hitomi (32) made news in June announcing her shotgun marriage (after divorcing six months earlier) and that she is pregnant.

The singer performed at the avex summer music festival a-nation on August 30th sporting a maternity dress, a wedding adress said that she will have her honeymoon in Athens, Greece in October and that told the audience that she has a baby in her stomach and that means she has twice as much energy for her performance.

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Image courtesy of Sankei Sports

Mainichi Daily News reported, “Popular J-pop singer hitomi got remarried to actor Masayoshi Haneda on June 30, her talent agency said Friday. The 32-year-old hitomi is four months pregnant with Haneda’s baby.”

“I’m blessed with a new life now. I’m surprised at myself, and at the same time, I’m very happy,” she commented Friday in her blog.

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ARTISTS: Various

ALBUM TITLE: avex dance matrix ‘95 Live

CATALOG #: AVCD-11357/B

DURATION: (DISC 1) DISCO WEEK in VELFARRE: 1:00:51 (DISC2) TK DANCE CAMP: 1:11:49

RELEASED on December 14, 1995

DISCO WEEK in VELFARRE

1. Samantha Gilles - Here Comes the Night
2. Maio & CO - Dark in the Night
3. METAL MIND MANIACS - F.A.Y.
4. Cappella - Move It Up
5. Youco Kaido - Every Wednesday
6. The Secret Life - I Want You
7. Nicki French - Total Eclipse of the Heart
8. Michael Fortunati - Bany Break It Up!
9. EUROGROOVE - Dive to PAradise
10. m.c.A*T - Kaze ni Sakebu - Energy Guy no Theme
11. Technotronic Feat. Ya Kid K - Move it to the Rhythm
12. Jaki Graham - Style
13. Bananarama - I Found Love
14. John Robinson - Everybody

TK DANCE CAMP

1. TRF - masquerade
2. TRF - survival dance~no no cry more~
3. hitomi - GO TO THE TOP
4. Amuro Namie with SUPER MONKEYS - TRY ME ~ Watashi wo Shinjite~
5. Amuro Namie - Taiyou no Season
6. Suirei - Koi wo surutabini kizu tsuki yasuku
7. globe - Joy to the love (globe)
8. Sakamoto Ryuichi - VOLTEX OF LOVE
9. TRF - CRAZY GONNA CRAZY
10. TRF - Overnight Sensation
11. H Jungle with T - GOING GOING HOME
12. H Jungle with T - WOW WOW WAR TONIGHT ~toki ni wa okose yo MUUVUMEN’TO~

In 1995, there were two live events which brought many artists together courtesy of the avex trax label. The first was “DISCO WEEK in VELFARRE” which was promoting the club music scene of the avex-owned dance night club (which shut down on New Year’s Day 2007) and the other was the outdoor concert “TK DANCE CAMP” (a pre-cursor to avex’s a-nation Summer live event) celebrating the emerging popularity of the TK family ala popular producer and musician Komuro Tetsuya.

The album “Avex Dance Matrix ‘95 Live” would feature a total of two discs and also two VHS releases.

The DISCO WEEK in VELFARRE would feature the type of groups that would perform at VELFARRE and some songs that would remind me of the early Juliana’s Tokyo years in the early 90’s with signficant songs such as METAL MIND MANIACS “F.A.Y.” (aka Fuck All Y’all) and Nicki French’s club revival with her classic hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. And of course, Technotronic feat. Ya Ki K with “Move It To the Rhythm”.

It was great to hear the crowd cheering the artist at VELFARRE and you can tell the club was full of energy. What is missing though on the CD is on the LaserDisc with the debut performance of MAX (Formerly the SUPER MONKEYS) and a cool performance by (the then spelled in lower case) trf. But they do have m.c.A*T’ featured and also a performance by TK’s EUROGROOVE group.

But for me, the disc that I have listened to and truly enjoyed was the “TK DANCE CAMP”. For me, avex trax in the mid-90’s was all about the emerging TK family.

During this time, TRF was the top group and establishing avex trax as a record label. Komuro Tetsuya then would produce the music for teen idol Amuro Namie which would dominate the charts and break records from 1995-1998. globe would be the group that would come out in the forefront and feature Komuro Tetsuya along with KEIKO and Marc Panther and hitomi would be the fashion model that Komuro Tetsuya was bringing to the masses as a singer. Of course, part of the TK mystique was taking someone who can’t sing but making them popular and through a dare, he did it with DOWNTOWN comedian (and “HEY! HEY! HEY! Music Champ host) Hamada Masatoshi (aka Hama-chan) which he took the comedian to the top of the charts with “WOW WOW WAR TONIGHT”.

But part of the mystique at that time was that mega-producer mystique of Komuro Tetsuya and what he had accomplished at that time before going to the next phase of the music industry in 1999 with the likes of pop stars such as Utada Hikaru and Hamasaki Ayumi.

But I still listen to this CD because you can hear the crowd as they were excited by these groups and artist. It was definitely a golden time for the J-Pop fan during that time and something I will never forget. One of the few live CD’s featuring various artists from the avex trax label and this album was worth owning for this disc alone.

The CD insert features track listings for both discs and pictures from the live performance.

“avex dance matrix ‘95 Live” is one of those live CD’s that I will probably treasure, mainly for the nostalgic factor of the mid-90’s. As a big trf fan back then, to see how the group exploded into popularity was phenomenal. To see how globe would then exploded into the music scene and dominate the charts and of course, Amuro Namie winning the hearts for her music and dance and hitomi winning the hearts of fans by her sexiness, it was a charming time.

But the best part of me was two tracks. When Amuro Namie and the Super Monkeys performed “TRY ME” and got the crowd going like crazy and the final track where H Jungle with T performed “WOW WAR TONIGHT” and everyone from the TK family would join on stage with the dancers and support Hama-chan as he was tired, sweaty and basically just screaming the lyrics and the other performers just singing and dancing along on stage with him. That was incredible.

Definitely a golden year for J-Pop if you were a TK fan.

In a recent column of Televiews for the Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn wrote, “Yes, that’s Toshiyuki Nishida sporting a long, straggly gray pony tail and a cowboy hat but we are not out west somewhere. The morning serial from western Japan, Chiritotechin, with its tongue twister title and tepid sub 20 percent ratings, has finally departed.”

“Its replacement Hitomi (Mondays-Saturdays, 8:15 a.m., NHK-G or 7:45 a.m., BS-2) is the story of reclaiming and rebuilding a family on the reclaimed island of Tsukishima in Tokyo Bay. We are back in good old down home shitamachi now, where, as the TV stereotypes go, the ninjo (warm human feeling) is thicker than the humidity.”

“While Katsutaro (Nishida) may look like shitamachi’s answer to country singer Willie Nelson, he will have to change his tune if he is to win back his estranged daughter Momoko (Naoko Iijima).”

“Seventeen years have passed since father and daughter had a major falling out. They haven’t spoken since, although Momoko’s mother did travel north to Sapporo for secret annual visits. Now she has died suddenly and the divorced Momoko and her daughter, aspiring dancer Hitomi, 20, (Nana Eikura), head south for the funeral. Eventually, they will stay on to help Dad with the three foster kids he has taken in–one abandoned, one abused and one neglected. Reuniting the family will not be easy, but Hitomi, who quelled a major battle between her mother and grandfather at the end of episode one by yelling “shut up” in English, looks like a heroine with the moxy to do the job. She’ll have the help of a strong supporting cast including veteran character actress Kin Sugai as Ume. Worth checking out.”

Mainichi Daily News reported, “Viewer ratings for the first episode of the new morning NHK drama “Hitomi,” which started Monday, sank to the second-lowest figure ever for the Kanto region, research figures have shown.”

“In the Kanto region, viewer ratings for the first episode of the drama hit only 16.5 percent, ratings firm Video Research said.”

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ARTIST: hitomi

ALBUM: peace

LABEL: LOVE LIFE

CATALOG #: avcd-23425~7

DURATION: [CD 1: 60 minutes], [CD2: 48.5 minutes], [CD3: 60 minutes]

RELEASED on December 5, 2007

Official Website

CD 1:

1. Let’s Play Winter
2. WE ARE “LONELY GIRL”
3. CANDY GIRL
4. GO TO THE TOP
5. Sexy
6. In the future
7. by myself
8. BUSY NOW
9. problem
10. PRETTY EYES
11. Sora
12. Progress
13. Someday

CD 2:

1. Kimi no Tonari
2. WISH
3. MADE TO BE IN LOVE
4. there is…
5. taion
6. LOVE 2000
7. MARIA
8. Kimi ni KISS
9. INNER CHILD
10. IS IT YOU!

CD 3:

1. I am
2. innocence
3. SAMURAI DRIVE
4. Understanding
5. flow
6. BLADE RUNNER
7. hikari
8. Kokoro no tabibito
9. SPEED*STAR
10. Japanese girl
11. Love Angel
12. CRA”G”Y*MAMA
13. GO MY WAY
14. Ai no Kotoba

I remember the day that hitomi debuted back in 1994. I was like the ultimate fan boy of hitomi, buying all her CD singles and albums and I just remember that one commercial when she was driving with Komuro Tetsuya (TK) in a limo and she came out of the car and I was like “Wow! She’s hot!”.

Of course, I never expected much of her in the beginning, model turned vocalist. Hot body that is emphasized quite a bit in her music videos and I remember her performing at TK Dance Clamp in 1995 performing “WE ARE “LONELY GIRL” but when the music video for “CANDY GIRL” came out, the song went through the roof. Heck, it was even a blast to hear other artists such as Amuro Namie singing it on the karaoke tv show “The Yorumo Hit Parade”.

But then I started to watch this singer go from sex kitten of the TK family to improving her talent as a musician. Playing a guitar and also noticed an improvement with her onstage performance and even with her vocals as the years progressed.

Within the last thirteen years, I have seen multiple collaborations with undergroup musicians to hip hop artists and rock bands to not too long ago with reggae duo MEGARYU.

Within that thirteen years, she has improved herself as a person not wanting to be the model with a face but to go back to college and graduate. Having twins (a boy and girl) and to be in charge of her own record label “LOVE LIFE” on her 10th Anniversary with Avex.

And in 2006, although having released the album “Love Concent”, hitomi was busy with promotion of her film “Akumu Tantei” and on stage for “Waiting for the Sun”, fans have been clamoring for something new from the performer.

Here were are in December 2007 with “peace”, a three-disc collection of all of hitomi’s 37 songs from CD singles beginning from “Let’s Play Winter” (November 28, 1994) all the way to “Ai no Kotoba” (September 13, 2006).

But there are rumors running around that this may be the final release for hitomi and that the singer is retiring. And if that is the case, “peace” is truly the definitive hitomi collection released.

You get every song that she has released as a CD single and unlike other compilations where they tend to split the releases into several volumes, fortunately for fans, you get it all on this three-disc release.

Also, released on the same day is a special limited edition release which includes a DVD that features ALL music videos by hitomi including concert footage and more. I wish I can comment on the DVD but I am reviewing the regular three-disc release.

As for the CD insert, the insert features a booklet with all lyrics of all songs and a few photos of hitomi.

What can I say about hitomi, she has had an awesome 13 years and still looks as hot now as when she debuted back in 1994. Her vocals have improved throughout the years and if it’s really the end of her run as a singer (which I hope is not true), “peace” makes a fitting finale if that is the case.

You really can’t go wrong with “peace” because you get all of her CD single releases in one album as opposed to a “vol. 1″ and a “vol. 2″ which is typically the case for a lot of Japanese music artists.

When it comes to hitomi, I can look back at the beginning for J!-ENT and how her music was a big part of my life and the fact that I featured her so much during the early and mid-90’s on the Neo-Tokyo 2099 BBS and on the J!-ENT website for years and listening to all the music is just very nostalgic for me and all in all, there is just no way you can’t fault this release.

If you are a hitomi fan or heard and liked “I am” from the anime series “Inuyasha” or liked her song “Kimi no Tonari” from the “Persona 2: Innocent Sin” video game or have been interested in her music period, this album is an easy recommend from me.

Highly recommended for the hitomi music lover!