Aina Suzuki -- Jimbocho Aika（神保町哀歌）

One of my haunts when I was living in the Tokyo area was the neighbourhood of Jimbocho which melds smoothly into Kanda to become this large region perfect for bibliophiles. Even when I had been living earlier in Gunma, whenever I came down to the megalopolis, I would visit Jimbocho, specifically Sanseido Book Store since they had an English-language book floor where I would stock up on the latest issues of magazines and comic books.

Although far fewer in number, Jimbocho also had shops that dealt in used or old CDs which meant that there were treasures to be had in terms of a kayo lover like me. For instance, there is good ol' Tacto in the neighbourhood which I wrote about years ago on the blog. Whenever I wanted to hit Jimbocho for books or CDs, if I were coming from home in Ichikawa City, I took the Tozai Line to Kudanshita Station which was right on the western edge of Jimbocho or if I were coming in from elsewhere, I often took the Hanzonmon Line to Jimbocho Station itself. As some extra geographical information, it's about a 20-minute walk from the main intersection of Kanda-Jimbocho to Akihabara.

My reminiscences of a beloved Tokyo neighbourhood come because of the zany anime "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック）. The second season has just come out after its inaugural season in 2018, and I did mention at the end of the article for the first opening theme "Ano Ko ni Dropkick"（あの子にドロップキック）that there were some insert songs.

Well, better late than never, I guess. I was too keyed into the comical gore involved between the two characters of supposedly evil Jashin and her violent roomie Yurine to notice that the setting was indeed Jimbocho. One of the later episodes in Season 1 even had Jashin sing an adorable folksy ballad as one of those insert songs to help Yurine convalesce from a cold.

Titled "Jimbocho Aika" (Jimbocho Elegy), Jashin's seiyuu Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈）as her character does a great job ironically evoking those emotions of sentimentalism and love. It isn't mentioned who composed the song but Kazuyuki Fudeyasu（筆安一幸）was behind the lyrics. The other interesting thing about "Jimbocho Aika" is that it goes on for over 10 minutes, so I was immediately reminded of another tune from years back "Osaka de Umareta Onna"（大阪で生まれた女）by the band BORO which has a similar tone and has a length of 34 minutes! However, in terms of melody, "Jimbocho Aika" reminds me more of the school graduation favourite "Okuru Kotoba"（贈る言葉）by Kaientai（海援隊）.

It looks like the slapstick continues on and Yurine still has to practice her tough love.