Commenter Chasing Showa keyed me in on the ending theme for the 1983 "Sōkō Kihei VOTOMS"（装甲騎兵ボトムズ...Armored Trooper VOTOMS）since I had written about the cool opening theme for the anime a little over two weeks ago.
"Itsumo Anata ga" (You Are Always) was created by the same folks who took care of the opening theme "Honoo no Sadame"（炎のさだめ）. It was Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）under his nom de guerre at the time, TETSU, who performed it with Ryosuke Takahashi（高橋良輔）and Hiroki Inui（乾裕樹）writing and composing the song respectively.
As I mentioned to Chasing Showa, this is a surprisingly urban contemporary tune for a mecha anime. I remarked that I would imagine some bartender getting his/her ear bent by a melancholy VOTOM at a Shinjuku bar while nursing a tumbler of machine oil on the rocks. Despite the obvious nightmare of fitting such a huge mecha into a drinking establishment, it would still look very cool having it carrying on a conversation within the bright lights of Tokyo flashing on and off. "Itsumo Anata ga" is very much an introspective ballad about cherishing that loved one, and the saxophone seals the deal for that City Pop tag.
Hello J-Canuck!
ReplyDeleteI clicked on the Youtube link for the ending song with the thumbnail of the K-ON girls and Chirico. I laughed at the comments because a lot of them were in shock that both the girls and Chirico are both 18 years old.
Thanks!
Hello, Chasing Showa!
DeleteChirico: You are the youngest 18-year-olds that I've ever seen!
K-ON Girls: You are the oldest 35-year-old that we've ever seen!
Chirico: I'm going to curl up into a ball in the corner there.