Continuing my coverage of Kouhaku, watching the next day recorded. Onto the final stretch now...
43rd Act: 関ジャニ∞, which I also have to copy/paste and won't even bother trying to pronounce. They're one of the older Johnny's groups at this point, performing on Kouhaku for the 11th time. One of the members always wears sunglasses, he had a brain tumor a few years ago and one of the complications from the surgery affected the optic nerve and made him extremely sensitive to light, hence the ubiquitous sunglasses. Their concerts are very family friendly, and have a section for young families, nursing mothers with young children and babies, etc. Pretty unique, especially for a Johnny's group.
44th Act: 星野 源 Hoshino Gen, singing his song 喜劇 Kigeki, which is the ending song to the awesome hit anime Spy Family (highly reccomend!). He's been in every Kouhaku since 2015, so definitely maintaining a high popularity. It's a pretty mellow song, very relaxing.
45th Act: 氷川きよし Hikawa Kiyoshi. Since leaving Enka and having a sex change (sexual dysphoria), she's singing a heavy metal style that's reminiscent of X Japan. This specific song is one of the theme songs to the new Dragon Ball series. Still a great singer with great stage presence.
46th Act: 松任谷由実 Matsutoya Yumi. Singing a duet with herself from when she was younger. For her younger self they are projecting an uncanny valley CG image of her, which is kind of weird. Both of them have her signature hat that she always wears. All of her music is a very simple light pop style, lyrics are also very simple. On the other hand it's pretty easy for me to understand, which usually I have a lot of difficulty understanding the Japanese in pop music.
47th Act: KinKi Kids, a Johnny's duo who at this point are probably the longest running group out Johnny's Jimusho at 25 years after their debut. They're singing a medley of songs by Yamashita Tetsuro, a long time songwriter in the industry. Their singing is passable, which is pretty good for Johnny's group. When I think of Yamashita Tetsuro, I always think of his song Christmas Eve: https://youtu.be/wYQFvur_wns
48th Act: Old school rock group Anzen Chitai, now performing 40 years after their debut. Their drummer passed away this year, and are now performing in his memory. This is also their first time on Kouhaku in 37 years, though the singer Tamaki Kouji has been on numerous times as a solo artist. Tamaki's voice is still fabulous, with his easily recognizable singing style/signature. They're performing their debut song I Love You, which is a great feel-good song.
49th Act: Ishikawa Sayuri, singing - of course - her famous song Amagigoe 天城越え. It's a really powerful song, but she's only performed this song or her other famous ballad Tsugaru Kaikyo 津軽海峡 since 2006! She's performing with a live orchestra, and it's a really impressive song and performance, and always give me goosebumps! I just kind of feel sorry for, maybe she'd like to perform something else for a change...
50th Act: 桑田佳祐 Kuwata Keisuke, the main head of Southern All-Stars, wrote a song that he performed with some other old-school rockers: 佐野元春, 世良公則, Char, and 野口五郎. It's a fun two songs, and the old guys there on stage really look like they're having a great time performing together. Fun fact, the bassist in the back is the oldest son of Downtown's Hamada Masatoshi. Also the woman playing keyboard in the back is Kuwata's wife, they've been married for decades without ever even the hint of scandal.
51st Act: MISIA performing for her 7th time at Kouhaku. I wonder if she was live at Disney World and had to hurry over by helicopter or something, or if the earlier song was pre-recorded? Everyone on her song is wearing a weird rabbit costume, since 2023 is the year of the rabbit. It's kind of distracting, kind of like how I'm used to seeing a lot of unneeded and distracting dancing during an Enka song, though there didn't seem to be too much of that this year. MISIA is super-talented, but her style really isn't my thing for some reason.
52nd and final act: Of course it would be none other than Fukuyama Masaharu 福山雅治, who surprisingly is on location at NHK hall, normally he's doing a live concert at another location that they pipe in via satellite. Last year him and MISIA were the last two acts as well. He's singing one of his major hits Sakurazaka, a kind of slow ballad. Everyone in Japan knows this song from the reality TV show 未来日記 in 2000, where a Japanese and Korean fell in love and the show followed their ups and downs.
With that we have the voting for red (women) or white (men) teams. Votes come from three groups: the TV audience who votes with their remote control (or online via their website) , the studio audience who vote with an electronic device in person, and the celebrity judges in the front row. The results from the three groups are weighted equally.
As the countdown goes down to midnight, they sing 蛍の光, the Japanese version of Aud Lang Syne.
The votes are tallied, White wins this year.
And... it's all over for this year. お疲れさまでした。おめでとうございます、そして今年もよろしくお願いします！
