Yoko Maekawa/Kumi Koda/GO!GO!7188 -- Cutie Honey (キューティーハニー)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/breville/8723949838

It's possible that I may be coming down with a cold or some hay fever today. My nose has been running like a faucet and there's a cough coming in. A cup of some hot honey & lemon would be quite nice right now.

Speaking of honey.....HONEY FLASH!!

Yes, I'm seguing again...let it go. Ahem...anyways, it's time for me to bring out an old but famous anison from the 1970s. To be specific, this is the theme song for the 1973 anime "Cutie Honey" (キューティーハニー). I never saw the show myself but even I know about this heroine in Japan who fights the good fight while having a certain allergy toward being fully clothed. And the theme is also one of the most famous elements as well as being one of the more recognizable anison ever made.

Written by lyricist Claude Q. (aka Fujio Iwasaki/岩崎富士男 now of the Osaka University of Arts) and composed by Takeo Watanabe（渡辺岳夫）, "Cutie Honey" has got a lot of soaring boogie and spunk done in a spy-show style with lyrics describing the fine attributes of android Honey Kisaragi (I can only imagine her on a date with Commander Data). And singer Yoko Maekawa（前川陽子）interprets it like a Linda Yamamoto（山本リンダ） hit, and that is no surprise since it had been intended for the sexy and dynamic Yamamoto but for some reason, that plan fell through. Still, Maekawa does a fine job resembling the singer.

As I said, I was never a fan of the show but even I paid attention when I was watching the morning news back in Ichikawa one day and learned that there was to be a live-action version of "Cutie Honey" which was released in 2004. Ohhhhhhkayyyyyyyyy, I remarked. And the star was Eriko Sato（佐藤江梨子）, a tarento whose star had been rising at the time.

Kumi Koda（倖田來未）performed the new version of the theme song in an even sultrier way with more of a nightclubby/hip-hop feel. Looking at the music video, I would have thought Koda could have portrayed the heroine but perhaps she was a little too short at 154cm. Sato is actually my height at 173cm.

Man, do I love the fat bass and drums on GO!GO!7188's cover of "Cutie Honey". This is the surf rock version of the song that was included on the band's cover mini-album "Tora no Ana"（虎の穴...The Tiger's Eye） from July 2002. It was able to reach No. 15 on the Oricon charts.

From what I've read, there are plenty of other covers out there on YouTube as well so enjoy!

GO!GO!7188 -- Jet Ninjin （ジェットにんぢん）

I saw this video for the rollicking "Jet Ninjin" (Jet Carrot) starring rock band GO!GO!7188 years ago on one of the local music channels, and thought it a hoot. My first impression of the group had been that they were a trio of no-nonsense take-no-guff rockers from Kagoshima Prefecture but when I saw this video, I realized that they actually had a sense of humour about themselves.

"Jet Ninjin" was GO!GO!7188's 2nd single from August 2000 which would truly have been made into the coolest tokusatsu TV series theme song with the all-business guitar rumbles. Guitarist Yuu, bassist Akko and drummer Turkey were all in for the video which takes an affectionate poke at that genre plus the one for all those old Japanese police shows as the guys pretend to be an elite squad for good armed with the world's most lethal vegetable.

And yet, as I was to find out, the humour went even deeper. The title actually came from a mispronunciation from Akko's old boss at her part-time job when he/she was trying to actually refer to the eclectic Nara band Jitterin' Jinn. Not sure whether Akko just stared at her employer for the longest time or she crumpled into a bag of giggles. However, riffing from that genius expression, the song was born.

Yuu and Akko created the song, and although most of the song spoke about the superhero Jet Ninjin flying through the air, there was one line at the end which revealed the joke: "Jet Ninjin is actually the once-popular band named Jitterin' Jinn". According to J-Wiki, the band had actually gone to Jitterin' Jinn themselves to get their blessing to use the lyric but were politely declined. However, for whatever reason, the line remained intact when the song was about to be released, something which prompted Jitterin' Jinn lead vocalist Reiko Harukawa（春川玲子）to write an entry in her blog on August 26 2000, just a few days before the release date. I tried to see the entry myself via a link on the J-Wiki article for GO!GO!7188 but just got gibberish; you can check to see if you are more successful. In any case, I don't quite know what Harukawa's exact reaction was but it is interesting to note that GO!GO!7188 didn't play "Jet Ninjin" during their concerts for a short time. Sometime later though, an accord of sorts was reached through staffers who had connections with both bands which resulted in the band agreeing to change that line for any future performances of the song.

"Jet Ninjin" managed to sprout as high as No. 48 on Oricon. You can take a look at another song by the band, "Kokoro no Tabi"（心の旅）.

Some carrots...and lettuce

Tulip/GO!GO!7188 -- Kokoro no Tabi （心の旅）

I've always considered Tulip's （チューリップ）biggest hit of "Kokoro no Tabi" (Voyage of the Heart) to be one of the great kayo send-off songs. Just imagine....a college graduate from the old countryside hometown heading for the big city to start his/her career, and the old gang provides the streamers and the stream of tears, all while this song is being sung as the young lad/lass takes the train from the tiny local station. One might say that it would be the ideal theme for one of the most important moments in life.

Well, perhaps that was a bit florid but "Kokoro no Tabi" did come from one of the big moments in Tulip's life. Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）and his band hadn't made too much of an impression from their first 2 singles or their first 2 albums, and "Kokoro no Tabi" was their self-imposed last chance to make it big or head back to Fukuoka in failure. Zaitsu was behind the lyrics and music for Tulip's 3rd single from May 1973, and he created this out of his feelings before making his way to Tokyo to make it big in music. Well, there was obviously a happy ending in that "Kokoro no Tabi" went all the way up to No. 1 after debuting on Oricon at the humble ranking of No. 71. It sold slightly under a million records and ended the year as the 7th-ranked song. And why not? There is that sense of sentimentality and triumph infused into the song so that it can be used at any event from the end of a victorious Koshien high school baseball campaign to a wedding party.

What surprised me was that the original 1973 recording was not sung by leader Zaitsu but by the youngest Tulip member, Tatsuya Himeno（姫野達也）. Zaitsu was to have been the main vocal but at the last minute, it was decided by staff that Himeno had the "sweeter" voice and so he should be the one to sing it. Although "Kokoro no Tabi" did become the saviour song, Zaitsu apparently had some complicated feelings about that vocal decision.

I remember "Kokoro no Tabi" all these years due to the fact that the song has been covered so often by a number of artists. One of the versions I recall the most is the thrashing version by rock band GO!GO!7188, one of the great names in Japanese music collectives and whose derivation is apparently still only known by its members: lead vocal and guitarist Yuu, bassist Akko and drummer Turkey. They may hail from Kagoshima Prefecture but I always imagine the side streets of Shibuya, Tokyo whenever I think about them. According to Wikipedia, they had influences from genres such as surf rock, punk and even enka. In that way, I've often related them to chanteuse Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. The band debuted in 1998 but disbanded a couple of years ago in 2012.

Their cover of "Kokoro no Tabi" came from their album of kayo kyoku covers, "Tora no Ana"（虎の穴...Tiger's Lair）from July 2002.