Miki Suzie Matsubara -- Ganmo Doki!（ガンモ・ドキッ!）/Hyokopon Kankei（ヒョコポン関係）

 

I gather that back in the day, anime comedies always involved some alien or magical creature getting into the lives of a feckless schoolboy and creating general mayhem for him and his buddies. For me, that would include "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）and "Obake no Q-Taro"（オバケのQ太郎）. The above 1984 anime adaptation of the 1982 manga "Gu-Gu Ganmo"（Gu-Guガンモ）is something that I had never heard about before, but it fulfills the trope, although this time, the weird character is in the form of a pudgy chicken named Ganmo.

I've been reading some of the comments for the YouTube clips of "Gu-Gu Ganmo" which seem to feature the hapless Hanpeita ending up half-naked. Well, back in the day, the animated funnies in Japan didn't seem to mind having nudity among the kids as long as it was deemed in good fun. "Dr. Slump"（ドクタースランプ）was practically the master of the bawdy.

What got more of my attention was the opening theme song for "Gu-Gu Ganmo", "Ganmo Doki!" (Ganmo Gulp!). Written and composed by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）, this was recorded by the one-and-only Miki Matsubara（松原みき）, although for some reason, she opted for the name Suzie Matsubara（スージー・松原）. One comment under one of the videos for the song mentioned that she probably went for the name change out of a certain sense of embarrassment over doing an anison. Frankly, I'm not sure whether that was the case since Miki/Susie certainly doesn't sound as if she's phoning her performance in. Moreover, I don't know how much of a household name she became in the half-decade since her big hit "Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）, but her distinctive voice of sweet, spicy and sultry is still rather recognizable. Maybe it was more of an affectation that Miki Matsubara just opted to go with Susie whenever she was doing anison, and apparently she did quite a few of them from the 1990s. But if someone has a different theory, please let me know.

Mori's melody for "Ganmo Doki!" has got that tropical Latin jazz and funk that I've heard before on either side of the Pacific, but it was the comment under the J-Wiki description of the theme song that got my interest. Apparently, the composer had woven it under the genre known as Funk-a-Latina（ファンカラティーナ）. That was news to me since it was the first time I heard of it (love the opening credit dance sequence, by the way). It took a bit of doing but I found the "Rate Your Music" site had some information on this genre: 

Funk-a-latina is a term most likely coined in Japan for a danceable, Pop-oriented and primarily British subgenre of New Wave that, as the name implies, takes inspiration from the rhythms of Funk and Latin music (including both Hispanic American Music and Brazilian Music). Specifically, funk-a-latina is closely related to the Britfunk offshoot of Jazz-Funk, incorporating its energetic, uptempo beat and heavy use of brass; its Latin influences show through the incorporation of Salsa and Samba rhythms as well as percussion. Other major influences include Disco and the vocal stylings of British Blue-Eyed Soul. Sophisti-Pop in comparison is less manic, lacks the latin sound, and is much more jazz oriented.

The interesting part is right in the first line where the name Funk-a-Latina was supposedly whipped up in Japan. Maybe it was a Dentsu invention or something that the record company thought up of. Regardless, if that is indeed the case, then I believe Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）"Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne"（君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）could certainly be considered to be part of the genre. Matt Bianco is a band that I also know, but I'm also reminded of Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

The ending theme, "Hyokopon Kankei" (Hyokpon Relationship), was also recorded by Suzie and created by Mori. It's not quite as standout as the opening theme but it does have that old-style rock n' roll feeling. 

Seiyuu Yuko Goto（後藤邑子）did her own version of "Ganmo Doki!" as a track on her 3rd album "Gotoson"（ごとそん）from January 2010 which provides plenty of anison covers. It reached No. 74 on Oricon.