Franchouchou -- Kaze no Tsuyoi Hi wa Kirai ka?（風の強い日は嫌いか）

 

I've finally started watching "Zombieland Saga Revenge"（ゾンビランドサガ リベンジ）. Those YouTube videos gave me plenty of hints of what was to come for the second season, but I'm still satisfied with what I've witnessed through the first couple of episodes.

There was quite a bit of buzz with Episode 2 since actor Hakuryu（白竜）contributed his voice as a long-standing radio host about to finally leave his post and give the keys to Franchouchou band leader Saki, his No. 1 fan, to provide the passionate energy for the soul restoration of Saga Prefecture. According to his Wikipedia profile, Hakuryu has played a lot of scheming gangland heavies in movies but here, his character of White Ryu（ホワイト竜）is a reassuring and rumbling voice of the night...kinda like a Japanese version of actor Sam Elliott, although he was probably much more of a hellraiser in his younger and less wise days.

At the end of the episode, Saki as lead vocal and Franchouchou perform a cover of an old song by White Ryu, "Kaze no Tsuyoi Hi wa Kirai ka?" (Do You Hate Windy Days?) which reminds me of the 70s/80s good time rock n' roll provided by performers and bands such as Eikichi Yazawa（矢沢永吉）and Shogo Hamada（浜田省吾）. Maybe there's even a bit of Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）in there, too. My anime buddy told me some weeks ago that Franchouchou was exploring some of the other genres this time around, so I'm definitely looking forward to the other insert songs that will be popping up.

"Kaze no Tsuyoi Hi wa Kirai ka?" was written and composed by musician and songwriter Takeshi Isozaki（磯崎健史）. I found a shortened version of White Ryu's original song which has a much more laidback arrangement but still feels like that exhortation to get out of the doldrums and seize the day.