Comments on: Kumi Koda’s Tearful Appology

By: Most Popular News of 2008 (Yahoo! Japan) « Kitsune’s Thoughts

Most Popular News of 2008 (Yahoo! Japan) « Kitsune’s Thoughts — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:21:27 +0000

[...] Kumi Koda tearfully speaks from her heart [...]

By: Yahoo Japan!: The 20 most clicked stories for 2008! | Cartoon Leap Anime Blog

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:55:49 +0000

[...] Kumi Koda tearfully speaks from her heart [...]

By: mai

mai — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:13:07 +0000

I think she has spoken
a wrong sayings..
but it is forgivable
because alot of people
are saying that, and
she was being honest to
everyone
she did not tri to hide
what she thinks.
and she says sorry for it
thats not the problem
anymore.

By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:22:50 +0000

i would guess that she wants to make herself sound young and immature.
it’s a way of humiliating yourself?
to say well i acted this way and i shouldn’t have, and thus speaking in the third person to show how much she’s reprimanding herself.
if that made any sense.

By: Viet

Viet — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:37:14 +0000

I don’t think her comment was that offensive either. More like uneducated, the way she put it.

By: The Overthinker

The Overthinker — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:40:06 +0000

“She’s not entirely wrong.”

That’s probably why so much fuss….

By: Alec

Alec — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:09:42 +0000

Agree with bkzk about why she might’ve referred to herself in the 3rd person. Her real name is Kumiko Koda but her stage name is Kumi Koda (with different kanji for her surname). She referred to Kumi Koda so I think she was distancing herself from the artist who is a role model with fans and influence.

By: Lana

Lana — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:09:06 +0000

Gosh, that was such a dumb comment!

By: happy foriegner

happy foriegner — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:06:03 +0000

The longer a woman waits to have children, the greater the probability of health issues both for her and for her child. She’s not entirely wrong.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:09:53 +0000

Even though her comment about older women and their amnitioc fluid rotting wasn’t smart but I think that press shouldn’t have made it a big of a deal.What more do they want from Kumi Koda I mean she did opologize for what she said.

By: Darien Shields

Darien Shields — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:11:04 +0000

Ah, too true. I guess I’m just a little biased because I like the intro on RE: Cutie Honey.

By: Darien Shields

Darien Shields — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:10:21 +0000

I doubt she was “made” to apologise by her agent that much- the last article made it sound like she put a pretty bad hit to her career, so I’d imagine she herself desperately wants to retract what she said. Although it’s probably the case that her agent arranged just *how* she should apologise, etc. etc. Too bad her agent couldn’t have told her in the first place not to put her foot in her mouth.

By: annie

annie — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:08:00 +0000

What she said wasn’t that offensive.

By: shazzb0t

shazzb0t — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:04:57 +0000

Hillary Clinton would be proud.. She looks even worse without all that blasted make up on.

By: The Overthinker

The Overthinker — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:59:50 +0000

Her comments were polite, but not (as others have noted) overly ornately formally polite. For the most part, it seemed her comments were barely coherent sentences, frankly. It’s not just about how many ‘desu’s you throw out there (and ‘desu’ isn’t really keigo as such), but I think in this case she was aiming (was told to aim) for “sincerity”. Which means making it look from the heart, not rehearsed or calculating. And not overly intelligent, perhaps….

By: Un posto dove appendere il cappello » Blog Archive » Kumi Koda si pente, i corvi di Kyoto, no

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:56:04 +0000

[...] insieme al luzzattiano “Pensa a Giuliano Ferrara dentro una vasca da bagno“, Kumi va in tivu vestita come se avesse un’udienza col Papa. Lascia nel cassetto le sue unghie da Cat Woman, [...]

By: zaciroth

zaciroth — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:21:04 +0000

I think her use of Keigo was good. Because she sounded down to earth. And she isn’t a large political or medical person so the use of Keigo in something like this wouldn’t be required. To me this seemed pretty from the heart.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:08:35 +0000

My god, she has all the mannerisms and panache of a chuugakusei being shamed by the kocho-sensei. surely she’s not THAT poor at speaking, regardless of the humiliating press she’s gotten lately.

By: Claytonian

Claytonian — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:40:37 +0000

Good point, no de is def a little more polite. It just seemed like maybe she was avoiding masu form for some odd reason. I know I add no de to my sentences as a trick when I forget to do things properly…
I only remember her saying one desu, but there may be more…

By: bkzk

bkzk — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:24:29 +0000

By the way, the lack of keigo made it sound more sincere to me – unlike the geezers we see pretty much every week, doing their routine 45 degree saikeirei bow and apologizing in perfect keigo. Then again, speaking in a semi-casual way and doing a long interview was probably a conscious choice (I’m thinking Erika Sawajiri).

Regarding to her referring to herself in the third person, I didn’t interpret that as acting cute (maybe if she’d done it by first name only). To me, it sounded like she was trying to avoid responsibility by distancing the person Kumi Koda from the artist.

By: bkzk

bkzk — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:06:12 +0000

It’s from an interview, not a shazaikai, which explains all the unfinished sentences, corrections and lack of keigo. I wouldn’t say her apology is particularly carefully worded.

Anyways, the OL look is so much better than her usual outfits (;ﾟ∀ﾟ) No guy likes Japanese nail art!

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:50:14 +0000

Why did I watch this? I need to remember to avoid watching interviews with pop stars.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:27:14 +0000

This is interesting. Mainly because she was probably made to apologize by her publicity agent so she would not get any bad press ~~~

I speak a pretty good amount of Japanese and as far as I know, she was using some amount of keigo. Using a lot more would almost be expressing sarcasm …

i.e. saying “no de” instead of desu kara, or da kara; saying sore de instead of soshite, etc, and ending things politely.

thanks for sharing it!

By: Garrett

Garrett — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:57:04 +0000

Darien, if there were no obsession with what pop stars said, what would TV news shows do?

I agree with you, but I’d amend your comments. She’s not paid to sing, much less sing well. She’s paid to look good on camera (and to be a little bit flaky.)

By: Darien Shields

Darien Shields — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:57:23 +0000

While her comment is pretty dumb, I think people should endeavour to keep perspective. She’s just a musician. She’s paid to sing, and sing good. She’s not the prime minister or anything, so being spectacularly uninformed doesn’t make her any worse at her job. She still sings pretty good. From the two news posts on the subject, it sounds like she’s suffered enough- for one silly little comment she’s dealt her career a crippling blow.

I’m more curious as to how she came around to this point of view. “What are they teaching kids in school these days?!”

… oh, wait, I think she’s older than I am, drat.

By: OsakaGuy

OsakaGuy — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 04:28:20 +0000

彼女の脳みそが腐っている。