Ichiro Mizuki and the Columbia Yurikago Kai -- Bokura no Mazinger Z（ぼくらのマジンガーＺ）

 

A little earlier today via Twitter, commenter Francium 11 was kind enough to show her vaunted Texas breakfast since she's from that area in the United States. Everything is big in the Lone Star State (I really have to try their Sweet Tea) so I professed my envy to her and noted that though I used to inhale breakfast buffets in the past, I can no longer do so. Going into my gastronomical nostalgia, a bunch of us from university went to a Szechuan hot pot place in Scarborough, one part of Toronto, one Monday night and six folks including myself managed to devour close to forty plates worth of beef in one sitting. That's a lot of protein!

Just around lunchtime today, the longtime NHK program "Sarameshi",（サラメシ）which whimsically focuses on what regular folks have for lunch, did their occasional feature at the end of the episode paying to a tribute to a recently departed celebrity and their favourite lunch. Today's celebrity was the Emperor of Anison, singer-songwriter Ichiro Mizuki（水木一郎）who had passed away on December 6th 2022 at the age of 74. He apparently was a great fancier for sukiyaki-style shabu-shabu at a Shibuya restaurant, so instead of swishing slices of beef in a clear flavourful stock, he preferred the dark sukiyaki tare.

So as such, I've decided to begin Tuesday's round of KKP songs with a Mizuki number. Last year, I wrote about what was arguably his most famous contribution to anime, the opening theme for the original "Mazinger Z"（マジンガーZ） which had its run between 1972 and 1974. The ending theme didn't have much change to the title with merely the addition of a first-person plural pronoun to create "Bokura no Mazinger Z" (Our Mazinger Z).

Once again, it was the powerful Mizuki joined by the children's chorus group Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロムビアゆりかご会）to sing this ending theme which not only sounded like a pretty boss downtown kayo but also something with a bit of samba swing. From what little I remember of the anime itself, Mazinger Z could do many amazing things; maybe doing the Watusi was one of them. As was the case with the opening theme, "Bokura no Mazinger Z" was also created by lyricist Kazuo Koike（小池一夫）and composer Chuumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）.

It's Tuesday and it's Wednesday...doing the Watusi!