Within our television viewing habits as kids, one of the genres we watched was nature programming. "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" was must-see TV and every episode, we got to see Marlin Perkins, Jim Fowler and Stan Brock observe and occasionally wrestle the heck out of the bigger beasts. In fact, it was the running gag on the late-night talk shows that Jim would be getting mauled by a lion while Marlin was narrating the adventure while sipping on a martini.
Somehow, I get the feeling that Japanese TV coverage of animals has been far more docile. In fact, between 1983 and 1992, TBS had run a popular show titled "Waku Waku Doubutsu Land"（わくわく動物ランド...Exciting Animal Land） which combined a couple of TV show genres: the nature show and the quiz show.
As for the ending theme, it's natural that the producers would have wanted an adorable voice singing it, and what more adorable voice was there at the time than the one belonging to actress/singer Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）? So, she was tasked to record the cute march "Sukoshi Dake Yasashiku" (Just A Little Bit Nicer) as the co-A-side to the cool "Tantei Monogatari" (探偵物語）from May 1983. Created by the same triumvirate, lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）and arranger Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, this is a song so nice and kid-friendly that the animals themselves were probably prancing happily all over the field while listening to it.
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