On Thursday, Maki Goto and her family buried her mother after her death last Sunday night. It was good to hear that several of her ex-colleagues at H!P attended to pay their respects for her. From reports it seems that Tsunku, Mari Yaguchi, Mikitty, Makoto Ogawa, Ai-chan and Gaki-san all came and probably some more as well. Investigators are still unsure what really happened on that fateful night. I hope that Gocchin can find the strength to carry on at this difficult time.
I was reading this terrible news on Hello!Online about Maki Goto’s mother who sadly passed away on Saturday night. 55 year old Tokiko Goto fell from a 3rd floor window around 10.30pm but despite her family rushing her to hospital she died due to the severe injuries she had. Apparently Gocchin was with her mother when it happened. Alcohol was apparently involved with Tokiko having returned from her local izakaya the worse for wear. Fuji TV interviewed somebody that worked in the local izakaya and said that because she could not be with her son she wanted to kill herself. That’s not to say that what happened on Saturday night was suicide. In all fairness I think this is just a tragic accident more than anything.
Already several of her ex-colleagues have sent messages of condolences to Gocchin.
This news bulletin below is just one of several from yesterday that was covering what happened.
My heart goes out to Gocchin on her tragic loss. Rest In Peace Tokiko.
It’s time to look back at what was the best J-pop album released in 2009. For me, these are the pick of the bunch:
SWEET BLACK feat Maki Goto. It was a fantastic return for Gocchin and this album really rocks.
Stereopony – A Hydrangea Blooms. Debutants Stereopony burst onto the J-pop scene with a couple of great singles and the album delivered too.
Nana Mizuki – Ultimate Diamond
Miliyah Kato – Ring
Ayumi Hamasaki – Next Level. Ayu’s new album continued her fine tradition of producing a solid album full of top tunes.
Koda Kumi – Trick. Kumi came out with a brilliant new album. Actually this nearly came to be the best album of the year but as you’ll see somebody else pipped her to the title.
Aira Mitsuki – Plastic
Ayaka Ikio – Gossip. I was browsing through HMV in Center Gai, Shibuya during my holiday there in the Summer when I discovered this young woman.
Scandal – Best Scandal. Scandal just keeps getting better in my opinion. 2009 saw them releasing some great songs.
Hitomi – Love Life 2
Michi – Up To You. British born Michi debuted in 2008 with Promise and in 2009 came out with the superb Change The World single. Her 2nd album came out in September which contained the singles Kiss Kiss xxx and You.
Namie Amuro – Past < Future. As 2009 came to an end, Namie came out with her new album mid December which had some excellent tracks on it such as her single Wild.
So if none of them came out on top, which album was my favorite of the year?
Perfume – Triangle. The 3rd and much anticipated album from Perfume has to be the best one for me as it contains my favorite song Dream Fighter plus Love The World, Edge and One Room Disco.
This is a live version of the song Night Flight which is also on the Triangle album.
This is the latest song released by Maki Goto in collaboration with Sweet Black called Tear Drops. It’s a midtempo ballad and I think it’s fantastic. In fact, all the songs Gocchin’s released so far from AVEX have been great. What’s even better is that she’ll be releasing a new album called Sweet Black on the 16th September and it’ll contain 8 tracks. Both the Limited Edition and Regular Version will come with a DVD featuring 3 PV’s (Fly Away, Rise and with….) and mixi drama complete version (I’m not sure what this is?). The Limited Edition comes with an extra 64 page mini photobook. I’m definitely going to be buying this album.
As with all the other Gocchin videos that have popped up on Youtube, there’s a strong possibility that AVEX will delete this video soon so make the most of this while it’s still up.
EDIT: Well I did say that it wouldn’t be up for long and as expected it’s been taken down so I’ve replaced the PV now with a radio rip of the song.
This has caught me by surprise as I didn’t know this was being released digitally today coming so soon after Fly Away. This is Gocchin’s 2nd collaboration single with Sweet Black. What’s there to say about the PV other than she’s looking very hot in it and the song carries on in the vein of Fly Away – a brilliant upbeat dance track. In fact I think it’s better than her previous single.
EDIT: I’m really sorry that the PV hasn’t been working. AVEX must have ordered Daily Motion and Youtube to delete all the videos that others have uploaded but I’ve found another one. I can’t say how long this PV will work as I suspect it’ll be taken down again soon but for now enjoy the PV.
Last week I posted a preview of Gocchin’s new song and finally the full PV to accompany the song has now been posted. The more I listen to the song the more I think it’s similar to something that Koda Kumi would record which is never a bad thing.
EDIT: AVEX seems to have deleted all PV’s of Maki’s last 2 singles uploaded by other users except for their own so I’m afraid I can only give you a link to Youtube as embedding has been disabled. Sorry.
Gocchin’s fans have waited and waited for any news on when she’ll release any new material but wait no longer. She’s back with a new dance single called Fly Away and it’ll be released on the 21st January. It’s a collaboration between Goto and a young female author. The bad news is that it’ll only be sold digitally but there’s a chance it could come out on CD. I guess it depends on how well it sells digitally. The song is being released as SWEET BLACK feat Maki Goto. SWEET BLACK is a Mixi sponsored cross media project that both Goto and this young author are participating in.
There’s a 2 minute preview video of Fly Away below. I like the song and it’s so nice to see Gocchin back doing what she does best.
It’s been quite a while since former H!P singer Maki Goto released anything of significance and here we are nearing the end of 2008 with still no news if she’ll be putting out an album or single anytime soon. Gocchin signed up with AVEX’s Rhythm Zone label in June and I really thought by now that a new single would have been out.
Maki Goto
The only new material we’ve heard is the song she wrote and debuted at this Summer’s a-nation tour called Hear Me. You can hear the track on Youtube but it’s poor quality. The song itself sounds fantastic and I would like to see it being released soon. If it’s any indication of what we’re expected to hear from her in the future then I’m excited. It carries on in the same vein somewhat as her last album with H!P – How To Use Sexy which I thought was her best album to date. The semi-urban feel to the album suited her and I’m happy that she’s may be moving onto a more mature r’n’b style like her stablemate Koda Kumi. It’s just a shame that the crowd on the a-nation tour weren’t too enthusiastic about her but it’ll change over time. They’ve just got to get over the fact that she’s not the idol from Morning Musume anymore. She’s got a new music identity, writes her own stuff and wants to go in a new direction musicwise. I just hope her new material will win over the fans as I’d love to see her be successful with AVEX.
I’m sure in early 2009 there’ll be an announcement regarding something being released by her but for now all we’ve got is her performance on the a-nation tour on DVD.
IXA Ready - Fist On! 