Masayoshi Oishi -- O-Tomodachi Film (オトモダチフィルム)/Dance for philosophy -- Dance or Dance (ダンス・オア・ダンス)

I've been grateful to a lot of folks ranging from commenters to fellow KKP writers to the City Pop big wigs such as Van Paugam and Rocket Brown for their tips on some fine music. Another such person is the fellow(s) behind the YouTube anime-based channel KHORnime, one of the many channels that I've subscribed to. Not only has the channel provided a lot of amusement through his videos based on a variety of genre tropes, but it has used introductory music that has tickled my ears such as Little Glee Monster's "Seishun Photograph".

KHORnime's latest creation was his video on deranged women with kitchen knives (had no idea that it was such a big trope) which was entertaining, as usual. However, it was excerpts from two songs that came in the introduction that attracted me as well, and as any KHORnime fan is well aware of, the channel provides a fun montage-style intro with the song of choice. Most fortunately, the titles and singers of the songs are also provided.

The slow scat at the intro of this particular KHORnime video hooked me immediately, so on finding out that this was from a song by singer-songwriter Masayoshi Oishi（オーイシマサヨシ）, I did my usual naruhodo. He's been able to provide some fine anison with good hooks (e.g. "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai"), and his "O-Tomodachi Film" (Friend Film) is no exception.

"O-Tomodachi Film" is another happy tune that greeted viewers each week for the 2018 anime "Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai"（多田くんは恋をしない...Tada Never Falls In Love）. I had never heard of this rom-com and I would have thought that my anime buddy would have told me about this one since he seems to enjoy this sort of slice-of-life show (and it's anime-first, not based on any light novel) that's set around yet another mellow café. Plus, from what I've read and seen in some of the scenes, it looks like there has been at least a glancing tribute to one of my favourite films "Roman Holiday". Finally, it features a few seiyuu that have starred in "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）, the show that has the aforementioned "Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai" as its opening theme song, also showing up in "Tada-kun".

Watching the music video for "O-Tomodachi Film", I keep thinking that dancing Oishi and that little girl would be great in a commercial for milk tea. Anyways, it's an adorable concoction for a song whose strings have been the instruments that have drawn me in. I guess that I will always be a sucker for good string arrangement. The single came out in May 2018 and peaked at No. 3 on Oricon's digital singles chart.

Following the first few bars of "O-Tomodachi Film" and then the first scene comes the introductory montage with the song, and once again KHORnime has come up with another nifty sequence of anime characters dancing around with joy and abandon. The song of choice here is "Dance or Dance" by the aidoru group Dance for philosophy, known in Japanese as Philosophy no Dance（フィロソフィーのダンス）.

Marcos V. and Joana have each given their own articles on this group that has loved to do the urban contemporary thing, so this is my turn. And being a fan of jazz in all of its different subgenres, I have to say that I was also drawn by the boogie-woogie rockabilly form of "Dance or Dance", Dance for philosophy's 10th CD single from October 2019. Written by Sho Yamamoto（ヤマモトショウ）and composed by Gento Miyano（宮野弦士）, I think "Dance or Dance" could have also become a nifty opening or ending theme for an anime in itself, but apparently this 10th single by the group was only available at concerts.

Anyways, many thanks to KHORnime for these earworms!