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The story
News that Ken Hirai’s song “POP STAR” surpassed 100 million cumulative streams sparked a wave of nostalgia on 5ch’s Entertainment/Sports Express+ board, with users reminiscing about the 2ch VIP board of the 2000s. The discussion ranged from the song’s role as the theme for the drama “Kiken na Aneki” (Dangerous Big Sister) to the “VIP STAR” meme from back in the day and the evolution of Hirai Ken’s music.
Ken Hirai’s “POP STAR” has become his second song ever to surpass 100 million cumulative streams, following “Hitomi wo Tojite” (“Close Your Eyes”), according to the latest Oricon Weekly Streaming Ranking released on the 26th.
Weekly streams came in at 397,000 (397,011), bringing cumulative streams to 100.31 million (100,314,464).
The song was released as a CD single in October 2005. It served as the theme song for the drama “Kiken na Aneki” (“Dangerous Big Sister,” Fuji TV), starring Misaki Ito and Mirai Moriyama.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
This brought it all back lol
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oahEB2C3npk&list=RDoahEB2C3npk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUMdmlw44K544K_44O8oAcB
Exactly this
Back when VIP was actually fun
Gives me '10 years after Noriyuki Makihara' vibes
For some reason my memory's got Ken Hirai and Densha Otoko (Train Man) mixed together
His #2 is 'Rakuen' ('Paradise'), isn't it
Gnu gets streamed by foreigners too because their anime tie-ins are big overseas
That's a completely different scale from only Japanese people watching
That's why nothing besides 'Hakujitsu' and their anime theme songs really stands out
That's right around when 'Kiken na Aneha' was all the rage lol (a pun mashing up the drama's title, 'Kiken na Aneki,' with structural-scandal engineer Hidetsugu Aneha, whose case broke the same year, 2005)
Like in 'Miseguri'
Seriously gives me chills
That track gets the crowd going for real
Of his songs, 'Kimi no Suki na Toko' ('The Things I Like About You') might be my favorite
At gay karaoke parties, when someone puts on POP STAR around 5am,
everyone, riding that all-nighter high, would tear up and sing along
I cried too
Wait, is this copypasta?
I've seen this exact same text before, attached to Pizzicato Five's 'Hi no Ataru Oodori' ('The Sunny Boulevard')
Makes me wonder what other once-big artists are doing these days too
Is Kumi Koda still charting or something?
She's been steadily keeping up with concerts
Kumi Koda's the face of an ellagic acid supplement ad these days
Feels like it's only a matter of time before we get
one of those video ads going
'I put on weight after having my baby, but since this has max ellagic acid, my body's like… all snapped back into shape'
That was 2020 — she'd been on hiatus ever since the pandemic hit
She's only just quietly started getting back into it recently with a 30th-anniversary tour and stuff
What do you have to eat to end up with a face that un-Japanese and striking?
That's just what's on the family registry — doesn't mean their DNA isn't mixed
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports Express+) thread “[Oricon] Ken Hirai’s “POP STAR” Surpasses 100 Million Cumulative Streams, His Second Ever, Theme Song for Drama “Kiken na Aneki” Starring Misaki Ito & Mirai Moriyama [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★]“.
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