Well over a dozen years ago, my good friend and KKP contributor JTM posted one of the most epic articles for the blog regarding the "Sukeban Deka"（スケバン刑事）franchise. Unfortunately, a lot of the links to the music incorporated in the various seasons have gone dead so I'll have to somehow reconnect them.
However, I can provide my take on one of the songs that was included in there, "Shadow Hunter" by actress/aidoru Yuka Onishi（大西結花）. This came out as her 5th single from February 1987 and it was actually an insert song in "Sukeban Deka III". Considering how exciting it sounds, I was surprised that it hadn't been used as an official opening or ending theme. The intro to "Shadow Hunter" sounds like something I would have heard as a theme for a 1970s American suspense-thriller series like the ones that Quinn/Martin used to make...for that matter, maybe it could have been used as the music accompanying a transformation scene for "Sailor Moon". The rest of the song as composed by Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）and arranged by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）has that familiar feeling of an oomphed-up late 1980s aidoru tune. Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）provided the lyrics. "Shadow Hunter" was Onishi's first song to make it into the Oricon rankings by peaking at No. 17.
Yuki Saito will always be the スケバン刑事 I think of, even though she was only there for the first season and not for the 80's movies and the rest of the 1980's series. シャドウ・ハンター is EPIC!!! and a lot more exciting than the music used in the first season, which, if memory serves, was a little bit more sentimental. I do not now why but I am really fond on TV and music from last 14 years of the 昭和時代.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Saito would be THE face for the franchise, and then maybe Yoko Minamino after that. The 70s and 80s would be my "home" decades for Japanese music as well.
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