Kiyoe-chan -- Edogawa Bojou（江戸川慕情）

 

As has been the case for Friday nights on TV Japan for several months (although when I wrote the first KKP article regarding the show, it had been shown on Wednesdays), we've been tucking into our regular episodes of NHK's educational variety program "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru!"（チコちゃんに叱られる!...Chiko-chan Will Scold You!）. Starring comedian and actor Takashi Okamura（岡村隆史）as the human side of the co-hosting equation, the other side is represented by the eternally 5-year-old CG figure of Chiko-chan who knows all and tells all, and usually chews out the celebrity guests for not knowing some form of arcane knowledge.

The thing is that there is a third corner to the hosting triangle although she usually doesn't show up until the last few minutes of the show. Kiyoe-chan（キョエちゃん）is the crow who loves to troll Okamura in her snappy yet growly voice, and I've still yet to know who she's voiced by.

Strangely enough, there are already two articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with themes for "Chiko-chan", "Shikararetai!"（叱られたい！）and even Kiyoe-chan's ending theme for the show "Daisukitte Imi da yo"（大好きって意味だよ）. But beginning this year, a new second ending theme by the crow was created and it's called "Edogawa Bojou" (Longing for the Edo River). The bird might be snarky as all heck but she does have a soft spot for enka as she croons about her love for her home area around the major Tokyo river and perhaps for the megalopolis' eastern ward which has the same name.

Singer-songwriter and former leader for the rock band Unicorn, Tamio Okuda（奥田民生）, produced "Edogawa Bojou" with Mr. M behind the lyrics and Shitami（したみ）taking care of the music. If neither of those two songwriters don't ring a bell, don't worry. "Edogawa Bojou" was the final product of a contest for the musically inclined segment of viewers to come up with a song to match the title, so over the weeks, various citizens sent in videos of how the song could sound ranging in genre from folk to enka to pop, before this enka tune was finally selected. Since then, as Kiyoe-chan is singing "Edogawa Bojou", viewers' footage of doing their own version of this now official song has been appearing alongside the crow as part of the ending credits including the above performance.