Cast of "Osomatsu-san"/TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND -- Same Six Faces ~ Konya wa Saiko!!!!!! （今夜は最高!!!!!!）

First, a bit of background. The fellow you see in the video is Iyami (イヤミ), one of the characters from the famous "Osomatsu-kun"（おそ松くん）which started out as a manga by Fujio Akatsuka（赤塚不二夫）in 1962 before becoming an anime in 1966. Iyami has become legendary since he came up with what has become the all-round international anime gesture for shock: standing on one foot while making an angular shape with his body and arms before screeching "SHEEH!" It became a meme even before memes officially existed and it has since jumped into the 3D world. I've seen comedians use it all the time on TV and even Godzilla used it once in one of his movies....at the cost of several buildings and probably several hundred more lives.

And yet, Iyami was supposed to be just one of the silly supporting characters for the main sextuplet of ne'er-do-wells (known as NEETs in Japan) on "Osomatsu-kun". That one gesture probably upended the hierarchy. I never saw any of the anime variations of the franchise but even I knew "SHEEH!" and the gesture.

To continue on, after I did the article on the opening and ending themes of the anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！）yesterday, I innocently decided to check out whether the three fellows of TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND had ever done stuff outside of the anison realm. And I think I came across at least one of their more ambient efforts on YouTube, but then after, I came across the above video featuring the song "Same Six Faces ~ Konya wa Saiko!!!!!!" (Tonight's The Best!!!!!!). What happened afterwards was the equivalent of a spider (the song) snagging a juicy fly (namely, me) for dinner. Dang, welcome back to the disco 80s! I was ready to order a mirror ball from Amazon after listening to this...2 or 3 times in succession.

Yup, the Technoboys came up with another earworm late last year, and this time, I didn't hear too many of those syn-drums that have become a sign of their work on their another anime. "Same Six Faces" turned out to be the ending theme for the sequel series for "Osomatsu-kun", "Osomatsu-san"（おそ松さん）, which came out in October 2015 before finishing its run at the end of March 2016. The original series had the Brothers Matsuno as these six scallywag kids but this new series had them as grownups but still not too mature.

I never got to see the series and reading and watching some of the clips, I have a feeling that "Osomatsu-san" is not really my anime buddy's type of show despite the mostly nutso humour involved. But man, is that ending theme catchy! "Same Six Faces" as it was used in the ending credits had the actual voice cast bantering and singing over the Technoboys' delivery with the seiyuu for Iyami, Kenichi Suzumura（鈴村健一）, leading the way (complete with the background chorus coolly crooning the "SHEEH!"). As for the Brothers Matsuno themselves, I was surprised in that it looks like the entire cast of "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）decided to re-unite to voice the characters. Takahiro Sakurai（櫻井孝宏）, Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）, Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）, Daisuke Ono（小野大輔）, Yuuichi Nakamura（中村悠一）and Miyu Irino（入野自由）go all in.

Released in December 2015, the single went Gold and it went as high as No. 3 on Oricon. Now I feel like grabbing one of my old 80s compilation CDs and searching for S-Express again!

Ah, before I finish off...the current lineup of Technoboys is Tomohisa Ishikawa, Tohru Fujimura and Yohei Matsui（石川智久・フジムラトヲル・松井洋平）.

Golden Bomber with Cast of "Ixion Saga DT" -- DT Suteru/Let's Go ED （DT捨テル/レッツゴーED）

Ahhh...good times. A few years ago, I was watching "Ixion Saga DT" which was a mix of adventure, sword & sorcery, and hilarious innuendo-laden farce about a gamer who suddenly found himself in the game that he was playing in the real world and then joining the motley group of warriors including a noble hunk of a man, a transsexual maid and a tsundere princess (well, far more tsun than dere). One of the running themes was the testicular humour on hand along with the balls-to-the-wall (sorry) action.

There were a couple of seiyuu in there, Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）as Mariandale the maid and Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）as the not-so-villainous Erecpyle Dukakis who were also in a far more gentler anime at around the same time with their own contributions to the theme songs.

They were also involved in the opening and ending themes for "Ixion Saga DT" to a smaller extent. And true to the balls-to-the-wall pace, the band Golden Bomber（ゴールデンボンバー）kicks them up to warp speed.

Just an aside about Golden Bomber...the band has been a fixture on the Kohaku Utagassen for the last few years singing "Memeshikute"（女々しくて...Unmanly）. Active since 2004, I knew these guys were heavy into their Visual Kei thing but had no idea that they were actually an air band. I kinda see them as a combination of KISS and the comical Japanese outfit The Drifters. The current lineup has Sho Kiryuin（鬼龍院翔）, Yutaka Kyan（喜矢武豊）, Jun Utahiroba（歌広場淳 ）and Kenji Darvish（樽美酒研二）. That last fellow has been a regular sight on TV Japan via an NHK kids' program.

Anyways, opener "DT Suteru" (Losing My DT) always got the party started with the band, called Golden Ixion Bomber for the purposes of the single, starting off chanting "D, T, D, T...". The original game was called "Ixion Saga Dimensional Transfer" but as part of the bawdy humour of the anime, DT also stood for "dotei" or "virgin" which was the unfortunate nickname slapped onto the snarky main character of Kon on entering the world of Mira. The good guys of the cast including Mariandale put their two yen in as Kiryuin begged the girl to help him lose his DT. I didn't quite understand the lyrics as they were sung but judging by how my anime buddy giggled, I gathered that it was very much in the spirit of the show.

"DT Suteru" was based on a track from their second BEST compilation, "Golden Best: Brassiere" from 2010 originally titled "Moto Kare Korosu"（元カレ殺ス...Gonna Kill Your Ex-Boyfriend）. For the re-modeled version for "Ixion Saga", vocalist Kiryuin wrote and composed the song with co-writing credits for Yashikin（やしきん）and Kumo Yamada（山田くも）.

The trio also took care of the first ending theme for the show, "Let's Go ED". I may not have gotten the entire gist of the opener but even I had to laugh at the shout of "Gimme some BALLS!". Ah, so this is from the bad guys' side of things, and yep, Hiroshi Kamiya and his crew came in here. The innuendo continued to hold sway with ED not only standing for Erecpyle Dukakis but also for that sad condition "erectile dysfunction". And one of Erec's problems and running gags was somewhere in that area. I'm not a huge rock fan but having both of these themes for "Ixion Saga" was perfect. One to pump you up for the episode and the other to finish things off with a bang.

And as was the case for "DT Suteru", "Let's Go ED" came from another Golden Bomber original song "Let's Go KY" which is on another BEST album, "Golden Hour" also from 2010. I'm assuming that the KY here refers to the formerly "in" phrase "kuuki yomenai" which is roughly defined as "can't read the tea leaves" so I guess the translation for the title can be "Let's Go, Clueless". I'm pretty sure that the original song wasn't particularly a song of encouragement for Kentucky.

The single with both songs went as high as No. 5 on Oricon. Unlike poor Erec, it stood tall.

Takahiro Sakurai/Jun Fukuyama/Hiroshi Kamiya/Aya Endo/Kana Hanazawa -- Shirokuma Cafe （しろくまカフェ）

I've just about finished my second round of watching the heartful and humourous "Shirokuma Cafe" (Polar Bear Cafe), and it's become quite a classic in my eyes with seiyuu apparently playing zany characters against type, Shirokuma's running gag of punning everyone to distraction, and the multiple ending theme songs sung by just about the entire cast.

Over the past few years since the ending of the series, though, I've seen one song on YouTube also sung by each voice actor in character that never popped up on the series at all. Given the simple and appropriate title of "Shirokuma Cafe", it's a light and funky tune written and composed by the lady behind all those ending themes, Saki（紗希）,  that could have been a great promotion jingle for the actual coffeehouse itself if Shirokuma had ever decided to advertise beyond the pages of a magazine. That one line of "...happuru, pippuru, poppu na apple pie!"（はっぷる、ぴっぷる、ぽっぷなアップルパイ！） should have gotten Saki an extra bonus in her paycheque.

Each of the seiyuu give their own personality quirks to the song. Takahiro Sakurai（櫻井孝宏）as the quietly droll (and perhaps insane) Shirokuma happily trolls his listeners with his way-over-the-top delivery. Methinks Shirokuma may have been drinking something other than coffee under the counter before he hit the mike. I'm sure it took the edge off.

Then, there is Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）as cute Panda. Panda's version apparently had the cutey go Jim Nabors on me and go deep in the voice. Frankly, I think he sings like Jun Fukuyama.

Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）as Penguin isn't quite as nuts as Shirokuma but he also has his own snappy take on "Shirokuma Cafe". He sounds quite happy, too, since aside from his dream of being a rakugo comedian, he has also wanted to be the finest karaoke singer in town. I've been reading some surprised/delighted responses on YouTube for Kamiya's rendition since apparently the seiyuu is usually known for taking far more badass roles.

Aya Endo's（遠藤綾）Sasako sings her "Shirokuma Cafe" much like how she is in the cafe: straight, sweet and adorable. There are no wackadoodle sidesteps in her performance.

If I included every character's rendition of the song, this article would probably ring alarms in the Blogger hierarchy. And yet, I feel compelled to put in Mei Mei's supremely cheerful take to wrap things up here. I'm not sure if Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）sister panda became the breakout character of the series but her orgasmic excitement at any thought concerning her love of Handa-san the zookeeper has most likely left a permanent impression in the fans' minds....and a ringing in the ears. No coffee for her!

It's a bit of a pity that "Shirokuma Cafe" the song didn't make it into "Shirokuma Cafe" the show, but hopefully there is an album out there which has the various seiyuus' versions.

Hiroshi Kamiya -- Zokkon Penko-san （ぞっこん!ペン子さん）

A couple of months ago, I provided an article on the first ending theme for the droll 2012-2013 anime "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ...Polar Bear Cafe）. There aren't a lot of examples of the genre that last an entire year unless they're the crown jewels of a TV station (et tu, PreCure?), and there are very few of them that have more than one or two ending themes. Singer-songwriter Saki（紗希）then probably earned herself a lot of respect (and mucho mugs of beer) for penning no less than 12 ending themes for "Shirokuma Cafe" throughout the show's run...and in different styles, to boot. Plus, a number of the seiyuu involved provided the vocals for all 12.

I'm just a little over halfway through the series so I'm currently on my 7th ending theme. Along with the first cheerful ending by Jun (Panda) Fukuyama, I've become a fan of this earworm...namely the 6th ending theme sung by Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）who is the seiyuu for the acerbic Penguin (and no, absolutely no relation to the homicidal Batman villain). So far, I've heard rock (Grizzly), ballad (Sasako), country-folk (Jougin Panda) and even enka (Handa-san). However, I've got to admit that Saki took the cake when she came up with this tribute to all things Disney Musical with "Zokkon Penko-san" (I'm Madly In Love With Ms. Penko). I mean, the only things missing here were the talking candle and teapot.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not an expert on seiyuu. However, I did read of some surprise about the person behind this jolly tune since Kamiya has usually been known to voice very cool and erudite characters, albeit guys who inhabit a very wide range on the morality spectrum. In "Shirokuma Cafe" though, his Penguin sounds like a nasal combination of Dr. McCoy from "Star Trek" and the irritated tsukkomi partner of a Japanese comedy duo. It's a wonder that he hasn't smacked his buddies on the show with a paper fan as of yet (then again, it's awfully hard to clasp a big fan with flippers). And then to hear him sing "Zokkon Penko-san" as the ode to his lady love and as the extension of a running gag probably earned him even more accolades.

http://www.animeultima.tv/shirokuma-cafe-episode-2/

Yup, the ads are annoying but I gather that the "rent" has to be paid. However, I believe it's the second half of this early episode which provides the lyrical material for Penguin's lovesickness.