I WiSH -- Asu e no Tobira（明日への扉）

 

Ai Kawashima（川嶋あい）is a singer and a songwriter from Fukuoka who gained fame as a teen who came up to Tokyo in 2002 with her keyboard to sing on the streets and become known as Rojou no Tenshi（路上の天使）or The Busking Angel. I remember seeing a feature on the Fuji-TV morning show about her as she diligently carried her keyboard to places like Shibuya and Yotsuya to busk up to a thousand times in 2005. In the history of this blog, I'd only mentioned her once and that was because she wrote and composed the opening theme to the anime "Koi Suru Asteroid"（恋する小惑星...Asteroid In Love）.

During that runup from 2002 to 2005 to reach that golden number of 1000, though, Kawashima was already getting CDs produced. The first example of this was through the duo of I WiSH which consisted of Kawashima and composer/arranger Naohiro Sugawara（菅原直洋）. Sugawara had encountered the singer during one of her busking sessions after which a deal was made to create the duo with their names being ai and nao during their existence.

Their first single, released on Valentine's Day 2003, was "Asu e no Tobira" (The Door to Tomorrow), a sweet pop song which managed to stay on the Oricon chart for many months leading to a year. I recall it well since the video was popping up seemingly permanently on the weekly music ranking show "Countdown TV" on TBS with the scenes that I remember being all sorts of people giving ai a peck on the cheek. Meanwhile, folks everywhere were wondering who this lady was with the voice of an angel.

The truth eventually revealed itself as "Asu e no Tobira" hit No. 1 and went Triple Platinum, ending 2003 as the No. 6 single. Kawashima was responsible for words and music while Sugawara and Jun Ozawa（小澤純）took care of the arrangement. The song would also appear on I WiSH's debut album "Tsutae Koboba ~ Namida no Ochiru Basho"（伝えたい言葉　～涙のおちる場所～...Words that I Want to Convey ~The Place Where the Tears Fall Down~）which was released in October that year, and it would peak at No. 2 and ended up at No. 36 on the yearly album chart. "Asu e no Tobira" would also become the theme song for a popular Fuji-TV reality program called "Ainori"（あいのり...Love Ride） which lasted from 2002 to 2003.

In total, I WiSH released 6 singles and 2 albums up to 2008 along with a couple of BEST compilations. But Kawashima would also start off her solo career in the recording booth just a few months after the release of "Asu e no Tobira", and this has continued to the present day.

Nao Toyama -- Aruite Ikou!（歩いていこう！）/Minori Suzuki -- Yozora（夜空）

One of the other anime for Winter 2020 that I've been watching is "Koi Suru Asteroid"（恋する小惑星...Asteroid In Love）. It's another in the line of "Manga Time Kirara Charat" to be adapted into animated form, and basically my understanding now with anything having to do with Kirara is that it will be a very soft and fluffy slice-of-life show. For example, one other anime that was adapted from the same manga company is "Machikado Mazoku"（まちカドまぞく）. So I would say that the likelihood of eye gouging and sexually compromising positions is zero, if not in minus territory.

Something that I've learned from anime viewing at my friend's house is that it's best, though, not to watch a Kirara anime right after coming back from lunch. Digesting a large meal and a show like "Koi Suru Asteroid" don't mix well since the latter is so pleasant and mellow that a viewer can easily head off to La-La Land because of the former. Indeed, that is what happened to me with the first couple of episodes of this particular show (and certain episodes of "Machikado Mazoku") about high school girls getting interested in astronomy and geology. I found that catching the last three episodes was a whole lot more easier later in the afternoon, especially when getting that sugar rush from eating a Tim Horton's donut while downing a Double-Double.

Not surprisingly, the opening and ending themes for "Koi Suru Asteroid" fit very well due to their gentle arrangement. The opener, "Aruite Ikou!" (Let's Go There on Foot!) performed by one of the seiyuu in the show, Nao Toyama（東山奈央）, has got that down-home violin and sparkly piano. The song picks up some speed along the way but its tempo is such that it's still more analogous to an excited exploratory stride through a new town. Singer-songwriter Ai Kawashima（川嶋あい）took care of words and music here.

The ending theme, "Yozora" (Night Sky) is sung by Minori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）and has a similar tone to "Aruite Ikou!" but perhaps with a bit more epicness, perhaps in reflection of viewing that vast night sky from the title. Sawa Nakamura（中村砂羽）and h-wonder were responsible for the lyrics and music here respectively. "Yozora" was released as Suzuki's 4th single almost 2 weeks ago. For that matter, "Aruite Ikou!" was also the 4th single for Toyama from almost 3 weeks ago.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the right scenes on YouTube, but for one episode, the girls are in the traditional Koedo district of Kawagoe City in Saitama Prefecture. If memory serves, I believe that it was the one where a couple of them are helping out in their buddy's bakery. I certainly recognized the neighbourhood since I visited that same area back in late 2017 with one of my former students, and one scene even had a shot of Toki no Kane or the Time Bell Tower as you can see below.