One Step Communicate -- Atsui Kimochi（あつい気持ち）

 

I remember some years ago when my anime buddy and I were still doing the biweekly Routine of anime-and-food during which we caught an interesting anime OVA from 1995 titled "Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard"（神秘の世界エルハザード...The Magnificent World of El-Hazard） about a group of high school students transported into another world of intrigue and mysticism. The opening theme by Seikou Nagaoka（長岡成貢）said as much with a sumptuous overture reminiscent of John Williams.

If you take a look at the KKP file on Nagaoka, you'll find that he later went into producing these club music songs that probably had listeners shimmying on the floor. Try to imagine Johnny Williams with a backwards cap and T-shirt mixing turntables. That of course was just me jesting but intriguingly enough, the immediate sequel to "El-Hazard" actually did go in that direction when it came to the opening theme tune.

My fellow contributor HRLE92 provided an introduction earlier this year to the band One Step Communicate via their 1994 self-titled debut album of decade-specific City Pop and R&B. And here I am to bring vocalist Kenichi Nakagawa（中川顕一）, guitarist Hiroyuki Yano（矢野弘佳）, and bassist Takeshi Kudo（工藤毅）back since they provided the second opening theme for the TV sequel of "El-Hazard" which spanned late 1995 and early 1996. "Atsui Kimochi" (Passionate Feelings) isn't a grand orchestral piece but a 90s City Pop tune of champagne & caviar dimensions. Written by U-DAI and composed by Yano, the characters on the show could easily have been galloping on the streets of West Shinjuku and fighting over who paid the bill in that swanky hotel restaurant rather than battling exotic soldiers and monsters in an isekai. 

Nothing wrong with "Atsui Kimochi" at all (I will always appreciate sophisticated pop horns) but I just thought it was a bit odd placing it as a theme song for "El-Hazard". The single came out in January 1996.