Noriko Sakai -- Yume Boken （夢冒険）/ Noriko Watanabe -- Sora Iro no Pierce （空色のピアス）

Happy Monday! Well, I figure if the the anime world can come up with their programs devoted to Heidi, Anne of Green Gables (yeah, Canada) and even Princess Diana, then The Three Musketeers shouldn't be a problem. And I found out that there was indeed an anime about the adventures of Athos, D'Artagnan and the rest of the gang in the late 80s known as "Anime San Juushi"（アニメ三銃士...The Three Musketeers Anime ）by NHK.

I also discovered that none other than Noriko Nori-P Sakai（酒井法子）took care of the opening theme, "Yume Boken" (Dream Adventure) as her 4th single from November 1987. I mentioned on an article for another late 80s aidoru some time ago that a number of the aidoru tunes from that time were infused with a hint of melody lines from other genres. I think with "Yume Boken", there was something faintly classical thrown in by composer Eiji Nishiki（西木栄二）which fit in with the anime it opened for. Hiromi Mori（森浩美）provided the lyrics.

My memory of how Nori-P sounded back in the early days is somewhat hazy unfortunately but listening to her in the opening credits for "Anime San Juushi" and in the cute little video above, I think she had quite the pure delivery for a lack of a better way to describe her vocals. I once borrowed a videotape of the singer one time and I vaguely remember seeing this particular video.

"Yume Boken" placed at No. 4 on Oricon and was the title track on her 2nd album "Yume Boken/NORIKO SPECIAL" which came out later on New Year's Day in 1988. The song was also adopted as the theme for the opening ceremonies of the 1988 High School Baseball Tournament at Koshien Stadium. And there's nothing better for the record companies than having a tune used in that sports tournament as promotion.

Actually, the first thing that had me noticing the anime was this song which I discovered on YouTube titled "Sora Iro no Pierce" (Sky-Blue Earrings) sung by actress/singer Noriko Watanabe（渡辺典子）. The Oita Prefecture-born Watanabe debuted in 1982 and was placed alongside Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）and Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）to be collectively known as Kadokawa San-nin Musume（角川三人娘...The Three Daughters of Kadokawa） representing Kadokawa Pictures.

"Sora Iro no Pierce" was used as an image song during part of the anime, and it has more of an urban contemporary feel. It was Watanabe's 9th and 2nd-last single from December 1987, and although she didn't vocally hit it out of the park, the music by Godiego's Yukihide Takekawa（タケカワユキヒデ ）helps it out. Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）provided the words.