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New Year's Kōhaku Singing Contest to Include Special Anime Songs Program
posted on by Karen Ressler
Japanese television network NHK announced the participants in its special program "Anime Kōhaku" on Monday. The "Anime Kōhaku" program will take place within the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Battle) singing contest program that will air on December 31.
In "Anime Kōhaku," the singers will perform anime theme songs. Like the rest of the Kōhaku Uta Gassen, "Anime Kōhaku" will have a red team (female performers) and white team (male performers). Maruko, the title character in the popular long-running anime Chibi Maruko-chan, will represent the red team and Whisper from Yōkai Watch will represent the white team.
The performances will be:
- Sailor Moon's opening theme song "Moonlight Densetsu," performed by AKB48 in Sailor Moon cosplay
- The original Pokémon anime opening theme "Mezase Pokémon Master," performed by Golden Bomber (also in cosplay), Hiromi Go, and characters such as Pikachu
- Mobile Suit Gundam's opening theme song "Tobe! Gundam," performed by TOKIO
- Neon Genesis Evangelion's opening theme song "A Cruel Angel's Thesis," performed by Sayuri Ishikawa and miwa
- Chibi Maruko-chan's first ending theme "Odoru Ponpokorin," performed by E-Girls and Sakurako Ōhara
- Yōkai Watch's first opening theme "Geragerapō no Uta," performed by its original performers King Cream Soda and Yo-Kai
- The "Tetsuwan Atom" (Astroy Boy) theme song, performed by the other "Anime Kōhaku" performers with V6 in the center
In the second half of Kōhaku Uta Gassen, singer MISIA will perform the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans ending theme song "Orphans no Namida" live from a candle-lit Nagasaki Peace Park.
The Love Live! School idol project idol group μ's, minus Yoshino Nanjō, will perform the opening theme song "Sore wa Bokutachi no Kiseki" (That Is Our Miracle) at the event with newly-animated footage.
Other performances scheduled for the program include BUMP OF CHICKEN (Tales of the Abyss, Blood Blockade Battlefront) and Superfly (Ushijima the Loan Shark live-action film), as well as 34-year-old singer Gen Hoshino. Idol group Nogizaka46 will perform for the first time.
Source: Gundam.info via Yaraon!
