Furui Riho -- Hello

 

I was made aware recently of the coming of a surreal humour anime this summer season titled "City The Animation" based on Keiichi Arawi's（あらゐけいいち）manga "City" from 2016. Arawi is the same mangaka responsible for the loony "Nichijou"（日常）from years ago which also got turned into a popular anime produced by Kyoto Animation, and as it turns out, KyoAni was also behind the anime adaptation of "City". Looking at the trailer, I couldn't help but feel that this could have been called "Nichijou: The Next Generation".

As I recall, Kenichi "Hyadain" Maeyamada（前山田健一）was responsible for the zany opening theme of "Nichijou", "Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C"（ヒャダインのカカカタ☆カタオモイ-C）back in 2011. Well, for "City The Animation", the opening theme here has the much more grounded title of "Hello" by singer-songwriter Furui Riho. As well, Furui's approach to the song is more soulful...perhaps on the lines of gospel soul and 1970s material. It's kinda nice to bring all of the eccentric characters from the unnamed city together through this one and one commenter mentioned that there was quite a bit of heartful nostalgia in the song.

Furui hails from Hokkaido and indeed from childhood, she participated in a gospel chorus for fifteen years. She even spent a couple of years away from university by studying in my neck of the woods, Toronto, and apparently for a while, she was living quite the poor student life although people around her helped her out immensely. Once she returned in 2016, her singing and songwriting career began in earnest and "Hello", which was released in July, is just the latest of many singles she's released since 2019.