shami momo -- Machikado Tangent（町かどタンジェント）

I gather that we are just past the halfway point of the Summer 2019 season of anime. And in terms of this blog, I've been enjoying the ode-to-disco theme songs for "Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru?"（ダンベル何キロ持てる?...How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?）and the funkalicious and wacky opening theme to "Joshi Kōsei no Mudazukai"（女子高生の無駄づかい...Wasteful Days of High School Girls）. The shows themselves have been fun to watch and they've been my hits this summer.

One other show on the viewing block has been "Machikado Mazoku"（まちカドまぞく...The Demon Girl Next Door）, the tale of a supposed bad witch girl named Yuko "Shamiko" Yoshida（吉田優子）who repeatedly tries to one-up her classmate, Momo Chiyoda（千代田桃）, a magical girl heroine, so that her family which represents a long line of bad witches can get on a better financial footing. My anime buddy told me that the show has been steadily rising in his appraisal but I think it's been a bit more hit-and-miss for me. "Machikado Mazoku" is an adorable and mellow series but sometimes it's been a little too calm...to be honest, I almost fell asleep during the most recent episode.

The opening theme, "Machikado Tangent" (Street Corner Tangent) has grown on me, though. Sung by the seiyuu for the aforementioned main characters, Konomi Kohara（小原好美）as Shamiko and Akari Kitō（鬼頭明里）as Momo under the joint name of shami momo, it's got that sunny arrangement somewhat reminiscent of swinging 1960s pop a la Burt Bacharach that always manages to hook me like a trout. The same was true with the ending theme for "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）, "Egao ni Naru"（笑顔になる）, and despite the fact that the show was broadcast all the way back in 2015, I'm still wishing that a second season will come to fruition.

"Machikado Tangent" was written, composed and arranged by Miho Tsujibayashi（辻林美穂）. The interesting thing about Kitō is that she's also starring in one of the big hits of this season, "Kimetsu no Yaiba"（鬼滅の刃）as the half-demon little sister, Nezuko.