The fading legend of ‘How Do You Like Japan?’
This song was my first real wake-up call to J-pop, Hello Project and Morning Musume specifically. I saw this song on the Internet, off the Rainbow 7 concert of spring 2006, which has to be the worst-videographed concert of all time.
Still, I got it. “How Do You Like Japan?” appeared to be aimed right at foreigners, right at fans outside Japan – fans like myself who were just then discovering the astonishing legacy of Morning Musume.
“OK,” Risa and her colleagues are saying, in so many words: “Just how well do you really like Japan, Yankee boy? Are we just too much for you?” It’s not a put-down, it’s a challenge. A dare. The Daughters of the Morning are calling out all outsiders. OK, guys, walk through that door – but beware of what you might find!
It is a sassy, killer song, one that really carried Rainbow 7 – and was even more amazingly staged during the Morning Curry concert, fall 2006. In that version, Morning Musume had dropped from 10 to a mere eight members, with Konno and Mako departing earlier in the year at the fateful, tearful Hello Project Summer 2006 concert the previous July.
But for some reason it was a much more brutal, grittier version. Yossi, Miki, Risa and even Sayu took the gloves off and snarled out those lyrics under an eerie red light which belied the bright Hawaiian-style garden costumes the team wore in that memorable concert.
Yes, “How Do You Like Japan?” went from sassy to just plain mean. It was a delight.
Then, in 2007 came the “Bomb Girl” concert which, frankly, was a bomb in many areas.
It was a thrill to see “How Do You Like Japan?" embedded right in the middle of the “Bomb Girl” setlist last November, just as it was 12 months earlier – but the end result was less than satisfactory for many fans, and some bloggers began to doubt the quality and appropriateness of the song itself.
Well, that’s stepping over the line – my line. Why criticize the national anthem, for example, after some idiot tries to sing it and screws it all up? The same principle applies here: “How Do You Like Japan?” is a classic, and classics should never be dissed or put on the shelf. After the somewhat lukewarm rendition during “Bomb Girl,” I hope Tsunku doesn’t lock it in a vault.
It’s easy to see why the deterioration has occurred. Yossie and Miki are gone; they carried this song in many ways. Miki especially did the job at Rainbow 7, Yossie exploded in the fall 2006 version. Risa has been great all three times – she just had no supporting cast in “Bomb Girl.” JunJun and LinLin were like lost little children. Reina tried valiantly to take up the slack, but it mattered little; even Sayu had an off-night. Aichan? Don’t get me started.
Well, every great song has a down day. Let’s hope the legacy of “How Do You Like Japan?” does not fade further into seclusion.
Especially for us Yankee boys.
This is Radicalipton signing off – for now.
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Comments
I must mention that I love the opening screencap you posted. I just had to laugh at Koharu's expression. Her eyes are just so... O_O
Also, I just read CK's Café Buono! review... I see you caved! Everyone is defenseless against the powerhouse that is Buono! ^_^
Thanks for the good word, MaiZe. "How Do You Like Japan" was performed to lead off the Rainbow 7 concert (May 7, 2006) and it was immedioately followed by "Manpower." Hellacious! The song was again done for the Morning Curry concert (Oct. 28, 2006) and still again for "Bomb Girl" (Nov. 25, 2007). YouTube or Veoh should have clips of it.
I'm getting much better with screencaps. I convert them from Paint to Jpegs, then run them through both the Microsoft photo program and Photoimpression to gain contarst bite and sharpness. I would rather go with screencaps than dig around for regular photos, which are usually quite unimaginative.
As for Buono!, how can you NOT cave??? We're looking at a pop music revolution unfolding before our very eyes -- and ears. We all live in ... interesting times.
No doubting that it was Rika, and not Ai (for once) that held the whole thing together though."
Rad,
Your screencaps and captions are great. I have to agree with Maize that Koharu looks hysterical in the first one.
Great take on it, but for me, I've never been a fan of this song in any version.
That's cool; it is a much different song for Morning Musume. It takes some getting used to, and the singers often just aren't "tough" enough to carry it.
As for the screencaps, that particular image probably is available for less than a second. The videographers' edits are so fast you just randomly hit the capture buttom and just hope for some luck.
Then you convert from Paint to Jpeg and run it through filtering to gain sharpness and contrast. Sometimes you get something, most of the time you don't.