Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2012 live blog

Okay, I will have a live blog of this and JCD following. Because Kouhaku will have acts I will not care for I will probably have more time to write for it and I will even try screen grabs, we shall see how that goes though.

Unfortunately did not find a stream until a good way into the program. But at least I got to see the Disney collaboration.

While their segment was really short Kanjani8 made sure to live up to their reputation for laughs. Pairing them will Goofy of course makes perfect sense.

And it looks like they want to cram as many people on this stage as possible. But I am sure this was not the first nor will it be the last they will do something like this.

Also to note found another stream that looks to be in much better picture quality so I have switched to that.

The morning drama Jun to Ai gets promoted with cast so we get to see Hasegawa JunKazama Shunsuke, and of course it get pointed out that he's Johnny's. He's looking pretty nice and I think he is the next from Four Tops to gain a good amount of fame.

One of the things I love about Kouhaku are the over the top sets and performances. The enka singers excel at this such as the long dress here.

Probably because I am not a fan I did not realize that Nishino Kana had such an upbeat song. I've always thought of her as a ballad singer primarily.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it again I am not sure how I feel about Arashi's suits here. I guess if anything they are set to stand out and be remembered.

Kinda love how Kouhaku idol-baits people into watching some of the enka performers. The AKB48 girls here do look lovely though.

Ayaka was one of the acts I was looking forward to. Hajimari no Toki is such a fitting song for her to perform. And I love this stage, simple yet eye-catching.

Her current look reminds me of Utada Hikaru in her Heart Station-era though.


And sorry for not thinking of it earlier but if you want to catch the live stream here is the link to the one I am using: http://ja.justin.tv/anninoshi#/w/4469767088/4

Since it is the news break went to watch the NYC performance that I missed earlier. I loved the Haina! part of it.

And I was seriously impressed with whatever technology they used to make it look like they had Junior stairway to heaven going on.

When the news is over it should be K8 time!

Well that was a ton of fun though the stream quality was not the best all the way through. Give me a bit more and I will spam with performance screen caps.

And here we are. They performed Naniwa Iroha Bushi and Musekinin(sp?) Hero.

And of course it is TOKIO up next so I did not have enough time to sort the caps. Oh well, the issues of live blogging. And the reason why the JCD one will have no screen caps. I don't want to miss much of that.

TOKIO sang KIBOU and of course I loved it. But that is probably mostly out of my love for the group in general.

Loved Perfume's stage. They really looked like they were giving a true concert performance with the level of tech used.
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AKB48 and I spot NMB48's Sayaka! And AKB48's! But only could screen cap the former. I guess another reason to find the torrent for this later.

Love how they worked in the first costume change.

And AKB48 seem to have the making words out of people corner covered well. Especially when you consider this is just all the 18+ members of the groups.

Lolz at Nakai having to correct the saying of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's name.

Also she seems to have gotten the monster part of Fashion Monster down right.

This outfit looks rather normal for her though. But it works and that is one puffy skirt.

Arashi do their talk and performance of Furusato.

Looks like we get the start of the live feeds from around the globe. And we start off in Portland, OR, USA. Kinda nice to have someone in my timezone.

K8 gets to be with TOKIO as special supporters for an enka performance.

Nice to see Sakamoto Fumi still being boss.

Hey, Arashi got out of the ugly blue suits finally. To get into ugly blue and red ones.

At least those didn't last long and these look much better.

The tech they used looked tight. I was not sure about it when they began to talk about it in the news reports but it made the performance worth watching for sure.

A short tribute to the greats of Japanese entertainment that passed this year. RIP Mori Mitsuko.

Seeing Wada Akiko get teary eyed made me do the same. Really powerful performance.

MISIA's performance looks epic before it has even begun.

And it lives up to the promised epicness, especially those notes at the end. MISIA is a real treasure of an artist and I am so glad she was worked into the program this year.

I figure I won't bother to screen cap EXILE as they aren't bothering to perform anything new. Seriously guys, you have more than one song and it would be nice if you performed them and not this one over and over again.

Looks like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is not the only fashion monster on the show tonight.

Massha of course being live streamed in even though he's just down in Yokohama.

I keep wondering how they plan on cleaning up all that fake snow after this performance while watching it. But at least it looks really impressive.

Yoshida has such a lovely kimono on. I love that she is getting all kinds of recognition this year after winning gold yet again at the Olympics.

SMAP up. And they give a solid performance from them, so yes some painful singing moments.

Will be switching over to JCD shortly, with hopefully a stream that will work. We shall see.

It's voting time and I think I won't chance another screen cap as I search for the best JCD stream.

And the winner is WHITE TEAM!

And I will be switching over to focus on JCD now.

Kohaku 2012 List (Johnny's focused)

The full list of performers for the 2012 Kohaku New Year's program has been announced. The Johnny's that will be performing are of course the already announced Arashi, who will also be the hosts for the White Team on the program, and Kanjani8, who will be on the program for the first time.

The other Johnny's are all returning acts, SMAP, TOKIO and NYC.

Kohaku OHP (Japanese)

I have to say that I am rather surprised to see NYC returning. I guess they will continue to exist to be a Kohaku group at least. But I had assumed with Kanjani8 being on the show that they would have given up their spot to them. Guess that was not the case in the end. I can only assume they will be performing Haina! for the show, which actually seems to be a fitting song for the program, IMHO.

For the female idols it is no surprise that AKB48 will be there, but their sister group SKE48 will be performing on their own as well instead of tagging along to be back dancers for AKB48. I will expect the other sister groups to be involved as well so that AKS and Johnny's can duke it out for which will have the performance with the most performers on the stage at one time again this year.

It had been rumored that there would be on Korean acts this year and if I am not mistaken that has proved true. At least the usual Korean acts that have had spots on the show are not returning this year, Tohoshinki, KARA and Girl's Generation. I guess this is another sign that the Hallyu wave is on the decline in Japan.

Arashi to host this years Kouhaku Uta Gassen

It has been announced that this year's New Year's program Kouhaku Uta Gassen will be hosted by Arashi, to represent the white team, and Matsushita Nao for the red team.

Arashi will be the first group to host the program, as only individuals have been chosen to host before, as well as this is the first time any of the members have hosted the program. Last year was Arashi's first time performing on the program so this is a surprising promotion for this year.

Tokyograph article. (English)

New TOKIO release and Kouhaku setlist for the Johnny's groups

Still sick but thankfully I'm feeling better little by little. I guess going to the Kis-My-Ft2 concerts over the weekend was just a bit too much stress for my body after it had just about recovered from being sick a couple of days before. But I can't say I regret it, as the concerts were great. I'll probably try to do some kind of write up for them at some point over the winter break.

Until then there are a couple pieces of news out. First TOKIO has had their next single announced. Like their past two under the J-Storm label this will be a double A-side and will come in three versions, two LEs and one RE. The title of the single is advance/Mata Asa ga Kuru and it will be released on February 2nd.

As a fan of the group I'm hoping that with all these double A-sides it means we'll be getting a new album from the group next. I mean after this single they have six songs that they will have on the album, unless for some reason they decide not to put all the A-sides on, which I doubt will happen.

Also something probably worth mentioning is that Johnny's is already on February releases. There are four Wednesday's in that month and I'm sure that the other three weeks will be full of other Johnny's singles. As KAT-TUN has announced a new song for docomo and I'm sure they'll be singing the theme song for Kame's drama as well, Arashi has a new drama theme song for Sakurai's upcoming drama and it seems like Hey! Say! JUMP has a new song for Yamada's drama. Or at least that's what I hope will happen. I don't want to wait until March for Hey! Say! JUMP to finally release a new single, especially since I won't be in Japan anymore by then.

But enough about that. NHK has released the song list for Kouhaku, so here are the Johnny's.

Arashi - Arashi x Kouhaku Special Medley
NYC Boys - Kouhaku 60th Anniversary NYC Special
SMAP - Sotto Kyutto ~ Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana
TOKIO - Taiyou to Sabaku no Bara

I have to admit I'm actually looking forward to the NYC Boys performance now. Maybe because it's thankfully not NYC again, though I'm afraid they'll work the song into the medley. I'm just too burned out on that song to care much for it at the moment. Not much different from how burned out from Ultra Music Power a couple of months after Hey! Say! JUMP debuted. I still like the songs and have no trouble listening to UMP again, but I think I need some time away from NYC now before I can go back and enjoy listening to it again.

Johnny's at 2009's Kouhaku

Well midterms are still sucking most of my free time away but I'll try to finish my report in the next day or two as I will have a bit more free time. But until then to keep up with the news...

The official list for the Kouhaku program, which is a New Year's Countdown music program, has been announced recently. Like usual SMAP and TOKIO, who have been on the program for over ten years are of course returning but there are two other Johnny's groups joining the line up this year, Arashi and NYC Boys all for the white team. And for those not familiar with the program all the acts are devided into two teams, the female artists are the red team and the male are the white team and whoever gets the highest ratings collectively are the winners of the program. And I honestly can't remember the last time the red team won.

Official Kouhaku list. (Japanese only)

As many I was quite shocked to see NYC Boys on the list, as they are meant to be just a temporary unit but the more I thought about it the choice did not seem so strange. Kouhaku picks some of the top selling acts of the year to perform, so Arashi seems to be a no brainer there, and NYC Boys did sell over 200K copies of their single, which even some of the big acts in Japan don't do anymore these days. Unlike Hey! Say! JUMP, who have released nothing this year. Because I'm sure Johnny's would have had them there instead of NYC Boys if they were eligible but even if they were to release a new single in December it would be too late to have them invited. So they had to go with the closest thing, NYC Boys, IMHO.

Also this year has been a good year for Juniors, especially the younger ones and I think this is also a continuation of this. Especially in one of the articles it mentions that Juniors will be joining the group for there performance and hinted it would be the younger ones that won't be able to participate in Johnny's Countdown, so I would not be surprised at all to see Morimoto Shintarou get some screen time for this.

And then looking at the program itself, there's no denying the fact it is no longer the popular program it once was. For years the viewer numbers have been declining and less and less of the younger generation are watching, so groups that are hits with Japan's youth like Arashi, who's a hit with everyone these days, and NYC Boys who are targetted for the younger generation of the population are good choices for the program to pick to try again to reverse the declining ratings trend.

And that's about all I've come up with about this decision. I think keeping these factors in mind the decision makes more sense, but personally I think I'll be looking more forward to seeing Hey! Say! BEST all together on the Johnny's Countdown stage for the first time this year. And I hope they have a bit more of a presence at this year's Countdown than they did at the last one.