[Koda Kumi] 134th Thread ~Live Tour 2011 Dejavu~

[tenshi no hane]

Another KODA REKI part, the year 2001 this time:

Spoiler:

2001年

Pained by the gap between her dreams and reality, she put on a lot of weight!!
Everything is going wrong…

The start of her “winter years”

Directly after my debut the famous “Koda Kumi Weight Increase” incident occurred (laughs).

I weighed 45kg at my debut but I gained 8kg in less than a year!! I had been dieting furiously to achieve my dream, but when I finally debuted I carelessly thought “it’s okay now.” Letting my guard down was my biggest mistake (laughs)

Until now I’ve made it sound like everything was fun and games, but… to tell the truth, I did feel stressed and worried too.

The company spent money on me and promoted me, but my debut song didn’t become a hit and neither did any of the following singles. I felt guilty for not being able to meet my staff’s expectations. I felt so pathetic for nothing being able to get any results… And as if to add insult to injury, I had to go across the country and sing in clubs for promotion purposes. I’m grateful for that opportunity now because the experience helped me grow as an artist, but at the time it was really tough on me. I couldn’t adjust to living at night either.

Reality was nowhere near the “ideal” I had painted for myself. I was still young and eating became an outlet for my stress and worries.

At the company someone called me “one of avex’s three fatties” and it felt like people told me “lose weight, lose weight” every single day… “I want my songs to reach everyone” “I want to sing songs that’ll move lots of people”; I had those thoughts since I was little, but the stage I stood on in those clubs hardly reached anyone. There were hardly any listeners…
But every time when the thought “this isn’t how things are supposed to be” was about to break my heart, the few fans who came to see me and wrote me fan letters would support me.
----Even if it’s a small number, my songs are definitely reaching someone----
That small piece of hope supported me at that time and gave me confidence.

I often shock people by doing something unexpected, but actually, I’m quite negative. But I have always been bad at showing my sadness. I still am. I always try to be the “always positive Koda Kumi” in front of everyone. Though it doesn’t work sometimes (laughs).

If I give in to my negative feelings,
My heart will hit rock bottom.
That’s why, when I feel like I’m about to give in
I switch my negativity with positivity!!
It’s a technique I learned back then.

When it seemed like I could no longer put up with my fat self, I would sing “Jennifer Lopez~♪” to myself as I applied my make-up and I would tell myself “you’re pretty!!” in the mirror before heading on stage (laughs).

At times when I felt like giving up on my dream,
I would always tell myself:
“My dream will definitely come true!!”
“As long as I don’t give up, it will come true someday!!”

If you keep repeating positive words, your negative feelings will mysteriously turn positive!! As proof: my staff even threatened to turn the PV of COLOR OF SOUL into an anime if I didn’t lose weight, but I honestly still believed “I’m not that fat, am I?” (laughter)

[Mirrorcle Monster]

wow, that must be hard...
At least she now laughs at it

[Twinkle !]

OMMMMMMG THANK YOU SO MUCH TENSHII !!! <3

Can't wait for the rest

[Gustavopc]

Thanks for the texts! Poor little Kuu, I almost cried while reading the part in which she said few fans often appeared at the clubs, it looks like she still love her fans in that way

[happiholic★]

Thank you for the translations. They are so moving!

[tenshi no hane]

You're welcome y'all

Another one, 2002 this time:

Spoiler:

2002年

Finally standing on my own two feet and starting to walk by myself: the 2nd year after my debut

There were too many things that I didn’t know. I just stood in front of the microphone and sang my heart out.
“Whatever song is fine.”
I felt worried and lost, and had no time to think. I just desperately walked on the path that my staff had laid out for me.
That was how I spent the 1st year after my debut.

“What kind of artist do I want to be?”
“What kind of songs do I want to be send to everyone?”
In my 2nd year I slowly started thinking about what the artist Koda Kumi should be like.

What triggered this was my sister misono’s debut.

Unable to get any results after my debut, I didn’t have any confidence in myself as an artist.
“I think like this, but am I wrong?”
“I think it should be like this, but everyone says it’s that, so should it be that?”
I couldn’t express my thoughts properly.

When I saw misono at work, she openly stated her opinion. Before a performance, she would bring scraps from magazines and say “I want to wear something like this”. Then she would discuss it with her stylist and staff. She could easily say “yes” or “no” because she had a clear picture of what kind of artist she wanted to be… Seeing misono like this really inspired me.

After that moment, I studied daily. I looked at even more DVD’s from foreign artists and checked what kind of music people love. I started thinking not only about the songs that I like, but also about the songs that people want to hear.

I started thinking by myself, I finally started standing on my own feet and I started walking on my own accord… That’s how I faced my 2nd year.

I guess we should all be very grateful to misono

[Kingdom]

Thank you sooooo much tenshi for doing this! It's like we get a mini biography of her career straight from Kuu herself. I really appreciate it!

ps. they almost turned color of soul into anime if she didn't lose weight...

[toniayu]

thank you so much tenshi!!!!

[~StarCatcher~]

Thanks a lot I really enjoy this.

She shows the most personal thoughts about her carreer here!!!

[happiholic★]

Quite cute that she was inspired by misono. Sister love.

[do it again]

tenshi you are the best!

[jiarongisme]

Thanks for those translations tenshi!! I can finally understand what's going on in the book that I have.

[Asura21]

Thanks for those translations tenshi!! I can finally understand what's going on in the book that I have ²
Can't wait for the rest ²

Koda

[taskinillusion]

Originally Posted by Aitakute

question!

What happneed to Fever Live in Hall II? There was CM's and some merchendise and there was no live itself why?

Retweetingposting this because this has always confused me as well.

[Kingdom]

Originally Posted by taskinillusion

Retweetingposting this because this has always confused me as well.

It was just promo for the pachinko machines; there was no actual live planned as far as we know.

[taskinillusion]

Originally Posted by Kingdom

It was just promo for the pachinko machines; there was no actual live planned as far as we know.

Well that sucks because the promos were amazing.

[KarenPang]

NINKI index for Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 3

Albums

01 40.10 Koda Kumi - Koda Kumi Driving Hit's 3
02 34.40 Justin Bieber - Never Say Never The Remixes
03 17.60 TETSUYA KOMURO - Digitalian is eating breakfast2
04 17.00 TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE - Kodou no Himitsu
05 16.50 The View - Bread and Circuses
06 16.30 Fudanjuku - [friends]
07 16.00 Goto Maki - LOVE
08 15.90 Dohzi-T - 10th ANNIVERSARY BEST

What , Justin Biber is releasing next week ? o_O

I hope Kumi can kick his butt , it will be amusing to see the opposite happens but I rather TETSUYA KOMURO be #1 in this case if you know what I mean ~_~

[Bigtop]

???

Tetsuya Komuro and Justin Bieber?! I'm saying this could be anyone's game, we don't know how...

[Corvina]

Thank you so much tenshi!
It's great reading her own thoughst about her career, like a personal biography.

[tenshi no hane]

You're welcome, everyone

And here's 2003 and 2004 ♥

Spoiler:

2003年

When I entered my 3rd year as an artist I still didn’t have a single hit song. But that also created an opportunity for me when the producer of Final Fantasy X-2 said: “I want to use a person who isn’t famous yet, but who’s an artist of ‘the future’.” I got selected to sing the theme song for such a popular game. There’s no way this won’t attract attention!! That’s why:

---If this song doesn’t sell, it means that I don’t have what it takes to be an artist. If that happens then I’ll give up with good grace---

I vowed that to myself. The song that would decide my fate was Real Emotion.

Real Emotion placed 3rd on the Oricon charts thanks to Final Fantasy. It was my first hit song. At that time I felt: “It’s finally come!!” (laughs). “Once people will listen to my songs, I will certainly be able to keep their interest”, I had held on to that believe as I had kept running. That’s why, at the time, I held the fleeting hope that “thanks to this hit song, things will definitely change!!”

But reality differed greatly from my dreams again… Although my 2nd album ‘grow into one’ which I released directly after Real Emotion ranked 8th on the Oricon charts, the singles I released afterwards all ranked outside of the top 10. Because my hopes had been so high, the fall was really hard too.

“I can’t create a hit song on my own.”

I started thinking like that and felt depressed on a lot of days. But slowly I started to think like this:

“Someday I’ll become an artist of which people say, ‘Koda Kumi didn’t sell a lot thanks to the tie-in, but the product sold a lot thanks to Koda Kumi’!!”

Though I might not have ranked 3rd because of my own power, that 3rd place still filled me with some confidence. I decided “alright, I’ll give it my all again!!” I vowed to myself to continue to run towards my dream.


“If this song doesn’t sell well, then I’ll give up”

Spoiler:

2004年

The moment I first ran into Crazy 4 U, I felt:
“This is the song that will symbolize Koda Kumi!!”

Before now I had slowly started voicing my opinion and I had started selecting songs personally, but Crazy 4 U was the first song where I directly discussed things like “I want to wear this” “I want to dance like this” “I want to shoot the PV like this” with my staff and self-produced everything.

A sexy and cool woman.
A dazzling dance performance.
Trying out things that other artists haven’t done before.
A type of entertainment that only I can provide…

The artist that Koda Kumi should represent finally became clear.

Crazy 4 U is the song that created Koda Kumi!! When I look back at the years until 2003, I was filled with enthusiasm, but I didn’t have a clear goal. That’s why it was so hard. Maybe I didn’t get any results because the me who was singing on stage was lost?

The fog in front of my eyes cleared and the path I should walk on became visible. Singing became more fun thanks to that. Every day I felt “I’m really doing what I want to do” and in response to that feeling, my single LOVE & HONEY ranked 4th on the Oricon charts. More fans came to see my events and the amount of fan letters increased too. It started slowly but it felt like I was finally being recognized.

But I was still a “newborn” at the time and it was a period of trial and error. Although I had attracted attention with Cutie Honey, I was swamped with criticism for the clothes I wore at Music Station and when my sales dropped again just like after Real Emotion, I was crushed by the thought “again?”… Not everything was great and there were a lot of incidents that upset me. I often felt anxious and thought things like, “Is the place I am aiming for right?” “If so, am I doing something wrong?”.

Even so,
I wanted to believe in my own style
That I had taken so long to find,
No matter what other people might say.
I didn’t want to give it up.
I didn’t want to be diverted.

I usually got scared easily, but this time I pushed through my own ideas for the first time.

I could take a big new step forward in 2004. I love the person I became ♥


After 4 years “Koda Kumi” was finally born!!