Miyu Tomita, Saori Onishi, Naomi Ozora and Kana Hanazawa -- Hallelujah Essaim (ハレルヤ☆エッサイム)

Had another anime-and-food outing with my friend today. It's hard to believe that the Winter 2017 season is approaching its end, especially since we've been enjoying more shows than we had expected this time around. It'll be a pity to see them go.

One of those shows has been "Gabriel Dropout" (ガヴリールドロップアウト) with the episodic hilarity involving two teen angels and two teen demons in the same high school. I've already written about the earworm opening theme "Gabriel Dropkick" (ガヴリールドロップキック) starring the seiyuu behind those 4 characters: Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）, Naomi Ozora（大空直美）and Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）.

Well, they're also at it again with the ending theme "Hallelujah Essaim". I had to look up what essaim means, and apparently it is the French word for swarm. I'm not quite sure what the connection is, though.

Written by Ryuji Sakai（坂井竜二）and composed by Shingo Yamazaki（山崎真吾）, it wasn't quite the immediate earworm for me that "Gabriel Dropkick" was but it's grown on me gradually over the weeks. And it has that similar back-and-forth banter among the seiyuu while the rock and techno (a bit of chip tune, perhaps?) are blasting away. From what I could get from Sakai's lyrics, it sounds like I'm hearing how the girls really feel for each other despite all the over-the-top bickering in the episodes.

Saori Onishi -- Gabriel no Kazoe Uta (ガヴリールの数え歌)

This is one of those songs that just flew in from left field but I simply cannot get it out of my head. I have yet to see the episode it came out on (that will come with the next round of anime with my friend) but it has already made a splash in that certain sector of YouTube.

The anime happens to be "Gabriel Dropout" (ガヴリールドロップアウト) which has become one of my pleasant surprises for this winter season. The opening theme "Gabriel Dropkick" (ガヴリールドロップキック) has also turned out to be an earworm so I'm already feeling a tad disappointed that we're already more than halfway through the series.

Now, as for that left-field song...that pops up in Episode 7. Apparently the devilish character of Vigne (who really isn't) has been using the time-honoured tradition of counting sheep in her own way to get into the land of slumber (personally I'm fine with hot milk and nutmeg). However, instead of sheep, she prefers three-headed cerberi.

It has apparently become a running gag in the episode but it is also an adorable meme that has perked up the ears of fans. The song has even gained a title "Gabriel no Kazoe Uta" (Gabriel's Counting Song) and is sung by Vigne's seiyuu, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）. What sells it is not only the simply gooshy melody by Yasuhiro Misawa（三澤康広）but also Onishi's soft warm blanket of a voice. Some fellow has already put up a long-form looping version of the song so for any of those anime insomniacs, help is on the way!

And the humour goes full blast during the ending credits of the episode with the coda of Vigne's soft snores. This song had better get onto the soundtrack.

Still, even "Gabriel no Kazoe Uta" has a ways to go before it can beat my all-time favourite cartoon lullaby, "The Littlest Lamb" from "The Flintstones". That would be my favourite Ann Margret song.

Good night, sleep tight!

Miyu Tomita, Saori Onishi, Naomi Ozora and Kana Hanazawa -- Gabriel Dropkick (ガヴリールドロップキック)

Well, today is an off-Sunday from the usual biweekly anime-and-food sessions with my friend, and it is just as well since the city is being pounded by a good heaping of snow. I don't think even he would have wanted to travel out on the roads today.

However, the winter anime season is in full swing and it looks like the shows that we have been watching are of the magical and mystical variety. At this point, "Little Witch Academia" seems to be the big hit so far but we've also been having fun with this other purely comedic program called "Gabriel Dropout" (ガヴリールドロップアウト).

The plot reads like something for an old 1960s daffy sitcom on the order of "Bewitched" or "I Dream Of Jeannie": the top student, Gabriel, at the Angel Academy in Heaven gets sent down to Earth to learn the ways of humanity (I guess this would be the divine equivalent of an immersion programme) only to crack and end up as a rude and antisocial slacker. Meanwhile a couple of devils-in-training, Vignette and Satanichia, who end up as classmates are far less malicious than Gabe (who even has her horn) while the No. 2 angel, Raphiel, gains a reputation as a slightly psycho stalker. Your weekly dose of irony, anime fans!

The opening theme, "Gabriel Dropkick" seems to be gaining a reputation itself as a sinister earworm including for my own auricular canals. I mean, even it has some ambitions to be a fun 60s-sitcom theme. Sung by the seiyuu for the 4 main characters, Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）as Gabriel, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）as Vignette, Naomi Ozora（大空直美）as Satanachia and Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）as Raphiel, it's a back-and-forth musical onslaught between the light and dark side...a little gospel here, a little rock there...all fun everywhere. And I gotta say that Tomita has got quite the angelic voice despite her devilish character.

Veteran anison creator Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）took care of words and music. It looks like the full single is yet to come out (February 22nd is the release date) since we're not that far into the new season but I'm looking forward to getting my copy.

I guess it doesn't matter where you come from. If you're in Japan, you are automatically terrified of cockroaches.