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.
Wow! All this time knowing the song "Akai Sweet Pea"(Red Sweet Pea) by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and the above 1910 painting is the first time I get to see a real red sweet pea. This is by Edward H. Mitchell (1867–1932) and it's in the public domain according to Wikimedia Commons.
One other thing that I found out on the first episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）in 2026 last night was that "Akai Sweet Pea" is celebrating its 44th anniversary today since its release in 1982. Well, of course, I wrote up an article on one of Seiko-chan's evergreen hits all the way back in 2012 so I can't really repeat myself. However, I did look up the many cover versions of "Akai Sweet Pea" via J-Wiki and found this one.
It is indeed a very sweet version via the December 2020 album "VOICE ~ Seiyuu-tachi ga Utau Matsuda Seiko Song ~ Female Edition"（VOICE〜声優たちが歌う松田聖子ソング〜 Female Edition...Voice Actresses Sing the Songs of Seiko Matsuda）. As the title says, a whole bunch of the big guns in the anime voice actress industry came together to provide their own versions of Matsuda's music. Their take on "Akai Sweet Pea" is the 12th and final track on the album and it is an appropriately stately but adorable cover sung by all of the seiyuu involved in the project to wrap things up: Aki Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）, Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）, Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Miku Ito（伊藤美来）and Momo Asakura（麻倉もも）. Probably not a dry eye in the house.
Anyways, all hail "Akai Sweet Pea"! All hail Seiko-chan!
I was out most of the day today which explains why Wednesday was stuffed with a few more articles than usual including Marcos V.'s posting on "Ninna Nanna" last night so many thanks to him. Actually, I met up with my old anime buddy for brunch this morning and it was a bit of old times as we returned to his place for a truncated version of the old routine of anime and food that we'd once had before the arrival of the pandemic. I don't think we're resuming it but it was nice to visit again.
We even had a short respite of anison playing over the speakers and my friend had been steadily collecting his soundtracks and the like over the years. I was surprised then when he played a variation of a song that I've always enjoyed.
It turns out back in November 2021, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the original manga "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, a CD was released titled "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? 10th Anniversary Shudaika Rearrange & Hi Reso Best"（ご注文はうさぎですか? 10th Anniversary主題歌リアレンジ&ハイレゾベスト...Main Theme Rearrangements and High Resolution Best） which provides some of those "Gochiusa" songs with a new twist. My friend was able to play the new version of "Daydream Café", hands down my favourite theme song out of all of them in the anime franchise. Shoichiro Hirata（平田祥一郎） rearranged the original Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）version of the song that best reflected the atmosphere of one of the most moe anime ever made in the 2010s. I'm not saying that we'll be hearing the new "Daydream Café" being played by some DJ in a Harajuku dance club but it's got some nifty beats.
I was doing my usual custodial maintenance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" last night and found myself in the "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ）section. Having done so, it was still easy to track down several hilarious sequences from this 2013 anime on YouTube, and I soon discovered that I hadn't included one song onto the blog. I'd written up articles on the ending theme and one truly insane insert song but had of yet not included the opening theme.
Now in all honesty, I think out of the three songs that came out of "Love Lab", "Love Shitai!"(I Want to Fall in Love) ranks third when compared to the ending theme-with-a-difference "Best FriendS" and the undergarment-obsessed "Nete mo Samete mo Lingerie"（寝ても覚めてもランジェリー）by one of the characters' father. However since I did want to complete the set at last and "Love Shitai!" is still another cheerful tune by Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive（藤女生徒会執行部）consisting of the main cast: Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）, Chinatsu Akasaki（赤﨑千夏）Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）and Yo Taichi（大地葉）.
As with "Best FriendS", "Love Shitai!" was written by ENA☆ but this time, the composition and arrangement were by y0c1e, which seems to be the standby name for Hifumi Inc.（一二三）, a Japanese music production company.
My anime buddy and I were talking the other night and he marveled at the fact that 5 years have gone by since the second season of that show of moe and coffee and rabbits had ended its run. Yes, indeed. I am talking about the franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）. At one point, I thought that everything was all done with Cocoa, Chino and the rest of the characters but a couple of specials in the intervening years kept hope alive, and sure enough, last year, it was announced that a Season 3 called "Bloom" would be heading out the gates in October...which it has.
I've been able to see the first two episodes of "Bloom" via YouTube and not through the auspices of my friend's giant TV screen this time around, but that's cool. The show has been fine and what better series to keep spirits nice and light like a well-made croissant during these times? It looks like the Japanese equivalent of Colmar, France is still going through summer, and I've gotten to see the girls and Tippy handle a flea market and the adventures of Lapin.
Of course, we gotta think about the themes and although the actual release of the singles will probably be some weeks down the line, at least, we can have a listen through the credits. The opening theme is "Tenkuu Cafeteria" (Heaven Cafeteria) by Petits Rabbit's (i.e. the main five seiyuu as listed at the bottom) as usual. Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed/arranged by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, the same duo behind Season 1's"Daydream Café" and Season 2's"No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, "Tenkuu Cafeteria" has the bounciness of the former and the tempo of the latter to basically create the melodic equivalent of...well, a rabbit.
In terms of the ending credits, Season 1 had that spinning wheel and the adorable and sedate "Poppin' Jump"（ぽっぴんジャンプ）to accompany it. Then Season 2 had viewers go into diabetic shock in terms of the visuals and the ending song "Tokimeki Poporon"（ときめきポポロン♪）, and the FBI in the United States was probably wondering why their offices got inundated with phone calls.
Well, this time around, the ending credits and song have their cuteness but quite a bit more toned down compared to Season 2. Going mostly with an "Alice in Wonderland" motif, Chimame Tai（チマメ隊）consisting of seiyuu Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Sora Tokui（徳井青空）and Rie Murakami（村川梨衣）sing, as they did for the above two enders, and go a bit jazzier with "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" (Buddies! Circle! Buddies!). Although I like both the new opening and ending themes, I am even more curious about how the full version of "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" will sound since I would like to hear the jazz band get even more into the riff during the instrumental bridge. Hata was again providing the lyrics while Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）took care of music and arrangement. It's nice and catchy and this time, I don't think the FBI will need to hire more operators.
Welcome to another new week. News has perhaps not been the happiest of late but for those fans of "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）, I think there's something to celebrate. Late last month, it was announced that the third season of high school girls, rabbits and cafes that can soothe the heck out of viewers has been slated for October 2020, so hopefully, in another 6 months, we can all see the latest adventures of Cocoa, Chino and the rest of the hot drink-loving gang in their lovely town.
In the meantime, we can all enjoy "Takarabako no Jet Coaster"(Treasure Box Roller Coaster) that came out in July 2015, between the first and second seasons. Performed by Petits Rabbit's, namely the main quintet of the cast: Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Risa Taneda（種田梨沙）and Satomi Sato（佐藤聡美）, it's a supremely breezy and bouncy number which brings to mind the opening theme for the second season, "No Poi!". Not surprisingly, it was made by the same duo, lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composer Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）.
This is probably a very cornball thing to say, but I think if there is that hidden character that makes "GochiUsa" the adorable and popular franchise it is, it would have to be the town itself. The architecture and layout have always struck me as being so heartwarming and welcoming that I would love to visit it. Of course, with the money and time, I can because it does exist as the city of Colmar in northeastern France (the above video is given in French). Perhaps a good chunk of the inbound tourism to Colmar in the last few years has perhaps been due to those particular anime fans themselves. I can add that the original manga artist Koi should have earned a key to the city from the mayor.
Anyways, here's hoping that our current problems will blow away soon enough so that "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? Bloom" will hit screens on schedule later this fall, and tourism will return in good numbers again to Colmar.
I couldn't quite believe it when I first heard about this Japanese cafe's existence in Toronto (as of this writing, it's been open for about a year). Not that I didn't think that a Japanese sweets establishment would actually show up in my city (we've been getting a diversity of Japanese restaurants over the past decade: ramen, izakaya, udon, tonkatsu, etc.), but I had never assumed one with that particular name, Amausaan Uji Matcha, existed.
The reason is the anime "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?）which deals with happy-go-lucky teenagers taking care of their own distinct cafes. The prim and proper young lady with a subversive streak, Chiya Ujimatsu（宇治松千夜）, is the proprietress of Amausaan「甘兎庵」, a cafe specializing in traditional Japanese sweets. If I'm not mistaken, the same kanji is used to describe the one that I went to yesterday afternoon, and with that rabbit logo, I just had to go "Hmmmm...". Getting back to the real Amausaan in Chinatown, apparently, Toronto is the latest in a number of branches in Asia and North America with this particular one being the biggest in floor size.
I had the matcha mille-feuille cake along with the cold hojicha. The cake was good and had both sweet and bitter tastes, and I was surprised that my hojicha was quite sweet...truly like iced tea from down south. It was also nice that it wasn't too busy during our hour there; don't let the interior photo fool you, customers did come in after the photo had been shot.
Since we're on the topic, allow me to throw in "Nantonaku Mirai"（Somehow The Future）, the ending theme for the finale of Season 2 of "Gochuumon". Unfortunately, I could only find the truncated version but it's good enough to give you the idea of how the two seasons and movie have been like in terms of atmosphere: all very positive and gushingly cute. Performed by the main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's (you can see the cast names in Labels under the article), "Nantonaku Mirai" was the coupling song for "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, the 3rd single by the unit released in November 2015 which peaked at No. 4 on Oricon. Prolific anime lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）was at work here along with Tadashi Tsukida（ツキダタダシ）for the adorable music.
The thing is that when "Nantonaku Mirai" was playing over the ending credits for that second season finale, it just seemed to me and I'm assuming much of the viewing audience that the producers were putting a big period at the end of the "Gochuumon" sentence. However, a movie did come out and an OVA is scheduled for this month followed by a third season sometime next year. The gift indeed keeps on giving.
I don't get a chance to go downtown all that much but I figure that I will probably meet up with a fellow translator for lunch sometime this month and he was pretty eager to try out a new tendon place, Akimitsu, not too far away from Amausaan. The walk between the two establishments will come in handy, although calorie guilt will arise at the end of that day.
We're well into the Summer 2018 season of anime, and so far, the one really catchy anison has been the opener for "Back Street Girls ~ Gokudols". To be honest, I may never ever take that yakuza horn fanfare all that seriously anymore after listening to that theme.
So, I've gone back into the time vaults of anison by only a few years and come across the multitude of songs from the "Show By Rock!!"anime. The second season may have ended with an unfortunate thud but I'm still kinda hoping that there may be a third go for Cyan and the band. In any case, since I have had the ending theme from the first season up on the blog for about a year, it's time to get that opening theme and therefore the very first song that I heard from the good-gal band Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）up here, too.
"Seishun wa Non-Stop!" (Youth is Non-Stop!) was indeed the greeting song for the show in 2015 and has Eri Inagawa（稲川英里）as Cyan leading the all-star seiyuu grouping of Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）, Sumire Uesaka（佐倉綾音）and Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）in a fun and bouncy number that still has me thinking Princess Princess and Lindberg at the same time....as filtered through Disney.
Fictionally written and composed by Cyan, everything was actually created by RegaSound. If I had to pick between the opener and closer for Season 1, I would probably still go with "Have a nice MUSIC!!" but "Seishun wa Non-Stop!" still makes for a nice welcome into Midi City.
After several months of waiting following the release of the 60-minute special for "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??"（ご注文はうさぎですか??...Is The Order A Rabbit??）titled "Dear My Sister" in theatres late last year, my anime buddy was finally able to get his hands onto the Blu-Ray (although he did see it at the theatre in Japan when he visited).
Yup, yesterday was the usual biweekly session of anime-and-food, and there was a fair bit of drama mixed in with the comedy for the afternoon part. However, after coming back from dinner (a lot of dumplings and fried rice), my buddy warned me that watching this short movie of the cafe-based adventures of Cocoa, Chino and the rest could potentially plunge me into either sugar shock or cotton-swaddled euphoria. Actually, it wasn't nearly that fatal although it was rather pleasant to see something so harmless that wouldn't even hint at psychological damage.
Heck, even in the rare moments when characters are angry (yes, even Cocoa has a momentary snit), they are cute angry. And any drama generated in "Dear My Sister" was basically at the beginning of the movie with some of the girls overreacting to Cocoa leaving town...for an entire week.
The ending theme for the movie is "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" (The World Has Become A Cafe!). Now, my favourite theme song for the entire "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??" franchise will always be "Daydream Cafe", but "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" is pretty nice and is more reminiscent of the really genki second season opening theme "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）with some of that sunny 60s and some disco thrown in there. No surprise since both songs were written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）who also took care of "Daydream Cafe".
The only difference with "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" is that all of the seiyuu voicing the teen baristas, aka Petit Rabbit's and Chimame Tai are together for perhaps the first time singing a theme song in the form of Petit Rabbit's with beans. And, yes, I would say that they probably would have needed to have downed quite a lot of coffee to record this with the energy that was mustered here.
On the way home, I asked my friend whether there could be another series or another movie from the franchise since one of the characters had hinted the possibility of the baristas going over to Cocoa's smaller hometown to the Hot Bakery. We both later agreed that chances are possible if small since we've heard that most of the material from the original manga has been used up for the original anime and that "Dear My Sister" is a wholly new work not based on the manga. Well, if so, then the movie was a nice way of saying goodbye to everybody in the world of coffee and rabbits.
Met up with my anime buddy for the first time in quite a while. He was quite happy with the souvenirs. To be honest, though, I haven't been as enthused about this current group of anime that he has shown me with the exception of the continuing hilarity of "Mahojin Guruguru"（魔法陣グルグル）and the fascinating "Konohana Kitan"（このはな綺譚）.
However, during the anison hour segment of my day, I got to hear an old song from the initial season of "Show By Rock!!". "Ryuusei Dreamline" (Comet Dreamline) was a tune by Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）that I heard now and then. My buddy reminded me that it was the song that got Cyan and the band to the top.
"Ryuusei Dreamline" was written and composed by the musical group RegaSound and I'm sure the song is placed on one of the many CDs that the show has spawned since that first season in 2015. Not sure if there will be a third season since the end of the second season was underwhelming but I know that some franchises have a sophomore jinx so perhaps another "Show By Rock!!" can be brought back. If so, a ton of more soundtrack-and-song CDs are on the way.
Considering all the music that has been pumped out of the two seasons of the game-turned-anime "Show By Rock!!". the actual category for the show here on the blog has been extremely sparse. Mind you, I did say in the first article for the show that not all of the songs became earworms for me, at least. However, there have been a few which have managed to hang on over the months although Season 2 ended its run (in somewhat disappointing fashion...sophomore jinx?) almost a year ago.
I always knew if I were to start up the "Show By Rock!!" category for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I would have to include at least one or two of the songs by main heroine band Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）, especially since the first article was for a band, Dolly Dolci（ドーリィドルチ）, that wasn't featured too often during the series but had such a killer song on YouTube. So it's wonderful that the ending theme for the first season in 2015, "Have a nice MUSIC!!" is such an earworm.
Taking things out of the Midi City universe for a few lines, Plasmagica has got quite the celeb seiyuu lineup. Although Eri Inagawa（稲川英里）as Cyan is still new to me, she's backed up by veterans Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）as slightly tsundere Retoree the bassist, Sumire Uesaka（佐倉綾音）as guitar-wielding ChuChu, and Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）as drummer Moa. Going back in-universe, Retoree and Moa came up with the super-cheerful song but in the real world, it was lyricist Aiko Takase（高瀬愛虹）and composer no_my behind the tune.
The entire song is fine but it's that line "GO GO LUCKY Have a nice MUSIC!!" followed by some appealing Shibuya-kei strings in the first verse that have permanently hooked into my cerebellum. Have a cup of coffee in the morning while listening to this, and Mondays won't seem to be too blue heading to work or school. I'm fairly confident that my anime buddy may have taken this advice to heart.
I've got no idea how "Have a nice MUSIC!!" did on the charts but considering a number of the other various anison climbing onto Oricon, something as catchy as this must have made some progress.
Basically speaking, my anime buddy and I agree on what we like to watch but there are inevitably some discrepancies. He's a huge fan of "Jojo no Kimyo na Boken"（ジョジョの奇妙な冒険...JoJo's Bizarre Adventure）; I was immediately turned off with the murder of the dog in Episode 1 and haven't been back since then. I was quite all right with the cute show with moments of hilarity, "New Game" from this year but after the first couple of episodes, he never mentioned or showed it again on the screen.
Then I also mentioned at another time about the anime "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ）. I've been watching various excerpts of this 2013 show on YouTube and have just been having a fun time with all of the gags and parodies. Again, my friend kinda went "Meh" since he felt it was just too wacky. But then again, we've been enjoying the absolutely nuts "Kei-jo!!!!!!!" this season so I'm kinda wondering what gives. Still, I am starting to get very tempted to actually purchase the DVD set of this one.
The two stars are seiyuu Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）and Chinatsu Akasaki（赤﨑千夏）as the short-tempered Riko and completely insane Natsuo respectively. I'm totally accustomed to seeing Numakura playing the stoic-to-cranky roles but Akasaki playing Natsuo was pretty revealing since I had been seeing her as the suffer-no-fools-gladly Nibutani from "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!"（中二病でも恋がしたい!）. Natsuo is the type of girl that Nibutani would be more than happy to kick over a couple of mountains in frustration.
Among all of my amused viewings of the antics of the Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive known in Japanese as Fuji-jo Seitokai Shikkou-bu（藤女生徒会執行部）, I've also managed to find a perky little earworm as the ending theme for "Love Lab" called "Best FriendS" as sung by the entire executive via the seiyuu Numakura, Akasaki, Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）and Yo Taichi（大地葉）.
With lyrics by ENA☆ and music by Naoki Chiba（千葉"naotyu-"直樹）, it's the usual happy-go-lucky song but I think there's also a little hint of Shibuya-kei in there which pulled me in further. In any case, another temptation for me to pick up the set, if possible.
The aforementioned Sakura and Minase would get together for another popular anime and theme song the following year.
Ahhh...Akihabara. I always liked that neighbourhood although ironically I never considered myself all that technologically inclined. (still don't have a cellphone). Still, it was interesting walking through Electric Town with all of its big and shiny stores on the main drag and the grimier shops on the side streets. That main street, Chuo Dori, had quite the heyday when it was closed down on Sundays and all of the street performers were unleashed. Unfortunately, a psychopath in 2008 went on a rampage on one of those Sundays by ramming his truck into the crowd and then killing seven people and injuring 10 others which led to the stopping of the tradition. Apparently the hokoten has started up again in recent years although I'm not sure if it has been allowed to approach the level of gaiety it once had.
As I said, I wasn't a huge buyer in Akihabara although I did purchase the digital camera that was used to take these photos. In fact, I bought it at the place shown above...the huge Yodobashi Akiba. It was just fun enough for me to browse around within Akiba itself (the store and the neighbourhood).Plus, I often took advantage of the free rubdowns via the demo models of massage chairs in any of the big stores!
When I first got to know Akihabara, food wasn't exactly a large priority, it seemed. The only eating places that I knew about was the McDonalds at the northern edge of Akiba on Chuo Dori and the Mansei Building at the southern edge with its many restaurant floors. However with the trendification of the area last decade, there are plenty of places to attract the foodies including this tsukemen restaurant that my friends took me to in 2014.
Anyways before I wax myself too poetically, I should get onto the music, shouldn't I? Of course, when one goes into any of the major stores of Akiba, there will always be the individual jingles that will greet you. They've all managed to get into my brain as part of my aural memories in Tokyo, including the one for Bic Camera.
Then there is the slightly funky jingle with an 80s dance sensibility from Sato Musen.
Finally, there is this one supremely cheerful jingle. I started watching the anime "Joshiraku"（じょしらく）again for the umpteenth time since its debut in 2012, and one of the things that cheered me up as the show was coming to an end was the above scene of the ladies from that last episode singing out that very jingle that I had heard numerous times when I was walking through Akihabara. I had first thought that they were singing a parody version only to find out that they were singing out the actual lyrics.
The jingle did work in that it now has permanent resident status in my brain but it had failed in that I couldn't remember which company it represented. Go fig! Well, I did some digging and found it is titled "Hello, Sofmap World", and of course, it represents Sofmap, the company selling new and used electronics. I also bought a number of my CDs in one of the branches in Akiba.
Sofmap is also a subsidiary of the aforementioned Bic Camera. However, as cheerful as the jingle for Bic is, "Hello, Sofmap World" has got that extra juice of a hundred My Little Ponys. It was actually released as a single in November 2004, and I was pretty gobsmacked to discover that the super-happy tune was composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who provided all those summery mellow 80s kayo including the happy-go-lucky "September" by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）who wrote a lot of songs in that decade as well including tunes for songbird Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）.
These two songwriting powerhouses must have really gotten into the pure happiness of what a jingle is all about. Not to sound like a jingle sommelier, but I can hear some Disney in "Hello, Sofmap World" via "It's A Small World After All" and perhaps even some of that standard "Happy Days Are Here Again". Whatever inspired Hayashi and Yamakawa, "Hello, Sofmap World" will have customers entering and exiting a Sofmap branch swinging their arms away like the Joshiraku girls. I couldn't really say what the mental state of the staff was after a regular shift of listening to it, though.
Apparently, the song can be sung at karaoke and is even available in English, Korean and Chinese, but the original single only has the Japanese and English versions.
Well, almost 3 months ago, I put up an article about what could be one of the most diabetes-inducing anison themes of the year with "Tokimeki Poporon"（ときめきポポロン♪） which has been the ending theme for the mellow "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??"（ご注文はうさぎですか？？）
Now that the 2nd series of moe girls in cafes is about to wrap up this weekend, I thought it was as a good time as any to talk about the opening theme "No Poi!" Compared to the adorable "Daydream Cafe" from the 1st series, "No Poi!" has more of a dynamic streak which rather fits the slightly more fantastical opening credits. I would say that there was even a bit of Swinging 60s pop fueling the song created by Aki Hata and Kaoru Okubo（畑亜貴・大久保薫）, the same duo behind "Daydream Cafe".
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
I've got to give my compliments to XLEZZYTECHNIKA, the YouTube uploader and one of the folks who brought the band together to give their extended take on "No Poi!" After listening to this version, I'm now reconsidering whether I like the opening or ending themes better. I had thought that "No Poi!" was in an unenviable position being the 2nd opening theme after the great and still my favourite of all the themes for "GochiUsa", but listening to the full version on a cloud service, I've come to appreciate the joyful aspects of the song especially with the main voice cast being further challenged here.
And as it turned out, "No Poi!" has become the most successful of the themes on Oricon, getting as high as No. 4 on the charts.
Well, in commemoration of the return of the bunch from "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）for their 2nd season tomorrow morning Toronto time, I've decided to put up "Nichijo Decoration" (Everyday Decoration). This was the goodbye (or see you again soon, as it turned out) song that was at the end of the final episode of the first season of the anime which went from April to June 2014 last year.
Sung by the entire main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's, "Nichijo Decoration" is not quite as hoppy as the opening theme, "Daydream Cafe", but it's still plenty sweet...as in "Would you like some coffee with your sugar?" sweet. This would be the type of song that would get the often insecure and dour character of Sharo flying all over the place. Written by Uran（うらん）and composed by Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）, it was a nice way to finish things off for the next several months before "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??" (now with added question mark).
As much as this song, "Daydream Cafe" and the official ending theme of "Poppin' Jump" were some of my earworms for 2014, the entire anime has become an eyeworm of sorts since I've gone through the series about 3 or 4 times already and enjoyed specific funny scenes a number of times more. So I will be waiting with some anticipation the next time I head over to my anime buddy's home in about 10 days.
"Joshiraku"（じょしらく）has been one of my favourite anime since I first saw its run back in 2012. In fact, I'm currently seeing it again on my computer for the 3rd or 4th time. And before I go any further, I should give credit where credit is due and list the main cast of the 5 rakugo comediennes, something that I didn't do when I wrote the article on the super-catchy opening and ending themes back in 2013:
Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）as the aggressive Mari Buratei Nozomi Yamamoto（山本希望）as the lucky Tetora Bohatei Kotori Koiwai（小岩井ことり）as the cute (if secretly scary) Kigurumi Harokitei Yoshino Nanjo（南條愛乃）as the bespectacled Gankyo Kurubiyutei Saori Goto（後藤沙緒里）as the ever-blue Kukuru Anrakutei
In any case, as much as I still love those bracketing themes for "Joshiraku", there were also a couple of songs that intrigued me as well but didn't know they were actually on a CD that came with the Blu-Ray of the series. One was "Never Give Up", a cutesy AKB48-friendly tune concocted by Kohei of SIMONSAYZ and sung by the rakugo ladies for Episode 3 of the series when they were coerced to put in a song-and-dance (I think they were trying to emulate the 90s group ZOO) element to their performances.... much to the audience's fury. The song still works on its own, though.
Then, there is "Jigoku no Gyuudon" (Gyuudon of Hell) which has the troupe going into death metal territory (Kigurumi's genre of choice) as they rock out the joys of that dish of flavoured beef and onions on hot white rice. I forgot which episode it was, but it was one of the later ones in the cour when Kigu and the gang suddenly transform into their own version of KISS for a couple of minutes. Anime director Tsutomu Mizushima（水島努）provided the lyrics, half of which are "gyuudon", while Masaru Yokoyama（横山克）came up with the headbanging melody.
Strangely enough, in all my time in Japan, I never really ate gyuudon at Yoshinoya or at the other franchises all that much despite how inexpensive it was. I can only surmise that karaage, sushi, hambaagu and tonkatsu had to come in first.
As one last piece of trivia for those who are not all that well versed in the seiyuu (I'm still trying to get a handle on all those names and characters), Ayane Sakura who plays the caustic Mari also played the much more adorable Cocoa in "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka"（ご注文はうさぎですか？）in which she also performed the opening theme with the cast.
According to the good folks at Wikipedia, an earworm is "...a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing...The word earworm is a calque from the German Ohrwurm...first used in the 1980s".
I myself also like to envision the earworm as the Ceti Eel used to torture and subdue Commander Chekov and poor Captain Terrell in the original version of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" all the way back in 1982. One wonders whether a German Trekkie was inspired by that movie to come up with the name for a song that just...blast it all...won't leave your mind.
For this year, I've got a couple of those aural larvae hanging out in my brain, and they just happen to come from the same anime. My buddy unleashed "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）on me earlier this year, complete with the opening and ending themes. As for the show itself, it was adapted from a manga, and it's basically a pleasant half hour of watching 5 cute girls going through life while working at 3 different cafés in a small European-type town. Mind you, among those kids are a girl with a sister complex, a future NRA member and a moe version of Mr. Spock (yes, another "Star Trek" reference). Bringing in the foodie analogy, when I view "Space Cruiser Yamato" as some serious kaiseki ryori and "Space Dandy" as delectable junk food, "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" is basically a nice cup of coffee with a small slice of strawberry shortcake. And I do appreciate my cup of joe and shortcake.
"Daydream Café" is the opening theme, and just like the show itself, it is an adorable and breezy ditty featuring all of the 5 main seiyuu put together as the group Petits Rabbit's (as a former English teacher, that apostrophe in there annoys me to no end). Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, it is as sugary as a Xmas candy cane but without the added calories and can almost get me to skip on the street whenever I hear it...over and over again. I was surprised to find out that Petits Rabbit's Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Risa Taneda（種田梨沙）, Satomi Sato（佐藤聡美）and Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）even pull off a nice little song-and-dance in the official music video as above.
Ceti Eel II is the ending theme, "Poppin' Jump" by Chimame Tai（ チマメ隊）. Inori Minase is joined by Sora Tokui and Rie Murakawa（徳井青空・村川梨衣）who voice two of the minor characters, and the name chimame is an acronym of the three characters of Chino, Maya and Megu who are classmates. If anything, "Poppin' Jump" is even cuter than the opening theme and if taken in large doses, could induce uncontrollable hopping just like the titular animal in the show's title. As it is, though, it has just gotten me to sway my head. Still, it is what it's doing inside my head that's been the problem. I can blame the creators of the song, Uran（うらん）and Yuuki Kimura（木村有希）for making me feel like a 5-year-old at Xmas time.
"Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" will most likely not enter the annals of significant anime in the 2010s (note from 2019 me: Oh, really?) but neither will it send me to bed racking my brain about what the meaning of life is or trying to purge existential horrors. And you know what? The songs there are probably what I would like to hear in my brain when I enter and exit a particularly welcoming small café...not a Starbucks or even a Timmies.
Tiramisu and coffee at Cova
in Shinjuku Times Square
One of the other anime along with "Mawaru Penguindrum" and "Kamisama wo Hajimemashita" that I enjoyed last year was "Joshiraku"（じょしらく....Girls In Rakugo), a show about 5 zany rakugo comediennes bantering backstage and in the famous neighbourhoods of Tokyo. Based on the manga by Koji Kumeta（久米田康治）, it was a Japanese cartoon mix of the irreverent and irrelevant wordplay of "Seinfeld" and the gags of "Airplane" which took aim at just about anything within the Land of the Rising Sun including politics, restaurants, lottery tickets and Akihabara. There was even the most sociopathic rabbit since the little bunny from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". What's not to love?
The beginning and ending theme songs have also become the proverbial earworms in my noggin since I first started watching the show. The opening song which is sung by the cast is "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte....YO!" (Thank You For Your Continued Support), the signoff that is given by the rakugo-ka at the end of the performance. It is a fun frenetic blast of electric guitar, synth and shamisen that goes well with the crackpot joy of the opening credit sequence.
The song was released as a single in August 2012, and created by Aki Hata and Satoru Kousaki（畑亜貴・神前暁）. The theme kinda reminds me in spirit of the theme song for that old American cartoon, "The Flintstones" back in the 60s. Both of them have that welcoming feeling in asking the viewers to come and join the characters for a little while. "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte....YO!" actually went as high as No. 20 on Oricon.
The ending theme by Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）, "Nippon Egao Hyakkei" (100 Views of Japanese Smiles), probably singlehandedly shredded the larynxes of the members of the aidoru group, Momoiro Clover Z (under the guise of Momokuro Tei Ichimon....桃黒亭一門) before they got it recorded for release, especially the pun-filled rap at the beginning. It has that mix of dance beats and festival-fueled patter and melody while the girls ham it up during the ending credits. Not sure if the DJ was wearing a backwards cap or a hachimaki.
Released in September 2012, the song peaked at No. 6 on Oricon, and guest-starred The Yoshida Brothers（吉田兄弟）, a shamisen act that has garnered attention within Japan and overseas. I've heard both themes on my anime buddy's massive stereo system, and afterwards, I needed something distinctly decaffeinated to calm myself down.
