Every Little Thing/Rie Takahashi -- Deatta Koro no you ni（出逢った頃のように）

Back in 2015, a small part of the anime-loving corner of YouTube had an explosion when the good folks behind "Hibike! Euphonium"（響け! ユーフォニアム）in its first season decided to surprise the socks off the viewers by having the high school band perform none other than "Rydeen" by Yellow Magic Orchestra. The comment "'Hibike! Euphonium' brought me here" underneath videos of the concert or recorded versions of YMO's trademark song should have been given meme status. To be honest, a part of me inside also threatened to squee when I first heard the marching band version of one of my very favourite Japanese songs.

Well, I think the same thing may be happening in 2018 although the phenomenon might be a bit more muted. Although I won't be seeing the final couple of episodes of "Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san"（からかい上手の高木さん...Skilled Teaser Takagi-san） until this coming Sunday, the last scene from the last episode has already gotten onto YouTube and it has already earned an "Awwww...." with so many Ws in it that it would go all the way from my computer down to Lake Ontario. I won't describe what can be seen so easily in the video above but let us say that Takagi-san got her second critical hit (inside joke) and a punch-in-the-air win at the same time.

What put the icing on this swoon-worthy cake was a cover version of an old Every Little Thing hit by Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）, the seiyuu for Takagi-san herself. Just the abrupt way it started when the character made her realization shot a lot of viewers including me right in the heart.

So, unsurprisingly, viewers of "Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san" may be flocking over to the original song by ELT, "Deatta Koro no you ni" (Just Like When We First Met), right now. In fact, I've already seen at least one example of "'Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san' brought me here" in the comments section. Released in August 1997 as the band's 5th single, this was another song that got lots of attention in the mass media. Hearing it once more got me thinking about the 90s again thanks to those punchy synths. Wow! They did sound like that back then.

Written and composed by ELT keyboardist Mitsuru Igarashi（五十嵐充）, "Deatta Koro no you ni" peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 45th-ranked single for 1997 as it went Triple Platinum. It also got recorded onto the band's 2nd album "Time to Destination" from April 1998. That album hit No. 1 for 2 weeks, was the 3rd-ranked release for 1998, and currently stands as the 11th-ranked album in Oricon history by achieving over 4 million in sales.

Not sure how long the above will stay on YouTube but enjoy the not-so-full version of Takahashi's softer cover of "Deatta Koro no you ni". It is so Takagi-san and there's even a nice little shoutout to the opening theme "Iwanai kedo ne."（言わないけどね。）in the instrumental bridge. Apparently, it's been included in a release associated with the show, "Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san ~ Cover Song Collection"（からかい上手の高木さん Cover Song Collection） that just got on sale yesterday. I hadn't realized it but all 7 ending themes sung by Takahashi are cover versions of past J-Pop tunes. Will have to see whether my anime buddy will be picking that up since there were a couple of those ending themes that I enjoyed hearing over the credits.