Sakanaction -- Boku to Hana （僕と花）

I had been thinking about what sort of song I was going to write about today when I started getting this craving for Sakanaction (サカナクション). Well, perhaps it wasn't a craving but more of a wondering about what sort of quirky and appealing stuff the band was up to in the earlier days. I still have a lot of catching up to do since I only found out about Ichiro Yamaguchi（山口一郎）and his crew through their lone appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen a couple of years ago.

So I came upon their 6th single from May 2012, "Boku to Hana" (The Flower and I) and watched its music video. It was quite the theatrical experience with a renowned choreographer playing the flower while vocalist Yamaguchi (who wrote and composed the song) himself was the protagonist starting to lose himself in the cruel world. And although I'm still getting a handle on the Sakanaction sound, I think with "Boku to Hana", I can pick up on that strangely soothing combination of rock and technopop. Definitely a unique unit.

"Boku to Hana" was Sakanaction's first theme song offering for a TV drama, specifically Fuji-TV's "Sanjuu-nana Sai de Isha ni Natta Boku"（37歳で医者になった僕...Becoming a Doctor at 37）starring SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi（草彅剛）. The single went Gold and went as high as No. 6 on Oricon. It was also a track on the band's 6th album "sakanaction" from March 2013. To be honest, the Wikipedia write-up on the song is even more comprehensive than the J-Wiki article so to get that detailed report on "Boku to Hana", take a look here.