ORESAMA -- Wonder Drive （ワンダードライブ）/ toi toy toi -- Chant

Looking at the above trailer, you would be forgiven if you had thought that this was merely one of those heartwarming slice-of-life anime starring a little cosplayer. However "Alice to Zouroku"（アリスと蔵六...Alice and Zouroku）has a split personality. I've been watching this as one of my buddy's presentations during the biweekly sessions this season, and it seems like it can swing almost fully into sci-fi thriller for one episode while swinging into a slice-of-life light comedy for another. However, everything hinges on the relationship between the perky and headstrong super-powered Sana and the cranky Zouroku with the heart of gold.

As I said on the article for the theme songs of "Uchoten Kazoku 2"（有頂天家族2）, none of the anison for the shows this season have been instant hits, but at least, the ones on offer here for "Alice to Zouroku" have been appealingly quirky. For instance, the opening theme, "Wonder Drive"（ワンダードライブ）by ORESAMA has got a nice pop beat that reminds me of ZAQ's "Hopeness" for last year's "Koukaku no Pandora: Ghost Urn"（紅殻のパンドラ）.

ORESAMA consists currently of vocalist and lyricist Pon（ぽん）and guitarist and composer Hideya Kojima（小島英也）, both from Nagano Prefecture. Since their debut single in 2014, they have released 1 album and 3 singles including "Wonder Drive". During their high school days, they covered a number of hits by Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）, Avril Lavigne and Judy and Mary. Lyrical Nonsense has the English translation of the lyrics right here.

It's the ending theme that I think fits in with the overall feeling of "Alice to Zouroku" because of its dreamy, innocent and whimsical nature. And in meeting with that mysterious vibe, I've got no idea who this unit, toi toy toi, is. Whoever they are, though, I'm starting to like "Chant" since there is something rather Enya with that layered vocalization. However I've been getting some push from my anime buddy about the lyricist and composer for "Chant", songwriter Kotringo（コトリンゴ）. Even before this show started, he had been telling how accomplished she is and I've passed by some of her videos on YouTube so perhaps I should give her more of a look-see. Translated lyrics are also up at Lyrical Nonsense.

June 13 2017: Well, Lantis Channel on YouTube put up the official music video for "Chant" yesterday, and I did find out that toi toy toi is made up of Kotringo herself, Babi, Rie Yoshihara（良原リエ）and Masumi Ito（伊藤真澄）.

Due to various circumstances, I've been running behind the sessions and with the spring season wrapping up in a couple of weeks, I'm wondering if my anime buddy might end up showing me the rest of episodes in a massive marathon session.