Kentaro Haneda -- Teenage Dream (ティーンエイジ・ドリーム)

Yup, the Xmas tree in the lobby has been up for several days now so the big day is not too far off. I've already paid my debts for the Yuletide since I absolutely hate having a financial Sword of Damocles hanging over my head for the Holidays. Another thing I'm doing for Christmas 2016 is trying to reach 100 Xmas songs for the blog.

I think one of the greatest anime soundtracks that I have ever heard is the one for the 1984 Macross movie "Ai wo Oboeteimasuka?"（愛・おぼえていますか...Do You Remember Love?）. Sure, the title theme song by Mari Iijima（飯島真理）is one for the ages. However, the entire soundtrack by composer Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）, who also took care of the score for the original TV series and Lynn Minmay's songs, is simply incredible. In fact, I got my hands on an audiotape of the soundtrack and played that constantly for a few years before I finally got to see the actual movie.

The soundtrack is epic, emotional and even urban in feeling. There was just something about the sound of that orchestra that enhanced the atmosphere in the movie another 100%. Just imagine a particularly fine vintage of Worcestershire sauce on that Porterhouse of yours. And one of the tracks from the CD (I finally bought it years later) also had me thinking of Christmas, "Teenage Dream". I mean, the bells are in there and that horn arrangement just seemed to speak of that particular holiday season.

But as Haneda himself related it in the booklet for the album, although he did put in that Xmas-y arrangement, his idea was just some teens realizing their dream, as the title blatantly puts it out there. And yep, I remember the scene which "Teenage Dream" adorned...the one where Hikaru and Minmay paint the town red including a failed attempt to "show" the latter how a love hotel operated (she was never that naive, dude!). Still, I couldn't help but feel that the song could have made for a fine jingle in a department store commercial in December. Having said that, though, "Teenage Dream" is the musical embodiment of that wonderful if brief respite during a violent time when two kids could act happily like kids instead of a teen super idol and an ace pilot.

Nope, Mari Iijima has nothing to do with any singing on this track but she does have an Xmas tune that I wrote about almost a year ago to the day right here.