Ahomushi -- Koko wa Doko（ココハドコ）/Kiyono Yasuno -- Ikiru（生きる）

We're just finishing Day 4 of the annual Toronto International Film Festival. On Thursday, a few of us went down to King St. where the main venue is just to soak in the atmosphere. There has already been a side story generated by the TIFF festivities.

Of course, the lineup of stars coming up to TIFF is set up and announced way in advance and one of the celebs was Tom Hanks who came to town to promote the biopic "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood". Well, a local coffeehouse called Grinder Coffee, which had Ryan Gosling come by last year for a cuppa jo, decided to extend the invitation to Hanks, and nice guy that he is, the former Bosom Buddy and Forrest Gump actually showed up just after the place had closed up on Friday night. And yep, he did get his coffee.

Let us now eventually segue. Remember that Tom Hanks flick, "Cast Away" where he played a fellow who got stranded on an island for a few years, fended for himself, and created a friend from a basketball?

Now, just imagine an anime where in place of Hanks and Wilson, it's actually four high school girls as the only survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island. That is the premise of "Sounan desu ka?"（ソウナンですか？...Are You Lost?）, one of the summer shows that my buddy and I have been watching. It's one of the shorter shows (about 10 minutes) but it's been packing some interesting educational stuff along the lines of "Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru?"（ダンベル何キロ持てる?）, but instead of staying healthy and muscular, the lessons in "Sounan desu ka?" are staying healthy and alive. In other words, survival is the key here, and some of the lessons can be pretty harsh but necessary. Fortunately, de facto leader and survival expert Homare Onishima（鬼島ほまれ）was stranded along with her three classmates to keep everyone intact and cheerful with the stoicism and smarts of Mr. Spock and the can-do nature of Chief Engineer Scott.

Seemingly to reassure the viewers that "Sounan desu ka?" will not turn out to be a horror survival anime, the opening credits are absolutely high on good cheer with the four girls even singing the theme song as if it were a musical.

"Koko wa Doko" (Where is This?) is by the four seiyuu: very busy M・A・O  as Homare, Hiyori Kano（河野ひより）as the athletic Asuka Suzumori（鈴森明日香）, Kiyono Yasuno（安野希世乃）as the bespectacled Mutsu Amatani（天谷睦）, and Azumi Waki（和氣あず未）as the slightly spoiled Shion Kujo（九条紫音）under the group name of Ahomushi（あほむし...Dumb Bugs）. Written by Shoko Fujibayashi（藤林聖子）and composed by Sairenji!（サイレンジ！）, it didn't have quite the same impact that the opening themes for "Joshi Kōsei no Mudazukai"（女子高生の無駄づかい）, in which M・A・O has a smaller role, and aforementioned "Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru?" had on me when they first debuted, but the happy-happy-joy-joy feeling of "Koko wa Doko" has finally won me over.

I have been able to find a full version of the ending theme "Ikiru" (To Live) solely by Yasuno, and it's also another happy tune that I thought was worth mentioning. Naoki Nishi（西直紀）and Tomoya Kawasaki（川崎智哉）were responsible for this semi-march. Noelle has already written about one anison that she has also contributed to.