Izu no Kaze/Nana Mizuki -- Konpeki no al Fine（紺碧のアル・フィーネ）

 

It was exactly five years ago today that I posted Shonan no Kaze's（湘南乃風）"Grand Blue", the bro-tastic opening theme to the Summer 2018 anime of the same name. At the time I wrote up the article, I was just on the verge of watching Episode 1. Oh, how very poignant. Little did I know that I would have the most hilarious time over the next three months watching those lunkheads Iori and Kohei fighting and mucking about on the Izu Peninsula and occasionally go diving (but mostly going drinking). Just about every character on the show had some quirk about them which could be lit like the "oolong tea" into some of the funniest humour ever seen on anime.

I knew that "Grand Blue" was a star-studded affair in terms of the seiyuu cast but I finally realized that I'd already known the actors behind the Peek-a-Boo club leaders, Shinji "Tokki" Tokita and Ryujiro "Bukki" Kotobuki: Hiroki Yasumoto（安元洋貴）and Katsuyuki Konishi（小西克幸）respectively. Yasumoto was paired with fellow voice thespian Natsumi Hioka（日岡なつみ）to perform the wickedly contagious "Kumamiko Dancing" the ending theme of "Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear"（くまみこ）a few years earlier, and Konishi played the far milder Jougin Panda（常勤パンダ...Full-Time Panda） in the even earlier "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）a decade ago and he had his own musical contribution in the form of "ZOOtto, ne"（ZOOっと、ね♪）. So, they have their representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Now, to be frank, I liked the ending theme for "Grand Blue" a lot less than the celebratory opening theme, but I figure that after five years, maybe I can still mention it. "Konpeki no al Fine" (Azure al Fine) sounds like a pop/rock piece from a Johnny's Entertainment musical as performed by the two main characters, Iori (Yuuma Uchida/内田雄馬) and Kohei (Ryohei Kimura/木村良平), with karaoke support from Tokki and Bukki. Together, they were put together as Izu no Kaze（伊豆乃風）.

I hadn't been sure about what the title meant. First, I was wondering who Al Fine was but then putting the "name" through the search engine, I finally discovered that it's actually a musical term whose definition I'll let you see at "The Carolingian Realm". Perhaps "Konpeki no al Fine" is actually showing that score direction.

But Izu no Kaze's version was just the four dudes singing karaoke on behalf of the original singer, Kohei's oshi, aidoru/seiyuu/diving enthusiast Kaya Mizuki（水樹カヤ） as played by the one-and-only Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）just for the ending credits of the beloved Episode 11. She has apparently appeared in the manga though not in the anime...which begs the question: When will Season 2 ever come to pass? Ah, I should mention that Ryutaro Fujinaga（藤永龍太郎）and Ryota Suemasu（末益涼太） were behind words and music respectively; both are part of the composing group Elements Garden.