Tsunku♂ Thread

[Amped]

on 9/18 at 9pm, Tsunku will appear on the Fuji TV show Hamonep League's Team Acapella quaifier SP as a guest judge.

https://twitter.com/fujitv/status/643318320561700866
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/hamonep/index.html

[boinsie]

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002414441

Interview w/Tsunku from The Japan News

[CaptainBerryzGiraffe]

This is apparently the last radio appearance before he got his vocals removed.
Oh my.

[boinsie]

Henkka has uploaded his translation of chapter 1 of "Dakara, Ikiru"

http://kumomi.org/translations/2015/09/ ... -8-2014-2/

[TotallyUncool]

I just read it -- it's an excellent translatin, and a very powerful and moving start to the book.

[Amped]

airing on 10/3 at 11:30pm, Tsunku will be on the NHK show "SONGS", his first music program in a very long time. Also on the show is singer Kumiko, singing her new song that Tsunku produced. Nagase Tomoya (TOKIO) will sing the song "Hitoribocchi no Haburashi" with Tsunku playing on guitar and singer Chris Hart will be singing a cover of Sharan Q's "Zurui Onna", with a new arrangement produced by Tsunku. Tsunku will also be interviewed.



http://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000120033

[Amped]

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2059706/fu ... _cd=tw_pic

[JonCC]

Henkka has uploaded his translation of chapter 1 of "Dakara, Ikiru"

http://kumomi.org/translations/2015/09/ ... -8-2014-2/

Part 2:

I looked across the venue. “My music is playing at the center of New York, America. My loved disciples are over there, giving their all as they’re singing my songs.” Occasionally I’d catch my wife wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, and every now and then our eyes would meet. “I’m glad we came. Thank you for being here with me. I’m glad I could witness this moment.” I nodded at her, trying to convey these words to her.

“Finally, I’ve come all this way. That young boy from Osaka, pouring gasoline in the power generator so his band could perform in that street near the Osaka Castle. A group created by that same boy is at the center of New York, beaming with smiles and singing his songs that were smash hits in Japan. There were so many difficult times, but finally I’m here!”

The concert was over in no time.

Afterwards, I got to talk with the members for just a minute. Usually after their performances, I would preach to them about something or the other, criticizing their faults. But for the first time ever, I just expressed my gratitude. “That was good. You did good. You were all very cool.”

http://kumomi.org/translations/2015/09/ ... 2-2014-10/


-----------------------

Also relevant about WiT and the impact of Tsunku's resignation:

I very quickly noted the absence of the man from the CD covers and such, but I didn’t want to be prejudiced. I didn’t want to just assume that if Tsunku wasn’t the composer they would automatically be shitty songs. And, actually, they weren’t. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy any of the songs H!P has put out post-Tsunku.

And yet…

“They’re playing it safe and giving all the groups very Tsunku-like material.“

To me it feels like the people saying this have not been hearing Tsunku’s music the way I have been hearing it for all these years. By and large, to me, the new songs sound nothing like Tsunku. You can interpret that both ways: it doesn’t sound like him neither in style, nor in quality. Not to me. For the most part, there simply is no comparison.

http://wotaintranslation.com/2015/09/26 ... anslation/

Yup

[CaptainBerryzGiraffe]

I just got to reading both of the currently translated parts and, holy shit, it's insane to think that while we were there in the concert having one of the best days, Tsunku was probably having one of the worst. (Obviously the concert was a great moment for him, but reading around it...)
The tears running through my eyes as I read these chapters.
Also, Tsunku's wife is super-human. Like, wow, he's lucky to have someone like her.

[Obsidian]

Prompted by what WiT wrote I decided to put my thoughts into words about the whole issue, but it ended up being quite long.

Spoiler: show

Personally I agree the songs are just not the same, the reason people may superficially think that is the arrangers are the same. The area this has hit most for me is C-ute's songs (I know it seems like they're trying to move them to a more serious group and away from purely an Idol feel) but there's something almost undiscerningly missing for me, and maybe that's the influence of Tsunku. The most rational way I can put it across is I think in sometimes I think members are singing the wrong lines, that those line don't suit the members or their voices as well as Tsunku normally would select...he knows them like no other song-writer ever will. That's the thing that will probably never be the same for H!P.


Other songs like for example Angerme's last single tracks that people claimed as Tsunku-esque turned out to be only in some ballpark 'style'. Style makes up a whole lot of the substance in pop music but you can't just add a brass section and say 'there you go "Tsunku"'. Compare TMS or Sukatto My Heart to Gashin Shoutan and Nana Korobi as that's the style people are thinking of but these aren't close to the same quality. I'm not even saying those songs are 'bad' either just different and not as good... except for the ending of nana korobi.


Taiki Bansei is also held out as an example and it still seems a lot of people's hope is that Takui will be the new Tsunku. It is really good and even better than a lot of Tsunku's recent songs but the odd thing is that more than ever before the studio version has none of the power of the live version. This is because they tried to 'Tsunku-ise' the song one of Takui's strengths is getting that live raw power. Which at least they did it a lot better with Girls Be Ambitious for Ju=Ju. I think they should stop giving us a watered down version of Takui songs and give it both barrels, for concerts and in the studio.


Where some of the best non-Tsunku H!P songs have actually come from is doing exactly that - not trying to be 'Tsunku' but to simply allow the writers/arrangers to go where they naturally come from. Otome no Gyakushuu (apart from the forced dance break ) and Sheishun man man naka are good examples of this. I hope the company get more confidence after a while to hire people because they will put their sound and style into things. Tsunku has constantly evolved his sound, he himself largely moved on from those big-band/funk inspired songs. Are the people who are writing for H!P now so inspired by the same music? I'm not sure, I'm worried that they may be afraid of the risk of people turning away because it's not Tsunku too much. Even that Tsunku going has allowed them to go backwards when he himself saw the folly in redoing the same old stuff. (Head Office already asked Tsunku if he wanted to resign before he was even diagnosed with cancer).

There's no way I would've got into J-pop and H!P without Tsunku's music, no way at all. But I'm not a Tsunku or nothing person, Tsunku opened the door of J-Pop for me (I was already listening to other Japanese music) but I walked through it and came to admire and love lots of other composers, lots of other songs and groups. Also whilst good music continues to be really important for me I went way beyond Idol groups being just the music to it becoming about the Idols as well. That means even though I think the road hasn't been totally smooth I don't actually see myself turning away from H!P because Tsunku is reduced in role, if anything those other sides of Idol fandom have grown far stronger because I do connect so much with so many of the members now. Whilst I think the music doesn't always have that feeling, some of the non-Tsunku songs are still great some even better. I hope they don't become too conservative and instead use the number of groups they have and the fact they don't rely on that one composer to become more innovative for at least some of those groups.