Fence of Defense -- SARA

A week ago, I wrote an article on Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"Hitonatsu no Tapestry"（ひと夏のタペストリー）which was this slice of Japanese funk that had been composed by bassist and keyboardist Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）. Well, not too long after that, Nishimura started up this rock band with vocalist and guitarist Kenji Kitajima（北島健二）and drummer Wataru Yamada（山田わたる）called Fence of Defense.

Coming up with their first single in 1987, Fence of Defense hit pay dirt in September 1988 when the band released "SARA" which also turned out to be the second opening theme for the second season of the ever-loved "City Hunter" anime franchise. "SARA" may have been a rock song but there was still something of the "Bright lights, big city" feeling in there that the very first opening theme by Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）, "Ai yo Kienai de"（愛よ消えないで）had in abundance. Some good times in Tokyo!

Will you get a load of that 80s hair?! I think TM Network and Fence of Defense should have had a hair-off at a joint concert. J-Wiki mentions that "SARA" was one of the band's smash hits but there is still no individual article for the song nor any indication of how it did on Oricon, and the actual Oricon website was no help itself, but I can only assume that it did quite decently on the charts. Fence of Defense took care of the lyrics with Nishimura himself taking care of the big-city melody.

I have heard the song and the band name before but didn't make the final connection until sometime in the last few days which will indicate how much I know about "City Hunter". But from what I've seen of the show's theme songs, it looks like I made the right decision in providing the show with its own category in Labels. Perhaps there's even a CD floating about with all of the theme songs included.

Still, when it comes to songs titled "Sara", I can't help but remember the one by Starship from a few years before the Fence of Defense song came out. And yep, I will always like "We Built This City".