Six Things February 3, 2008

Hey! I'm still here! Sorry I haven't been putting anything up recently. Was a bit busy last month.

Anyway, I often have blog ideas that I don't think always deserve their own post. While I'd like to drive up the number of posts I um..post, I'd rather devote time to a select number of posts, especially the ones that I can really flesh out. So here goes an experiment: Six Things. Every Sunday I will try to put up a quick list of six things on my mind that are notable but not single post-worthy. They may not always be Japan related though. Of course this experiment will probably fizzle out and die by March but whatever. On with the show!

1. Super Bowl XLII is this Sunday if you're in America. If you're in Japan the game will be broadcast Monday morning on NHK BS-1. Coverage starts at 8:10 AM. Go Giants! The Patriots losing may or may not make Bill Simmons cry. That would be enough of a reason for me even if I weren't a long-time Giants fan. The Patriots are overwhelming favorites (a 12 point spread last I read) and are going for a perfect season. I'm hoping that this game will be similar to Super Bowl XXXVI with the overwhelming offensive juggernaut taken down by the underdogs with destiny and luck on their side.

2. Koda Kumi (倖田來未) has been suspended by her label for saying something stupid. And she has a new album coming out soon which she won't be able to promote. Wow. Just goes to show how much control talent agencies and record labels have over their clients. Say something or even blog something wrong and you pay a price.

3. Today is Setsubun (節分)! Throw them beans!

4. Aso Taro is my favorite Japanese politician because frankly, he's crazy:
"I've been saying that Japanese agricultural products are expensive but taste good and are clean and safe," Aso said. "To be blunt, the agricultural cooperatives should thank China. Great value has been added (to Japanese products)."

5. The L Word hit DVD rental shelves today in Japan.

6. The first time I saw this commercial for au's Infobar I thought, "Hey, it sounds like the Futurama theme song."

Like so many other people, I later found out that the opening was inspired by Psyché Rock by Pierre Henry which is the song the au commercial uses.

Kuwata Keisuke takes on Giant Baba! 桑田佳祐 vs. ジャイアント馬場 plus ダーリン

Keeping with his theme of making commercials with dead people celebrities who have passed on for Wonda Coffee here is Kuwata Keisuke's latest CM, this time starring puroresu legend Shohei "Giant" Baba:



This follows Kuwata's previous Wonda commercials with actor Hitoshi Ueki and director Akira Kurosawa.

As a bonus, here is Kuwata's latest (solo) single, ダーリン (thanks to youtube user hijiricom):

A Series of Interesting CMs: 牛乳に相談だ The Japan Dairy Council

牛乳に相談だ (ぎゅうにゅうにそうだんだ/gyuunyuu ni soudanda/Can someone give me a reasonable sounding translation of this?) is a campaign by the Japan Dairy Council (中央酪農会議) aimed at getting young people in Japan to drink milk again. Someone might want to tell them about their main page title: Welcow to 日本の酪農 -社団法人中央酪農会議-.
Anyway, there have been a series of commercials:
Milk enables student to take on his chalk wielding teacher:

(thanks to Youtube user gooooopon)

Milk helps student battle lion and save the girl/Milk makes student so popular she is caught in a flood of love letters/the chalk one again:

(thanks to Youtube user countsei)

Milk makes mom and daughter...um...

(thanks to Youtube user ajibee)

Which is your favorite?
(Note: There are a couple of other videos (one about basketball and one about synchronized swimming) that I haven't found yet.)

You have to admit that these are much more interesting than the milk commercials I had to watch when I was growing up:

(thanks to Youtube user panbiscuit)

Although possibly not as interesting as this:

(thanks to youtube user nerrad712).

Two More CMs: トイレの消臭力 Song for Toilet and JRA Feel Live

Two more interesting CMs.
Thanks to youtube user lostinjapan999 (*cough*)

エステー化学 トイレの消臭力 Song for Toilet:

I think - and I'm not sure here - they're making fun of songs like We Are the World, Do They Know It's Christmas etc. But they're talking about something to kill the odor in your toilet. Foreign actors of Japan unite and take over!
If you are in Japan and you really really like this song, you can go here and follow the link that says CMソング and you can download it to your phone.

JRA Feel Live with Yuji Oda (織田裕二)

I just like watching this commercial only because it amuses me to ask myself this:
"So the jockey hits the horse, right? And then there's this giant explosion like a rocket booster or something and the horse apparently wins the race, right? Well, where exactly is that explosion coming from? I mean, look at the video. Where else could it be coming from? What did they feed that horse before the race?"
Also, nice shirt Mr. Oda.

そんぽ24 ハナコアラ Sonpo24's Hana Koala

A friend recently directed me to the commercials for insurance company そんぽ24. Their mascot characters are three koalas by the name of ゴロー, センタロー and ライタロー (Goro, Sentaro and Raitaro, sound it out and you'll figure out which is which) known as ハナコアラ Hana Koala and they have the...well, just look at the commercials for yourself (thanks to youtube user DJ774)



Yep, they can take off their noses and use them as mobile phones to contact Sonpo! It's a little bit disturbing but I can't stop watching. Maybe it's the song.

見直そう　見直そう～（そんぽ！）
自動車保険を見直そう　そんぽ24で見直そう
さあ　見積もりだ　見積もりだ！

The clip actually contains three different commercials. The third one (the last thirty seconds of the youtube video) is my favorite because of two things.
One is this:


The other is that one of the koalas realizes that his nose isn't a phone this time but a computer mouse.

They have tons of stuff at the hanakoala site including how to do the dance, the profiles of the characters (I've never seen ハナマドンナ though) and calendars.

A quick google check shows that ハナコアラ has his fans. Behold the ハナコアラ Bento! Apparently this person does this often.

If you really need the song, you can get it on Amazon!

Two Interesting CMs..ダンディハウス「ニッポン ダンディ？」 and Pure Pure Garden

Nothing much to say here, just take a gander:

Kuwata Keisuke (桑田佳祐) for Dandy House's ニッポン ダンディ？ campaign. (Note: The song playing is Kuwata's newest solo single 男達の挽歌（エレジー）).
(Thanks to youtube user hydeken69)


And Rinka (梨花) for Kanro's Pure Pure Garden.
(Thanks to youtube user ekaitza26)


Kenji!

リンガーハット ちゃんぽんちゃん! CM RingerHut: We are the CHAM-PON!

So Ringer Hut has a new character: CHAM-PON-chan! (I will forever capitalize it like that)

And, as you can see by the logo above the ad campaign for CHAM-PON is We are the CHAM-PON! Sounds suspiciously like the title to a well-known Queen song? Well, it's all part of the plan (thanks to YouTube user nakadamania):

I wonder if those gaijin extras knew what they were cheering for?
Also:


The Ringer Hut CM page is here.

南陽 CM: 機械でやろう! Nanyou CM: Do it with machines!

Here are a couple of commercials for a Fukuoka-based machinery company 南陽 (Nanyou).
The theme to both is to use machines rather than try to do it by hand. Thanks go out to Youtube user MakkingTube for both.

工事現場編 (Construction Site) -- this is actually version one. V2 isn't as funny because they try to be more informative.


工場編 (Factory)


You can download the commercials here. Or if you need to see it on TV for some reason, it airs on RKB Thursdays through Saturdays at midnight.

Question: Does anyone know when Japanese commercials started using a female voice speaking with this really odd yet clear intonation (like the person isn't a native speaker) at the end? I know other commercials use it but I can't cite examples other than these two.

Enjoy!

YMO shill キリンラガービール (Kirin Lager Beer)

First off this is the long version of the YMO CM for Kirin Lager (credit to youtube user 5leepwalk):



You can view the commercials here too.

The song is Rydeen (or more specifically the version known as Rydeen 79/07, available here). The whole theme of the Kirin Lager campaign is something about how good things don't change. Maybe. I think. Whatever. I believe it has something to do with there now being Kirin Lager and Kirin Classic Lager. Anyone care to taste test?

You can see the original PV of Rydeen where they are shooting laser guns at the end here (credit to youtube user hardy2006us).

I only got into YMO recently and so I'm glad that I'm getting a chance to bring them up here. But really, I'm even happier that I'll have a chance to show the two or possibly three people who look at my blog い・け・な・いルージュマジック!

(All the credit in the world to youtube user VickySakamoto who has tons of Ryuichi Sakamoto videos up)



い・け・な・いルージュマジック by Ryuichi Sakamoto & Kiyoshiro Imawano was used as a campaign song for Shiseido in 1982 and hit number one on the Oricon charts. And no stand-ins were used for the kiss. See?



You really want to buy this song (12,000 yen!).

YMO on the Japanese Wikipedia for those who really really like long lists.

Two CMs I Like: パイロット ボードマスター and CR暴れん坊将軍2 (Pilot Boardmaster and CR Abarenbo Shogun 2)

パイロット ボードマスター (Pilot Boardmaster) (credit to Youtube user yty1222)
Someone put it on Youtube:


From the Pilot website:
http://www.pilot.co.jp/tvcm/tvcm9.html

CR暴れん坊将軍2 (CR Abarenbo Shogun 2) (credit to Youtube user levinar)


How to do the dance in the video!:
http://www.fujimarukun.co.jp/joho/new/abare2/ab2dance.html