Mami Koyama & Koorogi '73 -- Akogare no Suppaman（あこがれのスッパマン）

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Just the one article tonight since I was out all day today with friends for brunch and then we caught the latest incarnation of "Superman" on the big screen at the theatre. 

I'll be honest. I had my doubts about 2025's "Superman" with David Corenswet playing the Man of Steel because of what had come recently before. I mean, I liked Henry Cavill as Superman but I don't think his movies were executed particularly well. So I did have my suspicions about this new one. However, it actually worked out nicely for the most part although there seemed to be a few points of convenient plotting which had me smirking. It struck as being a mix of "Superman II" (1981) and the Marvel stuff, and I thought that the cast got their characters off to a good start for any potential sequels. Basically, compared to George Reeves' smiling Superman, Christopher Reeve's classic and stalwart Superman, and then Cavill's grim Superman, I see Corenswet's depiction as the somewhat Sad Sack or Hey, Dude Superman.

I was actually hoping to find some kayo kyoku that had something to do with Superman. There was nothing connected with the movie, bur I remember that there was a Superman in the manga-turned-anime series "Dr. Slump"（Dr.スランプ）in the early 1980s. Known as Suppaman, this guy was no hero but a jerk who may have looked like Kal-El but had the temperament and vindictiveness of the Lex Luthor I saw on screen today as played by Nicholas Hoult, as you can see above.

Not sure when the pickled plum-sucking Suppaman made his first appearance on Penguin Island but apparently, an insert song in tribute to him did come out in Episode 121 of the long-running "Dr. Slump" (so maybe sometime in 1983 considering the show's debut in 1981). Titled "Akogare no Suppaman" (Our Beloved Superman), this was recorded by Arale-chan（アラレちゃん）herself, Mami Koyama（小山茉美）, with support from the chorus group Koorogi '73（こおろぎ'73）. Written by Kayoko Fuyumori（冬社花代子）and composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）as a cute little kiddie march, this particular Superman doesn't really deserve the cheerfully heroic song but Arale-chan had had more than a few ways to bring him down to Earth.