Hiro Shimono -- Soul Flag/Akio Otsuka -- White Collar Elegy（ホワイトカラーエレジー）

For all you slice-of-life anime fans, remember "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）from 2012? That has been one of my favourite shows since coming back to Canada, and it is the mellow anime response to the NBC long-running sitcom "Cheers" with its mix of humans and animals interacting with each other.

Well, as one YouTube commenter said it, he found the anime adaptation of "The Office". Indeed, both the anime buddy and I found it too for this season's crop, and that would be "Africa no Salaryman"（アフリカのサラリーマン...African Office Worker）. Again, we've got a whole herd of anthropomorphized animals getting in all sorts of shenanigans in and outside of the corporation. The humour here is wacky compared with the gentler if quirky version in "Shirokuma Cafe".

Not surprisingly then, the opening theme "Soul Flag" is good, loud and in-your-ears. It's performed by seiyuu Hiro Shimono（下野紘）as the oft-trouble-making toucan Ohashi (I hear he has a cousin in America who works for Kellogg's). His over-the-top performance comes off his other crazy stint as Zenitsu, one of the demon hunters in "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）, who should never be allowed to get near any Red Bull.

As I was listening to "Soul Flag" in the opening credits, that intro had me wondering if lyricist RUCCA and composer Ryo Takahashi（高橋諒）had been channeling their inner Van Halen or some other 80s rock band when they were coming up with the song. Speaking of shoutouts, those opening credits had Lion, Ohashi and Tokage dancing some steps which had become quite the thing last year, thanks to DA PUMP's "U.S.A.".

Couldn't find the full version of the ending theme, so I will go with the actual ending credits. "White Collar Elegy" by Lion himself, aka Akio Otsuka（大塚明夫）, was written by veteran lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composed by Kodai Akiba（秋葉広大）as a calming ballad when compared to "Soul Flag". It goes well with the fading scenes of the three main characters going about a normal day and late into the night at the office. I think that it's got that singing-by-the-campfire atmosphere around it as Lion strums on the guitar.

March 16 2020: Well, now I did find the full version.