halca feat. Aina Suzuki -- Arekore Drastic（あれこれドラスティック）/KAF & Kafu -- Ryusenkei Mayday（流線形メーデー）

 

Last week, I received word from my anime buddy that there was an explosion of activity online with the news that the one-and-only Miku Hatsune（初音ミク）made a cameo appearance on the third season of "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック...Dropkick on my Devil） known as "Jashin-chan Dropkick X". Even the most famous Vocaloid of them all couldn't fail to be victimized by the naughty main character although Hatsune took it all in stride since she apparently made a 10-yen profit. 

Actually before my buddy contacted me, I'd already seen the footage of the Hatsune and Jashin-chan encounter. I wasn't all that surprised by it since the franchise was already making hay of breaking the fourth wall and generously throwing around pop cultural references as often as Yurine vivisected her roommate.

Both singer halca and Jashin-chan's seiyuu Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈）have contributed songs to the franchise in the past, but here they are together providing the opening theme to "Dropkick X", the appropriately titled "Arekore Drastic" (Drastic This and That). Written by Tomoya Tabuchi（田淵智也）and composed by Tabuchi and Naohiro Hayashi（林直大）, it's the usual fun-and-hijinks hard rock anarchy that presages the episodes of this series.

But I have to admit that I have been especially drawn to the ending theme "Ryusenkei Mayday" (Streamline Mayday) because of the appealingly plinky keyboards involved and what sounds like a borrowing of the cuica riff from Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova" which was used as the theme song for "Austin Powers". I've never heard anything quite like that before.

And "Ryusenkei Streamline" is quite the catchy Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）-with-some-Etsuko Yakushimaru（やくしまるえつこ）delight with the funk and groove along with the intriguing combination of VTuber KAF（花譜）and virtual singer Kafu（可不）from CeVIO behind the mike. The lyrics were written by Haneda Saijitsu（祭日ハネダ）and the music was by HiFi-P. This can be another earworm for this anime season.

halca -- Toki toshite Violence（時としてバイオレンス）

 

Yup, indeed I am a late bloomer. The zany anime "Dropkick on My Devil!! Dash"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック'）, the second season to the original 2018 "Dropkick on my Devil!", had already finished its run more than a year ago, and yet, I only finished my copy of it last night. No problems, though. I still had a lot of fun with it, and although TV Tropes mentioned that the second season toned down the nastiness and gore between the two main characters of devilish Jashin-chan and vengeful Yurine, I think that there was still plenty of nasty comeuppances against the former by the latter.

Before we get to the subject of this article, though, I just have to give my compliments to the seiyuu Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈）who plays Jashin-chan. Not only did she have her little devil go through a whole ton of vocal gymnastics and histrionics for the role, but she is quite the accomplished singer for not only taking part in the opening theme song for the first season, "Ano Ko ni Dropkick"（あの娘にドロップキック）, and providing the epic healing song for an ailing Yurine, "Jimbocho Aika"（神保町哀歌）, but from the ending credits for Episode 5 of "Dash", I found out that Suzuki had also been responsible for the rendition of "Ave Maria" in that episode while a younger version of her character was opening up a can of whoop-ass on some of her mean classmates.

Back to our regularly-scheduled song. The opening theme for "Dash" is "Toki toshite Violence" (Violence on Occasion) by pop singer and anison specialist halca. Compared to the cast-sung "Ano Ko ni Dropkick", it's a bit more conventional than the wild theme for the first season which swung between cute anison and heavy metal. However, "Toki toshite Violence" still pops and rocks and it reflects the often fast-paced yelling and slicing and dicing which take place in the average episode.

"Toki toshite Violence" was released as halca's 5th single in May 2020, about half a year following her previous single, "Hokago no Liberty"（放課後のリバティ）, the ending theme for another wacky comedy in its second season. It was written by Junko Miyajima（宮嶋淳子）and composed by Kazuhiro Hara（原一博）, and the song has tied with another halca single in being her highest-ranked song to date at No. 23 on Oricon.

Wrapping up, after another successful crowdfunding effort, the third season, "Dropkick on My Devil! X" will be premiering in 2022. My anime buddy had wanted to do his part for the show but, alas, the producers announced that the crowdfunding had already reached its target. So we can all look forward to another example of the most hilarious round of decapitation, disembowelment and impaling that can ever be seen in a show.

Aina Suzuki -- Jimbocho Aika（神保町哀歌）

One of my haunts when I was living in the Tokyo area was the neighbourhood of Jimbocho which melds smoothly into Kanda to become this large region perfect for bibliophiles. Even when I had been living earlier in Gunma, whenever I came down to the megalopolis, I would visit Jimbocho, specifically Sanseido Book Store since they had an English-language book floor where I would stock up on the latest issues of magazines and comic books.

Although far fewer in number, Jimbocho also had shops that dealt in used or old CDs which meant that there were treasures to be had in terms of a kayo lover like me. For instance, there is good ol' Tacto in the neighbourhood which I wrote about years ago on the blog. Whenever I wanted to hit Jimbocho for books or CDs, if I were coming from home in Ichikawa City, I took the Tozai Line to Kudanshita Station which was right on the western edge of Jimbocho or if I were coming in from elsewhere, I often took the Hanzonmon Line to Jimbocho Station itself. As some extra geographical information, it's about a 20-minute walk from the main intersection of Kanda-Jimbocho to Akihabara.

My reminiscences of a beloved Tokyo neighbourhood come because of the zany anime "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック）. The second season has just come out after its inaugural season in 2018, and I did mention at the end of the article for the first opening theme "Ano Ko ni Dropkick"（あの子にドロップキック）that there were some insert songs.

Well, better late than never, I guess. I was too keyed into the comical gore involved between the two characters of supposedly evil Jashin and her violent roomie Yurine to notice that the setting was indeed Jimbocho. One of the later episodes in Season 1 even had Jashin sing an adorable folksy ballad as one of those insert songs to help Yurine convalesce from a cold.

Titled "Jimbocho Aika" (Jimbocho Elegy), Jashin's seiyuu Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈）as her character does a great job ironically evoking those emotions of sentimentalism and love. It isn't mentioned who composed the song but Kazuyuki Fudeyasu（筆安一幸）was behind the lyrics. The other interesting thing about "Jimbocho Aika" is that it goes on for over 10 minutes, so I was immediately reminded of another tune from years back "Osaka de Umareta Onna"（大阪で生まれた女）by the band BORO which has a similar tone and has a length of 34 minutes! However, in terms of melody, "Jimbocho Aika" reminds me more of the school graduation favourite "Okuru Kotoba"（贈る言葉）by Kaientai（海援隊）.

It looks like the slapstick continues on and Yurine still has to practice her tough love.

Yutaro Miura -- Home Sweet Home!

Almost a couple of months ago, I wrote about the cheery opening theme to one of the more comically violent anime I've seen in recent memory, "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック...Dropkick on my Devil!）.

Yes, folks! Quentin Tarentino and anime...discuss.

Anyways, along with that opening theme, there is always the just-as-cheery ending theme by Yutaro Miura（三浦祐太朗）"Home Sweet Home!" that comes across as half-anime ender and half-game music. Perhaps for all of the mayhem that Jashin-chan generates and attracts, the song may be pointing out that the half-girl/half-serpent actually likes being on Earth in Tokyo.

Written by Miura and composed by prolific anison writer Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）, there's nothing here that makes "Home Sweet Home!" a classic but it's a nice enough ending theme which reflects a typically chaotic episode. The download-only single came out in July of this year.

Jashin Girls -- Ano Ko ni Dropkick（あの娘にドロップキック）

With some of the crazier anime this year coming out this season including "Grand Blue" （ぐらんぶる）and "Asobi Asobase"（あそびあそばせ）, one of the other shows that my friend and I caught this time around was "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック...Dropkick on my Devil!）. It's an anime about a brazen serpent girl named Jashin who ends up living with a witch named Yurine in Tokyo with the laughs coming from how much mayhem the former wreaks on the neighbourhood and her friends(?) and how the latter brings her down to ground. I gather that this would be the anime equivalent of "The Odd Couple".

I also guess that if Eli Roth had ever thought about producing a moe anime, this would probably be the result. Actually, considering that title "Jashin-chan Dropkick" and the overall premise, I had assumed that there was a connection with an anime that we had seen early in 2017, "Gabriel Dropout"（ガヴリールドロップアウト）, with another not-so-nice otherworldly girl and her just-as-unusual friends. There is a certain similarity, I suppose, but really, I think my assumption was merely based on the fact that the opening theme for that show was "Gabriel Dropkick"（ガヴリールドロップキック）.

As for my feelings on "Jashin-chan Dropkick", I kinda see it as a fun but minor show in our summer anime sessions with "Grand Blue" and "Harukana Receive"（はるかなレシーブ）being the heavy hitters for us this season. Still, the theme songs have started to burrow themselves into my head. For example, there is the opener "Ano Ko ni Dropkick" (Dropkick That Girl) as performed by the Jashin Girls（邪神★ガールズ）, namely most of the cast: Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈...Jashin）, Nichika Ohmori（大森日雅...Yurine）, Miyu Kubota（久保田未夢...Medusa）, Yurie Kozakai（小坂井祐莉絵...Pekora）, Chiaki Omigawa（小見川千明...Minos）, Riko Sasaki（佐々木李子...Poporon）and Riho Iida（飯田里穂...Persephone II）. Of the seiyuu here, Iida already has a couple of entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" through Marcos' and Joana's articles.

In going with the wild and woolly antics of the main character, the song written and composed by Agasa.K is mostly a wacky techno rock number with that nostalgic feeling of trance although there are a couple of points where the cast suddenly goes into an aidoru-like melody of fluffiness. The entirety of "Ano Ko ni Dropkick" kinda has that overture feeling from a musical which also resembles that of the just-as-manic "Gabriel Dropkick".

Will do the ending sometime next month and there were a few insert songs as well.