Tomoyuki Asakawa -- Prologue for The Five Star Stories/Yoko Nagayama -- Hitomi no Naka no Faraway（瞳の中のファーラウェイ）

One of the legendary titles of anime that has been heard in the winds surrounding me all these years is "The Five Star Stories".

I had never seen the March 1989 movie although there was an opportunity back in the early 90s when my anime buddy and his buddies decided to hold a presentation of it at the University of Toronto at the Robarts Library complex. As it turned out, I couldn't see it that evening since I actually had a night class so basically it was just seeing the opening title and then coming back to meet the guys for a celebratory dinner.

Well, I finally caught it at my buddy's place the other Sunday. And yup, after getting home, I spent some time reading up on all the palace intrigue and characters including Ladias Sopp since I couldn't quite understand what was happening at first glance. But man, was it gorgeous! It's been a long time since I'd seen anime characters drawn that way.

Plus, I have to tip my proverbial hat off to the person behind the movie score, Tomoyuki Asakawa（朝川朋之）. The prologue for the soundtrack is especially quite sumptuous, heralding the epic story to come. When things start rolling from 1:37, I got that ASMR feeling down the back of my neck. There was that John Williams feeling although not just from any movie, but specifically from 1977's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". At the same time, and perhaps it is strange for me to say this, but that galloping theme reminds me of overtures that have populated many a 1950s romance flick in the opening credits. Golden Quickpen font titles race through my head!

One tidbit that I found out about composer and harpist Asakawa is that he used to be a member of the rock unit Ryudogumi（竜童組）, led by singer-songwriter Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）. Asakawa took on the name of Taro Tanaka（田中太郎）at the time and manned the electric harp.

While the ending credits were scrolling up, I was surprised to hear a song that I have heard before but not within the confines of "The Five Star Stories". And to further add to the surprise is that it's current veteran enka singer but then-aidoru Yoko Nagayama（長山洋子）who sang "Hitomi no Naka no Faraway" (Far Away in Your Eyes).

I mean, it didn't quite fit the tone of the movie but it's still a happy enjoyable aidoru tune by Nagayama, and it's one that I've heard somewhere a number of times before...most likely during one of my buddy's anison hours. This was her 15th single released in February 1989 and was written by Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）and composed by Masato Ishida（石田正人）. The single managed to reach as high as No. 27 on Oricon.