Circus -- Stardust no Umi（スターダストの海）

 

Oh, those old Japanese game shows. I think those were going from the 1960s into the 1990s, and maybe even into the early 2000s. I don't get the impression that those are proliferating anymore although I believe that former Arashi（嵐）member Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）may still be pushing ahead with his replacement for "VS. Arashi". By the way, I should congratulate Mr. Aiba for becoming a father.

Maybe the most famous one during the 1980s was the rousing Fuji-TV program "Naruhodo! The World"（なるほど!ザ・ワールド）with amiable Kin'ya Aikawa（愛川欽也）and the statuesque Eriko Kusuta（楠田恵理子）at 170 cm (well, in her heels, she was probably around my height, and I don't consider myself to be tall at all). I didn't really become a fan of "Naruhodo!" but I knew the basic premise of the show's reporters going all around the world to come up with questions to stump the celebrity panel. "Naruhodo!" was a show of its times in Japan, when even before the Bubble Era of hedonism, folks were getting really itchy to board planes and travel to those far-flung destinations, spending all that yen.

There was also a similar quiz show on rival network NTV called "Sharp World Quiz Kan Kan Gaku Gaku"（SHARPワールドクイズ・カンカンガク学）which had a much briefer time on air (and fairly late at night, coming on at 10 pm) at only a little over a year between 1984 and 1985. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any evidence of it on YouTube, but apparently, the premise was more on the law, presumably on the more arcane rules and regulations within society. There's a bit of a pun in the title with it being translated as "Sharp's World Quiz Clang Clang Shake Shake" or "Sharp's World Quiz Clang Clang Shake Study" because of that final kanji.

But putting the game show itself aside, the theme song was rather interesting. "Stardust no Umi" (Stardust Sea) by the vocal group Circus（サーカス）is a pretty classy and soaring tune that has hints of Bobby Caldwell thanks to the horns, and the group itself has always struck me as being imbued with the sophistication of the Manhattan Transfer, so "Stardust no Umi" sounds like something to accompany an outing to a pricey bar up in a skyscraper and not necessarily to a game show about legalities.

Hey, I'm not complaining though. It's smooth City Pop and I'm always all for that. Anyways, "Stardust no Umi" was written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. This was Circus' 18th single from May 1984.