Hiro Tsunoda -- Believe

 

My friend Scott from "Holly Jolly X'Masu", the podcast that deals with all things Japanese Christmas, has put up his most recent episode which deals with singer-songwriter and musician Hiro Tsunoda（つのだ☆ひろ）and his 1991 album "Ballad Xmas". There are some really nice soulful tracks including the first one "Merry Christmas Baby", so I hope that you'll give it a try. I'll be holding "Merry Christmas Baby" for either later on in the annual KKP Xmas season or I may just post it in the dog days of summer as I sometimes do simply to remind folks that, yes Virginia, there is an Xmas season within some months.

As a bit of an aside, does anyone remember Paul Verhoeven's 1997 take on Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers"? It was tongue-in-cheek but I loved the action and I did like Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown as the rough-and-tough military men.

Had no idea about this one. Well, almost a decade earlier, there had been a 6-episode Japanese OVA created in 1988 based on "Starship Troopers" titled "Uchuu no Senshi"（宇宙の戦士...Warriors of Space）. 

Despite the limited number of episodes, there were a slew of theme songs included in the OVA. One that was used for Episodes 1 and 6 in the opening and Episode 2 for the ending was Tsunoda's "Believe". Composed by the singer and written by Linda Hennrick, "Believe" has that soulful melody which could have been used for an old Miller Beer commercial when the guys have gone through a hard day of work and have earned themselves a sunset round at the nearest bar. Otherwise, the guys were space soldiers who had spent days and nights mowing down gigantic insects and now have earned a reprieve at the local canteen. It's Miller Time!🍺