K.K. Slider -- Hazure 02 (K.K. Sparkle)

 

I did hear about the Nintendo Switch game "Animal Crossing" or "Doubutsu no Mori"（どうぶつの森）as it's known in Japanese a few years ago but not being a huge gamer (outside of the really intense bout of Solitaire), I hadn't realized that this was a franchise with a number of related game software coming out over the years. Well, it was only a few days ago that I discovered on YouTube what would happen if a song request was made to the canine character K.K. Slider that wasn't on his setlist (if a live-action version were ever filmed, I'd want Michael Keaton to play Slider simply because of those huge eyebrows).

To be specific, I'm referring to the one 2020 game in the franchise known as "Atsumare Doubutsu no Mori"（あつまれ どうぶつの森...Animal Crossing: New Horizons）. If Slider doesn't recognize the song, he can play three choices of his own music that have been titled "Hazure 01", "Hazure 02" and "Hazure 03" with the hazure（外れ）meaning "Invalid". "Hazure 02" just happens to be made in the City Pop vein with folks comparing it to Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Sparkle" from 1982. As the folks at the "Nookipedia" site put it:

(It) is a funky song with lighthearted major key chords and a breezy melody. It sounds reminiscent of the city pop genre, a form of Japanese funk which was popular in the 1980s, and particularly sounds close to Tatsuro Yamashita's 1982 single, "Sparkle". An official remix of this song is available on the Totakeke Music Instrumental Selection album, under the name "Hazure02 -City & Pop Ver.-".

Might I add that there is also a pleasant undercurrent of bossa nova in the song that has also been called "K.K. Sparkle" in tribute to Tats' classic? I've also discovered that the original version has also shown up in the June 2022 "Atsumare Doubutsu no Mori Original Soundtrack 2". 

I gather that the above is the really City Pop remix from "Totakeke Music Instrumental Selection". Also, there is a marvelous cover version of "Hazure 02" done by Alejandro Espinosa and his band that got posted up on YouTube three years ago.