Nana Mizuki & Inori Minase -- Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory（銀のスプーン）

A nice little treat that I got during last night's usual anime-&-food session was seeing this September's OVA of "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, titled "Sing For You". I will always welcome the oh-so-mellow anime franchise of girls running cafes, and the 30-or-so (?) minute special dealt with the usually stoic and level-headed Chino Kafu（香風智乃）played by Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）blowing a gasket over the fact that she has to do a solo part in her school's chorus performance. Of course, the rest of the gang rush over to help out and get her over the hump of her stage fright to varying levels of humour.

During those 30 minutes, "GochiUsa" fans finally got one mystery resolved to a certain extent: that of Chino's mother who had passed away some years before the start of the series. Apparently, her name was Saki（香風サキ）and she was a regular singer at Rabbit House, with her husband and Chino's father, Takahiro（香風タカヒロ）, and even current Rabbit House barista Rize's father backing Saki on instruments.

(instrumental only)

As soon as I heard Saki sing in the OAV, I knew it was Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）right away. Her "Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory" (Silver Spoon) is a good ol' jazz waltz which I could actually imagine being played during some sort of live performance in a club somewhere.

However, the more adorable and heartwarming pop version is the duet of "Gin no Spoon" between Mizuki and Inase. Finally, mother and daughter are together...may have brought a tear to the eye in many a fan. Created by lyricist/singer Junko Tsuji（辻純更）and composer/keyboardist Ruka Kawada（川田瑠夏）, the arrangement matches the overall feeling of the music that has been invested into "GochiUsa" all these years, that sunny, optimistic and wistful atmosphere (almost sounds like a swinging 1960s pop song) that seems to inhabit the unnamed town/small city with a European style where all the girls, cafes and rabbits live.

Definitely looking forward to Season 3!