August 22nd, 2005

Dear Maria,

I'm sure by now that you've heard a million and one reasons why you should give Kimeru a chance--his looks, his voice, his stage presence, his style, whatever. So hey, let's mix it up.

I love Kimeru for many of the above reasons--he's beautiful to the point of ridiculousness, his singing voice is deep and rich and b, he can rope in an entire auditorium full of fangirls (and boys ^_~) just by walking out onto the stage, and no one has ever made leather pants look so good.

But everybody loves Kime for those reasons. Why I love Kime, and what I think sets him apart from the thousand other J-Pop stars out there, is something a little different.

I love Kimeru because when he sings live, he gets so into dancing around and having fun and interacting with the audience that his singing goes completely off-key. I love Kimeru because he dances like an utter spazz, and he looks silly a lot of the time when he tries to be sexy, and he does things like knocking his bass player over while trying to grind up against him, and he forgets the words to his songs sometimes, and he has an obsession with wearing dorky hats and clapping his hands when he laughs and going, "Ey! Ey! Ey!" at the beginning of every song he sings live.

I love Kime because he's not afraid to be imperfect--he's not afraid to be enough of a real person to make mistakes, and to look like an idiot sometimes, and to maybe make even his most loyal fans wince a little at the notes he doesn't quite hit.

And so while I do appreciate Kimeru from a strictly musical sense--he has an amazing voice, and I can't think of a single song of his that hasn't completely taken over my brain--the best thing about him is that there's so much more there than just the music, and just the image. He's a weird, funny, idiosyncratic, fascinating person, and for me that just makes him all the more compelling to watch and listen to.

So hey, give Kime a chance. If nothing else, you'll at least get a laugh or two out of the experience, and a chance to marvel at the fact that so many people adore this man in spite of his many quirks, or possibly because of them.

Best wishes and thanks for reading,

Liz Starsky (USA)