Koda Kumi – Erokawaii

Posted on 16. Feb, 2007 @ 11:10 pm by in Language, Media, Music Views: 642

Every year an organization called U-CAN awards prizes to the most popular new Japanese vocabulary of the year.

The contest is called 流行語大賞 (ryuukougo daishou) and from 2006 one of the words was EROKAKKOI (エロカッコイイ) and the variant EROKAWAII (エロカワイイ) which were made popular by the smash-hit JPOP artist, Koda Kumi.

Surprisingly, you can actually buy Koda Kumi music on Amazon which I find is strange because there are so few Japanese artists who have their music available through the Amazon US store…

Can anyone reading this from outside of Japan tell me if they had even heard of Koda Kumi? I’m curious…

Apparently she made her break with the album Real Emotion which had songs featured in Final Fantasy X-2 on Playstation 2. One of her most popular albums is BEST ~ first things ~.

Anyway, back to the language… EROKAWAII and EROKAKKOII.

The term “ERO” comes from the English word, “Erotic”, and more or less has the same meaning. “Kawaii” is the Japanese term for “Cute”.

The combined term “Erokawaii” was first made popular when used to refer to Koda Kumi’s performance apparel, which included high amounts of skin exposure (think Britney Spears), yet with a uniquely sophisticated, yet undeniably cute style.

Similarly, the term Kakkoii in Japanese means “cool”, and EROKAKKOII has a type of “erotic cool” meaning. When used with Erokokkoii or Erokawaii, the normally negative nuance of EROI is significantly reduced, so young people will normally not have any negative intension when using this term to describe others.

A Japanese explanation of EROKAWAII and EROKAKKOII are here!

Whew…

[tags]Koda Kumi, Japanese, j-pop[/tags]

  • http://ikimashokie.nutang.com Jess

    I’ve heard of her, but I’ve never heard anything by her. I also think some of my friends were fan-ish in high school (5 years ago), because they were so into FFX-2. I had a friend who didn’t like her, because a guy she liked was so into her for doing Real Emotion.

  • TonPo

    Yes, I have heard of Koda Kumi. In fact I own one of her albums, and it turned out to not be as good as I had hoped. Stylus Magazine did a write-up on one of her albums last year as part of it’s sporadic & possibly now defunct J-Pop column. Also, she has quite a few videos available on YouTube.

  • roquesdoodle

    I’ve heard of her as well (I’m in L.A., USA) though not until recently. I’ve only recently discovered Japanese music this past year and came across her through my various searches through blogs, websites, and podcasts (it’s a crime that Japanese music is so hard to come by stateside). But after seeing her video for “Juicy,” I have become a devout fan and am in the process of building a collection of her work.

  • Nike

    Never heard of her, sorry. But, I’m not living in the USA.

  • Bruce Anderson

    Yeah, she’s pretty popular in the US among Jpop fans. At least I assume she is, because I see her stuff all over the place.

    My first introduction to her was the video for “Cutey Honey”. I couldn’t stop laughing when apropos of nothing she broke into a bump & grind in the middle of the song. It still amuses me.

    I mean, she’s pretty hot but it just seems SO ridiculous.

  • http://pixelscribbles.com/journal Heather Meadows

    I’m in the US (Augusta, Georgia, home of the late James Brown and the Masters golf tournament and nothing else), and I too first heard of her through the Cutie Honey PV. I went a little crazy when I first saw it.

    Actually, I don’t think I’ve heard anything else she’s done.

  • http://fifthdreamtoday.toastednet.org/ FifthDream

    Definitely heard of Koda Kumi. Have a bunch of her music, have seen a lot of her videos. And yes, i’m in the US. I’m not too into her, but i like a few of her songs.

    And i was wondering what to call her.. uh.. style. Friends and i like to play “spot the panties” in her videos. We should turn it into a drinking game.

  • http://www.japannewbie.com harvey

    Whoa I’m surprise so many people in the US know of Koda Kumi! I ran into some of her videos on YouTube, and yeah, that’s stuff I see around Japan every so often.

    I think… THINK anyway, the hubub is dying down in Japan now… But yeah she was huge.

JapanNewbie
    Twitter Feed

Welcome to JapanNewbie.com! My goal is to get you excited about Japan and the Japanese language. Love it! This blog has been around for more than five years now, so be sure to dig into the archives and use the search. You never know what you might find!

Recent Comments:




  • Photos on flickr