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.
Although I know that cool-as-all-heck singer-songwriter Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love, has continued to kick around up to the present day, I've usually covered his stuff from the good ol' days...namely the 1990s, for his discography including "Asahi no Ataru Michi"（朝日のあたる道）. I did feature his "Zeroset"（ゼロセット）which was a much more recent single although that was still back in 2019.
Well, Tajima is still kicking butt thankfully, and he's got something to say about the whole AI thing. Last month, he released his latest digital single "Wild Humanity" which gets him to exhort to the fans to step aside from the artificial intelligence and the hyper-fast pace of life, and once again embrace that titular wild humanity.
In fact, the video has him looking all fashionably iconoclastic and ecstatic about handling all those musical instruments and old-style tech (in areas including tree-filled areas called parks) and those old-style genres such as boogie and jazz. It's ironic that one of the more noticeable instruments happens to be a synthesizer (an analog one?), so maybe his message is not to totally abandon the AI/hi-tech but share the benefits of them and wild humanity together.
It's the final day of February and since we're not in a leap year, the final day will naturally be the 28th so certainly it'll be a lower output than usual for KKP.
Now, usually, I keep a lot of the City Pop on hand for Urban Contemporary Fridays, but seeing that this is February 28th, I might as well provide something pretty exciting, especially this is also a Saturday. A few years back, I noted that "Evangelion" soundtrack maestro Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）had also been quite the disco City Pop king in the late 1970s. He put out an album with his Somethin' Special band called "Eyes" in 1979.
Well, he and the band also put out a single in that same year called "Ai no Message"(Message of Love), and as was the case on "Eyes", Keiko Sugai（須貝恵子）provided her dynamic vocals and the lyrics on this particular song. It's got a little bit of everything as in Long Island Iced Tea bit of everything. I can hear a boogie rhythm, disco flair and some propulsive funk...just the cocktail to heave Tokyoites to the dance floor in the discos around town.
Continuing on the Valentine's Day theme from the previous article and also sifting through those old B-sides, I did find something from Sayuri Kokusho's（国生さゆり）classic February 1986 single "Valentine Kiss"(バレンタイン・キッス) via JTM's write-up on the song all the way back in 2013.
As cute as "Valentine Kiss" is, the B-side "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring"(Love is Ring Ring Ring) is more of a frantic sugar-high as a young lass is trying her darndest to contact her beau on the phone but he's too busy talking to someone else. Who could that someone be? Stress levels and conspiracy theories abound like bunnies! As with "Valentine Kiss", "Koi wa Ring Ring Ring" was written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, but this time, the melody was provided by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）who gave a fine illustration of how the lass was going out of her mind with the rock guitar, the sparkly synths and the rapid-fire percussion.
The song is also available on Kokusho's 1st album"Pep Talk" which was released in July 1986. It hit No. 2 on Oricon.
I'd never heard of Chiemi Kai（甲斐智枝美）before but I saw the above video and decided to check it out. "Ite-za no Kare" (Sagittarius Guy) was the B-side to her 7th and penultimate single"Sasotte Runna"（誘って・ルンナ...Invite Me, Runna） which hit the record shelves in January 1982. Written by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, composed by Tetsuya Furumoto（古本鉄也）and arranged by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, it's quite the swinging rock n' roll boogie for an aidoru tune. Considering one of the first words in the lyrics is Harajuku, I can guess that there was a shoutout to the whole rock n' roll scene there.
Kai hailed from Fukuoka Prefecture and got into show business by becoming the 29th Grand Champion on the audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生!...A Star is Born!）in 1979. She had been seen as one of the up-and-coming aidoru alongside other ingenues such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）in the post-Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）era. However, among her three albums and eight singles released between 1980 and 1982, the highest ranking that any of her discography attained was No. 103 on Oricon, although she had her other duties as a tarento and actress.
In 1990, she retired from showbiz and got married to Toru Hasebe（長谷部徹）who was a studio musician and drummer for the fusion band The Square after which they had two boys. She became a housewife and helped out at a flower shop but kept in touch with her senpai, former aidoru and celebrity Ikue Sakaibara（榊原郁恵）. However according to a Daily Shincho article, in July 2006, her eldest son who was in high school at the time discovered her hanging in the second-floor room of their house. It was suspected that Kai had committed suicide due to financial worries and health issues. She was 43 years old.
One time back in my university days, I had been out with the guys way past midnight and not being able to get a lift home, I opted for a taxi. The driver was someone who obviously liked his weed so it was an interesting 20-minute ride home. Had a Dickens of a time trying to get to sleep that night and I had to do a lot of explaining to my parents about the aroma in my room the next day. I couldn't just state that we all had a great Korean BBQ dinner.
Even earlier, I remember my first chances to watch NBC's "Saturday Night Live" near the tail end of the original run of The Not Ready for Prime Time Players in the late 1970s. Fortunately, I also got to see a lot of reruns of those early episodes with Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and that included the famous Blues Brothers performances with that intro of "I Can't Turn You Loose". That was some mixture of performance art and gonzo concert.
That was the scene that came back from my memories when I first heard "Soul Taxi Driver" by the blues band Baker Shop Boogie although the rhythm was a little less frenetic. My good friend Rocket Brown of the podcast "Come Along Radio" introduced this to me via Discord a few weeks ago. "Soul Taxi Driver" has got quite the feeling of the Blues Brothers along with James Brown as singer Akira Sawauchi（澤内明）sings about a cab driver living the life that he's always wanted. The Motown soul tune originally popped up as a track on Baker Shop Boogie's 1983 2nd album"Hungry St."
Back in 1972, Sawauchi met up with guitarists Hitoshi Seki（関ヒトシ）and Hajime Yoshida（吉田 はじめ）to form Baker Shop Boogie which specialized in performing blues tunes. Members would come and go as the band did their tours with a first album, "Baker Shop Boogie", finally coming out in 1982.
When I think about a perfect example of the guy described in the title for this particular song, my thoughts turn to the one and only Felix Unger from "The Odd Couple". A neat freak and hypochondriac with a mess of neuroses, he would probably enrage the Pope if His Eminence ended up as his roommate.
Perhaps singer-songwriter extraordinaire Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）based her song "Keppeki Niisan" (Mr. Fastidious) on a similar acquaintance. It's not even two minutes long on her March 1976 3rd studio album, "Flapper", but she describes a fellow who takes the utmost care in his physical appearance and dutifully appears at work as if he were aiming for Employee of the Month every month. Written and composed by Yoshida herself, the lyrics are repeatedly pattered out like a mantra or a teasing indictment of the guy while her music is a funky boogie that is as much New York as the setting for "The Odd Couple".
A few days ago, I expressed some disappointment that I couldn't track down Circus' debut single but at least, I could find something intriguing from their July 1978 debut album"Circus 1", and it's the cover of "Keppeki Niisan". Packing a bit more in the arrangement and length of time, the vocal quartet makes like the Manhattan Transfer in their scatting and overall singing of Yoshida's creation. Perhaps there is less indictment in this version and maybe more of a straight-ahead description of Mr. Fastidious.
When it comes to the good-time rock n' roll group, the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band（ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド）, almost all listeners will be reminded of "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"（港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）from 1975.
But immediately before that, their 3rd single"Smokin' boogie" was said to be the song that got the band into listeners' ears. Written by bassist and vocalist Takeshi Arai（新井武士）and composed by fellow bandmate Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, it starts off rather rootsy before we all get that reminder of what it must have been like to cut a rug on the dance floor back in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Arai's lyrics talk about how one probable teen got into a life of cigarettes. Japan Tobacco must have loved this one while anti-cancer campaigns probably did not. Even the chorus makes like the sound of the guy puffing away.
However, as they say, "Wait, there's more!". It turns out that "Smokin' boogie" was inspired by American blues guitaristElmore James' 1961 "Shake Your Moneymaker", itself inspired by previous songs according to Wikipedia.
Partly inspired by my previous article on Naomi Chiaki's（ちあきなおみ）"Waltz"（円舞曲）and also thinking it would be nice to begin the work week with something a little different, I've opted to complete my Monday entries with some of the dance-titled kayo kyoku and J-Pop out there since it seems as if the Japanese also enjoyed cutting a rug if vicariously for most people.
I saw and heard the news on NHK a couple of days ago, but comedian Takaaki Ishibashi (the taller, louder and even crazier one) of the duo Tunnels（とんねるず）announced that he was suffering from esophageal cancer and would be leaving the entertainment industry for a little while to get it treated. He mentioned that it was in the early stages so it's still very treatable and here's hoping that he makes a full recovery.
Still remember this outtake from their Thursday night Fuji-TV variety show "Tunnels no Minasan no Okage desu"（とんねるずのみなさんのおかげです）from the turn of the decade (80s to 90s). I gotta say that as outrageous as the duo could be, they did suffer for their art.
Also, I've had to remind myself that the Tunnels had their time in the recording booth cutting some raunchy records. The first time I even heard their name was through an "Eye-Ai" issue in which one of their records was being sold. I think it could have been their 1985 "Ame No Nishi Azabu" (雨の西麻布) which was their parodic take on the enka genre. Supposedly, the boys hated enka but I think they certainly did a nice job with that one.
But their 7th single from May 1986,"Yabusakadenai", was definitely not from the traditional Japanese genre. No, this was a rockin' boogie stomp by Takaaki and his partner Noritake Kinashi（木梨憲武）. Written and composed by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）with arrangement by Akira Mitake（見岳章）, I couldn't find the lyrics but from what I could hear, I don't think I can really describe the situation in a family-oriented blog, but let's say that Nori was feeling really randy.
As for the translation of the title, I found out that there had been an original meaning of doing something with gusto but in recent years, that meaning of yabusakadenai has been considerably watered down to mean "Well, I'm not opposed to doing it, but...", and apparently it was jargon within the business world. In any case, "Yabusakadenai" reached No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the No. 59-ranked single of the year. The song was also used as the theme for the TBS drama (well, comedy really) "O-Bocchama ni wa Wakarumai!"（お坊っチャマにはわかるまい!...You Wouldn't Understand, Kid!）which starred the Tunnels.
The one thing that I had always wanted to know about the Japanese consumer goods bargain emporium Don Quixote (since 1980) was how the place got its name. Well, the founder, Takao Yasuda（安田隆夫）, had wanted a name to reflect the drive to take on new challenges and that was summed up in the famous novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes with the main character more than willing to tilt at windmills.
I have visited the odd Don Quixote during my years in the Kanto area including the above Hollywood-looking Asakusa branch. They sell anything and everything although I have to admit that I was rather stunned that the Kit Kat chocolate section was only a tight corridor away from some rotating sexual devices. That's a real twist!
Ahem...anyways, what I hadn't known was that Don Quixote had its own theme. Well, I should have known. Other major stores have come up with their own tunes including Yodobashi Camera（ヨドバシカメラ）so why not the Don as well?
Mind you, "MIRACLE SHOPPING ~ Don Quixote no Tehma" (The Don Quixote Theme Song) didn't come about until some two decades after its founding. Its arrival in 1999 or 2000 was due to Maimi Tanaka（田中マイミ）, who had been a singer-songwriter since at least the early 1980s, but actually entered Don Quixote as a new part-time employee in 1994. Gaining responsibilities and success in sales and the famous jungle-like design of the store interiors, Tanaka became a full employee and then a department chief. Founder Yasuda then asked her to draw on her old songwriting abilities to come up with a jingle song for the store. It had to be catchy enough to get the shoppers inside to bounce about and purchase stuff. Well, that she has done thanks to the synthpop arrangement along boogie jazz lines.
In her early years, Tanaka had provided songs for other artists such as Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）, Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）and Hitomi Ishikawa（石川ひとみ）. Before "MIRACLE SHOPPING", she has also put out her own single back in 1980 and an album the following year.
Hello. It's been a while since I've opened the AI art gallery, and nope, this isn't a second Xmas edition like the last one I did back on November 24th. The next Xmas edition will come out on Christmas Eve, I promise you. However, take a gander at today's selections.
Welcome to the weekly article for Reminiscings of Youth where I bring forth a song that I remember from my childhood and adolescence (most of the time) and give some of my memories about it.
I was never a fan of legendary rock band The Who although even as a rock-averse child, I'd known about Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon going nuts on the stage and smashing guitars via television footage and radio station commercials. In my first year of high school and final year of ever picking up a clarinet again, we even had to practice selections from The Who's 1973 "Quadrophenia" album. I can guarantee that our attempts to play those selections didn't help me to appreciate or even remember any of the tracks.
But my image was set that The Who was a very angry group of musicians and singer-songwriters. And of course, in the decades to come, the "CSI" franchise made it a tradition to use their songs as themes for their individual shows. Personally, I've learned to enjoy the scream-worthy "Won't Get Fooled Again" for "CSI: Miami" while watching sunglasses-toting Lt. Horatio Caine spout one of his droll musings.
However, that was obviously much later in the century. Some years earlier, when I had that image of Townshend raging and transforming his Fenders and Gibsons into so much kindling and metal parts, he rather surprised me when I was a university student. I caught a music video of his where he transformed himself into an old-fashioned 1940s bandleader in a cheesy tuxedo in charge of a group of happy musicians playing some high-energy jazz and rock. Townshend looked stylish (as a mix of Nicolas Cage and Ralph Fiennes) and apparently absorbed a bit of Cab Calloway showmanship.
I've read that "Face the Face"and its November 1985 source album of "White City: A Novel" weren't exactly warmly welcomed by critics who probably didn't enjoy seeing and hearing a hardcore rock musician going allJoe Jackson jive all of a sudden. However, I actually was good with the catchy song, and according to what I've read in the comments for the various YouTube representations of the tune, the song has amassed its popularity. For example, whoever was on the drums all throughout "Face the Face" should have received a massive bonus for providing that cool and percussive storm to get the folks up and dancing along with those happy and jamming horns.
"Face the Face" reached No. 17 on Canada's RPM and then No. 26 on America's Billboard charts. The highest that it got anywhere else around the world was in Sweden where it hit No. 8. Now, what was hitting the Top 3 of Oriconin November 1985?
Well, welcome to December! Unlike this time last month, we in Toronto are finally getting seasonal weather in the form of cold temperatures and a lot of snow up north. The big city hasn't seen a flake yet but I'm sure that will change in the next few weeks. Maybe we will get a White Christmas this year.
To continue with the Christmas season here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've got another seasonal tune by singer-songwriter Minoru Komorita（小森田実）. "Rinjin wa Santa Claus"(My Neighbour is Santa Claus) is a track from his third original album "Panorama" released in August 1991. This one is a techno jazzy boogie about someone making a huge discovery in his neck of the woods but it's not quite as bizarre as a similarly arranged tune that he put out years later titled "Bunny, Bunny". However, it's the same songwriting duo of composer Komorita and lyricist Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）. I also hear hints of New Jack Swing in the rhythm although I could be wrong, but in any case, it's a fresh new take for me on the usual J-Xmas fare.
I remember back in the early 1980s when astronomer Carl Sagan brought out his TV series "Cosmos" on PBS. If I had been a little older, I would have been more attuned to what he was saying but to be honest, I don't remember much aside from his pronunciation of the word "billions", something that late-night show host Johnny Carson loved to parody.
"Cosmos" was a program that left me rather mystified. What has also mystified me is an early song by aidoru Yuri Kunizane（国実百合）titled "Hishochi no Sagan" (Summer Resort Sagan). I don't believe that it has anything to do with the astronomer and the melody by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）doesn't have one iota of spacy wondrousness. Instead, it's a very down-to-earth Motown-styleboogie pop tune with lyrics by Reiji Aso（麻生麗二）that was a track on her July 1988 debut album"Summer in Blue". The cover of her dressed up like Sandra Dee sitting by an old-fashioned radio tells a lot.
Just for fun...and for the fact that I have just completed posting the lineup (for now) for the 75th edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen, I thought that this particular entry for the AI Gallery can include a few songs from the very first Kohaku that I got to watch as a teenager, the 32nd edition on New Year's Eve 1981. Enjoy!
From tomorrow, a good friend of mine will be experiencing what probably will be one of the biggest highlights in his professional life. Even from before the pandemic, he and others had been planning this huge Japanese-English translators' conference to be held in downtown Toronto and finally as of this weekend, everything will be coming into fruition. All success to him. As the Klingons would say: QA'PLA!
What can I say about this song which happens to be the second track in Casiopea bassist Tetsuo Sakurai's（櫻井哲夫）1986 debut album"Dewdrops"? "In the Distance" is quite the wondrous thing swirling together all of these genres: boogie, City Pop, bossa nova and jazz. At this point, all of the KKP entries on Sakurai have centered on the tracks within "Dewdrops", and it's no wonder, it just seems like this quiet masterpiece of an album.
As I said, the bossa is there but then we listeners also get this boogie shuffle beat accompanied by an organ which reminds me of the arrangement in Donald Fagen's"Walk Between Raindrops", the final track on another legendary album "The Nightfly" from 1982. Last but not least, the smooth vocals of Kyosuke Kusunoki（楠木恭介）that I remember from his own wonderful album "Just Tonight" groovily caress the whole she-bang. By this point, though, Kusunoki had already changed his first name to Yukoh（楠木勇有行）. The music was provided by Sakurai with arrangement by him and Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）while the lyrics were written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）. If you have a chance, you can give the first track "Refresh!" a try as well.
Haven't heard this one in quite an age. I remember getting my copy of "Be There", B'z's hit in the quaint CD single format from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and as the coupling song was "Hoshifuru Yoru ni Sawagou"(Let's Make Noise on a Starry Night).
Y'know...I don't think I'd heard a rock boogie by a Japanese musician but one-half of B'z, Takahiro Matsumoto（松本孝弘）made it so when he composed and arranged "Hoshifuru Yoru ni Sawagou" (cute tribute to "The Final Countdown" by the way). It's catchy and it's no wonder that the song has been a favourite at their concerts. The other half of B'z, Koshi Inaba（稲葉浩志）, provided the lyrics of unshackling those chains and having one heck of a time in the big city. Considering Friday is coming up tomorrow, it's not a bad piece of advice.
Well, the usual occupational hazard has happened again on KKP where I mention that I will follow up on something soon enough and actually years go by. Mind you, it's not quite Rip van Winkle time but I wrote up on Side A of the original classic LP "The Stranger" by Billy Joel from September 1977 back in March 2022. Cue ahead almost 26 months later...
"The Stranger" is one of those albums in music history where virtually every track is a winner, loudly or quietly, and I'm happy to finally show off Side B.
Maybe those 26 months were due to the fact that I'd been waiting for the official music video (only released two weeks ago) for "Vienna" which starts off Side B. It's one of the more unusual songs by Joel because I hadn't heard it as much as I did the title track "The Stranger" and "Just The Way You Are" on the radio, and for the fact that it does have that accordion-like instrument in there to hint at that trip to Vienna which young William had taken years back. In the Wikipedia article for "The Stranger", I noticed that both "Vienna" and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" were mentioned in the same sentence and that fit for me since the former has that similarly wistful tone as the latter although "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" is on a much larger scale. What I hadn't realized was that "Vienna" was an analogy for Joel's wish as to how the elderly should be allowed to spend their last stage in life, so it's no surprise that the song has gained greater recognition as the years have gone by.
I was surprised to hear that "Only the Good Die Young" had been released as a single in May 1978 since the first time I heard it was as a B-side on one of Joel's other singles, interestingly enough. And the crazier thing is that I swear that I'd actually heard it for the first time as a jingle for some commercial although what the product was I can't remember at all...it probably wasn't one for the Catholic church, though. The concert video above has Joel introducing the song with a bit of snark that the lyrics have something to offend everybody and yep, Catholic groups weren't impressed (which has something in common with last week's ROY tune) by Joel's message that Catholic girls were the party poopers of adolescent oat-sowing. But dang, it's a fun song to listen to.😎
"She's Always a Woman" was yet another single from "The Stranger" and unlike "Vienna", it did get onto the radio quite often. I've paired "Vienna" and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" together and so I can do the same with "She's Always a Woman" and "Just The Way You Are" in terms of the ardor that Joel's protagonists express for the women in their lives. However, "She's Always a Woman" has a bit more of a folksier bent as Joel sings about loving a woman not only in spite of but also because of her flaws.
"Get It Right the First Time" is one of the two final songs that never got a single release and never really seemed to get onto the radio. I first heard it years ago when an enterprising radio station finally opted to show off some of Joel's more unknown numbers, and "Get It Right the First Time" is a high-energy pop-rock tune about making sure one's ready for a first-time confrontation which could span between an intra-neighbourhood spat and a presidential debate.
"Everybody Has a Dream" is the final piece in "The Stranger" and it's a gospel pop song that I hadn't heard Joel tackle before. If the entirety of "The Stranger" was used for a concert performance and each track was performed in order, then this is the song to finish things off properly and satisfyingly see off the audience back home. Mind you, encores would be inevitable, though.
Now, for something as legendary as this album, I can only do the comparison with Japanese music by having the Top 3 albums of 1977 via Oricon underneath.
1. Hi-Fi Set Love Collection
2. The Eagles Hotel California
3. Kei Ogura Tosagaru Fuukei（遠ざかる風景）
And how about that? I've made this post just a week shy of The Piano Man's 75th birthday!
If I'm not mistaken, the above shot is from one of the Sumida River ferries heading from Asakusa down to Odaiba in Tokyo Bay. Always putting up those condo buildings there.
Let's go further into Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP with "For a Week Story" by the pop duo sister act Milk with Ritsuko and Rie Miyajima（宮島律子・宮島理恵）. This was the first track on their 1987 album"Milk" and it was the A-side for the "For a Week Story" EP which also contained the previous song I posted, "Manazashi ni I feel so love"（視線にI feel so love）.
"For a Week Story" starts the vibe off for Milk's album and it takes off on a cool but also calm and collected strut down the street...kinda like Slow Jack Swing rather than New Jack Swing. I like the boogie beat and the beefy saxophone that accompanies the ladies on their night on the town. Rie Miyajima was in charge of words and music here.
Easter is coming along the way so I figured that it was time for a rabbit song once more. So we've got Kayo Grace cuddling the bunnies.
Perhaps I can give the moral of the story right from the beginning: be careful of what you ask for. Back in early February, I noted that singer-songwriter Minoru Komorita（小森田実）was finally getting his own byline on a KKP article after just getting his deserved songwriting bona fides in Labels all these years, and then a few weeks ago, he popped up again as the lead singer for the 80s band Alpha. And today, he's back here again with his own third byline...you might say that he's multiplying like bunnies.
Strangely enough, that is the title of a perky little tune that he composed: "Bunny, Bunny" (2020) under a slightly altered form of his name...Minoru Comorita. The lyrics were written by Hiroshi Yamada who may just be the same fellow who had come up with the words for Mineko Nishikawa's（西川峰子）February 1977"Guitar Nagashite Konbanwa"（ギター流して今晩わ）, a song that I featured on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" last night. Mind you, the name is a common one in Japan and I could only find the romaji form of the name under the YouTube video so he could also be a totally different Hiroshi Yamada.
Anyways, the music is a happy-go-lucky techno funk-boogie tune as Comorita sings seemingly in the style of Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）. I have to admit though that I never thought that I would ever hear a nihilistic party tune with rabbits as the theme animal; the guy whose parents have left his mortal coil is now nonchalantly and hedonistically heading into the abyss...and singing the praises of Tokyo as well, so I gather that "Bunny, Bunny" can also be considered as a go-touchi song. Especially with that music video, I can say that all involved in the production could have sipped a bit of that absinthe of malice.
.JPG)
