うたばん & Yaguchi, 4 Years Later

Listening to:
矢口真里／エアバンド
「青春 僕」

Utaban got moved to Sunday nights, which is nice because it’s probably the one night of the week that I’m almost certain to be at home. I watched the entire two-hour special despite having several more important things to do, and Utaban still edges HEY!HEY!HEY! as the most entertaining music variety show on television. Yaguchi Mari was on for the first time in ages last night. I’m not a real huge fan of hers, but I tuned in primarily because I miss the magic of those old Utaban/Morning Musume segments. It’s no secret that Utaban host Ishibashi Takaaki is a huge supporter of Morning Musume, and the aforementioned Yaguchi went as far as to call him the “father” of the group in an interview several years ago. If you think about it, Ishibashi really did do everything in his power to keep the group relevant, consistently having them on the show even after their record sales began to plummet a few years ago. I could be mistaken, but I’m fairly certain that they appeared on Utaban to promote every one of their singles until their 36th or 37th, which broke the streak sometime last year. The reality is that the girls haven’t drawn big ratings in years, and Ishibashi and the producers of Utaban were really doing them a huge favor by continuing to feature them on the show for as long as they did. Even last night, Ishibashi dropped a couple of borderline irrelevant Morning Musume and Country Musume jokes during an EXILE segment. Their time as powerhouses in the industry are likely done for good, but it’s kind of nice to know that people like Ishibashi are still trying to keep Morning Musume's name out there.

Back to Yaguchi, her new song is okayish at best, but she’s probably good enough as a television personality to remain in showbiz for as long as she wants. Past or present, you can’t really say the same about too many of the group’s other members.