Walküre -- Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara（ルンがピカッと光ったら）

I have a tradition whenever the 9th month of the year arrives, and that is to listen to both versions of "September", the early single by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and the epic joyful R&B anthem by Earth Wind & Fire. "September" by EW&F was released in 1978 but it seems like a song that I've been hearing ever since my early childhood. Moreover, it's been the one song that could get me dancing each time in my chair at home, and as far as I'm concerned, it will be the only song that will get me onto the dance floor even at my current age (as horrifying as that image might be to many).

Then one day, not too long ago, I came across this video:

To say that I was smitten and delighted would be an understatement. This was a minute of concentrated anime joy!

What I would later discover that the original song was "Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara" (When the Rune Sparkles), one of the ending themes for the 2016 anime "Macross Delta"（マクロスΔ）which just has to have been inspired by "September".

A dang catchy song in itself, "Rune" was performed by the aidoru group in the show, Walküre（ワルキューレ）, with Freyja Wion as played by seiyuu Minori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）as the lead vocal, and then the rest of the band helping out through fellow voice actors JUNNA, Nao Toyama（東山奈央）, Kiyono Yasuno（安野希世乃）and Nozomi Nishida（西田望見）. The above is the full version covered by Nyadus on YouTube, but man, she really does sound like Suzuki! You know, this could be the type of feel-good song that could even be covered by Little Glee Monster. Naoki Nishi（西直紀）wrote the lyrics while Minoru Komorita（コモリタミノル）took care of the music.

"Rune" was one song on the Walküre single "Ichido dake no Koi nara/Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara"（一度だけの恋なら/ルンがピカッと光ったら...If It's a One-Time Love） released in May 2016. It made it to No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 94th-ranked single of the year. That first song was also the first of the two opening themes for "Macross Delta". Both songs were also included on "Walküre Attack!", the group's debut album released in July that year which made it to No. 2 on the album charts and later became the 34th-ranked album.

Of course, with YouTube, the ever-popular "September" and the similarly groovy beat throughout "Rune", it was inevitable that an epic mashup just had to be done, so thanks to folks like Emdyion, there is "When the Rune Sparkles in September". Dance away!

But Emdyion wasn't finished. The YouTuber even came up with an amazing inverted version of the song, this time with the late, great Maurice White taking over on vocals.

I learned a lot here. I will no longer admire Minori Suzuki for just "FEELING AROUND" and I have a new song to love from the "Macross" franchise.