Mie Kitabatake/Reona Hirota/Yoshiyuki Noh -- Daijoubu My Friend（だいじょうぶマイ・フレンド）

The following has nothing to do with Hello! Kitty at all, actually, but the immediately following song is about as soothing as the character, so here we are.

It all started with obscure early 90s singer Mie Kitabatake（北畠美枝）. I had been thinking about writing an article for her smooth urban contemporary song "U・SO・TU・KI", only to find out that I already covered it on New Year's Eve last year. Since so far, it was just the one Kitabatake song, I then decided to look for any other songs that were available on YouTube because I did like the sound of her voice.

So I came across this coupling song for her 1993 single "Hoshikuzu no Pride"（星屑のプライド...Stardust Pride）. Titled "Daijoubu My Friend" (It's All Right, My Friend). As the title says, it's a reassuring and soothing ballad sung with a dreamy arrangement. Images of sunny skies, green hills and contemplative folks come to mind.

But I also found out from J-Wiki, Wikipedia and this website that Kitabatake's song was also a cover of an ending theme of a rather bizarre movie which had premiered all the way back in 1983. Also, titled "Daijoubu My Friend", this was a sci-fi parody flick that was directed and written by famed novelist Ryu Murakami（村上龍）, had music input from the late Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, YMO's Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and Southern All Stars'（サザンオールスターズ）Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）among others, had a bit part by seiyuu and future Sailor Mars Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）and starred actress/director Reona Hirota（広田玲央名）, future TV personality legend Tamori（タモリ）...and Peter Fonda! Yes, son of Henry/brother of Jane/father of Bridget played a superhero named Gonzy Traumerai. That name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue like Steve Rogers, say. The above video has the whole movie (although for how long, I'm not sure), and just to give fair warning at 3:35, we get to see "all" of Hirota in bed.

Hirota released her own aidoru single of "Daijoubu My Friend" in March 1983 with Kato providing the music and his then-wife, lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）, providing the lyrics. Well, all I can say is that Hirota's rendition is truly "breathtaking". Not surprisingly, it's the only single that she ever released.

On the same day as the Hirota original, another member of the movie cast, tarento Yoshiyuki Noh（乃生佳之）, released his version of "Daijoubu My Friend". His take is indeed much better and more orchestral although things get a little silly near the end with that Fonda insert. I can say with some confidence that Kitabatake wins the cup here, although composer Kato himself had released his own version a few days after Noh's version. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on YouTube for it.