Hiroko Kasahara -- Tooi Natsu no Kyujitsu（遠い夏の休日）

 

This article's song title illustrates our feelings about those hot vacations...far away. We're well into spring but it sure doesn't feel like it today. We even saw a few snowflakes a few days ago flying about like gnats.

Anyways, allow me to bring back actress and singer Hiroko Kasahara（笠原弘子）. She's been in show business just about her entire life with her acting career beginning when she was around five years old in 1975 and then getting into the seiyuu industry in 1983 before finally going into recording in 1986. She's got quite the long discography despite it being the aspect of her overall career starting the latest.

From her June 1992 7th album "Tooi Natsu no Kyujitsu" (Distant Summer Holidays), I introduce the title track itself. Written and composed by Minori Hotate（保立稔）, it's a breezy and brassy contemporary version of 60s girl pop punctuated hard by a sax solo bent on jazzy excursions. It would make any current Torontonian swoon for the hot sunny days along the beach.

Hiroko Kasahara -- Hai to Dynamite（灰とダイナマイト）

 

My knowledge of veteran actress, seiyuu and singer Hiroko Kasahara（笠原弘子）is very small, although she has had one article here on KKP for her performance of "Sora no Mukou ni"（空の向こうに）from the game "Symphonic Rain". I know that I've seen her on at least one anime, "Magic Knight Rayearth"（魔法騎士レイアース）as one of the three main characters but that's about it.

Kasahara has released a number of her albums over the years and this one track from her January 2000 album "Neo Decadence" has got my attention. "Hai to Dynamite" (Ash and Dynamite) is a slow-burning soulful love song about rekindling some of that old romance once more. It's perhaps not a surprise that its additional title is "Kareki ni Hana wo Sakasemashou"（枯れ木に花を咲かせましょう...Let's Grow Flowers in the Deadwood）. Natsuko Karedou（枯堂夏子）was the lyricist here while Masami Kishimura（岸村正実）took care of the melody. My compliments especially to the bluesy guitarist who just about stole the show.

Ritsuko Okazaki/Hiroko Kasahara -- Sora no Mukou ni （空の向こうに）

As I mentioned back in August 2013 when I wrote about the lovely ballad "Ame de Musique"（雨のmusique）, I never played the computer game, "Symphonic Rain", which it came from. However, I didn't need to play it to know how wonderful it sounded as sung by Masumi Okano（浅野真澄）who voiced one of the characters and the late Ritsuko Okazaki（岡崎律子）who had created the song.

Comparatively though, my anime buddy hasn't played "Ame de Musique" during anison hour as often as he has this other ballad and the actual opening theme from the game called "Sora no Mukou ni" (The Other Side of the Sky). But I don't blame him for his choice because it is also a wonderful song in my estimation. This is another Okazaki creation which shows right from its opening notes that perhaps the singer-songwriter had been a fan of those 80s power ballads by folks like David Foster. The arrangement is such that I could've easily imagined Chicago or TOTO tackling this one. If I'm not mistaken, the above is the Okazaki version from "For Ritz", her 7th album from December 2004.

I read the information today on the J-Wiki article about the album but supposedly this was to have been released in June of that year but with Okazaki's sudden passing the previous month, the decision was made by production staff to hold off on the release for several months and even change the initial title to "For Ritz" in tribute to her.

Supposedly the above video here is the rendition by seiyuu Hiroko Kasahara（笠原弘子）who played the character of Phorni in "Symphonic Rain" but I just found the renditions so similar that I'm kinda wondering if it is also Okazaki here as well. Corrections are welcome.