Lindberg -- LITTLE WING ~ Spirit of Lindberg ~

Enjoyed the final anime session of the year with my friend today and one of the shows we've been watching over the past several weeks has been "Brave Witches" (ブレイブウィッチーズ), the spin-off of one of the more successful franchises in the last number of years, "Strike Witches" (ストライクウィッチーズ). Though the die-hard fans are probably happy with it, the show has been getting a few bombs thrown it for some surprisingly shoddy CG work that even I could pick out. Both my buddy figure that the errors will get fixed when the Blu-Rays get released in a few months.

Anyways, the ending theme for "Brave Witches" has been appropriately cheerful and uplifting. Titled "LITTLE WING ~ Spirit of Lindberg", my friend told me that it was originally by the band of the same name, and sure enough, the ending credits have vocalist Maki Watase（渡瀬マキ）and bassist Tomohisa Kawazoe（川添智久）taking care of lyrics and music respectively.

As I heard the "Brave Witches" version, I was left scratching my head and wondering when I did hear it before. But then my friend played the original version by Lindberg during the anison hour and then my memory clicked in. The arrangement was different but as soon as I heard Watase's clarion bell voice and those guitars, I remembered "LITTLE WING". What also made it difficult was that the song was never released as an official single but was the opening track on the band's 3rd album "LINDBERG III" from April 1990. This original version was used as a campaign song for a gas station commercial.

I have to say that Lindberg's original is much better than the cover for "Brave Witches" which was sung by rotating pairs of the cast. My bias is that I find Watase's vocals so nostalgically appealing and at points, she sounds just like another boomer, CHAKA of the technopop band PSY-S. As for the album "LINDBERG III", it did hit No. 1 on Oricon and was the 11th-ranking album for 1990. It also has the band's big breakthrough single, "Ima Sugu Kiss Me"（今すぐkiss me）.