We may not have to endure all of ARASHI hosting *again*, but we still have to endure Sakurai from ARASHI.
This year's theme is 'Love and Peace'. We tried to watch it with the Japan internet TV service we subscribe too, but it was *way* too laggy with everyone trying to use it at the same time.
Thanksfully, bittorrent to the rescue! It's already up on nyaa.si and I was able to download it in <10 minutes.
First Up: boy bad SixTONES. Never heard of them before, but the fact they're all pretty and can't sing means they're from Johnny's.
I guess with the retirement/demise of SMAP and ARASHI, Johnny's is just throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks. And since Johnny's always puts really heavy pressure on the NHK execs to include a lot of their acts, we get no-talent acts like these guys.
Second Act: Tendo Yoshimi 天童よしみ. An Enka mainstay, like all the Enka artists she can actually sing. She's a long time Kouhaku act, she's performed every year as long as I can remember.
Third Act: 緑黄色社会, which I've never heard of, apparently it's their first time on Kouhaku. Pretty good up-beat music, and they're really talented.
Fourth Act: Go Hiromi, another long-time mainstay. He's singing a medley of a few of his big hits, including a duet with the Hostess, and of course his cover of Living the Vida Loca, which always throws me for a loop. Backup dancers included a bunch of こぎやる, which was a bit weird to see.
Interlude: introduction of a few of the judges:
* Another ARASHI member
* Kuroyanagi, who they seem to have propped up out of her coffin for the show
Fifth Act: なにわ男子, another boy band, they are almost certainly Johnny's. ... After watching them though, I'm not sure since they can at least sing half OK. But the style of the music is absolutely Johnny's, so they must have been able to form a group of guys that can actually sing for a change.
Interlude: the host of some NHK show where this guy asks people puzzles and stuff chats with the hosts and asks a quiz.
Sixth Act: Mizumoto Kaori, an Enka singer. Her singing is fabulous, but since NHK won't let someone just stand there and sing, they have some dancers in the background doing a weird dance that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the song.
Interlude: answering the quiz question to kill some time while they change the state.
7th Act: LE SSERAFIM, a KPop act. I don't know anything about them. As befitting Kpop, it sounds like basic dance club music with a super heavy bass. And the girls can of course dance really well.
8th Act: Saucy Dog, an actual musical group (i.e. they write and perform their own music). First time on Kouhaku. Nice song, they have a folk music feel to their music, really cool.
9th Act: Nogizaka 46 (one of Akimoto Yasushi's cookie-cutter cute girl acts) dancing to What Does the Fox Say of all things. Then 山内惠介 comes out and actually sings one of his Enka songs as a mashup with the Fox song. It's really *really* weird.
10th Act: Now Nogizaka 46 continues with they're own song, Kitsune. It's completely forgettable and sounds like all the songs from Akimoto's girl groups.
Ending this post and continuing in another one before it gets way too long.
