Friday, May 19, 2023

Kazuki Yao -- Bad Luck September

 

I heard the title "Chōjū Kishin Dankūga"(超獣機神ダンクーガ...Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God) before but I don't recall ever seeing the 1985 anime. It provided the first starring role for veteran seiyuu and actor Kazuki Yao(矢尾一樹)as the fiery and talented pilot Shinobu Fujiwara(藤原忍).

Recently though, I heard Yao through a different mike, that of the singing variety despite the occupation of singer not being placed onto his J-Wiki profile, although a brief discography does appear near the bottom. The song he sings is "Bad Luck September" which was a track on his 2nd album "Destiny 28" from March 1988, and I think that he acquits himself well with his vocals through this slow urban ballad. I figure that the title along with the fact that September is the beginning of fall in Japan, a time of romantic heartbreak in terms of Japanese song lyrics, pretty much says it all about what is going on in the story. Masako Arikawa(有川正沙子)and Hitoshi Haba(羽場仁志)took care of words and music respectively.

"Bad Luck September" apparently is included on DJ NOTOYA's 2018 City Pop compilation "TOKYO 1980s Victor Edition (The Compilation) Boogie, Funk & Modern Soul from Japan" through services such as iTunes. However it doesn't seem to be included on the tangible CD version sold at places like Amazon.

2 comments:

  1. Kazuki is also the voice of Ninjaman in Ninja Sentai Kakuranger back in 1994.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Kyle. Thanks very much for the additional information. He's definitely got a long history in the anime industry.

      Delete

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.