Kayoko Matsunaga -- Melancholy no Kiseki （メランコリーの軌跡）

Although I've known about Rumiko Takahashi（高橋留美子） and her creations of "Urusei Yatsura"（うる星やつら） & "Maison Ikkoku"（めぞん一刻）, I never read the manga nor watched the anime in their entirety. Actually, I was still more in the 70s with "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）and "Gatchaman"（ガッチャマン）, but I digress.

However, the other day when I was doing my usual biweekly food-and-anime fest with my good friend, he played a song that had been the ending theme for one of the "Urusei Yatsura" movie series that got my attention. Kayoko Matsunaga's（松永夏代子）January 1986 debut single "Melancholy no Kiseki"(Melancholy Path) just had this urban cool sound of the 80s with the bright synths and plucky bass that always gets the nostalgia juices going. And sure enough, Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二） of Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）created the melody with poet/essayist Natsuo Giniro（銀色夏生） providing the lyrics. Tamaki also provided a couple of his compositions for "Maison Ikkoku", and from listening to them, it wasn't just his voice that was talented.

Over the years, I've listened to and enjoyed more anison than I've actually watched the shows they belonged to. And usually at my friend's place, I get to hear a wide range of this genre of J-Pop/kayo kyoku. Although a number of the current themes definitely have that contemporary beat ("TRY UNITE" for "Rinne LaGrange"sounds as if it should be played in a Shibuya club), I've often felt that a lot of the anime tunes have more of that anachronistic feeling. Maybe they have been woven to bring back the viewers into a more kid-like mood.