Megumi Yuuki -- YOU/TWO OF US

 

Well, I figure that if I'm gonna talk about songs from the 1988 anime adaptation of the food-based manga "Oishinbo"（美味しんぼ...The Gourmet）, I simply must have something gourmet as a thumbnail. So, KKP readers, the above is a bowl of blowfish hot pot or fugu nabe. 

Actually, Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" and I had a conversation last weekend and the topic of the openings and endings for the anime came up. We were kinda marveling at the cityscapes during the credit sequences. Interestingly enough, I was reminded of another successful anime adaptation of the 1980s, "City Hunter", and I could see some similarities between it and "Oishinbo": smart and snarky hero in Tokyo accompanied by a long-suffering woman who may or may not have feelings for him, and cityscape credits.

Over a year ago, "Oishinbo" got its first representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via Yuma Nakamura's（中村由真）"Dang Dang Ki ni Naru"（Dang Dang 気になる）which was the second opening theme of the series.

Well, the first opening theme was "YOU" by singer and TV personality Megumi Yuuki（結城めぐみ）who was around 19 years old when she released the song as her debut single in November 1988. Reminiscent of those brash and proud pop tunes by singers within and outside of anime back in that decade...we're talking about folks like Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Miki Asakura（麻倉未稀）..."YOU" is a pretty fitting title for the bright-lights-big-city feeling of decadence back then. Yoshikatsu Hirade（平出よしかつ）provided the lyrics while Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常弘）made the melody for the happy urban arrangement by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）, who had also provided the music for the entire series.

On the B-side of "YOU" is the first ending theme also sung by Yuuki and created by the songwriters mentioned above. Not surprisingly, in contrast with the upbeat "YOU", "TWO OF US" is a softer love ballad of the city, and I think that it's good enough for a City Pop band like Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）to cover.

The Osaka-born Yuuki released a total of five singles and one album up to 1991. According to her J-Wiki profile, she had a brief marriage to a baseball player on the current Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the late 1990s. She has been operating a vocal training school along with an esthetic salon.