Almost five years ago in 2017, I put up an article on the groovy "Labyrinth"（ラビリンス）, a collaboration between musician/producer extraordinaire Mondo Grosso, aka Shinichi Osawa（大沢伸一）, and actress/singer/dancer Hikari Mitsushima（満島ひかり）. I had been reminded through Mitsushima's tripping the light fantastic through Hong Kong that she was indeed that third descriptor because of her time as a kid in the song-and-dance group Folder decades ago.
Well, this year, Mondo Grosso and Mitsushima got back together again, and this time, they had a couple of more big names in Japanese music helping out. Not only was Osawa providing music and Mitsushima singing, but R&B chanteuse UA wrote the lyrics and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）was on the piano for the March 2022 digital download single "In This World". A song hauntingly delivered by Mitsushima, "In This World" is a siren song set to beats as if an angel hit the dance floor and had to interpret the music (wouldn't that be an idea for an anime?). UA's lyrics seem to feel as if they were addressing the urge to get out of the shadows of self-isolation due to the pandemic and actually engage the five senses once again beyond the computer screen in a world that's worth experiencing and saving.
In an article on "In This World" for Anime News Network, there was a comment from Sakamoto stating that he hadn't been sure how he could actually contribute to such a song but Osawa's music was able to lead the way. For me, I'm glad that MG did ask The Professor to help out. It was a sign that I had wanted to hear for some time that Sakamoto was still able to work despite his cancer battles over the past few years.
The music video with Mitsushima literally dancing in air in a theatre is quite the tour-de-force performance, and it gave me a "What If?" thought. A couple of years, there was that NHK Kohaku Utagassen in which the annual New Year's Eve special had to be held without any spectators due to COVID regulations. It would have been quite the thing if "In This World" had been formulated and recorded earlier with Mitsushima appearing as part of the Red team to do this at NHK Hall. I'm not sure if that would be done now in the now-renovated facilities with full audience participation expected (unless the situation really worsens in Tokyo).
A couple of weeks following the release of the original single, an EP of "In This World" came out, and this particular track has Sakamoto performing "The Piano Mix" an orchestral instrumental.
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