SMAP/Shoko Sawada -- Kimi Iro Omoi （君色思い）

It looks like the power of Halloween is even more potent than the depression of Blue Monday. This morning, NHK's nightly news broadcast had live footage of Shibuya once again completely engulfed by the costumed and non-costumed along with a healthy police presence. Mind you, looking at the live cameras in the area, it seems as if it's just the huge intersection in front of JR Shibuya Station and one particular side street that are packed. The main artery of Inokashira Avenue heading up to Tower Records looks normal.

This time, on the main camera, I got to see some more furries, a couple of walking wooden blocks collide into each other, and a Superman. I guess he might be trying to lay low after "Batman v. Superman".

Considering the massive amount of humanity tonight, odds are that there may even an Akazukin Chacha or two. traipsing about. Perhaps the older anime fans may remember the manga-turned-anime "Akazukin Chacha"（赤ずきんチャチャ...Red Riding Hood Chacha） which starred a cute little student in a red riding hood who tried to make magic with some hilarious results.

Yesterday was another round at my anime buddy's house. During the usual anison hour, he played the opening theme from "Akazukin Chacha" which surprised me since it was a SMAP single, "Kimi Iro Omoi". I'm not sure about the translation but perhaps You Have Colourful Memories or You Give Me Colourful Memories may suffice. In any case, I was surprised since I remembered the song as a SMAP hit but didn't know about its status as an anison.

This was the band's 11th single from New Year's Day 1994 and it has that rumbly dance beat. Apparently leader Nakai-kun had the solo singing duties here...and people didn't start bleeding from the ears. There are such things as miracles after all. Still the song is catchy and happy.

Written and composed by Kenji Hayashida（林田健司）, "Kimi Iro Omoi" peaked at No. 5 on Oricon and was included on SMAP's "SMAP 005" from February of that year.

I was also looking for the opening credits of the show with the SMAP theme but I couldn't find it anywhere although "Akazukin Chacha" is well represented on YouTube. For those opening credits, I heard this bright and twinkly theme song which I soon realized was indeed "Kimi Iro Omoi" although arranged in a much less dance-y manner but no less cheerfully and sung by a woman.

It turned out that due to the usual wrangles in terms of copyright stuff among all parties involved including Johnny's Entertainment, the SMAP version couldn't be used on the LD/DVD releases of the anime so singer-songwriter Shoko Sawada（沢田聖子）, who had sung at least a couple of other songs for the show, was asked to sing her version of "Kimi Iro Omoi".

Hayashida even did a grand self-cover of his creation on his 1997 album "Toyo Ichi"（東洋一...Far East Champion）. Cha-cha anyone?