Genki Rockets -- Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star（元気ロケッツ I -Heavenly Star-）

Remembering the brief hoopla about ephemeral teen Lumi and Genki Rockets（元気ロケッツ） about a decade or so ago, I spoke about some of the songs that the project created back in late 2014 and mid-2015. Well, I pulled out the album "Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star" that I had bought at Shinjuku HMV (since replaced by a huge Uniqlo) at Takashimaya Times Square way back when and gave it another spin on the TEAC recently.

As I went through the ten tracks, although I did come to the conclusion yet again that aside from the soaring "Heavenly Star" and "Star Line", there wasn't anything particularly or additionally distinctive about the music or lyrics, as pleasant as they are for a Sunday afternoon, I have come to realize that perhaps that was the point for the whole mythos behind the virtual aidoru of Lumi from the International Space Station. She was this totally pure and innocent young teenager coming down to Earth spreading joy and love through her pure and innocent music.

The second track "Breeze" is, as the title hints at, a breezy and spacey lark in the various layers of the atmosphere showing Lumi's love for that special someone. There is something about the part where she draws out the lyrics which reminds me of a Pet Shop Boys tune. "Breeze" was the coupling song to "Heavenly Star" and was also used in a Toyota Technical Development commercial. Yusuke Tanaka（田中ユウスケ）composed the song with the trio of Tetsuya Mizuguchi（水口哲也）, Kenji Tamai（玉井健二）and Kaori Fukano（深野香）taking care of the lyrics as they did with all of the tracks.

Musician Masahiro Tobina（飛内将大）composed "I Will" that has Lumi singing again about doing anything for the lucky lad but I do like the synth-guitar riffs in there.

"Star Surfer" was provided by A-bee as Lumi sings her joy of being a space girl. It almost sounds as if she has abilities similar to that of Captain Marvel or Superman without the excess gravitas or angst or insistent need to defeat a universe-destroying psychopath such as Thanos or Darkseid.

"Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star" managed to reach as high as No. 15 on Oricon. I can't really say that this was an amazing release but I found that listening to each song separately without having to go through the entire album at once was better for me.

Genki Rockets -- Star Line

About something close to a year passed by after the release of Genki Rockets' debut single, "Heavenly Star" with that intriguing video starring the character of Lumi, until the unit's first album, "Genki Rockets I - Heavenly Star" was finally released in July 2008. I wasn't quite sure how the fandom was feeling about the extended time between debut single and debut album, but I recall feeling being pretty interested in getting this long-awaited album...which I did at the HMV at Takashimaya Times Square in Shinjuku (the HMV has since been replaced by a Uniqlo).

Just a month before the album's rollout, Genki Rockets had their 2nd single make its appearance, "Star Line". With more of a rock beat and urgency in the music when compared to the soaringly hopeful "Heavenly Star", the music video was something that had probably been anticipated as well. Instead of the A-Ha style that was used in the "Heavenly Star" video, there was more of a "realistic" look to Lumi which pretty much put the stamp on the fact that she was portrayed by a real flesh-and-blood girl instead of being a terrifyingly accurate computer program.

As was the case with "Heavenly Star", "Star Line" was written by the triumvirate of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Kenji Tamai and Kaori Fukano（水口哲也・玉井健二・深野香）and composed by Yusuke Tanaka（田中ユウスケ）. The gains were a bit more modest here with "Star Line" getting as high as No. 43 when compared to the No. 24 of "Heavenly Star".

Genki Rockets -- Heavenly Star

Some years ago, when I first saw the video for Genki Rockets'（元気ロケッツ）"Heavenly Star", my first impression was that the man and woman from that famous "Take On Me" video by 80s Norwegian band A-ha got back together for good and had a 2-D daughter. Wow! Love that is superficial and successful.

All kidding aside, the video was indeed inspired by the "Take On Me" video according to the article on Genki Rockets on Wikipedia. For a period of several months in 2007-2008, there was a small wave of interest in this unit spearheaded by digital media creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi（水口哲也） and music producer Kenji Tamai（玉井健二）, especially through the "Heavenly Star" video. My imagination and naivete were working overtime with this, since I had actually thought that the Japanese finally came up with the first realistic-looking and moving cyber-aidoru.

I'll let you continue on laughing as I continue to write that I finally found out the truth. The 2-D girl was indeed a character....Lumi, to be exact...but she was played by a flesh-and-blood Japanese-American girl by the name of Rachel Rhodes or Rei Yasuda（安田レイ）. What was meshed together was her vocals along with those of singer/seiyuu Nami Miyahara（宮原永海）. According to the Wiki writeup about Lumi, she was supposed to be the first human born in space on the International Space Station (how's that for a cool mailing address?) who finally comes down to Earth as an 18-year-old in 2037. Considering how much she's skipping in the video, I take it that the ISS has a decent gravity generator. Otherwise, she'd be crawling herself through the mud ("I hear you whispering surrounded in- AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH....Damn you, Isaac Newton!!" she'd be screaming in agony)....not a particularly picturesque image on a music video.

Although the myth was blown, I still liked "Heavenly Star" so that I not only bought the single which came out in July 2007 but also Genki Rockets' first album of the same name when it was released a year later. The song won't cure any major diseases but it is an uplifting tune, and there is a certain magical quality when I hear it with the video. Mizuguchi, Tamai and one other writer by the name of Kaori Fukano（深野香）created the lyrics while Yusuke Tanaka（田中ユウスケ）composed the music of wonder. The single peaked at No. 24 on Oricon while "Genki Rockets I - Heavenly Star" got as high as No. 15.

Still wondering (or dreading) if there will ever be a fully sentient cyberspatially born character in my lifetime. If not, there are always the dulcet tones of Miku Hatsune（初音ミク）. Yes, I'm being a bit snarky here.

And finally, for all those 80s music fans, here are Lumi's "parents".