The song and dance group trf was a unit that I had always associated with 1990s J-Pop starting with their mega-hit "Boy Meets Girl". For a period of several years as I was getting acclimated to the Tokyo life, YU-KI and her gang were seemingly everywhere on the airwaves and television with their dance-pop hits. But as we approached the end of the century, they seemed to do the slow fade from pop culture.
But recently, I discovered that trf had provided a snazzy opening theme song to a 2007 anime adaptation of the manga "Wangan Midnight"（湾岸ミッドナイト...Bayshore Midnight）...a whole decade after assuming that trf had been relegated to the potential nostalgia tour of pop culture history. "lights and any more" may sound like a rogue dependent clause but its release in July of that year as the group's first digital download single provided a good high-octane boost to the opening credits promising lots of furious racing along Tokyo's Bayshore Route. The song was also a part of trf's 10th album "Gravity" from February 2009 which scored a No. 42 ranking on Oricon.
I don't recall all that well about being driven on Bayshore since getting rides was quite rare during my time in Japan with all of those subways and trains to rely upon. Plus, taxis can really rack up the price. But I can imagine some of the flair and romance of going along the highways and byways of Tokyo from seeing some of the videos.
"Wangan Midnight" has that "initial d" feel to it at least from the opening. Anyway, great find! I had no idea TRF was still active in the early 2000's.
ReplyDeleteFireminer here. You know, I've always wondered how trf managed to have so many hits in a scant few years in the 90s, yet they faded away so quickly. Even their fellow t-komuro alumni Globe seemed to have lasted longer.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not surprise that one of their songs ended up in Wangan Midnight. Ever since Initial D the global perception of Japanese street racing has always gone hand-in-hand with 90s dance-pop. I'm seeing American gearheads getting nostalgic for the 2000s-era neon-decal hot rods, so who know, maybe bands like trf are going to have a renaissance.
Hello, Fireminer. It's very possible that the 90s J-Pop may make a resurgence. I think there have been such revivals of a certain decade's music two or three decades later.
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