GUMI/Ari Ozawa, Nana Mizuki, Sumire Uesaka, Nao Toyama -- Kokoro Palette (ココロ＊パレット)

It's been several months since one of my favourite anime from the Summer 2016 season, "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru!" (この美術部には問題がある!), finished its run, and being a fan of the comedic slice-of-life sub-genre, the show managed to fulfill a promise that any televised project wants to achieve...leave the audience wanting more. I've read that the original manga is still plowing ahead but I don't know whether there will be a second season. However, that ending scene in the final episode was good enough for me.

Of course with this blog, I've brought in the anime for the purpose of introducing anison earworms and near-earworms, and what also helped "Konobi" was the really catchy themes of Nana Mizuki's（水樹奈々）"STARTING NOW!" and Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形）. And of course, I already wrote about those two tunes as the series was wrapping up.

However, I neglected to talk about a cute little tune adorably sung by Ari Ozawa's（小澤亜李）main character of Mizuki Usami（宇佐美みずき）during a brief montage scene in the penultimate episode which involved prepping for the annual Culture Day festival at the school. I later found out that the song was titled "Kokoro Palette" (Heart Palette).

Then "Kokoro Palette" came out in its full rousing glory as the ending theme for that final episode with the four main female seiyuu, Ozawa, Mizuki, Uesaka and Nao Toyama（東山奈央）bringing the group effort. I was finally able to get my own copy of "Konobi" and enjoyed my second round; listening to the song once more made me realize that this was a pleasant and worthy song to talk about.

But the final trigger was when I was reading the "TV Tropes" entry on the show and I discovered this kernel of knowledge in the YMMV section. Apparently, the song wasn't a product of the anime and was actually a campaign song for the manga by Imigimuru (いみぎむる) a number of years before. I couldn't be sure of the actual year that "Kokoro Palette" was recorded but considering that the original manga came out in 2012 and the YouTube video above was uploaded in 2013, I think 2013 is a fairly safe bet.

The original recording artist was a Vocaloid by the name of GUMI with "Kokoro Palette" written and composed by musician 40mP. It was a hard choice but ultimately I went with this original version as my favourite due to that hint of Shibuya-kei in there. Plus, that video above with the manga characters being drawn in as the song is playing struck me as a true labour of love. I wouldn't have been surprised if the author got slightly misty-eyed watching it.

And perhaps some of the fans of "Konobi" even before the anime must have gotten a thrill at hearing the song performed in the show, thinking that it should have been used as either the opening or closing theme.

Ari Ozawa -- Heart no Tone ni Kizuite yo! Dareka. （ハートのトーンに気付いてよ！誰か。）

I've just started the 3rd go-around with the 2014 anime "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun）, and there is a goodly amount of flavour remaining in this gum. Namely, I'm still chuckling a lot at the hilarity within the adventures of Chiyo Sakura and Umetaro Nozaki.

My anime buddy was kind enough to give me a copy of the single containing the ending theme for "Nozaki-kun", "Ura-Omote Fortune" （ウラオモテ・フォーチュン）which I've already written about. Unlike the straight-on and adorable technopop of the A-song, the coupling song "Heart no Tone ni Kizuite yo! Dareka." (Someone, Notice the Tone of My Heart!) has got a bit more rock and maybe even a tad of disco although the singer is once again the main seiyuu Ari Ozawa（小澤亜李）who's been fairly busy this year with her roles in "Active Raid" and "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！）.

What I like about this rumbling song is that most of it is spoken by the characters of Sakura as played by Ozawa, Nozaki by Yuuichi Nakamura（中村悠一）and the insecure Mikoto Mikoshiba by Nobuhiko Okamoto（岡本信彦）with the background of that technorock beat. In fact, I would say that the three seiyuu were playing out a missing scene from Episode 2 of the show when Sakura and Mikoshiba had their first awkward few days together. However, the story of the song is the poor lass' attempts to get her senpai Nozaki to see her as more than the helpful assistant in his manga work...and utterly failing. It's almost like the anime analogy of Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the dreaded football.

Every time I listen to the song, I always think that "Heart no Tone" would probably be the ideal song to be performed in a stage production musical version of the show. It has that feeling of a scene that could be played out in the theatre, and I could imagine the three actors doing those talking parts at Nozaki's apartment before Sakura goes into her singing mode while breaking down the fourth wall and blaring out her frustrations to the audience. 

I've also gotta say that I enjoy that brief disco part just before the song goes into its final refrain. Somewhere I could hear the echo of Rod Stewart singing "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"

As time goes by, the feeling is that there will probably not be any sequel to "Nozaki-kun", but at this point, I'm quite happy enjoying the original series as it is.

Ari Ozawa -- Ura-Omote Fortune （ウラオモテ・フォーチュン）

Yes, I'm going to have to stand up, put up my hand and admit that I've gotten hooked on those YouTube excerpts of "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun）. I mean, I've already seen the entire series at my anime buddy's place but some of those scenes are just hilarious for me to re-view. Maybe I'll have to follow my friend's lead and splurge on getting the DVD set for the 2014 show.

I've already gotten into the opening theme song for the show, Masayoshi Oishi's（大石昌良）"Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai"（君じゃなきゃダメみたい）with its good-ol'-boy melody about the titular character...maybe...revealing some of his deeply hidden feelings for his assistant and friend, Chiyo Sakura, who is hopelessly in love with him.

Well, the ending theme has Sakura herself (aka seiyuu Ari Ozawa/小澤亜李) bleeding her heart out for the romantically clueless Nozaki (unless it's through the pages of the manga he draws). Titled "Ura-Omote Fortune" (Double-Edged Fortune), Ozawa in character sings about what must be going through her crush's mind...as do we all. It took me a little while to warm up to it but after listening to it a number of times on my hard drive as I slogged through my translation work, it finally burrowed and wrapped around my cerebral cortex like a Ceti Eel ("Star Trek" reference). It's all due to Ozawa's moe vocals and the chip tune melody that songwriter Hige Driver（ヒゲドライバー）is known for.

Apparently, this was Ozawa's first starring role in an anime. Very nice that she was able to hit pay dirt so early. Looking forward to any sequels.