Posts Tagged ‘togawa jun’

May 1st, 2008 just can’t figure her out

i hadn’t really come across any female japanese comedians that i liked, until i encountered edo harumi (”guuuuu!“), and torii miyuki. both of them are so hot right now, though i can’t see edo’s 80s looking nice/crazy woman schtick lasting as long as one of her “guuuu” wordplay games.

torii miyuki, however, has various guises, including the following:

l to r: standard crazy with googly eyes; bad gothic lolita angel, often with wings; gravure(!?!); normal & darkish

i was going to show you a video that had her singing an old song, jumping up and down, but youtube admin have deleted it. but in it, her switch from sweet to manic in a second had me thinking of shiina ringo and togawa jun and all the crazy things that is usually associated with. people on nicovideo also agree, with someone commenting “togawa jun x shiina ringo /2 = torii miyuki”

wait a moment… in the video below she actually says, ‘i want to be like togawa jun!’

and then carries on mussing up her hair and yelling in good fashion…

even if it’s not a physical resemblance, it’s the awkwardness and general weirdness. i can’t figure out where miyuki the comedian starts and miyuki the real person finishes, though they probably both speak mighty weird.

everyone seems to think she is a beauty though, with tv programs & jj magazine already having made her over to their standards:

i like the way she is, with her crazy persona, ratty hair and… a huge collection of vivienne westwood? anyway, she probably deserves buying them when the content of her skits includes a pregnant woman talking to her unborn child and but then loses the child because of domestic violence; and imagining sneaking into mayumi ono’s wedding (she lost an “image girl” contest to her in 2001) to cut open her belly and steal the baby, only that more things keep coming out of mayumi’s belly…

but if you hunt yahoo auctions, you might see a dvd entitled “gravure! - torii miyuki” from 2005 - last one sold was 51000 yen. that’s how much one will pay for a rare dvd of her lying on the couch in a bikini, taking a shower still in a bikini, and look vaguely interested floating around the house in a kimono. but why did she make the dvd? maybe times were hard in 05?

to make up, torii recently released a dvd called happy monday, and the set looks very much akin to a horror movie, the perfect backdrop to her crazy ladies.

October 23rd, 2007 random sometimes baseless things about shiina ringo

tokyo jihen’s latest tour is called spa and treatment. i’m sorry, this is no fun. her petite bourgeoisie image nowadays is getting to me. now i’m beginning to think shiina walking around with a handband on stage looks like one thing, while togawa jun and a handbag on stage is totally different.

this, i guess is nothing new to japanese - that shiina ringo owes togawa jun, or at least pays homage to her, in the early part of her career. this piece basically compares the two, and why shiina is a mainstream success, whereas togawa is notorious, but not gold record selling. mostly an argument about the disparity (or similarity) between major and minor labels, and the music they produced, i suppose the 90s mainstream was ripe for shiina’s alternative rock sound, regardless of originating for and indies or major record label, and togawa liked her music mostly irritating, scary and electronic in a parody of the 80s idol singers, which would hardly have mass approval.

togawa looked like an idol, but she made fun of stereotypes, dressing up like the water soaked girls in towels on magazines, or playing up the image of the cute pure schoolgirl. shiina was not at all adverse to using her looks or going for cosplay either, this being the cover to shouso strip (lawsuit winning strip), and of course the video to honnou.

anyhow, the “baseless” part of this post is some old thing i found on 2ch, which involves two of my favourite people…

ehhhh? oikawa mitsuhiro aka man who often has ridiculous parts written into dramas for him to show off his flamboyant self…

that’s exactly why it’s in the rumour thread, although this one dates back to 2000, when a magazine reported on it, and others swore they’d seen them hand in hand in harajuku. two sensitive people does not make for good pairing…

exactly.