TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND feat. Yuki Otake -- Uchiyoserareta Bōkyaku no Zankyō ni （打ち寄せられた忘却の残響に）

Up to about the end of last year, my anime buddy and I were watching the suspense-drama "Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru"（櫻子さんの足下には死体が埋まっている...Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation）which literally translates as "A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet". Aside from the fact that the title of this 2015 anime for the fall season is so long that it and its translations took up three whole lines, "Sakurako-san" was also one of the few anime that I've seen which came across as a down-to-earth mystery drama without any out-of-left-field high technology, supremely cute characters or wild spots of wackadoodle humour.

I'm gonna quote the plot as is described in the Wikipedia article:

Sakurako Kujō is a genius beauty in her mid-twenties whose life is centered around one thing and one thing only: bones. With little tolerance for others, she would be completely isolated in her study full of skeletons if it weren’t for high school boy Shotaro—her new assistant and constant companion. Why exactly she has taken a shine to him remains a mystery, but one thing is clear: Whenever the two go out together, the chances are high that they will come across a human corpse.

As for that last sentence, that could also describe Detective Conan, Haibara-san and their elementary school buddies....which is terrifying to think in real life. No wonder they don't seem to have any friends outside of themselves.

In any case, when my buddy first introduced this series to me a few months back, I didn't quite hear him properly as I thought he said that "Sakurako-san" was a bit of a lift from the the American TV series "Bones". So I kinda popped up and thought "Wow! An anime version of 'Bones'?" I guess Japan must have been thanking Emily Deschanel and Hart Hanson for allowing Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）to guest star in an episode a few years ago.

But all kidding aside, the anime is based on the original mystery novel series written by Shiori Ota（太田紫織）. I had to re-adjust my thought processes a bit when I saw the pilot episode since a lot of the usual anime wackiness was simply not in this series but once things got going, I started to enjoy each of the grim cases and their resolutions along with the overarching plot of this genius near-misanthrope with an obsession for bones, Sakurako Kujo（九条櫻子）, still internally grieving over the death of her younger brother but being able to develop this somewhat warm relationship with her partner-in-crimefighting, high schooler Shotaro Tatewaki（館脇正太郎）.

I thought the one thing that kinda stuck out like a sore thumb was this henshin-type scene in the first couple of episodes which seemed a little too whimsical for this show, so I was glad that the producers took it out lickety-split for the rest of the series.

Now, before we all forget that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is a Japanese music blog and not exclusively an anime one, I have to say that the ending theme also gradually grew upon me. "Uchiyoserareta Bōkyaku no Zankyō ni" (The Reverberation of a Washed Up Oblivion) was written and composed by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND with vocalist Yuki Otake（大竹佑季）providing the soft and haunting delivery. If that rather oddly-name band strikes a chord with you, it's the same group that provided one of the anison earworms of a couple of years back, "Witch Activity" for the anime "Witchcraft Works". I still enjoy drilling that worm into my head from time to time.

Otake's singing of this ending anison for "Sakurako" matches well with the closing credits of the main character swimming through a sea of water and skeletons. There is something very warm, watery and oddly comfortable about listening to "Uchiyoserareta Bōkyaku no Zankyō ni" that made me wonder which inspired which...the end credits on the creation of the song or vice versa. In any case, images of some nice warm milk tea came to mind. That would be quite an interestingly contrasting picture against the general nature of digging up human remains.

The anime is over now but I am hoping that there might have been enough interest in the first go that a sequel series may pop up in the near future.

The only spooky photo I could find for an article
like this. But the sight of a squid-ink burger at
McDs can be construed as terrifying.