Kana Hanazawa -- Yarenno? Endless（やれんの？エンドレス）

 

Well, as I stated in my previous article, I got to see some new anime for the first time in a long while and the examples happen to be from the spring season this year which is now crossing the finish line. One such show is "Ninja to Koroshiya no Futari Gurashi"（忍者と殺し屋のふたりぐらし...A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof） , or NinKoro for short, which I consider to be one of those odd-couple anime comedies. The couple here consists of a cute, well-meaning but bumbling ninja warrior and a a stoic and manipulative high school assassin who is brutally effective at her job but cleaning up after the fact is something that she has problems with. 

Although seiyuu Haruna Mikawa（三川華月）as the assassin Satoko is unknown to me, her co-star as ninja Konoha is very familiar. I haven't heard from Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）in a couple of years, so it's nice to see that she's still active. And Satoko's victims are being played by some major A-lister seiyuu; they are quickly dispatched with a brevity that reminds me of all of those ill-fated special guest stars on the short-lived sitcom "Police Squad".

Hanazawa is also responsible for the opening theme "Yarenno? Endless" (Shall We Do It? Endless) which was written by Hidefumi Kenmochi（ケンモチヒデフミ）of Suiyoubi no Campanella（水曜日のカンパネラ）fame and composed by Taku Inoue（井上拓）. Although I don't think the song will ever approach my top ten anison, it's still catchy enough in a jangly way.

Teresa Teng -- Furusato wa Doko desu ka（ふるさとはどこですか）

 

I was out for most of the day today with my anime buddy in a special one-off return to those old biweekly anime-and-meal Sundays that we used to have back in the 2010s. So we got to have some Taiwanese lu rou fan for lunch and then for dinner, it was some scrumptious lamb dumplings at a Chinese Halal restaurant. 

We also got some anime from this spring season to watch and also I got to see a lot of my buddy's footage when he went on his latest sojourn to Japan back in May. One place he visited to apply his photography hobby was Fukushima Prefecture, and he just happened to get off at Aizu-Miyashita Station（会津宮下駅）on the Tadami Line（只見線）since from there he could get a great view of a special train bridge to take shots of. The above is brief footage by YouTube uploader jo “JO68” oku of that station from a few years ago.

Pretty quiet back then but when my friend left the station early last month, he heard some strangely familiar music and it turned out that a music plaque memorial or kahi（歌碑）as it's said in Japanese had been erected across from the station only last November. It turned out that it was a memorial for the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng（テレサテン）.

What was playing from the plaque was Teng's 8th single in Japan, "Furusato wa Doko desu ka" (Where is Your Hometown?), which was released in February 1977. It's been categorized as an enka and a kayo kyoku although I think in terms of its arrangement, it sounds more toward the latter genre. The tenderhearted song was written by Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）and composed by Yoshinori Usui（うすいよしのり）and it managed to peak at No. 42 on Oricon.

Now as for why Teng's music plaque was placed at Aizu-Miyashita Station can be explained by where the station is located which is the town of Mishima in Fukushima Prefecture. Back when the single was released, Teng visited Mishima to do a concert and was so moved by the kindness of the residents there that she considered it to be her Japanese hometown. The town also made the singer an honorary resident.

FILMS -- Girl

 

Mr. Akagi? I guess you liked your SPARKS!

But all joking aside, I also have to inform readers that FILMS vocalist Chuuji Akagi（赤城忠治）passed away in July 2023 at the age of around 69 or 70 due to illness. Unfortunately, I hadn't checked up on his J-Wiki page for updates when I posted the most recent FILMS article just last month.

My first article on FILMS centered on the New Wave band's first single "T.V. Phone Age" but this time, I'm talking their second single from 1981, "Girl". It's another synth-thrummy and bouncy number but with a bit more rock added to the arrangement. Akagi was responsible for both words and music and although "Girl" hadn't been attached to any album during FILMS' heyday, it was included as a bonus track onto a 2009 CD re-release of their 1980 album "Misprint".

Jazztronik feat. ELAIZA -- New World

 

On a recent episode of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）when they were holding their Friday "Premium Talk" segment, the interviewee was model/actress/singer Elaiza Ikeda（池田エライザ）who usually goes by her mononym of ELAIZA. I've heard the name before but never saw what she looked like. As the interview went on, we discovered that back in 2018, she'd gotten the gig as host of the NHK BS show "The Covers" where singers of all stripes give their own twist on cover versions of their favourite songs. And apparently, ELAIZA herself got to perform some of her own covers a few months into her time and people found out that she has a pretty good set of smoky vocals. Above you can hear her take on Miyuki Nakajima's（中島みゆき）"Jidai"（時代）although that was on a different program.

A few years later, ELAIZA released her own debut single and album, and then recently, I came across this digital single released in September 2024 which has her collaborating with the fluid collective known as Jazztronik with organizer Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）providing the melody while ELAIZA and Sonomi Tameoka took care of the lyrics. The Neo-City Pop and club music vibe reminded me of those early 2000s when bird and Misia held centre court for J-R&B. 

Jazztronik has worked with other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Giovanca. In a way, there's a parallel between ELAIZA and Imai in that both ladies started out in the modeling and acting field only to fall into singing a few years into their career.

Ole Børud -- Maybe

 

I've finished off the Yutaka Kimura Speaks file (for now) since Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was the final person in "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" to be profiled. So, in the meantime, I'll just be going with a fifth article on any Urban Contemporary tune to finish up the Friday.

As such, why not go with someone a little different? A couple of years ago, I introduced Norwegian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ole Børud onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because he just impressed me so much with his history and breadth of genres. He's totally at home with both doom metal and West Coast AOR...and I don't mean the west coast of Norway but of the United States and its old creamy soft rock from decades ago.

His 2023 "Find a Way" was just the bee's knees and a welcome and thrumming throwback to 1980s AOR. Plus the fact that he had Bill Champlin, Jay Graydon and Michael Omartian helping him out in the song and the music video firmly implanted in my mind that Børud was the real deal. I still listen to "Find a Way" when I want to fulfill that need for a jolt of happiness and energy. 

I also wanted to see what else Børud had done in the AOR part of his discography and so I found this rollicking tune from his 2014 album "Stepping Up". "Maybe" strikes me as his tribute to the sounds of Stevie Wonder, one of the musical legends that informed the overall feeling of "Stepping Up" according to his profile on Wikipedia. But the arrangement also reminds me somewhat of stuff that Bobby Caldwell had done, and so perhaps not surprisingly, I can imagine the Japanese band Sing Like Talking covering "Maybe"...maybe.

Kei Ishiguro -- Hearty

 

I found this instant Go Fan rice dish at a Hokkaido-based food fair at Shin-Kiba Station in Tokyo as I was heading over to Odaiba one day years ago. All it needed was a little boiling water and a few minutes later, I was able to have a fairly hearty meal. Never saw it again though on store shelves so I guess it never left the northernmost main island of Japan.

Yes, I do realize that it wasn't the smoothest segue into this song since a rice version of Cup O' Noodles wouldn't really strike anyone as hearty. Roast beef, roast chicken, jambalaya...those are hearty. But to be fair, I did say fairly hearty.

Regardless, this is "Hearty" from Kei (or Kay) Ishiguro's（石黒ケイ）1982 album "Yokohama Ragtime" (love that cover, by the way). Written and composed by the singer, it's quite the languid sunset tune that kinda straddles the line between City Pop and straight pop. Quite refreshing, like a tall drink of cocktail. Not sure about the heavy breathing, though. Maybe he's having something hearty. Hearty what, I don't know. Anyways, you can also listen to another track from "Yokohama Ragtime", "Find Me".

Etsuko Yamakawa -- UTOPIA

 

Last month, I was surprised and delighted to discover that microphone-reticent singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, who had basically only made her lovely vocals known through her contribution to Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）in 1982, had released a digital single about a year ago in July called "Do Yah!". The song was a bouncy reflection of what Bubble Era City Pop was all about.

Well, about a month after that release, the lady released another single online called "UTOPIA". As provided by lyricist Yukako Niizuma and composer/arranger Yamakawa, it's more of a woozy midnight stroll along a park. Perhaps that late-night walk in Tokyo is perhaps a utopia indeed. There's a combination of Burt Bacharach-friendly bossa nova and Kirinji（キリンジ）enveloped in a Neo-City Pop film when I listen to this smooth-as-Baileys song. Of course, Yamakawa's kittenish vocals are still the chef's kiss.