GANASIA -- Electrical Communication/BrandNew Way

 

Slightly annoying but earlier today just after lunch, we had a building-wide power outage. Happily, it was just for an hour but of course I'd been left wondering whether we would eventually have to throw out perishables from the fridge. Never got that bad thankfully.

I had heard of the character Rockman 8（ロックマン8）or as he's known outside of Japan, Mega Man 8, but didn't know that he was the star of a 1996 Capcom game, "Rockman 8 Metal Heroes"（ロックマン8 メタルヒーローズ）. That opening credits sequence above sure makes the game look like a full-blown anime.

The opening theme for "Rockman 8 Metal Heroes" is a real rouser to get the kids (and adults) up and at 'em for the adventures to come. "Electrical Communication" is performed breathlessly by the duo GANASIA as their December 1996 debut single, and I did mention them a little less than a month ago for their February 1997 second and final single "Grow up Potential ~ Yume ni Mukatte"（夢に向かって）. There is something so very 90s Japanese pop/rock about "Electrical Communication" and yet when I see the cover with the ladies on it, I can't help but be reminded of the duo Tomo-chan and her buddy Misuzu from the Winter 2023 anime "Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko!"（トモちゃんは女の子！...Tomo-chan is a Girl!）.

GANASIA also sang the ending theme for the game, "BrandNew Way". Both songs were written and composed by one-half of the duo Takumi Ozawa（尾澤拓実）and I gather that she was the one who decided that the first two words were to be merged as they are. The same urgent beat is there but this time, there is a bit more of a technopop feeling along with a rap.