Song Saturday: Anna Tsuchiya Block

How's it going lurkers? For today's Song Saturday, this is a J-Rock Block of the Japanese/Polish American soloist, actress, and "semi-retired" model, Anna Tsuchiya.

In Tokyo, Japan, Anna Tsuchiya was born on March 11, 1984 to a Japanese mother and a Polish American father from Buffalo, New York. 

When Anna and her older sister, Angela were younger, they both learned how to speak Japanese and English. 

Anna Tsuchiya can actually speak Southern Japanese dialects, along with Kyushu or Okinawa slang. At the age of only 7, her parents got divorced.

Angela, who was a former fashion model, suggested that Anna become a model, when she was 14 years old. In 1998, Tsuchiya began modeling in Kobe, Japan for magazine, Japanese Seventeen. She became high in demand for modeling, during the late '90s and early 21st Century. 

By 2002, Anna Tsuchiya did commercials for Uniqlo and Edwin Clothing. Within the last 7-8 years, I remember watching her in a commercial for Venus Jeans. 

However, in 2002, Anna supposedly retired from modeling. She grew tired of being bullied and pressured about being "overweight" as a model. 

Since 97 lbs is considered to be "overweight" in Japan for modeling, I guess those of us above 97 lbs are considered "morbidly obese."

As for Anna Tsuchiya's acting career, she is best known for her character in the 2004 Dramedy film, Kamikaze Girls. Her role as "Ichigo Shirayuri" in the movie was more of a female biker gang member turned fashion model from the countryside. 

I have never watched the Kamikaze Girls movie based on the Manga, but I am willing to bet it was highly dramatized. Every time I generally watched Japanese Live Action TV Shows and movies, they usually had this tendency to ruin them with extremely melodramatic acting, which felt so contrived. 

As a woman, who holds an Asian Studies degree (mostly in Japanese), I am really picky about most Japanese Live Action TV shows and movies. Therefore, I apologize in advance if I offended any of my Asian friends/subscribers.

I love watching Anime, listening to Japanese Music, will embrace their culture, religions, and the Japanese language (I purposely studied to become a Japanese Consecutive Translator).

So far, At Home Dad and Brother Beat were the best Japanese Dramas (J-Dramas) I've ever liked streaming because the actors and actresses were not so melodramatic, that they felt too contrived and obnoxious to watch. Well, I digress. 

Regarding Anna Tsuchiya's music career, she sang in her school choir and joined the music industry, when she was 16 years old. Anna claimed to have completely retired from entertainment, after she terminated her Japanese Seventeen contract. 

That was until the former Oblivion Dust member, K.A.Z. offered to invest in Tsuchiya's music career. By mid-2002, she and K.A.Z. formed a Punk-Rock duo called, Spin Aqua. 

Originally, Anna's musical influences went from being 1980's Pop and R&B soloists such as Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bette Midler, and Mariah Carey to '80s Rock bands such as Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses.

Several years later, Anna Tsuchiya became a soloist. On August 24, 2005, she debuted her mini-album, Taste My Beat with the single "Change Your Life." "Change Your Life" actually sounds similar to Willa Ford's song, "I Wanna Be Bad."

Meanwhile, I especially remember Anna Tsuchiya's music video for "Slap That Naughty Body." With a song title like that, who could forget it? You know what I mean?

I mostly know about Anna Tsuchiya from the Josei Anime, NANA. If you have never watched the Josei Anime and/or the live action movies for NANA, I recommend streaming them. 

Personally, I love the series. The NANA Anime has an even balance of music, comedy, romance, and of course, drama. 

Watching NANA is the equivalent of watching an animated soap opera about rival Punk and Pop bands with the protagonists (Nana Komatsu-Ichinose and Nana Oosaki) being in love with the bassists and guitarists (Ren Honjou, Takumi Ichinose, and Nobuo Terashima).  

NANA also has a paternity test arc. Nana Komatsu is "torn" between Nobuo and Takumi and because she had sex with them both; She doesn't know which sexy and talented musician impregnated her.

Like I already said, NANA is very much like a soap opera except it is in the form of Japanese animation meant for the young women demographic.

In the Japanese animation, 2 different voice actresses were used for Nana Oosaki. Romi Park voiced the protagonist in the Japanese dialogue, while Anna Tsuchiya's vocals were inserted, whenever Nana Oosaki sang. 

In this clip from NANA's 9th episode, Nana Komatsu (a.k.a. "Hachi") watches her friend/roommate (Nana Oosaki) perform with her guitarist, Nobuo Terashima. 

NANA: Anna Tsuchiya As Nana Osaki Vocalizes "Rose" (2005)

 

Nobu arrived in Tokyo and convinced Nana O. to continue singing for their band, BLAST. He supposedly wrote the song, "Rose." In the above scene, it cut to their drummer, Yasu Takagi, listening to Nana and Nobu perform "Rose" over the phone.

As a quick reminder, click on the buttons that read "Watch on YouTube." Even though Blogger and YouTube are now owned by Google, YouTube is blocking the following videos from being shown on Blogger for some bizarre and obnoxious reason. It must be a copyright issue in Japan.

Also, some of the following videos are NOT  official music videos for Anna Tsuchiya because some are singles from the NANA Anime soundtrack.

Anyway, I'll leave you with her songs, which have been featured on various albums and soundtracks for this Song Saturday.

1) Anna Tsuchiya "Rose" Strip Me? (2006)

2) Anna Tsuchiya "LUCY" Inspi' Nana [Black Stones] (2006)

3) Anna Tsuchiya "Kuroi Namida" {"Black Tears"} Inspi' Nana [Black Stones] (2006)

 

4) Anna Tsuchiya "I'm Addicted To You" Inspi' Nana [Black Stones] (2006)

 

5) Anna Tsuchiya "Without You" Inspi' Nana [Black Stones] (2007)

6) Anna Tsuchiya "Carry On" Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

7) Anna Tsuchiya "Switch On" Kamen Rider Fourze (2011)