My anime buddy will most likely show some disappointment at my revelation, but I have never seen "Bubblegum Crisis"（バブルガムクライシス）. In fact, I had to look up the Wikipedia article for the early 1987 anime to find out what it was all about. But seeing some of the footage did get me nostalgic about how Japanimation, as it used to be called, appeared back in the old days.
Another thing that got me nostalgic? The opening theme song for the pilot of the multi-part OVA series. I mentioned "Kon'ya wa Hurricane" （Tonight is a Hurricane） several years ago in the article for Silk's "Dream Shift"（ドリーム・シフト）, another anison whose singer is actually named Kinuko Ohmori（大森絹子）, and she's the one behind "Kon'ya wa Hurricane". So, I guess it's about time that I finally gave space and time to this one.
Created by a couple of heavy hitters in the songwriting industry, lyricist Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）, "Kon'ya wa Hurricane" has that 80s anison vibe of relentlessly chugging electric guitar and thunder-pounding drums, as if Tylenol meant nothing to the musicians involved. The single was Ohmori's debut release, having come out in December 1986, a few months before "Bubblegum Crisis" premiered.
Were you able to get a hold of and read 'Newtype' magazine in the mid-80s? We had a similar magazine come out in the early 90s called Animerica, and there was also Mangajin. I think it was in one of those that I first heard of bubble gum crisis, or maybe I knew of it because of the PC Engine game "Bubblegum Crash! Knight Sabers 2034"? However, I did not know of this cool song!
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember seeing issues of "Newtype" and "Mangajin". In fact, I have some issues of the latter under my bed after so many decades. It was quite the pioneering days for Japanese pop culture in the pre-Internet era.
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