Karakui

This is something we’ve wanted to do for the previous playlist. We’re going to give a little background on the tracks we chose for the playlist (and yes, there’s an order to it!).

Songs 1-3. KIZUKI Minami. If you asked us who our favorite solo artist was she would be top on our list. We believe these 3 songs are a very good representation of why we chose her. The first song “Ibuki” is from her latest album “Uta-ashibi” (which is a must-listen) and is an original song. Listening to the song without any background, you would think it’s an awesome J-pop song and maybe nothing more. The second song “Reflection” (yep, that Disney song) will make you think, “wait, this is the same artist singing a Disney song?”, yup and we love it! So just when you think you figured her out — BAM! Amami Ōshima shimauta for the third song “Kyorajima”. How amazing is she!

Songs 4-6. Awich needs no introduction and I’m sure the majority of you have already heard this song but it’s in the playlist because it’s a banger! If you know Awich, you most likely already know OZworld. “Surechigai (translation: misunderstanding)” is an amazing track featuring Emi Meyer. Rounding up this group of hip-hop/rap tracks is Rude-α‘s “One (Rude-α & Tipleso [チプルソ])”. He also needs no further introduction as we’ve featured him many times on Karakui and his song “Umui” will go down as one of the important tracks in our pop culture history.

Songs 7-9. This is where some of you will say/think “What? Why?”. MAX. Active since (let us check), 1995! They’ve pretty much outlasted every artist we’ve ever covered in our 20-year history and they’re still active to this day. Can you believe they’ve also kept the same line-up. Amazing, no? So you’re ok with MAX but the next two? Boy bands? We’ll explain. We like that they have 3 letters/numbers for their band name so they’re in! NOT! (Hey, that’s 3 letters too!) Anyhoo, every one knows that Okinawa is recognized as having the most beautiful and talented actresses in Japan — we actually have a post somewhere that we mention how many/all of them are married to only the most popular male actors in Japan. So, um, getting back to the music. The boy band INI has member MATSUDA Jin who is from Okinawa. You see where we’re going with this. The boy band JO1 likewise has YONASHIRO Sho who we’ve featured on our blog before. Okinawa has beautiful and talented men too! And you must be a fan of Saja Boys, amirite? Saja Boys. Boy bands. INI. JO1. Yep 👍.

We hope you enjoyed having a bit of background on our latest playlist and are enjoying listening to it. Stay tuned for the next set of songs coming soon.