I guess the guest line up was to good for them to just skip it, unfortunately for the time when NEWS was "champ" and Morning Musume was never shown. I'm not sure why some shows where completely skipped (like with the Kinki Kids show, episode #410), but it's a good thing that they will at least air the rest of the other half of the show. So rest assured that episode #414 will be aired, but not in its entirety. I guess I was a bit paranoid there. This only affects the viewers currently watching through the FCI network.

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Hey!x3 Review for Episode #408: THE PERFECT RANKING 2003

Posted by CD-Rose on 02.22.2004 at 13:50

Hey everyone, like with other previous re-cap specials that show clips of previous episodes, I have decided to make a review with parts from the reviews of those previous episode. Anyway to make up for lack of reviews I have also decided to post this today, so until next time (by the way this list took me a while to finally come up with it, just thought I ought to let you guys know.) #408 which aired on February 2nd of 2004 Original Air Date: January 12th, 2004 HEY!HEY!HEY! 2003年間パーフェクトランキングスペシャル 2003 Perfect Ranking Special ===== Tonights Guest are: key: Artist Japanese name (Artist Name in Romaji) Episode | # | Original Air Date モーニング娘。(Morning Musume) ............................#377 04/14 一青窈 (Hitotoyo) .................................................#369 02/03 松浦亜弥 (Matsuura, Aya) ....................................#375 03/17 和田アキ子 (Wada, Akiko) .....................................#383 05/26 華原朋美 (Kahala, Tomomi) ..................................#378 04/21 上戸彩 (Ueto, Aya) ...............................................#381 05/12 EXILE ...................................................................#384 06/02 CHEMISTRY .........................................................#386 06/16 平井堅 (Hirai, Ken) ...............................................#392 07/28 松たか子 (Matsu, Takako) .....................................#396 08/25 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika).................................#396 08/25 森山直太朗 (Moriyama, Naotaro) ..........................#397 09/01 ROCKERS ...........................................................#398 09/08 野狐禅 (Yakozen) ................................................#398 09/08 BoA .....................................................................#402 10/20 DREAMS COME TRUE .........................................#402 10/20 安室奈美恵 (Amuro, Namie) .................................#402 10/20 ORANGE RANGE .................................................#403 10/27 平川地一丁目 (Hirakawachi 1 chome) ...................#403 10/27 Gackt ...................................................................#405 12/08 Mr. Children ..........................................................#404 12/01 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) ..............................#404 12/01 ===== Like with every Perfect Ranking Special that airs once a year, our hosts, Matsumoto and Hamada sit in front of a camera talking about all the events that took place for this year, in our case is 2003. This special basically consist of clips of the most memorable moments and popular guests that have appeared on the show, then followed by the Perfect Ranking of the year, again in our case here it will be for 2003. Now this show is very basic, you can tell they only took a few minutes to make it and like with every year they always have the two people (I would say guys, but sometimes there could be a lady under the costumes) dressed as the years Chinese Zodiac figure, this year is the year of the Monkey. After some congratulating the show basically goes as follows: ===== Morning Musume By CD-Rose: So then its "Private Digital Camera Pictures Time" yay! The first picture to be shown was of Aibon with one Q-tip in each nostril and the other ends between her lip and her gums resting on the bottom of her mouth. Everyone laughs as Ai, embarrassed, covers her face and smiles and just wishes they stop showing it... one whole minute past by. After that major embarrassment, a picture of Nozomi and Natsumi was shown of them cheek to cheek making fish lips, a very silly picture. As Natsumi explains how she physically took the picture the next one had both of them in a similar fashion, but this time they had strawberries in their mouths. After a couple of jokes, the next picture was of Rika and Aibon doing some weird funny faces, then right after that we see Aibon, Mari, Risa and Rika all pouting and stretching their hair down with their hands from the top of their heads, very cute. Then it was Takahashi's turn, a picture of her holding her lips in and holding a traditional festive Japanese fan. And again Aibon's "Q-tip" picture was shown once more, everyone laughs and so does the audience, by now I think Aibon regrets ever taking that picture. ----- Hitoto, Yo By Ladymercury: She is very plain, like, very plain. I kinda was turned off by her whole get up. So anyway, she's holding this sign, I never really got what it meant, but a lot of new guys hold it up.... A brief history of her career is explained and we're to the interview.... I didn't really pay much attention to it, but it was something about some funny sayings and stuff.... >.> I need to watch my recording again. ----- Matsuura, Aya By Ladymercury: She was cooking, like almost every single female artist that comes on that show, and it actually looked edible this time! ^^; She mentions to Ma-chan and Ham-chan not to ask for something because she didn't want them to eat it or something... Ma-chan and Ham-chan then invite all the guests to the set were they're eating to have a few bites of the food that she's prepared. She prepares them their dishes and she asks Gackt was he wants, he then tells her he wants the thing in the bowl which she just explained to Ham-chan and Ma-chan not to eat, sparking a laugh around the place. ----- Wada, Akiko By CD-Rose: Akko, was showing off her cell phone and who she has stored up on her phone list, and who's on it, Ayumi Hamasaki!!, DA PUMP members, Tsunku, and almost everyone in j-pop, the audience sure was amazed at her connections, very impressive. She also made a call but dunno who it was they showed his picture, some old guy, might be her boyfriend. ----- Kahala, Tomomi By CD-Rose: Caught up with the excitement she was happy to be greeted by her loyal fans, but Hamada thought that was enough and was yelling at the audience to stop. Still laughing and smiling cute Tomomi says "もうすごい感動ですよ!" (mou sugoi kandou desu yo! - what an enormous impression!) then gets lightly tapped on the forehead and a small screech of a yell (which was cute) came out of her and then rubs her forehead. ----- Ueto, Aya By A Girl for XX: From here, she makes a fancy tasty looking noodle dish that I sure wish I could dig into right now! Too much cream for me, and most Asians (the audience ooooo’d and ahhhh’d at how much she put in), but I bet it tastes good. What IS that green stuff? Seaweed? Wow, never saw any like that before. They all sit down, and enjoy it while making fun of it at the same time. ^_^ ----- CHEMISTRY By CD-Rose: At this point Kaname is explaining through those famous card board pictures his horrible experiences of the things he saw from the tour bus, as the next card shows a naked biker with his privates hanging out, and Kaname's cartoon picture looks very shocked, even more the fact that the guy was the size of a walrus. ----- Hirai, Ken By CD-Rose: So as they talk about this Hamada and Matsumoto tell Ken to give a message to that girl, and the interview is over and close the doors.... WAIT!! They open it back up and Ken was shocked that they opened the doors again as he was drinking his iced tea and to his surprise that girl was there! Still surprised, she comes in and stands next to him and Hamada pushes her down to sit, how rude! So as they reminisce with some pictures she brought with her, they make them do a little jump rope competition, as they warm up first, they begin, I tired now so in the end she wins and Ken bowed before her. ----- Matsu, Takako By CD-Rose: At the start of the interview they made comments on how she resembles some other famous person named ホンコン (honkon). After some joking around, a chart of three things about her daughter is shown. As Hamada removes the cover they discussed about the topics and during one they showed pictures of her daughter at the age of 3, dressed in a kimono. Then they show another of her eating some noodles, then they bring some out. She gets some of the noodles and puts them on a bowl with chilled water, she begins to stir it in circles, then as it is spinning she grabs some of the noodles, I guess she was demonstrating how she does it. ----- Nakashima, Mika By CD-Rose: The first of the tale has Mika riding on a bike with her friend happy as one can be. The second of the tale has a wild boar running with anger, very scary.... As she turns to the next it shows the two girls terrified as they notice that they are being chased by a wild boar, yes those things run around like crazy in Japan. So the next drawing has one of the girls, which I think is Mika, thinking and imagining that she is being eaten by the wild beast. As the next picture is shown it gets more intensive and more dramatic, the illustration has the wild boar right behind them, poor girls are terrified as they petal faster and faster. Then as she shows the next picture it has the wild boar running up a hill, it was never following the terrified girls. And finally they get the last laugh as the see the wild boar tumbling down the hill in the last illustration. ----- Moriyama, Naotaro By CD-Rose: Our first guest was Naotaro Moriyama, who was waiting on a designer chair as he was being presented, I wonder if they have those at IKEA.... anyway.... They asked him how it felt to have a big hit like "Sakura" be number one the number of weeks it did. He goes on to explain how this whole experience has changed him. Then more talk about his life experiences in being a musician. They then ask him about his impression of Downtown and what he thought about Matumoto and Hamada. They ask him about his relationship that he has with his famous mother (Ryoko Moriyama), how it was to grow up into the world of media and stuff like that. ----- ROCKERS By CD-Rose: First was the new rock group ROCKERS from the new theatrical movie ロッカーズ (rokkaazu). With 陣内孝則 (Jinna, Takanori) also making a guest appearance and is supervising the whole project about this 80's movie. ジン (Jin) whose real name is 中村俊介 (Nakamura, Siyunsuke) is the lead vocals and has that weird 50's hairdo, like those guys in the movie "jackass" that were going to kick Party Guy's ass. モモ (Momo) whose real name is 岡田義徳 (Okada, Yosinori) is on the drums with his badass vest. タニ (Tani) whose real name is 玉木宏 (Tamaki, Hiroshi) is the lead guitarist with his biker look. コーちゃん (Koochan) whose real name is 塚本高史 (Tsukamoto, Kouzi) is the second guitarist and has a feminine look. ガク (Gaku) whose real name is 佐藤隆太 (Sato, Riyuuta) is the bass player, and as we all know they are always the wild ones, with his orange jumpsuit he reminded me of Goku from Dragonball Z and with that crazy hair style and his name that just makes it even more obvious. ----- Yakozen By CD-Rose: Yakozen, two guys who made it big. As they present the duo they start off with a video clip of how.... you know what I mean that video they show with every new artist that first comes to the show. These guys looked like they were just picked up off the street with casual clothing and simple looks that make them down to earth. They got off with a good start with both host, Pistol did most of the talking, since he is the leader and is bigger than the other guy and has them hard-ass Japanese wooden clogs (is that what you call them?) that reminded me of Goro from the King of Fighter's series. ----- BoA By CD-Rose: After that little mess it was BoA's turn to enlighten us with her comedy stylings, well actually no, but all this is just to make this interview segment longer because it was a very short interview, more like chit-chat. Anyway BoA looked very cute and had a cool long sleeve shirt of some kind that on the right side had a zipper that was undone and well it was just so cool looking. Matsumoto then begins to talk about something BoA did and makes a horrible impression of her, and then she does something I find really cute that girls do, the slap on the arm. Yes the famous "slap on the arm", the one girls do when you kid around to much and they get all cute and angry and start hitting your arm, now I know that BoA is one of those girls and does this to Matsumoto several times and both him and the audience laugh every time she does it. The highlight of the interview. ----- DREAMS COME TRUE By CD-Rose: This was a very lengthy interview and most of it was talk of what they have been doing with their time and what projects they have been working on. I'll be honest, I have no idea what was going on other than trying to stay awake, it wasn't boring but it was just normal interview talk with nothing that exciting or funny. As they get towards the end of the conversation, Miwa starts to talk about her continuation of her solo project "beauty and harmony" and working with guitarist David T. Walker. There were laughs and great times, but I just didn't get them, as none were physical or involved funny facial expressions. ----- Amuro, Namie By CD-Rose: This was a very short little talk with Namie. She was wearing a cute outfit and was smiling a lot and no complaints there. As they continue to talk to her, you can see the anticipation she had to talk about what she had in her hand. You can also see the moment of relief once they start to talk about it. By now you are all wondering what did she have in her hand that night and can't wait until you finally know what it was. As you are now reading this you are trying to read ahead to find out, well your wait is now over, you wanna know what was so important that Namie had to mention? From the looks of it, it was some kinda catalog or travel guide. WOW!!! All that jerking you around just for a magazine, anyway she had something circled over it and they joke around a bit. ----- Gackt By CD-Rose: As soon as the interview begins it's nothing but jokes for Matsumoto as he makes fun of Gackt, who is just sitting, looking innocent. It was something about the way his name is written in Japanese. Throughout the interview I noticed that every time Gackt would change his position in the way he sat, so did Matsumoto and Hamada. Early Gackt also adjusted his leggings and Hamada mocks him, during this he was talking about having or folding 30 "tatami mats" (Japanese straw floor coverings), he also mentioned something about Christmas, so maybe he is giving those as gifts. Sometime during this Gackt was asked a question and takes a long 15 sec. pause to answer, I was just wondering what that was all about. I'm not sure what lead to this but all of the sudden Gackt stretches his arm in front of Hamada so he can smell his wrist, that was weird. He then again talks about his trampoline he has in his house and how he still jumps in it, by now I'm thinking "What is this man so fascinated by the trampoline?". ----- Mr. Children By CD-Rose: Throughout most of the interview I was again lost with what they were talking about, but there were joke here and there but nothing really that worth while. It seemed that it was mostly about life experiences and things that had happened to them. Probably the most notable thing was Hideya (the guy with the messy hair) on two separate occasions says a bad word as his mouth gets covered by an "X" and it isn't bleeped but ringed out, it sounded like a slot machine cashing out coins, I'm not sure what was up with that. ----- Hamasaki, Ayumi By CD-Rose: The second artist tonight was the very beautiful Ayumi Hamasaki, who has changed her look since her last appearance for the better. She was cute and confident as ever, as she is not afraid at Downtown antics as she again manages to get hit by Hamada. Tonight Ayumi was wearing a furry babydoll dress (I think that is what they are called, I'm not sure) that kinda looked like a pillow case, and with long leather high heel boots she was styling. As they continue to talk she mentioned some guys, the dude from Kuzu and some other guy that just happened to have been on her show. Not much more to say about this other than it was nice to see Ayumi looking cute again. ===== THE 2003 PERFECT RANKING ----- 100~50 100 - SOUL'd OUT - "Flyte Tyme" 99 - BoA - "VALENTI" 98 - SHAKA LABBITS - "MONSTER TREE" 97 - YOSHII LOVINSON - "TALI" 96 - アシャンティ (Ashanti) - "Rock With U" 95 - TAK MATSUMOTO featuring 倉木麻衣 (Kuraki, Mai) - "イミテイション・ゴールド (imiteishon gooruto - Imitation Gold)" 94 - 椎名林檎 (Ringo, Shiina) - "りんごのうた (ringo no uta - Song of Apples)" 93 - HY - "AM11:00" 92 - 島谷ひとみ (Shimatani, Hitomi) - "亜麻色の髪の乙女 (amairo no kami no otome - Maiden of hair of flaxen color)" 91 - 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "FIND THE WAY" 90 - TAK MATSUMOTO featuring ZARD - "異邦人 (ihoujin - Stranger)" 89 - 元ちとせ (Hajime, Chitose) - いつか風になる日 (itsuka kaze ninaru hi - Once upon a time the wind becomes the sun)" 88 - BUMP OF CHICKEN - "スノースマイル (sunoo sumairu - Snow Smile)" 87 - 矢井田瞳 (Yaida, Hitomi) - "孤独なカウボーイ (kodoku na kaubooi - Lonely Cowboy)" 86 - Tommy Februaru6 - "jet'aime★jet'aime" 85 - 稲葉浩志 (Inaba, Kohshi) - "KI" 84 - 一青窈 (Hitoto, Yo) - 大家 （ダージャー） (daijya - Expert)" 83 - Bonnie Pink - "Tonight, the Night" 82 - ゴスペラーズ (Gospellers) - "新大阪 (shin osaka - New Osaka)" 81 - CHEMISTRY - "YOUR NAME NEVER GONE" 80 - 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "Voyage" 79 - aiko - "えりあし (eriashi - nape of neck lit.)" 78 - ゆず (Yuzu) - "歩行者優先 (hokousha yuusen - Pedestrian priority lit.)" 77 - 山下達郎 (Yamashita, Tachiro) - "RIDE ON TIME" 76 - 椎名林檎 (Ringo, Shiina) - "茎（STEM）～大名遊ビ編～ (kiku ~daimyou asobi hen - STEM ~Daimyo playing compilation)" 75 - ZONE - "true blue" 74 - 矢井田瞳 (Yaida, Hitomi) - "一人ジェンガ (hitori jenga - One person Jenga)" 73 - 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "Love Addict" 72 - 嵐 (Arashi) - "まどいながら (madoinagara - Puzzlement)" 71 - ケツメイシ (Ketsumeishi) - "はじまりの合図 (hajimari no aizu - Signal at the Beginning)" 70 - SPEED - "Be My Love" 69 - I WiSH - "ふたつ星 (futatsu hoshi - Twin Stars)" 68 - ORANGE RANGE - "ビバ★ロック (biba rokku - Viva Rock)" 67 - 島谷ひとみ (Shimatani, Hitomi) - "Perseus ーペルセウスー" 66 - ビヨンセ feat. ジェイ・Z (Beyonce feat. Jay-Z) - "Crazy in Love" 65 - 嵐 (Arashi) - "ハダシの未来 (hadashi no mirai - Skin of the Future)" 64 - 松浦亜弥 (AYAYA!!! Matsuura, Aya) - "GOOD BYE夏男 (natsuo - Summer Boy)" 63 - BoA - "DOUBLE" 62 - HYDE - "HELLO" 61 - 倉木麻衣 (Kuraki, Mai) - "Kiss" 60 - 倉木麻衣 (Kuraki, Mai) - "Time after time～花舞う街で～ (hanamau machi de - Flower fluttering on the street)" 59 - day after tomorrow - "Starry Heavens" 58 - 桜庭裕一郎 (Sakuraba, Yuichiro) - "お前やないとあかんねん (omae yanai to kannen)" 57 - MISIA - "心ひとつ (kokoro hitotsu - One Heart)" 56 - 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "愛してる (ai shi teru - I love you)" 55 - BUMP OF CHICKEN - "sailing day" 54 - 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "forgiveness" 53 - タトゥー (t.A.t.U) - "All the Sings She Said" 52 - BoA - "JEWEL SONG" 51 - 松浦亜弥 (AYAYA!!! Matsuura, Aya) - "ね～え？(ne~e - Well?)" 50 - ポルノグラフィティ (Porno Graffiti) - "愛が呼ぶほうへ (ai ga yobu hou he - To the One which Love Calls)" ----- 49~11 49 - 長渕剛 (Nagabuchi, Tsuyoshi) - "しあわせになろうよ (shiawase ninarouyo - Becoming Happy)" 48 - サザンオールスターズ (The Southern All Stars) - "勝手にシンドバッド (katte ni shindobaddo - Selfishly Sindbad)" 47 - B'z - "野性のENERGY (yasei no - Wild Nature)" 46 - 中島みゆき (Nakajima, Miyuki) - "銀の龍の背に乗って (gin no ryuu no sei ni notte - Riding on the back of the silver dragon)" 45 - CHEMISTRY - "My Gift to You" 44 - KinKi Kids - "心に夢を君には愛を - (kokoro ni yume wo kimi niwa ai wo)" 43 - V6 - "Darling" 42 - Do As Infinity - "柊 (hiiragi - Holly)" 41 - はなわ (hanawa) - "佐賀県 (saga-ken - Saga prefecture)" 40 - 森山直太朗 (Moriyama, Naotaro) - "夏の終わり (natsu no owari - The End of Summer)" 39 - Mr.Children - "HERO" 38 - 倖田來未 (Koda, Kumi) - "real Emotion" 37 - aiko - "蝶々結び (chouchou musubi - Butterfly knot)" 36 - CHEMISTRY - "アシタヘカエル (ashita e kaeru - Come Back Tomorrow)" 35 - GLAY - "BEAUTIFUL DREAMER" 34 - BoA - "Shine We Are!" 33 - TOKIO - "AMBITIOUS JAPAN!" 32 - aiko - "アンドロメダ (andoromeda - Andromeda)" 31 - EXILE - "Choo Choo TRAIN" 30 - 175R - "ハッピーライフ - (happii raifu - Happy Life)" 29 - 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "No way to say" 28 - KinKi Kids - "永遠のBLOOD (eien no - Eternity)" 27 - ロードオブメジャー (Road of Major) - "大切なもの (taisetsu na mono - Important Ones)" 26 - 東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra) - "銀河と迷路 (ginga to meiro - Milky Way Maze)" 25 - Every Little Thing - "UNSPEAKABLE" 24 - ORANGE RANGE - "上海 ハニー - (shanghai hanii - Shanghai Honey)" 23 - B'z - "IT'S SHOWTIME!!" 22 - Dragon Ash - "marrow" 21 - KinKi Kids - "薄荷キャンディー (hakka kyandi - Peppermint Candy)" 20 - Mr. Children - "掌 (tenohira - Palm)" 19 - 平井堅 (Hirai, Ken) - "LIFE is...～another story～" 18 - ケツメイシ (Ketsumeishi) - "夏の思い出 (natsu no omoide - Memory of summer)" 17 - 光永亮太 (Mitsunaga, Ryota) - "Always" 16 - ポルノグラフィティ (Porno Graffiti) - "メリッサ (merissa - Melissa)" 15 - 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "Greatful days" 14 - RIP SLYME - "JOINT" 13 - EXILE - "Together" 12 - 175R - "空に唄えば (sora ni utaeba - If you sing in the Sky)" 11 - 夏川りみ (Natsukawa, Rimi) - "涙そうそう (namida sou sou)" ----- 10~4 10 - 一青窈 (Hitoto, Yo) - "もらい泣き (morainaki)" 09 - 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "雪の華 (yuki no hana - Bloom of Snow)" 08 - 中島みゆき (Nakajima, Miyuki) - "地上の星 (chijou no hoshi - Terrestrial Star)" 07 - サザンオールスターズ (The Southern All Stars) - "涙の海で抱かれたい～SEA OF LOVE～ (namida no umi de dakaretai)" 06 - I WiSH - "明日への扉 (ashita e no tobira - Door to Tomorrow)" 05 - RUI - "月のしずく (tsuki no shizuku)" 04 - 福山雅治 (Fukuyama, Masaharu) - "虹 (niji - Rainbow)" ----- 3~1 03 - 宇多田ヒカル (Utada, Hikaru) - "COLORS" 02 - 森山直太朗 (Moriyama, Naotaro) - "さくら （独唱）(sakura ~dokushou~ - Sakura ~vocal solo~)" Song of the Year! 01 - SMAP - "世界に一つだけの花 (sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana - The world with just one flower)" ===== Enjoy! @'~<(^-^v)

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Hey!x3 Review for Episode #407: SUPER X'MAS VII

Posted by CD-Rose on 02.21.2004 at 16:57

#407 which aired on January 12th, 19th, and 26th of 2004 Original Air Date: December 22nd, 2003 HEY!HEY!HEY! 生のチャンプ X'mas VII =========== Tonights guest are: 平川地一丁目 (Hirakawachi 1 chome) - 2nd appearance day after tomorrow - 5th appearance 島谷ひとみ (Shimatani. Hitomi) - 12th appearance 後藤真希 (Goto, Maki) - 3rd appearance RAG FAIR - 5th appearance ORANGE RANGE - 3rd appearance モーニング娘。(Morning Musume) - 31st appearance NEWS - 2nd appearance BoA - 9th appearance 朋ちゃん＆コロッケ (Tomo-chan & Croquette) - 22nd and first appearance Every Little Thing - 34th appearance Gackt - 13th appearance TOKIO - first appearance aiko - 10th appearance 松浦亜弥 (AYAYA!! Matsuura, Aya) - 7th appearance 安室奈美恵 (Amuro, Namie) - 45th appearance 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - 8th appearance 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - 31st appearance EXILE - 6th appearance CHEMISTRY - 12th appearance note: to quickly reference the list of songs and performances use "Ctrl+F" and type [quicklist407] without the brackets. ===== As the very enthusiastic Downtown make their way down the stairs the audience greets them with very loud screams and obnoxious hooting and hollering, well not really. They both talk for a while with out a care in the world, little do they realize some people i.e. me are waiting for the show to start. As they get to the point they mention the "The Very Special Christmas Present Give Away" that tonights guests have brought and that either another guest, either one of the hosts (Downtown), a studio audience member and television audience person might have a chance to win the gift that our loving guest brought to the show. Well after that little announcement on with the guests, the first guest to come down the steps was the lovely Ayumi Hamasaki, then on the opposite side the also lovely Namie Amuro, then Gackt, TOKIO, CHEMISTRY, the beautiful Mika Nakashima, Every Little Thing, aiko, BoA, Tomo-chan & Croquette, the very cute Maki Goto and Aya Matsuura (who didn't even got a single shot, but I know she was behind Maki), Hitomi Shimatani (which barely made it in the shot), NEWS, the very talented and massive girl pop group which also has a lot of pretty ladies Morning Musume (with Rika busting a dual v-sign), EXILE, and still the rest of the Morning Musume members, and then some more EXILE, day after tomorrow, and the last of the Morning Musume girls (with Yossi being last), ORANGE RANGE, the very adorable Misono with a cute close up in-your-face shot, Rag Fair, and last but not least Hirakawachi 1 chome brothers. Well all our guest are out and standing side by side, elbow to elbow and so on and so on. Both our host then joke a bit with Croquette as it is his first appearance on the show, and what do you know so was TOKIO's as they so briefly mentioned. After that Hamada slaps Ayumi's arm don't know why, but then they take the opportunity to let you the viewer and the audience know that there will be a "Special Christmas Champ Live Song Performances" by Ayumi Hamasaki, Mika Nakashima, Tomomi Kahala, Every Little Thing, Gackt, and TOKIO. And on with the show!! ===== Hirakawachi 1 chome segment: Interview / Present giveaway: First up were the two brothers, I'm not sure what the elder one was wearing, but that Hamada was rubbing his leg one time to many, hmm.... These guys are really, really shy, you could tell, man I thought the older one was going to faint, the expression on his face looks like he's in agony and dying of embarrassment, poor guy. But anyway it's gift time and the older one... damn I'm getting tired of referring him as the older one, so let us call him "Boy A", so Boy A brings up a green bag that he had sitting beside him and takes out a bunch of miscellaneous items and hands them over to his kid brother, let's call him "Boy B", as he then explains them to both our hosts and the audience and sets them on the table. So far the items appear to be food, some nori, soy sauce and a Hello! Kitty tin can and wait! ... whatever. So Matsumoto is handed over a box which by now one can only guess that the box contains names written on pieces of paper...... OH EXCUSE ME!! They are round spherical shaped circles! So Boy A goes in and takes out a ball with 小山慶一郎 (Koyama, Keiichiro's) name on it from the group NEWS, Boy A couldn't read the name so Hamada says it out loud. Surprised Keiichiro gets up and bows in gratitude and is handed a microphone in which he says thanks. The end (of this segment of course). Performance: After all that we see that the brothers are (through the magic of television) on the first floor of the Fuji Television building on standby, they talk to them as the camera shows shots of the magnitude that is the audience outside. Once again the brothers perform their latest single "とうきょう (toukyo - Tokyo)", this is a ballad that is sung with the sound of two acoustic guitars, most of the singing is done by Boy B. This is a nice song, it kinda sounds like it is depressing, but in a good way I guess. Very sad song, I really like the guitar notes on this song very enjoyable. During the chorus Boy A jumps in and sings, most of the audience is just swaying back and forth slowly, this adds to the overall feeling of the song. ----- day after tomorrow segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Next up was day after tomorrow, and of course the very adorable and cute Misono shows us her cute smile as she jokes around with our hosts. And that is all the chit-chat they get, as it is once again "Present Give Away Time!" They have for us to win (ha, ha, ha) a nice soup type making set, as Hamada opens it up and it is all ready for cooking with ingredients already inside, yum! Our other guest which happened to be behind them are all amazed, oh did I fail to mention that, silly me. Anyway a stage guy puts the "Random Gift Box" (by the way that is what I'm calling it) on the table and Misono reaches in for a ball and takes out a yellow one, with none other than Gackt's name on it (lucky SOB). Very casually Gackt plays it off, as though he is not all that surprise with that sneaky grind he gets on his face, Matsumoto makes a big deal about it as Gackt bows in gratitude. A man of many years says nothing but a few words to d.a.t. and it is now standby for them. Performance: Tonight d.a.t. performs for us "Starry Heavens". What ever great things you may have heard from this song (the next being one of those) believe them to be true. Quite possibly one of the best songs of d.a.t. released to this day, really is that great. It starts off kinda mellow during the first verse and then the tempo kicks up which at this point Misono breaks into shaking them hips and treating us with cute face expressions. What a flirt, winking and smiling at the camera and again shaking her hips, a man cannot take more of this sexually suggestive performance, well at least me. Anyway the song is great and day after tomorrow is great, not much more to say other than it was a good performance. You may have notice with what I typed that I am a big fan of day after tomorrow, and they didn't disappoint me tonight and quite honestly they never have, it was mostly watching them on this show that really got me into them and purchasing their album without thinking twice, and I expect to the same with their new one coming out. ----- Shimatani, Hitomi segment: Interview / Present giveaway: After that great d.a.t performance it was time for Hitomi Shimatani. By now the folks at Fuji TV are letting us know to stay tune for that "Special Live Song Performance" with the six guest mentioned before. Also at this point Hamada slaps poor Hitomi on the back of the head, then after some small chat they tell her to show the present she has for tonight. As she uncovers it, we see a large array of costumes for the festive holiday that is Christmas, Santa costumes for his and hers, and a reindeer hat. Anyway Matsumoto is handed the box thing and takes it to Hitomi as she is ready, she puts her hand in and takes out a white ball with Matsumoto's name on it, he was surprised, and everyone laughs with joy, including Hitomi. He then goes on to put on the reindeer hat on as Hitomi is told to go on standby. Performance: Right after the Maki Goto segment Hitomi now performs "Persus -ペルセウス-". It's not every day that you get two good back to back songs, and this is one is another great up beat dance song. It starts off calm and then the tempo kicks in and then a gentle dance and then the chorus which has Hitomi moving. Behind her are four male dancers, which are okay, but I would have like to have seen her usual female dancers. Anyway there isn't much more to say about this performance, I like this song a lot, I think it is one of her best songs and I think if you get around to listen to it you might enjoy it as well, very nice performance, I couldn't have asked for anything else. ----- Goto, Maki segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Right after the Hitomi interview / Present giveaway, the very cute Maki Goto comes out and sits between our hosts. They start to talk for a bit, I think I heard Mari's name, but anyway Maki goes on to do an impression of someone, as she gets ready, she finds herself making quick decisions as she ask Hamada to hold her microphone for her. She then stretches up her eyebrows and looks around and says something, and in embarrassment covers herself face down on the table. At first there a small silence followed by a round of applause, poor Maki if only I knew what you were trying to do. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it was very cute. The present box is then put in front of her and she tries to reach in forgetting to show off the gift first, poor Maki has too many things going on in her head. Her gift is a special dumpling cooking pan for making individual dumplings, anyway she reaches in the box and takes out an orange ball which say has "視臆者" on it which means a television viewer might have a chance to win it. Performance: And another great song right after Hitomi's "Perseus" it is the very cute Maki Goto performing "原色GAL 派手に行くべ！(gensyoku gal hade ni ikube - Primary Color GAL goes very loud)". A song that many have said is more suited for Aya Matsuura than Maki as it is not her style. Then again what is her "style", I think this is a great song, cute, funky and with a nice rock beat that even grandma will get up her wheelchair to shake her hips to. Anyway as part of the song and dance Maki acts as if she is playing a guitar, as she air guitars most of the performance. During the PV of this song she has a real guitar by the way. The backup dancers have real guitars and follow her every move, and assist her in her dance. Overall this is a performance where you get to see a treat full of cute Maki face expressions. I really like this song and this is a very enjoyable performance to watch, especially if you are a Maki follower and even if your not you'll like this, and if you don't then there is something wrong with you, no not me, but you, remember my words are like the words of god (before any religious people get all controversial, I was joking around and the statement just mention is just a joke.) ha, ha, ha ... suckers ----- Rag Fair segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Next up was Rag Fair, the guys are all sitting and talking to our hosts. Talk is small and it's time to bring out the gifts (not really I just don't want to bother with the boring details). I'm sure what it was, but I think they were tickets for something. Anyway one of them reaches in and Taichi Kokubun's name from TOKIO was on it. He gets up and like all previous guest that have won a gift, bows down in gratitude. Performance: And now our second performance outside on the Fuji Television first floor. Tonight Rag Fair sings "白い天使が降りてくる (shiroi tenshi ga oritekuru - The white angel takes off)", now this is a Christmas song and I can't knock it down, and there really isn't any need for it as this is a nice catchy Christmas tune. I have always enjoy the talent in their voices, and never was disappointed by any of their performances, and tonight was another great song. Not much more to say here, good job guys. I guess. Yeah. Uh huh. Yep, that is all I have to say.... Let's move on, shall we? ----- ORANGE RANGE segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Next up are the guys from ORANGE RANGE. All the guys are all sitting and having a nice conversation and Naoto is patiently waiting to show a special gift they have brought to give to Downtown. Eventually he gets to show them and in a small box are small sculptures of Downtown as シーサー (shiisaa - Seasar Lion statues), you can faintly hear as some girls in the audience yell out "kawaii~", they were pretty cool. Hamada then ask something to Naoto and his reply caused Hamada to hit him on the head, not even in Christmas does he give people a break. They finally get around to show off the gift, as Ryo brings out a golden bag filled with finger traps and a bottle of sake (I think). Hiroki demonstrates the finger trap on Hamada and childishly yells something like "Your trapped, I got your finger!", Hamada wasn't amused, but the guys were. At this moment Hiroki then hands over the Seasar statue to Hamada to calm him down, Matsumoto ask Yamato to reach in the box to get a name out, as he had to do some reaching since the box had no room on the table, anyway he brings out a pink ball with Shigeru Joshima's name from TOKIO on it, he gets up and bows and Hiroki hands him a finger trap then Shigeru jokingly puts it on and act as though he is trapped, silly guy the more you pull the more trapped you get, yeah, everyone laughs at this comical act and Hamada sarcastically thanks him. They also show Nagase cracking up in laugher and mention Mika Nakashima and her cute smile. Performance: Tonight ORANGE RANGE performs "落陽 (raku yu - Sun Goes Down; lit: Setting Sun)", this is a slow, mellow type song with of course rapping in it as Ryo starts the song up. Interesting thing about this performance and also unmissable was the fact that Yamato was playing one of those Chinese banjo looking stringed instrument, this added more uniqueness to this song. Then it's Hiroki's turn for the second verse since the chorus is only "Sun Goes Down", hey anyone can sing along in that part! By now the song is coming close to an end as it's Yamato's turn to sings his verse, after another emotional chorus the end of the song is a non-stop rap by Ryo, knowing how short performances normally are, having this type of song set up makes it feel like they sung the whole song. Overall this is a nice song and I enjoyed the performance. ----- NEWS segment: Interview / Present giveaway: After that ORANGE RANGE performance it was NEWS next, I'm not to familiar with their names and it appears as though not all the members were there, since the official sites mentions nine of them and there are only six on the show. Anyways they talk with them and joke around, Hamada then talks about Yuya's (I think that was him) hair or something as he gets a feel for his hair, some jokes and it's present time. They brought some Japanese style kites, one was a Hello! Kitty, and then the rest, which I wont get into now, one of them then reaches in for a ball and takes out a yellow one for another lucky television viewer. They go on standby and up next is Morning Musume! Performance: After that very fun and extremely enjoyable performance of Morning Musume, it was now time for the six o'clock news.... wait I mean it is now time for NEWS, yeah. One reason they had the Momusu performance after their talk portion was to help these guys with time to get out on the Fuji TV court yard and to change from the blue coats and vests into black coats and vests. NEWS sings "NEWSニッポン (news nippon - Japanese NEWS)" tonight, if I were a little school girl I would now be screaming sexual advances at these guys. This is a typical Johnny's group style song with a combination of rhythms, and tempo change that quite possibly has every genre of songs in it, yep typical. This is a ballad, rock, dance, folk, country, hard rock, heavy metal, and porn grove all into one, hmm... I not sure about the last few, but it's all really there. During the beginning is like a gospel and dance song, they are all singing and dancing in pattern. Then on the ballad portion of the song they are standing in front of their microphone stands and one of the is roller skating, always with the roller skating, is that still cool? The sound of the camera shutters closing adds to their vainness. Anyway the song is alright, and good enough for anyone to enjoy it, overall it's a cool performance. ----- Morning Musume segment: Interview / Present giveaway: As NEWS gets up and leaves our hosts wait for the rest of the girls to sit, as they are coming in Hamada yells at them to hurry and sit. For no apparent reason the girls are smiling and laughing as always, Hamada talks to Nacchi about something and she doesn't quite understand as she gets that look on her face where she doesn't know what's going on, the rest of the girls then laugh. After this very short talk it is present time, as the little Christmas medley plays, Takahashi is holding a box and sets it on the table uncovers it to reveal a large assortment of gloves, mittens, socks and other fingers and toes related accessories. Marippe then reaches in the box and brings out an orange ball with BoA's name on it, as both hosts get up and call out for BoA, and all the girls turn their heads looking for her, she is nowhere to be found. Mari is still holding the ball, and Matsumoto jokingly says that she's on standby when she's not suppose to be. After all that they have them go on standby and as they all get up off the stage, Mari puts the ball back in the box, I found this to be very cute for some reason. Performance: Matsumoto and Hamada try to kill time until the girls get ready, they make the announcement and it's Momusu time! For tonight Momusu treats us with their latest single "Go Girl～恋のヴィクトリー～ (go girl ~koi no vikutori - Go Girl ~Victory of Love)", the song that followed up the Otome and Sakura singles has most of the girls singing the verses in groups. Anyway they are all wearing colorful (very colorful), well more like glittery pastels, you all know how this song is like divided into four groups distinguish by different colors right? You kno like from the PV? Anyway the girls in white Rika, Mari, and Kamei are now wearing green soccer uniforms, the girls in in red Hitomi, Miki, Risa and Kaori are now wearing pink uniforms, those are the only two that aren't wearing their usual color for this performance. The girls in yellow are Nono, Takahashi, Sayumi and Asami, the girls in blue are Natsumi, Reina, Aibon and Makoto. Well after all that being said let us now enjoy the song, la, la, la, la, la,..... well most of you know how great this song is, so let us just leave it at that. There was so much cuteness going on, Aibon blowing kisses at the camera, a large number of winks and other cute stuff that these girls do. It doesn't matter what performance I watch of them, I still enjoy them all. ----- BoA segment: Interview / Present giveaway: And now BoA. Hamada hand her the Morning Musume gift to her, they then make up some gossip Momusu said about her, all in good fun. She has brief look at her gift she just received and shows off the one she brought in. A soba making set ,with board, rolling pin and ingredients, she goes on to explain her gift and why she chose it. She now reaches into the box and takes out a white ball with Rag Fair's 土屋礼央 (Tsuchiya, Reo) name on it, the cute part about this was that BoA couldn't read the Japanese name and all she said was "Rag Fair ...mn...mn..", she tried to play off the name, Hamada then takes it and reads it out loud, poor BoA. Reo like all others bows and thanks her, and BoA welcomes him. She now goes on standby. Performance: After that whole Christmas Tree thing with Hamada (read below) it was time for BoA to perform "Rock With You", a song that is a completely different BoA, as she is standing in front of the microphone stand and doing her thing, caressing it, stroking it... Let's move on. So for me this is like seeing a whole new BoA, as she is rocking out with the two guitar players, at this movement I just wish I was that microphone stand, then as she gets to the chorus, her backup dancers come out and she knocks down the stand and kicks it off the stage, by now I have retracted that wish. So the performance starts off unique, but then goes back to her old self with the dancing and stuff, it was still cool to watch. The song itself is the heavy rockish type (duh!), but still danceable as they are doing so. For me this was a new BoA for the good, she seems to have gotten a whole lot better, I know I give BoA a hard time with her dancing, but she didn't disappointed me tonight. I really enjoyed this performance a lot, it has been one on the best ones, so far this has been a good night, it was the end of part 1 of the show up to this point for me. ----- Tomo-chan & Croquette segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Right after BoA's present thing, Tomomi and Croquette come and sit. They quickly show off their gift which is a decorative crystal Christmas Tree with painted golden stars on it, it looked expensive and heavy, I bet one could knock out a burglar or kill them with something like that. So they joke around some more, then Matsumoto puts the box thing (which by now you may have notice I stop calling it the "Random Gift Box" as it is too much to type and so on) on the table and Tomomi reaches in there and takes out a green ball with Hamada's name on it.... wait a minute again?! Yes, Hamada has yet again recieved another gift, he acts surprise as though he didn't believe it, but we all know this whole thing is rigged. I mean he was already holding it as she called out the name, anyway Hamada did seem very grateful about it..... WAIT A GOSH DARN MINUTE!!! Tomomi put the ball back in the box, this is why people just don't get a fair chance, oh well poor little Tomomi, she's too cute. Performance: Well that was a very entertaining BoA performance, but now it was time for Tomo-chan & Croquette and they sing "ありがとうね Arigato Ne". This was a very happy, mappy song the kind that is fine for kids to listen to. Of course the cute thing about this performance was Tomomi with her cute dancing, well she wasn't dancing, dancing, but more like shaking. Overall this was a cute little performance and they sung the song well, I liked it. After this performance we see Matsumoto and Hamada sitting and talking, and they announce the special live thing, part one. ===== Special Christmas Champ Live Song Performances part 1: Every Little Thing Performance: First up was ELT performing "出逢った頃のように Deatta Koro no Youni (Acoustic version)", the song opens up with the sounds of an acoustic guitar and Kaori singing. This is one of my favorite songs and it also happens to be the very first song they performed when they first appeared on the show back in '96. Kaori sounded good tonight she didn't stress her voice, and the performance just went fine, there was only one little complaint, that "whoa" thing she did during the end of the song I felt was over done and just didn't sound right, I urge that she not do it again. But it was a nice performance and it was cool to see them go back to the old stuff, that even to this day I still enjoy very much. ----- Gackt Performance: For the second special thing, was Gackt performing "十二月的情歌 12 Gatsu no Love Song [Chinese Version]", and like in Japaneses I still didn't understand a single word he sang. I bet the a lot of people enjoyed watching this performance, since most of the worlds population is Chinese (I'm kidding around, I just had to say it). Anyway the song pretty much went on like all the over versions he has sung of this song, the only special thing about it was that it was in Chinese. Despite that fact a lot of people in the audience really enjoyed, that or the fact that it was Gackt up there and that is all that really mattered to them. This was something really unique to see and hear and since this is the time of the year song to sing, it fit just perfect on this show. ----- TOKIO Performance: The last of this three part special thing was TOKIO performing "AMBITIOUS JAPAN!". And like every good pop song this had its very own violin and trumpet sections, well this song is more like soft rock. This is a very cool song that I just like the way the lyrics flow nicely with the music, and the very special thing about this performance was the fact that it was TOKIO on Hey!x3 for the first time. Anyway all the goodness of TOKIO was all here, I was always use to seeing them on the Kouhaku festival when I first saw them back in '98, so this was like a totally cool experience for me to watch, and different too. I always saw them perform cutesy songs and this was one that sounds more adult, overall this first part of this mini special live thing was very satisfying. ===== aiko segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Next up was the very enthusiastic aiko, as she is all hyper and energetic. She starts to talk about something on her wrist, a bone that protrudes when she folds it down, as she is doing this all our guests behind her are all taking a look at their wrists. Anyway it was time for the present, out of all the gifts that anyone has brought, I though this was one of the coolest and most thoughtful gift that any of the guests here tonight has brought. It was a popcorn machine set. A mini replica of the carnival machines, everyone was just amazed, I was too. So then Matsumoto puts the box next to aiko and she stands and reaches in and takes out a blue ball with none other than the snack hungry Aibon's name on it. It was very cute to see the expression on Aibon's face as she was very shocked and surprised, she was even holding her hands together as if she was praying that her name would be called out, caught up in all the excitement, Aibon gets up and isn't sure if she should go and kinda wants to sit back down and fails to see that the other girls are handing her a microphone, but then goes for it and runs down the stairs, at this point both host are joking around, most likely about Aibon. Once down there she looked as though she wanted to sit, but doesn't want to step in front Matsumoto. aiko then hands her the popcorn maker, and Aibon happily accepts it, she then runs back to her seat and aiko is sent on standby, aiko has really made someone very happy. Performance: Tonight aiko sings for us "えりあし (eriashi - nape of neck lit.)", a very nice and beautiful ballad. And like most of her other performances she has her very own violin section. I have always liked aiko's voice, it's not only cute, but her great skill in both lyric and music writing really show how very talented she is. This was a very flawless performance that anyone can enjoy, and to add to the already great performance, they decide to throw in some fake snow, and now it is truly Christmas. ----- Matsuura, Aya segment: Interview / Present giveaway: The moment I have anticipated the most was finally here, and it was the very cute Ayaya. As we see her sitting pretty, she starts to talk about her hand too and both our hosts joke around with her about it. Anyway it was time for the presents, Ayaya has brought a bath and spa set, with all type of accessories, from sponges, towels and other stuff, Matsumoto then puts the box thing on the table and Ayaya reaches in and takes out a green ball with "audience member" on it. Of course everyone in the audience is very happy, at this point another box has been set on the table and Ayaya reaches in there and takes out a card with the number "105" written on it. Both hosts then start yelling the number, but then Ayaya does the cutest thing, she gently and very softly calls out the number as she says "hyakugo ban?", this was very cute. Someone from the audience did have that number, the women is then escorted to the stage by a staff member and Ayaya goes closer and hands over the gift, after some exchanges of thanks, Ayaya is then told to go on standby. After leaving the ball on the table Hamada then picks it up and throws it at some staff member, Misono then starts to laugh and so do the guys from OR, RF and NEWS. Performance: And now Ayaya performing "ね～え？(ne~e - Well?)". It looks as though she was still laughing as she is getting ready. Anyway, this is one of my favorite songs, I know it's a good song and if you hear it you'll like it too, but if you don't then there is something wrong with you, with that being said let's concentrate our attention on how cute Ayaya looks tonight. She has a weird outfit with some puffy saloon chick dress type thingy on her chest and bottom, which makes her breast and butt look bigger, since me being a guy isn't a bad thing to see. Since she is wearing this rather sexy outfit she just looks hot and moves hot too, all the cute facial expressions are here, every detail of this song is here. Her crying expression and her mad expression are all there, even that running in place thing looks cuter since the last time I saw her perform this song. And her little wind-up-doll walk was cuter than ever, she looked so adorable. And at the end she smiles and laughs as she tries to catch her breath, since she is my favorite artist, I can really say this was a very good performance that I really enjoyed. You are all probably sick to your stomachs from all the cuteness I wrote about Ayaya, but I can digest almost anything of what I just wrote. ----- Every Little Thing segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Most of the conversation was focused on Ichiro in the beginning if this small talk, it was mostly just joking around. Ichiro did manage to stay safe and not get physically hit on the head or any part of his soft body by Hamada's hand. Anyway as Kaori uncover the gift they brought that is already lying on the table, she reveals that is a box containing "yakuniku", Momusu's favorite food, and if it isn't, it sure seemed that way as they were the mosts excited and you see them put their hands together and hope that one of their names be called out. Unfortunately for Morning Musume that Kaori did not take out a ball with either of their names on it, but instead it was 奥村政佳 (Okumura, Masayoshi) from Rag Fair whose name was on that white ball. Everyone that was hoping to get this (especially Momusu) saw jealously as Masayoshi walked down to get his gift, it wasn't handed to him, he just picked it up from the table and went back to his seat. While all this is happening Makoto, Nozomi and Aibon are just looking at Rag Fairs direction. ELT is then told to go on standby. Since all this happened so quickly Masayoshi forgot to take the box top with him, Hamada then hands it over to him, I had almost forgotten that insignificant little detail. They smile on the outside, but you can see that the girls are still upset. Performance: Tonight ELT perform their newest single "また あした (mata ashita - Tomorrow Again)". Let me just start off and say this is a good song and this was a great improvement from their previous performances mostly in Kaori's part as the music always sounds good. With that said, all there is to say about this performance is that when people wear hats especially hats with ears and antlers, those people should remember that during the performances they should take them off. As lucky and fortunate those people are to be on the show, we, the television audience are not, so please be considerate as you may be blocking the performance with your silly hats. So please take the hats off, that is all I have to say about this performance. ----- Namie, Amuro segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Next up was Amuro, who was wearing a hat that was covering most of her pretty face. So after some joking around, they ask her to show the present she brought today. She has it on her lap and quickly reveals it, this was probably one of the most unthoughtful and lamest gifts that anyone has brought on the show. It was a "DVD collection set", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "You got Mail" and some other one. The audience was impressed, but I sure as hell wasn't. She then is handed over the box that Matsumoto has put on the table, she reaches inside and takes out an orange ball to reveal Hiroki's name from OR. Well he was excited to win as his name was called out, and Amuro was happy and satisfied with the outcome of this. She is then told to go on standby, and as Matsumoto is commenting on something Hamada again picks up the ball and throws it at someone, Maki, Misono and the NEWS boys start laughing as everyone's attention is set on Amuro's upcoming performance. You can still see Hiroki on the background all excited with his new DVDs as he is reading them and showing them off to the other guys, well someone I guess did like them. Performance: Tonight Amuro sings "SO CRAZY", I had review this song already so I'll just talk about the way the performance went down this time around. We all know this is a cool song and that the dancing is very sexy and the lyrics are provocative and overall will be satisfactory to all Namie fans. I really like this song is one of my favorites from her new album "STYLE", I thought it wasn't going to get any better than "Put 'Em Up", but it did. The performance tonight went as expected, flawless, everything that is expected from this great talented woman. After this performance we see Matsumoto and Hamada sitting and talking, and they announce the special live thing, part two (by the way I just copied and pasted the same thing I wrote above and just changed the "one" to a "two".) Up to this point was the end of the second part. ===== Special Christmas Champ Live Song Performances part 1: Nakashima, Mika Performance: The first of the second part of this special was Mika Nakashima singing "STARS". This is a nice ballad that I really like, Mika just sings it very beautiful. The performance was good and so was the song selection, and now the small problem I had with this performance. Just when you thought everything was perfect, you start to notice that the backup singers overshadow Mika's singing. Someone must have drop the ball here, I thought the backup singers were just too loud for me to enjoy this to the fullest. Despite all that it was pretty nice to see Mika once again sing this song. ----- Kahala, Tomomi Performance: Next up was Tomomi performing one of Tetsuya's best songs "I BELIEVE". Truly one of the best song during TK's golden era, let me just say this now, this is a very good song and I anticipated this moment ever since I learned she was going to sing this song once again. A queen of j-pop in her time, Tomomi still had it, the energy, passion and overall great showmanship. Another great flawless performance in which I had no complaints about, it was really good to see Tomomi light up the stage again. ----- Hamasaki, Ayumi Performance: Closing this special was Ayumi singing one of my old favorites "appears". Again let me just start off by saying this is a great song that has made it in fans top 10 lists, truly one of her very best. Unfortunately there where somethings that did bother me about how this performance went down. The backup singers were again way too loud and it was beginning to really annoy me, then add to the fact that Ayumi's style of singing isn't what it use to be, with the over use of the vibrato. In any case this was truly a gift to see the old song make it on the stage again, and as always Ayumi looked very beautiful and sexy in tight red leather pants. Her belly button was all over the place and of course I didn't have a problem with this. She was also wearing puffy things on her wrists and neck, the camera guy must be as perverted as I am, as most shots were concentrating on Ayumi's stomach. Despite all that happened, it was still a very good and enjoyable performance, even if you don't overlook those things. Well that was the end of this live song performance thing, as in every year they have some special thing, I think this was one of the best, even though seeing the artist collaborate together as they did last year was great, I really prefer to see performances of their original songs. ===== EXILE segment: Interview / Present giveaway: After the special it was EXILE's turn to give out a gift. There was mostly joking around during the the beginning of this nothing all that interesting, anyway they get around to showing off their gift which was in a bag, one of them takes out a bottle, I'm not sure what is was but it appeared to be some kinda drink that may have been made by them, not sure though. Hiro is then given the box to take out a name, he reaches in and takes out a blue ball the words "audience member' on it, at this point the audience goes berserk. So then the number box is brought in and one of them reaches in and calls out the number 192, after some more calling out a woman then goes up to the stage and receives her gift. EXILE is then told to go on standby, Mika Nakashima then comes out. Performance: For the third time EXILE was performing "Choo Choo TRAIN". It was really weird to see a back to back appearance with the same song being performed, but by now I have grown to like this song, since every time I hear it, I like it. I'll pretty much be saying the same thing from the previous review so let us just end it here, but I will say that this was a very cool performance that all EXILE fans will enjoy. ----- Nakashima, Mika segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Mika quickly sits down and is already wearing a different outfit, they talk to her for a short while and the it was present time. Her gift is then brought out and she opens the box (oh yeah it was in a box) and reveals an aroma set, with candle stand and incense and all that smelly junk. The box thing is put on the table, she then reaches in and takes out a pink ball with Croquette's name on it, when he hears his name called out he over acts as he is surprise making some weird funny face expression, this was somewhat disturbing. He makes his way down to receive his gift and Hamada puts everything back in it's box, hands it over to Mika which then hands it over to Croquette, they bow and it's time for EXILE's performance. Performance: After EXILE was Mika Nakashima singing "雪の華 (yuki no hana - Bloom of Snow)", it's a damn good thing she sung this alone or else I would have been very disappointed. Another moment I have been anticipating was the performance of this song, this is one of the most beautiful ballads I have recently heard. I am sucker for ballads and this was a lollipop to big to put in my mouth (get your minds out of the gutter people!), to equal this beautiful song is a very beautiful woman. This was another great flawless performance and a real treat, one of the best performances by far. ----- Gackt segment: Interview / Present giveaway: The mysterious Gackt was next. As always Gackt has something funny to say and make everyone laugh, he should have been a comedian, but I'm not sure if that whole vampire thing would have worked. So he has the present sitting by his feet, he grabs it and one can clearly see it's a billiard cue carrying case, with the cue inside. He opens it and shows it off, at this point Matsumoto brings that box up and Gackt reaches in to take out a ball, also at this point the fan girls are all screaming and hoping that he will take out a "audience member" ball. Unfortunately for them he took out a ball with 川火田要 (Kawabata, Kaname's) name from CHEMISTRY on it, a gift that is better suited. As they look for him, he comes up the stage and receives his gift, Gackt then gets up and following Kaname was Yoshi. So we see all the guys doing some male bonding and talking about billiards, and Gackt then hands over to Kaname the other half of the cue. Gackt is then told to go on stand by, and since CHEMISTRY is all ready up there might as well talk to them. Performance: It seems as thought this was a repeat of what he did on episode #405, as he once again sung "Last Song". On the last episode he performed the same two songs with the exception that the first one tonight was in Chinese and the performance of this song was less elaborate, since it is just him and his two guitarist. Since all this is closely together I'll just say that Gackt has once again done another great performance. ----- CHEMISTRY segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Both of the guys sit down and are presented, as they were talking, you can tell Kaname wanted to put his cue away. So then their gift is brought out and it was a fighter training set, with jump rope and kick/punching pad, Yoshi then reaches in the box to take out a ball. He takes out a purple ball with aiko's name on it, by now I am thinking "what's a little women like her going to use all that for?", anyway she's surprise and is over bowing and laughing, she receives her gifts and it's time for Gackts performance. Performance: Directly after Gackt was CHEMISTRY performing again "YOUR NAME NEVER GONE", since this is basically the same performance from their last appearance with the exception that they had musicians behind them here is what I previously wrote: "Another catchy ballad, every time they have CHEMISTRY on the show I like them more and more, so far it has been a good set of singles they have released this year and I don't doubt that their album will be very good. I now know who is the best of the duo, I personally think that Kaname has a better and a smooth voice than Yoshi's, but they need each other for the harmonies to work." ----- TOKIO segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Wearing normal clothes now was TOKIO. Their talk was pretty lengthy, I'm not sure what they were talking about, but I figured it was due to the fact that it was their first appearance on the show so they had to take advantage of the fact. Anyway they get around to show off their gift, Masahiro uncovers the gift which was already sitting on the table, literally. It was five crabs, not sure what kind, but they were big and stubby looking, kinda cute and sad that they were already dead. Everyone is impressed, like with all the food items we had today, especially the Momusu girls and Tomomi, but who knew that it would have been her name that was written on the pink ball that came out of the box as Nagase quickly does so. Tomomi shocked gets up to receive her gift, she makes her way back to her seat and TOKIO goes on standby. While in her seat Yossi and Mari turn around to get a closer look at Tomomi's gift, also at that moment you finally get to see the poor guy that is getting hit by the balls that Hamada has thrown. Performance: TOKIO performs "ラブラブ♥マンハッタン (rabu rabu manhattan - Love Love Manhattan)". This is a calm in-the-season type song, as it fits perfect for Christmas, one of those happy feel good songs. The song is great and as I have mention before it was a real treat to see TOKIO on the show, during the middle of the performance he starts to speak and takes off his hat and he is wearing one of those fake hair pieces they use on comedy shows with the traditional Japanese hair cuts, everyone in the audience laughs and screams, so far this has turn into a very memorable performance. I really can't come up with anything else to say since this was overall great. ----- Hamasaki, Ayumi segment: Interview / Present giveaway: Like most of the time, it is almost always Ayumi Hamasaki which closes and is usually performing last in the shows specials. Anyway as Ayumi comes out and sits Matsumoto mentions something to her and she stares at him with a look on her face that says "What in God's green earth are you talking about?!", after making himself clearly she apologizes for not understanding, very classy of Ayumi to do so. Ayumi had another outfit on,, a revealing dress, the type she usually wears, it look very nice on her. They end up talking to her for a while and as the conversation was getting out of hand Ayumi then says if she could show off the gift she has brought. She has the gift in her hands and takes it out of the bag that it is in, it was an Edo making outfit, very traditional. Ayumi then reaches in the box that Matsumoto has put beside her, she reaches in and takes out an orange ball with ORANGE RANGE's Yamato name on it. He makes his way down to get his gift as Ayumi and Hamada gather it all up, she then hands it over to him, and he very happily receives it. Ayumi is then told to go on standby, at this point Matsumoto and Hamada know the show has almost come to an end and decide to make their final comments on how the show has been. They joke around with some of the guest, by now it seems as though they are buying time until Ayumi is ready, but we are also treated to seeing close ups of several of tonights guests, and then Ayumi is ready. Performance: Tonights show ends with the last performance by Ayumi, which sings her last single from her mini album: "No way to say ~Acoustic Version~", not quite the version from the album. I think by now someone noticed the error of having the backup singers to loud as they don't overshadow Ayumi as much, although it may look more professional to have backup singers I usual prefer just an audio track of the artist actual vocals. Most of you have already heard this song and this was very nice performance of it, there was a small little twist Ayumi added at the end of the song as she ends it by saying "Merry Christmas". ===== The show ends with a bang and the final conclusion of this was real good. Now let me take the time to talk about this review, I have based the review with great detail on the full version of the show which I downloaded since I didn't want to risk not getting to watch it. The version of the show that aired were I live was shown in three parts extending in a three week period. The show was very trimmed down with interviews being cut extremely short and the absence of both Johnny's groups NEWS and TOKIO. Each part of the episode ran for about 36 mins. long, I'm not to sure how the I-Channel version was shown, but I would like to ask those who did see that version to add your two cents on this. For this review on this special I tried to keep things more neat and organized, I also described in detail who was after who so you can get a chronological order in which everything happened since not all artist had their performances after their interviews and the order in which the review is set, is based on the order in which the songs were performed. Like on the 400th special I have added the score ratings separate the list is below with the "quicklist". Well that is all I have to say, please enjoy reading about this show as much as I enjoyed writing about it. As a disclaimer let me just say that somethings said are for entertainment purposes only and to make the review more fun, if I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies, thank you. ===== Quicklist407: For easy reference here is the list of guests and the song they performed: 平川地一丁目 (Hirakawachi 1 chome) - "とうきょう (toukyo - Tokyo)" day after tomorrow - "Starry Heavens" 島谷ひとみ (Shimatani, Hitomi) - "Persus -ペルセウス-" 後藤真希 (Goto, Maki) - "原色GAL 派手に行くべ！(gensyoku gal hade ni ikube - Primary Color GAL goes very loud)" RAG FAIR - "白い天使が降りてくる (shiroi tenshi ga oritekuru - The white angel takes off)" ORANGE RANGE - "落陽 (raku yu - Sun Goes Down; lit: Setting Sun)" モーニング娘。(Morning Musume) - "Go Girl～恋のヴィクトリー～ (go girl ~koi no vikutori - Go Girl ~Victory of Love)" NEWS - "NEWSニッポン (news nippon - Japanese NEWS)" BoA - "Rock With You" 朋ちゃん＆コロッケ (Tomo-chan & Croquette) - ありがとうね "Arigato Ne" Every Little Thing - 出逢った頃のように "Deatta Koro no Youni" Gackt - 十二月的情歌 "12 Gatsu no Love Song" [Chinese Version] TOKIO - "AMBITIOUS JAPAN!" aiko - "えりあし (eriashi - nape of neck lit.)" 松浦亜弥 (AYAYA!!! Matsuura, Aya) - "ね～え？(ne~e - Well?)" Every Little Thing - "また あした (mata ashita - Tomorrow Again)" 安室奈美恵 (Amuro, Namie) - "SO CRAZY" 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "STARS" 華原朋美 (Kahala, Tomomi) - "I BELIEVE" 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "appears" EXILE - "Choo Choo TRAIN" 中島美嘉 (Nakashima, Mika) - "雪の華 (yuki no hana - Bloom of Snow)" Gackt - "Last Song" CHEMISTRY - "YOUR NAME NEVER GONE" TOKIO - "ラブラブ♥マンハッタン (rabu rabu manhattan - Love Love Manhattan)" 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki, Ayumi) - "No way to say" Acoustic Version ===== Score Ratings: Hirakawachi 1 chome -= 7.5/10 =- day after tomorrow -= 10 /10 =- Shimatani, Hitomi -= 10 /10 =- Goto, Maki -= 9.75 /10 =- RAG FAIR -= 8.75/10 =- ORANGE RANGE -= 8.5/10 =- Morning Musume -= 10 /10 =- NEWS -= 8/10 =- BoA -= 10 /10 =- Tomo-chan & Croquette -= 8.25/10 =- Every Little Thing -= 9 /10 =- Gackt -= 7/10 =- TOKIO -= 9.25 /10 =- aiko -= 9.75 /10 =- AYAYA!!! Matsuura, Aya -= 10 /10 =- Every Little Thing -= 9 /10 =- Amuro, Namie -= 10 /10 =- Nakashima, Mika -= 9.25 /10 =- Kahala, Tomomi -= 10 /10 =- Hamasaki, Ayumi -= 10 /10 =- EXILE -= 8.5/10 =- Nakashima, Mika -= 10 /10 =- Gackt -= 9.75 /10 =- CHEMISTRY -= 9 /10 =- TOKIO -= 9.75 /10 =- 浜崎あゆみ -= 9 /10 =- ===== Enjoy! @'~<(^-^v)

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Hey!x3 Review for Episode #406: Suga, EXILE, Yakozen, w-inds

Posted by CD-Rose on 02.18.2004 at 22:07

#406 which aired on January 5th ===== Tonights guest are: スガシカオ (Suga Shikao) - first appearance EXILE - 5th appearance 野狐禅 (Yakozen) - 2nd appearance w-inds. - 12th appearance note: to quickly reference the list of songs and performances use "Ctrl+F" and type [quicklist406] without the brackets. ===== Suga Shikao segment: Tonights guest of honor and making his very first appearance is Suga Shikao. Receiving a heroes welcome from the audience of ecstatic girls, it seemed way to over done to me. Anyway as they talk Hamada pokes him on the stomach, I'm not sure why, but it was funny and unexpected. Suga then goes on to say "I'm a big Downtown fan" the audience then claps, and both Hamada and Matsumoto bow in gratitude. They then mentioned that he is tonights "Champ", as we haven't yet figured that out. Suga then mentions that for the first song he will sing tonight will be a song he wrote for SMAP, the audience is again impressed. Both Hamada and Matsumoto joke around for a bit and the performance begins. First Performance: For the first performance tonight Suga sings "夜空ノムコウ (yozora no mukou - Beyond the night sky)". Some people might be quick to jump and say "WTF! Hey that's not your song, you stole that from SMAP!! Argh!!", but calm yourselves as he is the person who wrote it and has every right to sing it. Anyway he is sitting and playing an acoustic guitar, and like every great pop song he has a violin section and a cello section playing in the background. The big screens behind him have a starry night with shooting stars, this adds a great deal of emotion to this song. When I first heard this song several years back, I couldn't stop humming it for days and now it has begun all over again, well kinda. His version of this song is much more calm and slower than the SMAP version, but I like originality and I have to say that this song is much more suited for SMAP than it is for it's writer, but the passion was there, I just didn't like it as much. Anyway most SMAP fans might be happy to hear this song once more and Suga's version is good, the instrumentals are much more richer and more elaborate with violins and junk and Suga does have a nice voice but most people would probably prefer the SMAP version over this one. For his first performance Suga gets a 10/10, this is just a very good song. Interview: And now it's time for a long interview with Suga Shikao, Matsumoto mentions that his name would sound better if he rearranged it to Shika Sugao, which is much easier to say and that he should consider it. They then talk about how he felt with his debut as a pop idol, and how it was for him, he then goes on for a while and talks about himself. At some point he starts to talk about a boat ride that he was on, not sure when but he seem to describe that event of his life with great detail, and those hand gestures and body language simulate that he was on a boat. Neat. Then they talk about stage performances and stage names (I think) that he gives to the different personnel on staff, he then said that Hamada's name would be Hamas and he laughs and Hamada then ask him about his, "Jolin" he replies, everyone laughs (I think that is what he said). They continue to talk and Matsumoto continues to joke around with almost everything that Suga has said from "Jolin" to.... well just that, I guess that is all the material Matsumoto had to work with. Close to the end of the interview out of nowhere Hamada violently attacks Suga slapping him on the chest and yelling "MUSHI!!, MUSHI!!" and of course everyone is surprise by this (and so was I) especially Suga as he seeks comfort from Matsumoto, grabbing his hand and almost jumping on his lap. In the end all this was caused by a so called bug that Hamada still claims he saw on his chest, this was very funny to watch. Second Performance: For his second performance Suga Shikao performs one of his original songs "黄金の月 (ougon no tsuki - Moon of Gold)". This time around he is alone on the stage and again is playing his guitar, on the background you see on the big screens a golden moon in a cloudy night, this adds more visual feeling, emotion, passion and all that junk to the song. This is a ballad and is well done nothing all that special, just him playing the guitar and singing a song, for his second performance I give him a 8/10. ----- EXILE segment: Interview: There wasn't a lot going on with them as theirs was the shortest screen time of tonight "chumps". Much of the beginning of the conversation was focused on Hiro, seeing as he is the leader of the group. After some joking around much of the conversation was then shifted to Usa as he was talking about some recent ceremony he had participated in, but that was about it. Hiro is the leader of the group and was a member of the group Zoo that disbanded several years ago. In 1999 Hiro forms a new group called "J Soul Brothers" with Usa, Matsu and Makidai, then in 2001 the group suffers a one member secession. Atsushi and Shun are then recruited as front vocalist and the group is given a new name "EXILE". The song "Kiss you ~Interlude~" from the single "EX-STYLE" becomes the first single to get to the 6th position on the Oricon charts. "Breezin' ~Together~" is their 8th single in 2003