Kimiko Saito & Fukushi Ochiai -- Lonely Chaplin（ロンリー・チャプリン）

 

Now that we're approaching the end of March, it looks like the anime winter season for this year is also coming to an end. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the totality of some of the series on air over the past few months.

"Snack Basue"（スナックバス江）is one of them. As one YouTuber reviewed it, it won't be for everyone and I kinda figured that most of the scenes will just be in the titular cozy bar with the regulars doing all sorts of inside banter. But that's the type of stuff I like, so "Snack Basue" and I ought to get along just fine. Besides the whole thing about foot massage in Episode 5 is a literal whack at all that Japanese television coverage of one famous foot masseur easing/torturing female tarento.

One of the gimmicks of the show that I've already cottoned onto is the rotating series of ending themes per each episode which has been focused on some of those songs of yesteryear. They've been provided via the characters' karaoke performances in Snack Basue. It was almost a couple of months ago when I posted the first one of these covers, Anri's（杏里）debut single "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）by proprietress Akemi（明美）as played by seiyuu Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）.

For Episode 7, the song du nuit is another favourite of mine: "Lonely Chaplin" originally by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and his big sister, Kiyomi Suzuki（鈴木聖美）back in 1987. This time though, it's seiyuu Kimiko Saito（斉藤貴美子）as Basue Mama（バス江ママ）and Fukushi Ochiai（落合福嗣）as regular customer Tatsu-nii（タツ兄）behind the mikes. Watching and hearing these guys perform is rather ironic since that is exactly the way that I first found out about the cool tune...watching a couple of people perform "Lonely Chaplin" at a karaoke bar over thirty years ago, though this was in Gunma instead of Hokkaido. Definitely link back to the original song and listen to Martin and Kiyomi!