“Koda Kumi’s 40th CD single features a jam packed CD+DVD release that includes four tracks with various styles which include a collaboration with pop diva Fergie and reggae artist Pushim.  Five videos which include two music videos, two making of videos and a live concert video.  Worth your money and a CD single worth owning!”

ARTIST: 倖田來未 (Koda Kumi)

CD SINGLE: Moon

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #:  RZCD-45934/B

DURATION: 43:27

RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2008

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

1. Moon Crying
2. That Ain’t Cool
3. Once Again
4. Lady Go!
5. Moon Crying (Piano Version)
6. Moon Crying (Instrumental)
7. That Ain’t Cool (Instrumental)
8. Once Again (Instrumental)
9. Lady Go! (Instrumental)

DVD: Region 2, 4:3, Duration: 20 minutes

1. Moon Crying - Music Video-
2. That Ain’t Cool - Koda Kumi feat. Fergie - Music Video -
3. Moon Crying - Making Video -
4. That Ain’t Cool - Koda Kumi feat. Fergie - Making Video -
5. Moon Crying from Love Tour 2008 - Kingdom - May 15, 2008

“Moon”, Koda Kumi’s 40th CD single, marked the return of the pop diva after her controversial statements that women who reach the age 35, their amniotic fluid is rotten and literally pissed off a lot of women and advertisers that avex/rhythm zone had to discipline the music artist by canceling any promotions of her album “Kingdom” and literally, she had several months to reflect on her career.

And when she did come back, fans received a teary eye apology and hope that the singer will not repeat her mistake in the near future.  So, fortunately, when she came back, she had her concert tour for “Kingdom” and this CD single marked a new TV drama theme song, a collaboration with American pop diva Fergie and also a collaboration with Japanese reggae artist Pushim.

The first track “Moon Crying” is a beautiful piano-based song written by Kumi, music by Furuse Miwa and a beautiful piano arrangement by Abe June.  The beautiful ballad goes from a piano-based track to incorporate strings, guitar and a groovy beat.  Overall, a beautiful ballad which the lyrics are just quite touching.  At first I interpreted as a person who couldn’t convey her feelings to the person that she loved but after watching the music video, the song turned out to be quite sad and tragic and becoming a song of words you wanted to convey to a person you love but it was too late.

The second track “That Ain’t Cool” features a collaboration with Fergie (Stacey Ferguson) and features a song written by Koda Kumi, Stacey Ferguson and Keith Harris.  Drum programming and keyboards are provided by Keith Harris.  The song features primarily Fergie’s vocals for the chorus and even a rap solo.  Kumi does have her own rap verse but Fergie is the most dominant vocals on this track.

The third track “Once Again” features a reggae-inspired track and written by Japanese reggae artist Pushim and features music by Pushim and Shunya Mori.  Mori provides drums, keyboards and programming for the overall track and strings are provided by Gen Ittetsu Strings.  Overall, a cool, groovy track.  Well-sung by Koda (especially backgrounds by Pushim) and a pretty cool collaboration between the two artists.

The fourth track “Lady Go!” is a dance club track featuring lyrics by Koda Kumi and music by Morimoto Kousuke and arrangement by Tanaka Yusuke.  Morimoto’s work is known for music produced for Koda Kumi, SMAP, KAT-TUN, Takky and Tsubasa.  As well as his work with “Gundam Evolve”.

The fifth track which is included on the CD+DVD version is a piano version of “Moon Crying”.

The remaining four other tracks are the instrumental versions of the first four songs.

As for the DVD, if there is one thing that I enjoy about Koda Kumi music videos is the fact that many of the are high quality and very well done.

The first music video is for “Moon Crying” which is a tragic music video directed by Kubo Shigeaki and stars Koda Kumi and Takezai Terunosuke.  This music video is another video that showcases her acting talents, in this case, the emotional side.

The music video starts of with Koda Kumi waking up to a note for her to wear a yellow dress at a party.  But obviously she wasn’t too happy with the dress and came wearing a sexy pink dress which ticks off her boyfriend.  The scene cuts to Koda sitting at a restaurant thinking about that day and sending a text message to her boyfriend and starts crying.

Why, she is crying?  You learn that the boyfriend died and you just see how much pain she’s truly in and reading text messages that she sends to her deceased boyfriend.  It’s just a painful scene and shows her entering his apartment one last time and seeing the yellow dress that she didn’t want to wear.

But as the moonlight brightens the apartment, she replays the moment in her head as she wears the yellow dress and when the room gets dark again, she can’t help but start crying.  As the clouds leave the moon, the moonlight shines into the fish aquarium where she sees her boyfriend again on the opposite end and apologizes to him and he smiles at her as the moonlight disappears.  Such a touching music video!

The second music video features Koda Kumi and Fergie together for “That Ain’t Cool” and directing the video is Fergie’s music video director Fatima Robinson featuring the two women standing back-to-back in sexy outfits (or trashy depending on the viewer) and then focusing on the women and making them looking sexy in tight outfits.  Unfortunately, Fergie is the one that stands out in this video because the vocals are mainly her and she’s wearing tight-ass clothing that your eyes just focus on her.  Or perhaps its just my eyes.

The third music video is a brief making of video for “Moon Crying” and the fourth music video features Koda Kumi shopping and spending time at the studio.  Obviously, you can tell that she enjoyed her time and also it was cool to get Fergie, stylist Sean Patterson and director Fatima Robinson giving their impressions on Kumi.  The three women really gelled together and Fergie was definitely digging the kimono collection (from Kumi’s own kimono fashion line) gifts from Kumi.

And the final fifth music video featured a live performance by Kumi of “Moon Crying” in front of thousands of people.   Well-sung and a great addition to an already packed CD+DVD release.

As for the CD insert, the booklet features lyrics for each track and production credits.  Also, pictures of Koda Kumi.  Included is a mini-flyer promoting Rhythm Zone releases for June 2008 and another mini-flyer promoting Koda Kumi’s official mobile fanclub Playroom.

I was pretty impressed by this CD single release.  Five tracks on one CD single and the four main tracks feature different styles of music with the first track being a beautiful ballad, the second track being R&B-inspired, third track being a reggae track and the fourth featuring a dance club sound.

Also, the CD single benefits from the various collaborations with musical artists such as Fergie, Pushim and overall, a very cool CD single.

With a total of nine tracks for the CD single portion and five videos for the DVD portion, you really can’t go wrong with this CD single if you are a Koda Kumi fan.  I felt that you get your money’s worth with the CD+DVD. A lot of content and it’s definitely a solid CD single worth owning!

Check out more of our reviews at J!-ENT’s World Groove

Buy this CD Single:

Moon [CD+DVD/Jacket A ]

Kumi Koda

Japantoday.com reported, “The Japan Jeans Association on Monday announced this year’s Best Jeanists, selecting singer Kumi Koda, 25, KAT-TUN member Kazuya Kamenashi, 22, and three other winners. Beijing Olympic fencing silver medalist Yuki Ota, 22, also won a Best Jeanist award in the association’s special section. Koda (for best overalls) and Kamenashi won the award for the third successive year.”

“Asked about his selection, Ota said, “Up until now, I never thought the award had anything to do with my life. I feel like it’s not right for me to be here today. Although I usually wear a sweatsuit, I will try jeans more often.” Kamenashi said of Ota: “I would like him to teach me fencing and we can talk about jeans together.” Koda added that she would like to coordinate clothes for Ota.”

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Here is the new music video featuring Koda Kumi and FERGIE titled “That Ain’t Cool”. Although it features FERGIE, interesting thing is the vocals are mostly FERGIE.

DISCLAIMER: youtube.com videos are courtesy of youtube and are not on J!-ENT servers

JapanToday.com reported, “Kirin Brewery Corp has canceled its contract with singer Kumi Koda, 25, for its TV ad for the alcoholic drink “Hyoketsu,” and will instead use actress Kyoko Fukada, 25.”

“A Kirin spokesman said: “The contract with her was originally valid until this spring, and we have decided not to renew it.” Kirin has already suspended its earlier TV ads featuring Koda ever since she told a radio program on Jan 30 that “women over 35 had ‘rotten’ fluid in their wombs.”

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Japantoday.com reported, “P&G said on its official website that it has started to use singer Kumi Koda, 25, for TV ads of its shavers for women again. Koda, who had suspended her activities since she told a radio program on Jan 30 that “women over 35 had ‘rotten’ fluid in their wombs,” started a nationwide tour in April 12.”

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JapanToday.com reported, “Singer Kumi Koda, 25, returned from a self-imposed exile at a concert in Shizuoka on Saturday. It was her first public performance since she told a radio program on Jan 30 that “women over 35 had ‘rotten’ fluid in their wombs.“

“After Koda made the offending remarks, her agency, Avex Entertainment, announced a halt to promotional activities for her latest album, “Kingdom,” which was released at the end of January. Kose Corp, Japan’s third-ranked cosmetics maker, halted online advertisements for its Visee brand, one of its major lineups, which features the pop star.”

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Mainichi Daily News reported, “Female singer Kumi Koda’s apology over her bizarre comment about “rotten” fluid in the uteruses of 30-something women snared attention in the Mainichi’s Japanese-language entertainment news during the week between Feb. 2 and 8, along with news on prizewinning and birthday celebrities.”"On Thursday, 25-year-old Koda appeared in a Fuji TV news program and made a tearful apology, saying, “I think the way I spoke was really not good … I’m sorry.” The apology followed an earlier, unusual comment that a woman’s amniotic fluid — the intrauterine liquid in which a fetus lives until birth - goes “rotten” once she hits 35 years of age.”

“Koda appeared wearing a black suit, with a haggard expression on her face. Fuji TV officials said the interview with Koda was conducted the previous day at the company over a period of one hour.”

“Singer Ami Suzuki, who belongs to the same record company as Koda, also featured in the entertainment news as she held a countdown on Friday evening to mark her 26th birthday on Saturday.”

“Speaking on her goals after turning 26, she said, “I want to transform myself into a beautiful woman and go on a good date. My type is someone like (veteran comedian) Ken Shimura. If he proposed to me I can’t say how things might turn out.”

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Mainichi Daily News reported, “Popular singer Kumi Koda has apologized for a controversial remark she made in which she said that a woman’s amnion fluid rots once she hits 35 years of age.”"Those were careless remarks. I want to apologize to those who were hurt by my words,” Koda said in tears during a news program broadcast by Fuji Television Network on Thursday.”

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It’s Wednesday and which artist or band took the #1 position on the Oricon Daily Charts today?

NOTE:  Koda Kumi continues to remain at the #1 position, great showing for DOUBLE and BRAHMAN,  Good showing for F4 at the top 5 and Kobukuro continues to remain strong in the top 10.

1. Koda Kumi - Kingdom
2. DOUBLE - 10 YEARS BEST WE R&B
3. BRAHMAN - Antinomy
4. HOME MADE Kazoku - ~Heartful Best Songs~ “Thank You!!”
5. F4 - Waiting for you
6. Kobukuro - 5296
7. Ongaku Gatas - 1st GOODSAL
8. Simple Plan - Simple Plan 3
9. Tsubakiya Shijuso - TOKYO CITY RHAPSODY
10. Suzuki Ami - DOLCE

Koda Kumi (25) will be facing several repercussions from her comment made on a radio show on Sunday.

During the radio program “All Night Nippon”, Koda jokingly talked about her manager and how he and his wife should have a baby now because at 35, the women’s amniotic fluid in their wombs becomes rotten.

Women furious about the comments started to have online campaigns for people to put pressure on advertisers that have featured Koda Kumi and it seems to have worked.

Koda’s Visee commercial was pulled by Kose and today her Kirin “Chu-Hi” commercial was discontinued.

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