.jpg)
One of the more common catchphrases and situations in anime at one point, the "moshi, moshi...keisatsu desu ka" (Hello, is this the police?) was definitely the existential salve for one character to erase the presence of a more troublesome character. If a 911 response in Toronto were only that quick nowadays...
Anyways, the preamble ramble this time is for Hidemi Ishikawa's（石川秀美）5th single "Hey! Mister Policeman" which first made its presence known in May 1983. Written and composed by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, perhaps she was inspired by The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" in terms of the title and the catchy rock n' roll arrangement by Kazuo Otani（大谷和夫）. As for Matsumiya's lyrics, I'm not sure whether Hidemi-chan is calling for a cop to stop a particularly pesky (and perhaps wealthy) suitor from following her or perhaps she's asking for the officer to stop the guy himself from moving his eyes to other female targets other than her.
According to the J-Wiki article for "Hey! Mister Policeman", it was Ishikawa's first single to get into the Top Ten of Oricon by placing in at No. 10. Furthermore, according to the aidoru's then-manager, everyone had been so busy that they didn't have enough time to take a suitable photo for the single jacket. While everyone was wringing their hands at this situation, Ishikawa and company went down to Guam for filming during which they ran into a local police officer, so taking advantage of things, Ishikawa was able to get some cute photos with the cop. There was the bright idea about using one of those Hidemi-and-cop shots as the jacket, but they simply weren't in time for the first production run of the record. Basically, the result was that "Hey! Mister Policeman" ended up with two different single jackets that you can see in the video above. I guess all involved made do with one of those initial photos after all.
「Hey! ミスター・ポリスマン」 feels like the soundtrack to driving through Tokyo at night in an old TV drama where everything is slightly exaggerated and romantic. It’s upbeat and cute on the surface, but what really makes it memorable is how committed it is to the bit. Correct me if I am wrong but I guess she’s basically saying, “Officer, this guy is causing emotional damage — please do something about him”.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about it is that it so up beat! She’s annoyed at this guy for disappearing and being unreliable, but she’s also clearly thrilled by him (Maybe he is playing hard to get?). The whole song has this “I know he’s trouble, but I’m still going to chase after him” energy that a lot of 80s idol songs had. And musically, it sits in that interesting space between traditional idol kayōkyoku and pro-city pop. It’s brighter and more playful than the cool, sophisticated city-pop, but the urban imagery — streets, cars, nightlife, motion — gives it that same nostalgic atmosphere.
Hello, Brian. This whole song could have been converted into a J-comedy but I guess those days of dramatizing kayo kyoku were gone by the 80s.
Delete