Shiina Ringo

Shiina Yumiko, more commonly known by her stage name Shiina Ringo, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, composer, and producer. She is also the founder and lead vocalist of the band Tokyo Jihen.

Discography:

Solo albums:

• Muzai Moratorium (1999)
• Shouso Strip (2000)
• Utaite Myori ~Sono Ichi~ (2002, covers album)
• Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana (2003)
• Heisei Fuuzoku (2007, soundtrack project for the film Sakuran)
• Watashi to Houden (2008, B-side compilation)
• Sanmon Gossip (2009)

Tokyo Jihen albums:

• Kyouiku (2004)
• Adult (2006)
• Variety (2007)
• Sports (2010)
• Daihakken (2011)
• color bars (2012, EP)

Shiina Ringo provides examples of the following tropes:

• Animated Music Video: The PV for "Mayonaka wa Junketsu" is completely animated apparently because at the time Shiina was pregnant.
  • The PV for "Tsugou no ii Karada" features Shiina dancing around with animate inanimate objects.
  • The PVs for both the Japanese and English versions of "Karisome Otome" are animated as well.
• Auto-Tune: The a cappella intro of "Ikiru."
• Calling Your Attacks: Shiina calls out "Gitaa!" before guitar solos in "Ringo no Uta" and "Himitsu", the opening tracks of Tokyo Jihen's first two albums.
• Cover Album: Utaite Myori ~Sono Ichi~.
• Creator Thumbprint: Symmetry. Just look at the track listings for most of her albums to see an example.
• Distinct Double Album: Shiina's cover album Utaite Myori ~Sono Ichi~ has two discs, Mori-Pact and Kame-Pact, produced by Toshiyuki Mori and Seiji Kameda respectively.
• Everything Is an Instrument: Guitarist Ukigumo is specifically credited as playing the vacuum cleaner in the intro of "Yattsuke Shigoto."
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Noudouteki Sanpunkan (literally "An Active Three Minutes") is exactly three minutes long.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: Inverted by "Izonshou," the last track on Shouso Strip. The song ends with a three-minute instrumental section, which begins to fade out over the last minute--and then the music is cut immediately, when the album reaches the 55:55 mark.
• Four Is Death: Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana is 44:44.4 long (and the last song is titled "Souretsu," translated "Funeral").
• Gratuitous English: Notably averted, partially thanks to a two-month stay in London.
  • Though her pronounciation on "Yer Blues" is still a bit off in places.
• Iconic Item: Her mole. It was still part of her character long after she got it removed.
• Loudness War: Except Muzai Moratorium, practically every album she's made (solo or with Tokyo Jihen) is brickwalled in some way or the other, with Shouso Strip being the worst offender. Considering the amount of control she has over her music and her eccentric personality, it can be argued that she does it on purpose.
• Market-Based Title: Tokyo Jihen's album titles and the band's name is translated as Tokyo Incident's on their album covers.
• New Sound Album: Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana. It performed worse than its predecessor commercially (dropping from 2.3 million to 400,000 in sales) but better critically.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Halfway through "Souretsu".
• Playing to The Fetishes: "Honnou".
• Pop Star Composer: Shiina was asked to do the music for Japanese film Sakuran
• Scatting: Shiina did this often in her earlier solo career.
• Spelling Song: Tokyo Jihen's song "F.O.U.L."
• Stage Names: Her first name, Yumiko, is changed to Ringo, which means "apple" (referring to the color her face would turn when embarrassed as a child).
  • Her stage name is now most commonly romanized as "Shiina Ringo," but it has also been officially romanized as "Sheena Ringo," "Sheena Rinngo," and "Shéna Ringö"
• Theme Naming: Each of Tokyo Jihen's albums is named after a television genre (Kyouiku means "education" and Daihakken means "discovery").
  • After announcing their final EP, color bars, they announced that they'd be disbanding.
• Translated Cover Version: On occasion, Shiina will do covers of her own songs in English e.g. "Yokushitsu" and "le salle de bain", "Kuki" and "Stem", etc.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: She's toned it down since Shouso Strip.
• Video Full of Film Clips: Shiina's PV for the song "Stem" contains clips from her short film Tanpen Kinema Hyaku-Iro Megane.
• Woman in White: The PV for "Shuraba". Also invokes Ascetic Aesthetic, as the only other colour in it is red.