SHISHAMO -- Ashita mo（明日も）

I was watching TV some weeks ago when I saw this young female band called SHISHAMO on "Music Station" in the middle of a performance. My first thought was suddenly thrust to food and izakaya since I have eaten the shishamo fish on a number of occasions.

Later on, I heard that SHISHAMO, who are currently made up of vocalist/guitarist Asako Miyazaki（宮崎朝子）, bassist Aya Matsuoka（松岡彩）and leader/drummer Misaki Yoshikawa（吉川美冴貴）, got their invitation to the 2017 Kohaku Utagassen. So I finally got to view them perform a full song called "Ashita mo" (Tomorrow As Well) with the backing of a high school horn section behind the band.

Their performance was one of the reasons that I enjoyed the Kohaku a bit more than usual (despite the 3rd-worst ratings ranking in the history of the show as has been reported in Nikkan Sports). "Ashita mo" struck me as being an encouraging song written and composed by Miyazaki about young folks doing their best and overcoming the usual obstacles to keep on going. No, it's not exactly the most original idea for a song but the sound and message are fine.

(karaoke version)

One reason that I enjoyed the song was because the overall arrangement of "Ashita mo" and the presence of high school kids reminded me of a fairly acclaimed anime that popped up twice in the last couple of years, "Hibike! Euphonium"（響け! ユーフォニアム）and its opening theme songs. I guess it's not just 80s British horns or American R&B horns from any decade that entice me but also cheerful horns from Japanese high school bands.

"Ashita mo" didn't come out as a single but as a track on their "SHISHAMO 4" which was released almost a year ago in February 2017 and peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. Apparently, the number got traction in the public when it was used as a commercial song for the mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo.