Isao Sasaki & Columbia Yurikago Kai -- Daikū Maryū Gaiking（大空魔竜ガイキング）

 

Another passing that I have to note, unfortunately. I was checking my Mixi account this morning when I came across the news that TV and film composer Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）had passed a few days ago on April 24th at the age of 89. Kikuchi was responsible for the music behind a number of anime, tokusatsu and cop series including the very first tokusatsu series that I'd ever seen "Chojin Barom-1"（超人バロム・1...Superman Barom-1）and the police series "G-MEN★75". He also came up with Meiko Kaji's（梶芽衣子）"Urami Bushi"（怨み節）, a kayo ballad that had also got into Quentin Tarentino's "Kill Bill".

Looking at his Wikipedia biography, a newspaper in his native Aomori Prefecture noted that if Kikuchi ever got onto a project, it would always be a success, and that same newspaper moreover stated that he was responsible for the pattern of having a heroic theme for the opening of an anime and a melancholy ballad at the end.

There are many of a certain age, including myself, who remember the "Force Five" collection of mecha anime which hit North American shores in the late 1970s, just before "Robotech", aka "Macross", did. The second entry in the series was "Danguard Ace" whose theme song had originally been recorded by the legend Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）and composed by Kikuchi.

Well, Sasaki and Kikuchi were also together when they worked on the fifth entry in "Force Five", "Daikū Maryū Gaiking" (Divine Demon-Dragon Gaiking). Now, when it comes to the theme songs, the ones that I remember are the theme for the first "Starvengers", aka "Getter Robo G" in Japan (I'll have to do that one soon) and the one for "Gaiking". 

Simply titled "Daikū Maryū Gaiking", Kikuchi's theme was heroic and slightly disco at the same time, not surprising since the show premiered in April 1976. And it reflected the awesome concept of a gigantic airborne carrier shaped like a dragon which could spit out parts to create the mighty Gaiking. Now that was something worth waking up early for!

The "Force Five" shows didn't have the sung versions of the theme songs during the opening credits so all we got for "Gaiking" was the empty karaoke version and even then it was plenty epic. Yet, there is no one like having the original with the golden tones of veteran anison singer Isao Sasaki and the Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロムビアゆりかご会）at the mike. I'm sure that whenever Gaiking kicked major mecha butt, the theme would come roaring on and kids would be jumping up and down. Kougo Hotomi（保富康午）provided the lyrics with Kikuchi handling music and arrangement.