Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Da Capo -- Sora kara Koboreta STORY (空からこぼれたSTORY)


Yup, a few days ago, I heard of the passing of Roger Moore who had his several years of playing secret agent James Bond 007. Someone once told me that a fan's very favourite Bond depended on when that fan was born, and for me that would mean my favourite 007 is Sean Connery...and that is true. Moore was more in the middle of the pack for me.


I mean, he was fine enough but I thought he just extended himself a little long in the part, especially after catching his final tilt as the British superspy, "From A View To A Kill". Plus, I thought he was a bit too arch(ed eyebrow) for my taste at times. Then again, Moore himself once countered that how could anyone take Bond all that seriously since he was the most recognized secret agent (and therefore worst secret agent) in history. Point taken, Sir Roger.

Still, there were a few of his movies as Bond which thrilled me such as "The Spy Who Loved Me" with the scene of the Lotus Esprit chase and the above opening scene of him falling seemingly forever until that Union Jack parachute opened up to the famous theme song. I heard that audiences in the UK screamed their approval at that point.


I can't remember which character I saw first portrayed by Sir Roger but I vaguely remember seeing him in black-&-white episodes of "The Saint" when he was playing the debonair Simon Templar. Man of adventure, catchy theme song, very British....I'm sure it wasn't too difficult for producers to choose him when Connery decided to finally leave the role.

Now, folks, before I completely go over the line and turn this article into the blog's first 007 entry, I would like to say that in the Japanese-dubbed version of Moore's Bond movies, he was voiced by the late seiyuu and narrator Taichiro Hirokawa(広川太一郎). Hirokawa, of course, didn't make Bond his sole bread-and-butter. He took on a lot of roles including that of another British crime-busting legend, Sherlock Holmes.


The thing is, though, that his Holmes was a dog. In fact, all of the characters in the anime "Meitantei Holmes"(名探偵ホームズ...Sherlock Hound) were dogs. If the style of the 1984 anime looks rather familiar to you, it may be because that the first handful of episodes were directed by Hayao Miyazaki(宮崎駿). The above is the English-dubbed version.


The opening theme for "Meitantei Holmes" is "Sora kara Koboreta STORY" (The Story That Spilled From The Sky), performed by the folk-pop duo Da Capo(ダ・カーポ). Man, they sure don't make anison like that anymore (I kinda miss that relaxing style). Created by lyricist Yoshiko Miura(三浦徳子)and composer Ken Sato(佐藤健), the song sounds perfect for a Miyazaki flick! Plus, the duo did their best to bring in the British flavour into the arrangement. It kinda straddles between what I would imagine the soundtrack for an animated Sherlock Holmes for kids would sound like and a bouncier contemporary beat. It's certainly different than any of the themes for "Meitantei Conan"(名探偵コナン...Case Closed).


Try as I might, I couldn't find Hirokawa voicing Moore anywhere but perhaps he is represented in this Japanese ad for the DVD-BOX set for the 007 movies.

2 comments:

  1. Good evening J-C: at the risk of going off-topic I really enjoyed this post. I'm a Sean-Connery-as-Bond also - he had that cold edge; you could easily see him as a killer.
    That was before the movies went off into gimmicks and jokes as a motif; Thunderball was the peak of the "old Bond". But that's just me - I was a Patrick McGoohan fan (he actually turned down the roles of both Bond and The Saint).
    That said, question: when a foreign (e.g. English) part is dubbed into Japanese is it "real" Japanese, or do they try and port over an accent, inflections, affectations, etc.? I would think the James Bond character (and Sherlock Holmes) was so well known that some accommodation would have to be made in the translation - any thoughts?
    Any success with Amazon.jp ? I just did a large order there and was wondering .....

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    1. Good evening, T-cat. Hope you are doing well this weekend.

      No problems about going off-topic. As you've read from above, I was getting dangerously close to doing the same thing as well. :) I liked Connery because under all that charm, he was stone cold. Ian Fleming may not have liked Sir Sean initially but I think the first Bond was pretty faithful to what Fleming had in mind...pretty much a near-psychopath. McGoohan would have been an interesting choice for 007 as well since I saw "The Prisoner". However, I guess with him playing the spy in both that show and "Secret Agent", he may have had enough of that sort of role so declined the part of 007.

      As for Japanese-dubbed versions of movies and TV shows, I'm not too sure since I haven't seen too many of those versions. However, I think they don't try to replace a British accent with, say, a Kyoto dialect. I think it's more in the attitude. From what I heard in that final video above, the seiyuu who took care of the various Bonds just seemed to deliver the lines with a certain cockiness.

      I haven't done anything with Amazon.jp recently but I may just try to do something. It's been CD Japan again for my recent shipment. Considering the kerfuffle with my Xmas shipment ending up 3 months late on regular Air Mail, I've gone with the slightly more expensive EMS (tracked). Thankfully, it has already arrived in Toronto a little less than a week after I ordered the 2 CDs. Hopefully, it will get to my door on Monday.

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