I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Last week, I posted up "Sagamihara Singers" in tribute to the fact that my hometown of Toronto and the city of Sagamihara had a sister-city relationship. Tonight, I'm talking about "Nagoya Singers" but my inspiration isn't connected to any similar bond between Nagoya and a Canadian city. In fact, I don't think Nagoya has any sister-city relationships with any urban zones in my nation although it does have them with Los Angeles, Mexico City and Sydney.
Nope, the impetus for writing about singers or bands who come from Japan's 4th-largest city is today's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information show. It just so happens that the focus was on Nagoya and all of those scrumptious dishes that originate there and elsewhere in its Aichi Prefecture. When I saw that wonderful dish of grilled eel called hitsumabushi（ひつまぶし）on my screen earlier, I just went "OK...got my second article for Hump Day!". But have a look at hitsumabushi and some of the other famous local treats in the video above from Mui's Diary.
Anyways, I've got four acts here from Nagoya. Please enjoy!
Anyways, Nagoya has been in the news for being one of the hottest places in Japan right now, so I'm hoping that folks there are trying to keep cool and safe. As a PS, you can also take a look at another Nagoya specialty, ten-musu（天むす）, from YouTuber Just One Cookbook.
I remember when I first heard "Omoide ga Ippai" (Full of Memories) by the folk-pop duo H2O on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" on CHIN-FM decades ago. Not having known about its status as the first ending theme for the 1983 anime "Miyuki"（みゆき）, I found it a splendid wistful ballad. Years later, the 3rd-year homeroom teachers of the school that I had taught during my time on the JET Programme sang the song for the soon-to-be graduates. Not a dry eye in the room. And I've learned that "Omoide ga Ippai" has been a stalwart song for Japanese graduations.
Well, commenter Brian Mitchell asked me earlier about some of the cover versions and not surprisingly, considering how beloved and sentimental "Omoide ga Ippai" has become since the early 1980s, the list of singers who have given their own versions of the ballad reads like a Santa Claus list. At Brian's request, I went over three of those covers.
The first one here is by actress and singer Mikuni Shimokawa（下川みくに）, and although she's only had one role as an anime seiyuu, she often sings her fair share of anison. But in this case, she did cover "Omoide ga Ippai" via her December 2003"Review ~ Shimokawa Mikuni Seishun Anison Cover Album"（Review 〜下川みくに青春アニソンカバーアルバム〜）. Her take is an even breezier and languid take on the anison classic.
MINMI is a singer that I have mentioned on KKP before when she collaborated with m-flo for the dance hall-friendly "Lotta Love". However, she's regularly a reggae singer and that's the genre which is powering her cover of "Omoide ga Ippai" which is a track on her August 2011 album "The Heart Song Collection" which is filled with tunes that she enjoyed as a teenager.
Nao Toyama（東山奈央）is a seiyuu and singer who's shown up on the blog a number of times in the past and she sings "Omoide ga Ippai" for the second in the series of anime character albums for the anime "Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai"（神のみぞ知るセカイ...The World God Only Knows） which was released in 2014. Under her character of Kanon Nakagawa（中川かのん）, she sings the song under a shoegaze and pop arrangement.
After reading Rocket Brown's article on Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）beautifully delivered but cautionary tale of seeking fame and fortune in Hollywood, "Natalie", I discovered that any signs of the original song on YouTube had been excised more thoroughly than Natalie's happiness and hope (but take a look at that article...all is not lost). 😒
However, in my search on YouTube, I did find a cover version of "Natalie" by the veteran band Sentimental City Romance（センチメンタル・シティ・ロマンス）. Now, the cordial relationship between Takeuchi and SCR has been around since Mariya's first album in 1978, "Beginning", when the band contributed to some of the tracks there. And I think there has been an affinity between the two in terms of their choice of music since both she and Sentimental City Romance have enjoyed playing and singing in the country genre. In fact, SCR vocalist Nobutaka Tsugei（告井延隆）arranged the original "Natalie" when it came out in 1981.
So I gather that it was a natural for SCR to cover the song itself many years later through the band's August 2011 album"Yattokame"（やっとかめ）. There hasn't been a dramatic change in arrangement. It's still the most laidback country and pop ballad and Mariya herself is helping out on background vocals. And indeed, it's still a lovely song about a tragic tale.
If there were a Weird Al Yankovic type in Japan, I would recommend him to give his take on "Natalie"...about a good person gone bad. However, I would also re-title it into "Anakin".
Happy Monday! And perhaps that goes especially for the Japanese since the Golden Week holidays are right around the corner. It'll be interesting to see where a lot of folks will be headed this year. When I was living in Japan, I basically treated each GW as a staycation because I appreciated an empty Tokyo even more.
"Bitter Sweet Friday" might sound more appropriate for the day when we handle the urban contemporary material on KKP, but it's been in the backlog long enough. A track from bird's May 2011 7th album"New Basic", this one sounds anything but bittersweet. If anything, it sounds quite hopeful along that arrangement that brings to mind the Motown sound and Stevie Wonder. The singer was the lyricist here while Yoshito Tanaka（田中義人）took care of the zesty melody.
It's frigid as all heck out there in Toronto but March 17th, aka St. Patrick's Day, wasn't going to send anyone away from the Irish pubs, and I'm assuming that the places are still jam-packed with folks enjoying the Irish holiday. I personally don't celebrate the holiday myself but I remember a few times back in my Tokyo days when I joined fellow teachers and students for a pint at the local Irish pubs there such as Dubliners.
I recall in past years that I tried to come up with kayo kyoku with an Irish theme on St. Patrick's Day, but came up wanting. I think in those cases, I searched and perhaps found some songs with "Green" in their titles.
Well, I realized that the 1913 folk song"Danny Boy" has been sung in Japan through what I've learned while doing the blog over the years and from performances on TV by the older kayo kyoku singers. Although I don't know when the above performance was made, Akira Fuse（布施明）has given his own rendition of the tear worthy ballad. And below, there is singer-songwriter Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）with her cover of "Danny Boy" which was on her 2011 album"My Classics 3" with her own Japanese lyrics.
I just had to include Bing Crosby's take from 1943. Anyways, I hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves out there tonight.
Earlier today, I got a nice message from regular commenter Brian Mitchell that NHK's"Uta Con"（うたコン） was going with an anison theme for this week's episode. Well, I already had him beat although I'm thankful that he gave me the tip. I caught it early this morning during breakfast and there were indeed some of the classics such as Yoko Takahashi's（高橋洋子）"Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze"（残酷な天使のテーゼ）(what better way to plow through one's hot oatmeal than that song?), anison legend Mitsuko Horie's（堀江美都子）"Candy Candy"（キャンディ♡キャンディ）and Yuki Saito's（斉藤由貴）"Kanashimi yo Konnichiwa"（悲しみよこんにちは）from the "Maison Ikkoku"（めぞん一刻）anime of the mid-1980s.
It would have been interesting if "Uta Con" had gotten really specific about its anime-themed segments and devoted those fifteen minutes to the songs of the "Pretty Cure" franchise. Not that I would have ever expected NHK to follow through on that because the longest-running magical girl series has originated from rival network TV Asahi, but there are more than enough theme songs there to fill up more than an hour at least.
Quite some time has passed since my last entry into the Precure folder with my most recent one being Hitomi Yoshida's（吉田仁美）"Yay! Yay! Yay!"(イェイ！イェイ！イェイ！) , the ending theme for "Smile Precure"（スマイルプリキュア!）in 2012. Well, I managed to find another perky ender from the previous Precure season, the one for "Suite Precure"（スイートプリキュア♪）, the music-based show and perhaps the first one to take place in a totally fantastical setting rather than the usual Japanese bedroom city.
Aya Ikeda（池田彩）was the singer behind the second ending theme titled "#Kibou Rainbow#"(Rainbow of Hope), and yep, it's definitely one happy-go-lucky ditty especially with those pronouncements of "ding-dong" in there. Of course, with the choreography by the characters in the ending credits, "#Kibou Rainbow#" must have been irresistible to the kiddie fans. Sumiyo Mutsumi（六ツ見純代） and Yo Yamazaki（山崎燿）were lyricist and composer respectively for the song.
As for Ikeda, she hails from Metropolitan Osaka and is not only an anison singer but also a TV personality. She also had her aidoru period as a member of the Chiba Prefecture-based group C-ZONE. She's also provided some further input into the Precure franchise.
I couldn't quite believe that this scene had been cut out of the DC movie "Justice League". I mean, it has one of the coolest examples of how the Flash can save people, and the effects here are better than a lot of what I saw in in his own movie back in 2023.
Now, if there had been a Japanese version of "The Flash" done for laughs, I could have recommended this ditty from Nash Music Library,"Miracle Tenshi Magical Q" (Miracle Angel, Magical Q), as an appropriately speedy background tune with a circus-like atmosphere for Barry Allen. It could have accompanied a typical rush job at going shopping for example.
Still, "Miracle Tenshi Magical Q" was part of the August 2011 album by NML, "Moe Moe Cute Pop"（萌え萌え Cute Pop）, so I gather that the song was more in line with a maid café rather than a day in the life of DC's fastest superhero. I certainly couldn't have imagined that this BGM would have been included in the typical "Weathernews Live" broadcast. It would have been too distracting and exhausting for the weather folks there, although I believe that at least one brief excerpt from the song has been used.
My friend Rob took me to this curry restaurant near his family's condo in Musashi-Kosugi when I last visited Tokyo. I'm always a sucker for butter chicken and I've been able to find out about different kinds of curry outside of the usual S&B stuff from the store. Over the years, I've had Thai, Indian and Pakistani varieties and some of them were enough to keep me warm for most of the winter. My gastrointestinal tract has complained to the brain a few times but overall, it's been a fine culinary experience.
I've got to admit that whenever actor Ken Matsudaira（松平健）does his novelty songs, he doesn't hold back on the showmanship. His "MatsuKen Samba"（マツケンサンバ）has been a favourite whenever he shows up on "Uta Con"（うたコン）and the Kohaku Utagassen. When Matsudaira celebrates with the world, the world celebrates with him.
Admittedly, until a few minutes ago, I hadn't even known that the actor not only gave his all to Brazil but also contributed his energies to India via a 2011 single titled "MatsuKen Maharajah". Written by Kyoko Yoshimine（吉峯暁子）and composed by singer-songwriter Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）, the song begins and ends with a "Rocky"-like trumpet fanfare before the familiar rhythms flow in and MatsuKen, now in Indian royal garb, dances and sings up a storm.
The coupling song is "MatsuKen Curry" which has Nakanishi back as composer while this time, it's Ayumi Tamura（田村歩美）behind the lyrics. This is more of a three-for-one song as Matsudaira sings a trio of mini-tunes based on Indian, European and Thai curries. And all of his was for a collaboration between him and the company Oriental and their limited series of Ken Matsudaira curries on sale. Not sure how they did in stores, but the single peaked at No. 109 on Oricon. Speaking of which, the original recorded version has a somewhat different arrangement.
Last month, my Nash Music Library contribution was "Sunday Breakfast", a languid Bacharach-inspired piece which had me thinking that ol' Burt was fighting a hangover and trying to make some of those scrambled eggs and pancakes, however difficult.
Well, this month, we've got "Rumbullion" which supposedly made its presence known for the first time back in March 2011 when it appeared with its track mates on the dully-titled "File Supply Vol.1". My guess is that perhaps this album was simply used by various television stations for appropriate music snippets in the background when certain segments were presented on their shows.
For one thing, "Rumbullion" and its bass-friendly beat sounds quite familiar to me although I can't quite remember where and when I heard it. It may have been on "Weathernews Live", one of NML's biggest clients, or perhaps it was another Japanese TV program. Whatever the case may be, it really pushes its message across in its brief 2 1/2 minutes, and it really does sound like a rumbullion, whatever a rumbullion means.
The above is a picture of a couple of kids playing a Japanese New Year's game called fukuwarai. I have never played this myself but it's a bit reminiscent of Pin the Tail on the Donkey for Halloween although I think the idea of placing multiple facial features on a blank head has even more possibilities for mirth. Just to give credit where credit is due, this image comes from the website Illust Plus so if anyone there sees this and is not happy about it, please let me know and I will take it down. I just wanted to show readers what this game was all about.
I gotta hand it to Weathernews Live Japan. Although I don't really take in their weathercasting to heart since I don't live in the region anymore, I've been able to use their live YouTube broadcasts to find out about some fine music via their BGM from Nash Music Library and also songs that are presented on their Weather Music segments. The service has been quite generous in its selection which has ranged from SURFACE's disco"Going my Ue e"（ゴーイングmy上へ）from 2000 to the more recent cover of "Timing" by Klang Ruler. Of course, the choices have gone even further back to the time of Queen of New Music Yumi Arai（荒井由実）and her "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）.
Another song that I've discovered from Weather Music in the last week or so is "Fukuwarai" which I wrote about at the top. Written, composed and performed by singer-songwriter Yu Takahashi（高橋優）from Akita Prefecture, it's a two-thirds pop and one-third rock song about the idea that he got from his fans that English is not the global lingua franca but the act of smiling. Released as Takahashi's 3rd single in February 2011, "Fukuwarai" is the type of guitar pop (takes me back to the 90s) that I enjoy listening on a cool quiet Sunday like today.
The song managed to reach as high as No. 15 on Oricon and it was included on Takahashi's debut album as a major artist, "Real Time Singer-Songwriter"（リアルタイム・シンガーソングライター）, from April 2011. It broke into the Top 10 at No. 8. "Fukuwarai" was also used as a commercial song for Tokyo Metro.
Happy Monday! Just to let you know, Toronto is currently a balmy -11 degrees Celsius with the winds coming at us at a breezy Mach 1...well, that last statistic is a bit of an exaggeration. But it is truly a wintry cold out there right now.
A couple of days ago, I received a comment under the article for Shibuya-kei band Cymbals'"Gozen Hachi-ji no Dassou Keikaku"（午前8時の脱走計画）in which I was told about the aidoru group Twinklestars and one of their two singles that had been created by the former member of Cymbals, Reiji Okii（沖井礼二）. I was also reminded that Marcos V. had posted an article back in 2013 about the aidoru metal band BABYMETAL and that both it and Twinklestars were the sub-units for the parent group Sakura Gakuin（さくら学院...Cherry Blossom Academy） when they were around between April 2010 and August 2021.
Whereas BABYMETAL went for its heavy metal, the other club in the Academy known as Twinklestars was the baton-twirling group and I gather that their seven members tended toward the Shibuya-kei side of things. "Tenshi to Akuma"(Angels and Devils) is quite the drama-heavy title for the cheerful coupling song to their 2nd single"Please! Please! Please!"（プリーズ!プリーズ!プリーズ!）which was released in July 2011. There is a buzzy rock guitar in the arrangement but otherwise, it's a happy-happy-joy-joy tune with that Swinging 60s' flavour and might I say, I think the harmonies and the little bit of scatting are quite cute.
Wishing you the penultimate Happy Monday for 2023 as Kayo Grace Kyoku enjoys the coffee and cake set at a stylish café during the Holidays. It's safe to say that a lot of us are in the homestretch of Xmas shopping before next Monday.
Since Christmas is seen as a party hearty holiday in Japan, let's start off this week with a seasonal song reflecting that. The late aidoru group Tomato n' Pine contributed their own feelings to Yuletide music in the form of their 3rd single as a major act in December 2011 with the No. 68-ranking"Jingle Girl Joui Jidai"（ジングルガール上位時代...The Superior Age for Jingle Girls）. One of the coupling songs on the CD was "Yuki ga Furu kara" (Because the Snow Will Fall), a typically upbeat and jingly-jangly tune about getting the lasses together for a Christmas Eve sleepover talking about the usual things as their favourite guys and stuff. According to the lyrics by Kotaro Kusuno, one of them is even in charge of the (Kentucky Fried) chicken. How Japanese Xmas can one get? The music is provided by Kenji Tamai and Takahiro Furukawa.
Come to think of it, I'm in charge of the turkey this year so it'll be time to get that stuffed thigh roll sometime this week. Wouldn't mind chilling in some stylish café though just like Kayo.
I have to be honest here...I still get pretty verklempt whenever I see that scene in the late 1960s cartoon "Frosty the Snowman" narrated by Jimmy Durante when Frosty seemingly heads for that snowfield in the sky, only to return several seconds later. I'm rather glad then that these old cartoons don't really show up on television in front of my family anymore since I don't think my excuse of "Pardon me...I've got something in my eye" and heading quickly to the washroom will pass muster with anyone in my group. 😭 Anyways, I'm glad that the Walter Rollins and Steve Nelsonsong from 1950 is still upbeat as all get out for a Xmas tune.
Of course, for a singer-songwriter who's been called the Queen of Winters, it should be natural that high-flying Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）has covered the Xmas circuit. She covered and collaborated on a version of a J-Xmas classic "Christmas Carol no Koro ni wa"（クリスマスキャロルの頃には）with original singer Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）back in 2009, and then in November 2011, she released her own Xmas album "Love X'mas" which also served as one of two albums that year to commemorate her 20th anniversary since her debut.
With "Frosty the Snowman", she opted for the scat a capella route, and apparently Michael Jackson did a cameo...nope, just joking there. 😊 But I have to say that there are parts in the song where I swear that she sounds a bit like young Jackson 5-era Mikey.
Those first few seconds had me wondering whether I was going to get a kayo version of a mariachi song. However, Jun Ariyoshi（有吉ジュン）quickly went into 1950s/1960s pop mode with "Rendezvous", her 2nd single from January 1977. Written and composed by Yoshihiro Kai（甲斐よしひろ）of the Kai Band（甲斐バンド）with arrangement by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, it's a spirited tune that had me thinking of good ol' Richie Cunningham and Lori Beth Allen.
Ariyoshi's time in the limelight, though, was quite brief. A year after entering ballet school as a junior high sophomore, she became a regular assistant on the NTV show "Zen Nihon Kayo Senshuken"（全日本歌謡選手権...All-Japan Kayo Championship） before making her debut as a singer in 1976. She released a total of five singles up to 1978 and also had a few roles in TV dramas before she called it a day in 1979 and retiring from show business.
Kai himself covered "Rendezvous" himself many years later when he released his October 2011 album"Homecoming KAI BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 1". This one has got a lot more rock in it along with a bit of hip-hop, thanks to rapper GAKU-MC.
While I was coming across Sugar's（シュガー）"Kiss ga Ippai"（キスがいっぱい）some minutes earlier, I also encountered this short ditty by the good folks at Nash Music Library, home of the catchy BGM. I figure that it would be nice to end Sunday with something as upbeat as this one before the grind of the work week starts up once more tomorrow.
According to the YouTube description, "Sugar Kiss" was first released in August 2011 although the YouTube video popped up a decade later which would make it the earliest NML tune that I've brought onto KKP. Originating from the collection "Moe Moe Cute Pop"（萌え萌え Cute Pop）, yeah, I gather that "Sugar Kiss" could describe an employee of an Akihabara maid café (or an adorable anime character) hopping on her Kawasaki and racing toward the second apartment in Hakone. It is cool and cute at the same time.
Knowing that my discovery of Nash Music Library was due to its ample usage as background music for the "Weathernews Live" broadcasts on YouTube, I can imagine that "Sugar Kiss" may have been a little too caffeinated for regular use. I mean, the casters there are already amply energized enough as it is.
Well, this is quite the spicy number. Once again, I think Kanako Minami's（南かなこ）"Ame no Midnight Station" (Rainy Midnight Station) falls in the sparkly zone (gray sounds so depressing) between Mood Kayo and pop/rock, so I guess this could be a modern-day New Adult Music tune.
Minami released "Ame no Midnight Station" as her 10th and final single in June 2011 under the aegis of lyricist and composer Raymond Matsuya（レーモンド松屋）. It looks like one rainy night in Tokyo, there was a bit of trysting among the bars and nightclubs of the megalopolis. The lyrics certainly take this into Mood Kayo territory but then we have a bit of Latin spice and a rock guitar thrown in for good measure.
As with singer and tarento Marcia（マルシア）, Minami whose real name is Chiemi Ueno（上野智恵美）, is a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian who emigrated to Japan when she was in Grade 6 of elementary school. She made her debut as an enka singer in 2003 after which she released those ten singles and a couple of her own albums throughout the 2000s. She retired from the industry in June 2012 after getting married with her final appearance being a special guest to Hiroshi Itsuki（五木ひろし）in one of his concerts that month.
When it comes to thespian/singer Chiaki Kuriyama（栗山千明）in the West, she will always be known as the teenage ball of furious insanity, Go Go Yubari. Her role was relatively brief but she did make an impression.
I know since then she's appeared in a number of movies and television dramas in Japan over the last twenty years although I've barely seen any of them. There was an episode of one mystery series that I saw where she played a skeptical police detective; it apparently was a mix of "The X-Files" and "Rain Man". Aside from that, Kuriyama has also done her fair share of goofy commercials and variety show appearances to repeatedly display that, no, she's not really a psychotic killer.
Kuriyama has also had her time behind the recording mike. She was even included in a Kayo Kyoku Plus article all the way back in 2017 but her "Seishun no Matataki"（青春の瞬き）was taken down by the powers-that-be on YouTube although her songwriter, Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）, provided her take on the song which is still intact.
So for all intents and purposes, this is Kuriyama's first time again on the blog, this time with "Oishii Kisetsu" (The Creamy Season) which was released in March 2011 as her 4th single. Looking at the video (sorry but it's not available anymore) and listening to the song about falling in love, I think a lot of folks will quickly see and hear the Shiina influences and indeed Shiina did create the song. In fact, I'd say that "Oishii Kisetsu" is a nice reminder of the songwriter's early works. Mind you, Kuriyama in the video doesn't appear nearly as scary as Shiina did back in those days. The single peaked at No. 37 on Oricon.
According to J-Wiki, Shiina has covered "Oishii Kisetsu" a few times over the years such as via her No. 3-ranking December 2017 second album of covers, "Gyakuyunyū: Koukuukyoku"（逆輸入 〜航空局〜...Reimport vol. 2: Civil Aviation Bureau）. Her version seems to be a bit more along the side of progressive rock and her more contemporary classical approach to music. This take was also included on the November 2019"Newton no Ringo ~Hajimete no Best Ban~"（ニュートンの林檎 ～初めてのベスト盤～...Newton's Apple ～First Best Edition～）which hit No. 1 on the weekly charts and ended up as the 22nd-ranked album of 2019.
I was doing the usual maintenance last night before heading to bed. As I was doing so, I encountered a couple of old articles and although they were handled separately by myself and KKP contributor Joana Bernardo, they both dealt with the same two acts who performed their versions of the same classic song: "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" (空も飛べるはず) by originating band Spitz (スピッツ) and the covering group Sayonara Ponytail (さよならポニーテール).
Well, I then thought to myself that the girl group Sayonara Ponytail, known also by their nickname SayoPony, has only had that one song to represent them through two articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Therefore, it was time to look further afield.
The first song that I came across also happened to be a cover of another popular song from yesteryear. SayoPony performed their version of "Say Yes", the Chage & Aska megahit that became the No. 2 song for 1991. I remember that one very well since it was one of the last CDs that I purchased in the music store before heading back to Canada from the JET Programme and it was also the theme for the popular Fuji-TV romance-drama "Hyakuikkaime no Propose"（101 回目のプロポーズ.... The 101st Proposal).
Whereas the original by Chage & Aska was so heart-on-a-sleeve romantic that boyfriends were probably forced to kneel down in front of their girlfriends if they ever heard it on a store speaker, the Sayonara Ponytail cover is a happy and skip-worthy pop number which would probably have the members of the group sing this in front of a campfire. It's not so much romantic as it is singalong fun. Great harmonies among everyone, too!
This version of "Say Yes" was a track on a compilation album of cover tunes by various acts. It's called "Moteki-teki Ongaku no Susume: Covers for MTK Lovers-ban"（モテキ的音楽のススメ Covers for MTK Lovers盤...Moteki Music Recommendations... Covers for MTK Lovers Version） and it came out in September 2011. The album was a part of a series provided under the aegis of the live-action adaptation of a manga called "Moteki"（モテキ）.
The second song of this article just happens to be the first song that I ever heard by Sayonara Ponytail although at the time, I didn't pay much attention to the details behind it. I was more keyed to the anime that it had been attached to, the wild "Kill La Kill"（キルラキル）. It's hard to believe that we're approaching nearly a decade since the show about a tough-as-nails high school student and weaponized clothing became the talk of the town in the anime world.
Miku Sawai's（沢井美空）"Gomen ne, Ii Ko Ja Irarenai"（ごめんね、いいコじゃいられない）was the first ending theme for "Kill La Kill" and it was a rock number that reflected the student/warrior Ryuko Matoi and her plight in life. But then, the second ending theme came out halfway through and the credits showed a cute-as-kittens ending credit sequence which focused solely on Ryuko's best friend, the extremely gabby and girly Mako Mankanshoku. Accompanying it was SayoPony's very pop "Shin Sekai Koukyougaku" (New World Symphony) created by the group's dedicated songwriter Fukkun（ふっくん）. It was released as a single in March 2014 (peaked at No. 27 on Oricon) as their 2nd major release after their 2012 debut which just happened to be the cover of "Sora mo Toberu Hazu" by Spitz.
One amazing thing that I hadn't known about Sayonara Ponytail is that they are very much a secret society of singers. From their own Wiki, I discovered that their identities have never been revealed and they have never appeared on camera or even performed live. In fact, the story is that very few of the members have even met each other. As well, any representation of the group has been done through illustrations.
As of 2022, the lineup is Miina, Ayumin, Nacchan, Yuyu, and Shuka, and they're backed up by five music team members (who include the aforementioned Fukkun) and two support staff. Under these circumstances, Sayonara Ponytail would make the mystery dentist band Greeeen appear like the most public-domain musical entity.
Of course, I have to finish this with footage of the one-and-only Mako.
Last Thursday, I wrote an article on Masahiko Kondo's（近藤真彦）rambunctious "Yoisho!"（ヨイショッ!）, based on an exclamation by weather broadcaster Rinon Oshima（大島璃音）which has now stuck onto her like flypaper. As much as there have been plenty of chuckles given by the current group of broadcasters, I've got the feeling that in the pre-Saya Hiyama（桧山沙耶）age (perhaps circa 2018), things were even more freewheeling with the folks back then. I've been looking back at some of those earlier years in the past number of months.
Case in point: at 13:15 of the above video depicting a 2017 show, I'd assumed that the three talking heads were all broadcasters and two of them indeed were. From left is caster Izumi Maie（眞家泉）, who has since left for bigger and better things, and then there is the middle host. On the right side, though, was someone that I'd thought was a very informally dressed weathercaster, only to realize that she was singer-songwriter Yukino Nakajima（中嶋ユキノ）. During some rapid-fire banter, she inadvertently quipped "Otosan to Nyan Nyan"（お父さんにニャンニャン）which apparently meant doing something illicit with ol' Dad; much hilarity ensued.
Well, I wasn't about to let Nakajima go after that verbal incident, so I looked her up some more and found out that the Tokyo singer had started her career in 2003. Late in 2011, she contributed to a collaborative project between Weathernews Inc. and other singers called "Sorauta"（ソラウタ）for the "SOLiVE 24" broadcast which was what the "Weathernews Live" show used to be called back then.
Nakajima's contribution was "ALL FOR ONE", a very uptempo and cheerful tune used as a support tune for the broadcasts. It certainly sounds like something for the singalong circuit. Between 2010 and 2022, Nakajima has released 8 singles and 5 albums (with the first two albums being from her indies days).
Speaking of weathercaster Maie, her J-Wiki biography stated that she came in second in some world dancing competition during her university days. A number of her dancing videos are up on YouTube including this one.
In the past few days, the Japanese entertainment world lost a couple of notable figures.
Rakugo-ka comedian San'yūtei Enraku VI（6代目 三遊亭円楽）lost his battle to illness including lung cancer on September 30th a few days ago. He was 72.
I knew him simply as Enraku, and not being a fan of rakugo, I always saw him solely on Japanese television's 2nd-longest running variety show "Shoten"（笑点）on Sunday nights here and in Japan. He was the purple-garbed panelist during the ogiri session with that tanned complexion and the sly grin who had the silver and sharp tongue, often to skewer the host for no particular reason except fun. He had been away from "Shoten" for several months due to his health issues but since TV Japan's broadcasts of the program are a few months behind the ones in Japan, the show has been inviting guest comedians in Enraku's stead and usually letting him know that his place would always be open for him. Unfortunately, that will not happen now, and I can only imagine that there is a lot of grieving among the "Shoten" cast and his fans.
I got the news this morning from NHK, but former wrestler, entertainer and Parliamentarian Antonio Inoki（アントニオ猪木）passed away yesterday at the age of 79 due to systemic transthyretin amyloidosis.
I didn't see him nearly as often as I did San'yūtei Enraku VI, but whenever he did appear, he always made quite the entrance. He had that epic theme song which accompanied him wherever he went (and I even wrote about it a few years ago); it was the song for such a big man in physical size and personality. He always had those loud greetings: "Genki desu ka?"（元気ですか...How are ya?）and "1, 2, 3, DAA!" to rouse up the crowd. As I was telling one of the commenters here, James, Inoki was the type of guy to either cheer you up or give you a slap across the chops to knock you out of the blues. A lot of his fans are probably wondering how they are going to get out of those blues right now.
Not that I would presume that this song would be the ultimate cure for fans of Enraku and/or Inoki feeling badly right now, but the message behind Angela Aki's（アンジェラ・アキ）lyrics in her "Hajimari no Ballad"(Ballad of Beginnings) is one of reassurance and encouragement for those in dark times who may feel that the tunnel never ends. The singer's 11th single from June 2011 is as comfortable as a warm blanket, and as someone who used to listen to his fair share of the radio back in childhood, there is something of the 1970s soft rock feel in the song.
"Hajimari no Ballad" reached No. 17 on Oricon and was used as the theme song for the Fuji-TV drama "Namae wo Nakushita Megami"（名前をなくした女神...The Goddess Who Lost Her Name） back in 2011. The song is also included as a track on Aki's 5th album"White" from September of that year, and it reached No. 4.
My condolences go to the families, friends and fans for San'yūtei Enraku VI and Antonio Inoki.
.jpg)
