Found this old video of Yaguchi Mari (ex-Morning Musume member) participating on Matthew's Best Hit TV, but this 3rd part is especially hilarious. And don't worry, there's subtitles so everyone know what they're saying on the show.





Back during my school days, Music TV (a music television programme from Japan) was showing on every Thursday evening. Although it's actually 2 to 3 months late when it was shown on TV, it kinda coincide with the artistes' CD album release within Southeast Asia so I guess I can't really complain much. One of the acts that really sparked some interest in me was Morning Musume (モーニング娘。), especially Yaguchi Mari. She is a very hyper J-pop artist and a funny one to boot. That was also the time when I started having a much stronger interest in Japan culture, music and stuff and Music TV popularised artistes, whether new or old, and also at the same time have plugged interests in J-Pop artistes upcoming album releases (Yeah, I know I said that one already). Back when I started watching, Yaguchi Mari was just a member, not the leader of Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) yet, but she still managed to get some talk time whenever they their group was introduced. And of all major and minor pop groups in japan, Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) is particularly well-known for its ever fluctuating line-up, with "graduations" and auditions occurring nearly each year; however, 2008 was the only year so far in which no line-up changes occurred.

So, in a sense, there's always new faces in Morning Musume every year. But seriously, don't ask me about the current members, since I stopped having much interest in Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) when Yaguchi Mari unofficially "graduate" from Morning Musume (モーニング娘。). Because of the nature of her departure (resignation rather than graduation), Yaguchi Mari did not receive a graduation concert. The underlying reason that she had to quit was because it was discovered by the tabloid magazine FRIDAY that she was in a relationship with actor Shun Oguri though she was 22 at the time. Yaguchi and Oguri have reportedly broken up since April of 2006. Yaguchi's TV show Yaguchi Hitori (やぐちひとり ?) continues as before, and she now focuses on Japanese variety shows as guests and hosts rather than ventures on a singing career.

Following the popularity of singles and an album released in conjunction with the Japanese variety program, Quiz! Hexagon II (クイズ!ヘキサゴンII), Yaguchi released her debut single, "Seishun Boku/Seishun Ore" (青春 僕/青春 俺), four years after her final release in Morning Musume. She performed the song for the first time on Quiz! Hexagon II on February 25, 2009.






GAKI no koro nanika ni muzu ga yuku nattara
kokoro no naka ni aru PARUPU wo hazushite shimau no sa
shinjirunda tsutsumunda bokutachi wa bokutachi wo
sonna atsui omoitachi ga rekishi wo kaeta koto mo aru

toki ni wa machigaeru
koto mo aru darou
daiji na hito wo ushinau koto mo yure ugoku seishun no sei

atsui atsui atsui atsui
jounetsu ga fukidashite kuru
hora tsuhhashire tachidomaru na
jikan wa tomari wa shinai kara
jyouki tankansha youni hashiru
sore ga seishun


And from digging around the Internet, I found Yaguchi Mari's blog, http://ameblo.jp/mari-yaguchi/, and here's a video of her introducing her latest released album:





What I like about Yaguchi Mari's voice is that it's unique, added with spunk in the way she sings. And you can't find it in any other singer in Japan. Yup, she's truly one special J-pop artiste. Go Marippe!! Although I don't understand Japanese much, her blog is peppered with personal photos (there's one taken where Hiromi Go is present and another was a shot at a comic titled 桜蘭高校ホスト部 also called Ouran High School Host Club, a manga that's the craze among female manga fans worldwide). Yup, still looking good after all these years and I'm going to buy her CD album when I received my next pay at HMV

P/S: There's a total of 740+ pages of blog entries in Yaguchi Mari's blog, so I'm taking my own sweet time checking every single one of them out!!



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