Does Shiina have a Western equivalent?
 

Artist has to be prolific/still making music.
Makes the kind of music Shiina makes (Shiina's entire career).
Can be male or female.

First person to say 'Pink' gets shot. :)

Bjork?

^
HELL NO. Every eccentric female artist gets compared to Bjork (or Kate Bush/Tori Amos) by default, and there's about as much logic to it as comparing any all-male four piece band to Beatles or any pop-art artist to Warhol.
Shiina is one of a kind, she's just "Shiina Ringo". She's not a copycat, she's herself. I thought we all like her for that in the first place.

There is only one Apple Princess.

Yeah and anyone who is semi-electronic. The way the two are alike is they've been in tons of bands, and maybe did a bit of punk-ish music. But you could compare Ringo to her in the sense that she's changed her style.

Very early on, maybe Alantis Morisette but no, she's definitely one of a kind now. Even the Alantis part is just on certain songs. Not just because she's gone more to Jazz than Rock but because it all seems to be consistently layered and complex.

Jimmy, how did Bjork "change her style"? While there's always been a constant evolution of sound there's no stylistic shift ala rock->jazz (although that's a tad bit too simplified in Ringo's case) and nobody whines about nu-Bjork either because she's not as badass as she used to be and she doesn't beat reporters on airports anymore.
There are also SO many who "change their style" - even Madonna always reinvents herself (usually for the worse). As far as looks go that's very common with anyone who has a considerable visual aspect to their music (such as music videos), and changing your music style or evolving it is crucial if you don't want to do the same thing over and over again, but that's also not something exclusive to Bjork that others would "copy", it's natural.
I hear you, but the Bjork comparison is so tired and not true, and not just in Ringo's case, that I just go into a massive eyeroll every time I see it. Faye Wong is an even more obvious offender at that... but I guess we've agreed anyway ;)

the BlaCK shiiiiiinaaaa is BACK

to make many friendshipisms with EMFers... :wub:

(not gonna take credit for this... NipponRock basically posted a link to this artist when he reviewed SG)

Nah. Janelle Monae isn't like Shiina Ringo, IMO. She has potential, but you have to give SR a bit more credit here. It reminds me of whenever a new artist comes out that's just slightly promising, the media goes mad and goes "X IS THE NEW Y" when they end up falling short of the mark. JM just started out, AFAIK.

I like Janelle Monae though. I own a few songs. She DEFINITELY has potential.

EDIT: Or I thought I had her songs. I swear I own Metropolis: The Chase Suite.

you know who else had potential?

Tokyo Jihen.

The only reason its difficult to find an analog is because there's not many artists that go from rocking people's faces one year and being completely boring the next.

...although...the above conditions doesn't rule out Alanis...