Yoko Takahashi & Hazel Fernandes -- Peaceful Times - The London-Tokyo Meeting

 

I shouldn't be surprised by anything that Hideaki Anno's（ 庵野秀明）"Neon Genesis Evangelion" throws at me such as the general plot developments and the music. Up to this time, I've eschewed watching any of the franchise because I don't want to get as screwed up as the characters are, but as for the music, the original series managed to throw amazing curve balls such as one of the most iconic opening themes in "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze"（残酷な天使のテーゼ）and a jazz standard as the ending theme. It's why I've actually set aside "Evangelion" as a Label in itself...just in case, another great song presents itself.

I only wrote about Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）just last week due to his early City Pop material with Junko Yagami's（八神純子）husband John J. Stanley, and then afterwards, he got involved with his fair share of anime scores, including "Evangelion". Well, talking about that surprise in the first paragraph, it looks like I got nailed again...happily so. Apparently, Sagisu managed to take the Next Episode music clip from "Evangelion" and grow it into a full-blown epic gospel soul tune.

Given the long title of "Peaceful Times - The London-Tokyo Meeting", it is a track on the November 2013 "SHIRO'S SONGBOOK 'Xpressions' Shiro SAGISU". The song managed to shoot some major shivers up my back as the team of Yoko Takahashi（高橋洋子）, the singer behind "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze", and British house music singer Hazel Fernandes had gotten together to sing something so joyful (with lyrics by Mike Wyzgowski) that I almost wish that "Peaceful Times" could be used in any future "Evangelion" movie's ending while each main character could walk to the camera, bow and smile like casts used to do in old Hollywood movies. Shinji, Rei and Asuka deserve that much after suffering that much.

Claire/Yoko Takahashi/Hikaru Utada/Kotono Mitsuishi -- Fly Me To The Moon

As someone who grew up listening to standards and watching some of those old variety shows featuring folks like Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett and the original Rat Pack, the song "Fly Me To The Moon" is old hat to me.

Written and composed by Bart Howard in 1954, I was surprised to discover that the very first singer to try it out was actress and comedian Kaye Ballard. Now I believe that 99.9% of the readers of this article have probably never heard of her. In fact, aside from myself, I can only think of 2 other fellows with any connection to this blog who may have heard of her. As for me, she was one of the earliest TV personalities that I ever remember. My two adjectives for her are zany and loud-mouthed.

Usually when the title pops up in my head, the two folks who readily come to mind are Frank Sinatra and the aforementioned Tony Bennett as seen above. When these guys sang it, you knew that "Fly Me To The Moon" was a classic.

About 41 years after "Fly Me To The Moon" was first sung by Ballard, the legendary anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion"（新世紀エヴァンゲリオン）launched in October 1995. Of course, part of the show's lasting success was the opening theme, "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze"（残酷な天使のテーゼ）that seems to be an absolute must for any anime fan to get to know. In fact, one friend even remarked that it should be sung as an anthem of sorts. Well, I like my anime but I will simply listen and enjoy "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze".

For years, though, I also heard that a version of "Fly Me To The Moon" was also used in "Evangelion". And my first thought was "Why would anyone think of using a Tony Bennett song in an anime?" At the time, jazz and anison couldn't quite mesh with me...and this was before I discovered "Tank" for the later anime hit "Cowboy Be-Bop".

Then today, I had my follow-up appointment with my doctor to find out that my bad cholesterol had decreased somewhat, and I was able to get a small translation assignment done pretty lickety-split. So my levels of whimsy were frankly off the scale and I decided to check out what "Evangelion" could do with "Fly Me To The Moon".

Dang, quite a lot actually. I had the window to my room open today so a lot of refreshingly cold air wafted in. Plus I heard the ending theme for "Evangelion" which was indeed "Fly Me To The Moon". And boy, my goose pimples were extremely exhausted! Singer and graphic designer Claire Littley had me at "Fly". Well, that's not exactly true...Toshiyuki Omori（大森俊之）who composed "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze" arranged the old standard as a nearly tear-inducing and goosebump-exploding bossa jazz epic right from note one. I still don't know who on the production staff was inspired to get this song but I hope he got a fat bonus at the end of the year. Tony could be standing up and giving some applause.

Littley's full version is above. Apparently, a couple of versions of the CD single were released a few weeks after the beginning of "Evangelion" with Claire and "Zankoku" singer Yoko Takahashi（高橋洋子）singing their takes on "Fly Me To The Moon".

Takahashi's 4-beat version is above in its TV size. Her take is a more straight-ahead jazz combo. The CD single that had both versions peaked at No. 52 on Oricon, while the other single that had Takahashi's "Zankoku" and then Claire's "Fly Me" got all the way up to No. 17.

But that wasn't the only version of "Fly Me To The Moon" associated with Japanese pop culture that I remember. Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）recorded her tribute to the song as a coupling song to her 5th single "Wait & See ~ Risk"（Wait&See 〜リスク〜）from April 2000. Her take was officially titled "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)".

The famous "White Christmas", to my surprise, actually had an original opening verse which referred to boring sunny life in Los Angeles. I found out that "Fly Me To The Moon" is in the same situation. It also had an opening verse that was usually not sung but is sung here by Utada and also by Bennett above. Not surprisingly, Utada's tribute has more of that downtown grooviness but the arrangement is still light enough that I have categorized it as a pop song rather than something from the R&B genre. "Wait & See" hit No. 1 on the charts and broke the million barrier, becoming the 3rd-ranked single of 2000.

I couldn't finish this article without mentioning that one of the seiyuu in "Evangelion", veteran Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, also covered "Fly Me To The Moon" along with some of the other voice actresses on the show. Considering her most famous role, I kinda wonder if it shouldn't have been titled "Fly Me To The (Sailor) Moon". Har de har har!

Hikaru Utada -- Beautiful World

A few times at my anime buddy's place, a song popped up during the one hour of anison appreciation which occurs halfway during our biweekly anime session. Of course, I immediately recognized the voice of Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）but did not know that she had actually recorded an anime theme. I wasn't exactly a fanatic but I did enjoy a number of her songs early in her career but as we all went deeper into the 2000s, I started losing interest in her music.

So my eyes perked up when I heard this gently rolling number, "Beautiful World" by Utada (her 19th single from August 2007 written and composed by her) and my friend informed me that it was the theme song for a cinematic reboot of one of anime's most popular franchises "Evangelion Shingeki Joban: Jo"（ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:序...Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone）which came out in September 2007. Not that I was ever a fan myself of "Evangelion" but whenever the title was mentioned, my memory always went back to that amazing theme song, Yoko Takahashi's（高橋洋子）"Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze"（残酷な天使のテーゼ）.

So, on hearing "Beautiful World", I thought that this was a nice mellow alternative to Takahashi's super tune although watching the video of the movie's excerpts above, it looks like there was still a goodly share of strum und drang in the reboot. When I compare the two themes, where "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze" is this proud and hopeful anthem of having these robots successfully protect the human race, "Beautiful World" is this just-as-hopeful but more low-key theme which could accompany something as peaceful as a drive into the countryside for a picnic.

"Beautiful World" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and became the 20th-ranked song for 2007. It was also a track on her 5th album "Heart Station" from March 2008 which hit No. 1 on the album charts and later became the 5th-ranked album of that year, breaking the million barrier in sales.

An even more down-to-earth version came out in June 2009 for the second film in the "Evangelion" series, "Evangelion Shingeki Joban: Ha"（ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:破...Evangelion:2.0 You Can (Not) Advance）.

Yoko Takahashi -- Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze （残酷な天使のテーゼ）

Well, another anime season has come and gone...so, a fond farewell to shows like "Hibike! Euphonium" and "Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works", and welcome to the new summer season. One of the shows that my anime buddy introduced to me was something called "Sore ga Seiyuu!" about the trials, tribulations and thrills of a trio of voice actors trying to get that break in the industry. The first episode was...OK. There was nothing particularly incredible. It was just the usual cute characters, including the lead who looked curiously like the goofy Yuki Nagato from "Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu", and a similarity to "Shiro Bako". However, what got my interest was at the very end when the actual seiyuu finished up with the jolly ending theme that will include an excerpt from a famous anison each week. The producers couldn't have done better to start off the series with a rather beloved song.

Yup, hearing the ladies sing "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze" (A Cruel Angel's Thesis) definitely perked up my eyes and ears. And I was never an Evangelion fan, either. The anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion" started up a month before I arrived in Japan in November 1994 for my longer second stint as an English teacher. However, since I didn't get into anime during my time there, it would be months before I started noticing that word "Evangelion" being bandied about on the telly and then seeing the gigantic posters of one Rei Ayanami and the Evangelion all over Akihabara. I kinda thought the latter was a mecha as designed by Charles Addams...there was something quite Lurch-like about it.

The piece de resistance was then the opening theme itself. Whenever I watched TBS' "Countdown TV" in the wee hours of Sunday morning, it seemed that "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze" would always be showing up in the rankings over and over for weeks and weeks on end. For an anison, I thought that the song had gone further up the Oricon list than it actually did which was No. 27 at its peak. But it was a very long resident on the charts as it placed at No. 191 in 1995 when it was released in October of that year (a whole year after the show began?!), No. 161 in 1996 and then No. 156 in 1997.

Just a brief detour, but the opening credits for "Neon Genesis Evangelion" were something that I had only discovered quite recently. They were very well done so I guess I am indeed a sucker for quick-cut openings with a killer theme song..."Mission: Impossible" and "Space: 1999" come to mind here.

Amazing thing that "Zankoku" came out almost 20 years ago. Aside from the other "Evangelion" theme that Yoko Takahashi（高橋洋子）sang, "Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore" (心よ原始に戻れ), this song is the only other contribution I know by her. Neko Oikawa（及川眠子）provided the lyrics, and she is the one who wrote up a number of songs for the late80s/early 90s aidoru duo, Wink, including their famous hit, "Samishii Nettaigyo"（淋しい熱帯魚）back in 1989. Meanwhile Toshiyuki Omori（大森俊之）took care of the melody which seems to have that successful mix of Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）and late 80s anison. It may not have actually cracked the Top 10 on Oricon but it did make TV Asahi's list of the Top 100 Anime Songs at No. 55. And I gather that the anime fans would have probably stood up and saluted if the song were played at any convention.

Yes, indeedy...get those glowsticks out!

And those amazing opening credits were just ripe for parody...even on live-action TV.

One of the craziest things that I read regarding "Zankoku" on the Wikipedia writeup was that initially during production of "Evangelion", director Hideaki Anno had apparently wanted to use excerpts from Borodin's "Polovetsian Dances No. 2" as the opening theme. My boyhood memories suddenly bubbled up at that cheap commercial (that you see above) I used to see for years and years where the old fellow explained how the 50s standard ballad of "Stranger In Paradise" was adapted from "Polovetsian Dances". The crazier thing was that a recording of "Stranger In Paradise" was something that I had heard even earlier on the old RCA Victor over and over. Y'know...I did like both versions but frankly, I'm happy that Yoko Takahashi got her chance for the anime.

Yoko Takahashi's backup singers?

Yoko Takahashi/Megumi Hayashibara -- Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore (心よ原始に戻れ)

“Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore” (心よ原始に戻れ) is probably a well known song in the anime fandom, because it's an image song for the "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth" 1997 movie. As the title of the post suggests, I’m going to introduce two different renditions of this song, both released around the same time. The original one, sang by Yoko Takahashi (高橋洋子), is the b-side of her famous “Tamashii no Rufuran” (魂のルフラン) single, released in February 1997. The other version is sang by Megumi Hayashibara (林原めぐみ) and  it's an album track of her best-selling album, “Iravati”, released in August 1997. An ethereal downtempo version of “Tamashii no Rufuran” is also included in “Iravati”, but that’s not subject for today.

About the original version, featured at the beginning of the post, I can say that Yoko’s voice is very strong. The arrangement is upbeat and rich, with lots of cool electronic elements thrown here and there. The chorus is made of call and response sentences between the singer and the backing vocalists, which is very nice. Finally, the violin (not 100% sure if it's a violin) introduced at the last minute of the song is just beautiful. It's probably my favorite part of this version.

Now, let’s check out Megumi’s version. Listen to it below.

Megumi’s version, called “Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore (Naked Flower Version)”, in contrast, is not as upbeat as the original. The arrangement is filled with latin elements and a mystic atmosphere pervades it. About Megumi’s voice, it’s ethereal and gentle at the same time, which I find truly amazing (in my opinion, it’s one of her best vocal performances). Moreover, the call and response chorus is even more evident in this version, because the slower arrangement fits it better (in my opinion, of course). I’m probably being biased as Megumi is my favorite singer, but I find her version way more beautiful than the original. Being fair with Yoko, though, we can’t really compare the versions because both are different with very distinct vibes.

As my humble Japanese music knowledge started mostly with Megumi Hayashibara, her version was the first one I came across when I got a huge MP3 file with all of her albums in very low quality back in 2005. But shortly after, I discovered Yoko’s original recording. At the time, I enjoyed both and listened to them a lot. I dare to say that I used to listen to Yoko's version more times because it's upbeat and I was not very fond of ballads and slow songs back then. Nowadays I listen to Megumi’s version with more frequency than Yoko’s one, which reflects my preference. The fact that I own Megumi’s “Iravati” helps a lot too as I really like to sit on the couch and listen to an album while looking at the booklets and photo books that are part of the package. All in all, “Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore” is a great song and both versions are offering something different to the listener.

Yoko’s “Tamashii no Rufuran” single reached #3 on the Oricon charts, selling over 631,320 copies. It also reached #41 on the yearly chart of 1997. As for Megumi’s “Iravati” album, it reached #5 on the Oricon charts, selling 277,060 copies (source: generasia). It’s important to note that “Iravati” isn’t only Hayashibara’s best-selling album, but still is the best-selling seiyuu album of all time. “Kokoro yo Genshi ni Modore” was written by Neko Oikawa (及川眠子), while the composition and arrangement were made by Toshiyuki Ohmori (大森俊之). Hayashibara’s “Naked Flower Version” was also arranged by Ohmori.

To finish the article, here's a photo of my own copy of Megumi's "Iravati" album. It came with a  slipcase and a hardcover photo book, which is always very nice.