Yuko Goto/Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra -- Koi no Mikuru Densetsu（恋のミクル伝説）

The above is a simple but sweet cocktail known as a Brown Cow. It's known as a Kahlua Milk in Japan, and it was my drink of choice whenever I went to an izakaya or the karaoke box. Nice touch with the Pocky stick in there, too. The Brown Cow was as much a salve and tonic as it was a tasty refreshment for me when it came to karaoke. The coffee liqueur concoction afforded me enough courage to take up the mike and it also provided solace whenever I screwed up a tune and received the inevitable damning-with-faint-praise applause. As you can read in my article on failed karaoke attempts, there were plenty of tunes that I love to hear but cannot sing a whit.

For me, singing badly comes to me quite easily unless it's one of my juu-hachi-ban. However, I've heard that it takes someone with real talent to sing badly well especially when the singer is actually pretty darn good.

Now, I've already mentioned about Yuko Goto's（後藤邑子）famous/infamous "Koi no Mikuru Densetsu" (The Legend of Mikuru in Love) in the very first Haruhi Suzumiya（涼宮ハルヒ）-related article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". As I stated there, the rendition of that song by Goto's character of Mikuru Asahina（朝比奈ミクル）was so horrifying and cute at the same time that it almost derailed me from ever watching "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu"（涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱...The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya）. Poor Mikuru! I'm surprised that she didn't end up fleeing back to her time zone after being forced to sing that.

Yet, after all these years, it's the one song that I remember from the first season of "Haruhi Suzumiya" along with the even more famous ending theme "Hare Hare Yukai"（ハレ晴レユカイ）. "Koi no Mikuru Densetsu" has got that Eurobeat-ish melody by Satoru Kousaki（神前暁）overlaid by Goto's incredibly distinct vocals singing out Yutaka Yamamoto's（山本寛）lyrics, and the seiyuu's delivery has so indelibly insinuated itself into my head that I really can't even imagine how she would sing it well. It would frankly sound boring and flat, so it has to remain at its craptastic best!

"Koi no Mikuru Densetsu" is available as one of the songs on the 2006 single "Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsumeawase: TV Anime "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu" Geki Chū Kashū Shinguru"（涼宮ハルヒの詰合 〜TVアニメ「涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱」劇中歌集シングル〜...The Assortment of Haruhi Suzumiya: Collection of Songs in an Anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya")）. The single went up to No. 5 and became the 106th-ranked single for the year.

I gotta say that I was pretty impressed with the orchestral version of "Koi no Mikuru Densetsu" which starts off the 2009 album "Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou"（涼宮ハルヒの弦奏...Haruhi Suzumiya's String Performance） with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra playing the heck out of the song. Try playing the first several seconds over the incredible "Portals" scene in "Avengers: Endgame"! The album peaked at No. 47.

January 11th 2024: Have a gander at the improved version of the song.