Petit Rabbit's -- Daydream Café (Rearranged)

 

I was out most of the day today which explains why Wednesday was stuffed with a few more articles than usual including Marcos V.'s posting on "Ninna Nanna" last night so many thanks to him. Actually, I met up with my old anime buddy for brunch this morning and it was a bit of old times as we returned to his place for a truncated version of the old routine of anime and food that we'd once had before the arrival of the pandemic. I don't think we're resuming it but it was nice to visit again.

We even had a short respite of anison playing over the speakers and my friend had been steadily collecting his soundtracks and the like over the years. I was surprised then when he played a variation of a song that I've always enjoyed. 

It turns out back in November 2021, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the original manga "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, a CD was released titled "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? 10th Anniversary Shudaika Rearrange & Hi Reso Best"（ご注文はうさぎですか? 10th Anniversary主題歌リアレンジ&ハイレゾベスト...Main Theme Rearrangements and High Resolution Best） which provides some of those "Gochiusa" songs with a new twist. My friend was able to play the new version of "Daydream Café", hands down my favourite theme song out of all of them in the anime franchise. Shoichiro Hirata（平田祥一郎） rearranged the original Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）version of the song that best reflected the atmosphere of one of the most moe anime ever made in the 2010s. I'm not saying that we'll be hearing the new "Daydream Café" being played by some DJ in a Harajuku dance club but it's got some nifty beats.

Inori Minase -- AHAREN HEART

 

I gotta tell ya...if we had Chino Kafuu of Rabbit House, Kanna Kamui Kobayashi and Reina Aharen（阿波連れいな）in the same booth at a karaoke box, it would be so quiet that staff would be wondering whether there was anyone at all inside. Two of the three characters are voiced by the same seiyuu, in fact.

Indeed, veteran voice actress Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）has portrayed Chino in "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is the Order A Rabbit? ）for several years and this year, she's been handling the role of Reina Aharen, a very quiet but pure-hearted high school student in the anime "Aharen-san wa Hakarenai"（阿波連さんははかれない...Miss Aharen is Indecipherable）. I've usually been trailing a season or two behind what is currently being shown, so I've only finished Episode 3 of this series which I've enjoyed. Aharen and her bestie, Raido（ライドウ）, have the most adorably stoic expressions on their faces no matter what the situation is, and I could easily imagine once they grow up, they could do the anime version of "Dragnet" if they ever joined the police force.

The theme songs for "Aharen-san" have been OK, and I might actually write an article on at least one of them in the near future, but neither of them has particularly startled me. However, when I watched the aforementioned Episode 3 last night, the apparently one-off ending theme and credits did catch my attention. All that dance practice and karaoke practice over the first three episodes have paid off for the main lass in the form of "AHAREN HEART". 

Minase, in her whispery voiced Aharen mode, has a lot of fun with "AHAREN HEART" as we see her character bounce about with some partial help from Raido. The song was written by Kana Yaginuma（やぎぬまかな）and composed by Satoru Kousaki（神前暁）as a cute pop tune with some old-fashioned disco influences, and I'm always going to have a soft spot in my heart for the old disco.

Speaking of remarkable Episode 3 one-off ending themes for anime with nifty ending credit dance sequences, I'm reminded of another show from a few years ago. May we all have some of those in anime now and then.

Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive -- Love Shitai!（恋愛したいっ！）

 

I was doing my usual custodial maintenance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" last night and found myself in the "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ）section. Having done so, it was still easy to track down several hilarious sequences from this 2013 anime on YouTube, and I soon discovered that I hadn't included one song onto the blog. I'd written up articles on the ending theme and one truly insane insert song but had of yet not included the opening theme.

Now in all honesty, I think out of the three songs that came out of "Love Lab", "Love Shitai!" (I Want to Fall in Love) ranks third when compared to the ending theme-with-a-difference "Best FriendS" and the undergarment-obsessed "Nete mo Samete mo Lingerie" （寝ても覚めてもランジェリー）by one of the characters' father. However since I did want to complete the set at last and "Love Shitai!" is still another cheerful tune by Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive（藤女生徒会執行部）consisting of the main cast: Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）, Chinatsu Akasaki（赤﨑千夏）Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）and Yo Taichi（大地葉）.

As with "Best FriendS", "Love Shitai!" was written by ENA☆ but this time, the composition and arrangement were by y0c1e, which seems to be the standby name for Hifumi Inc.（一二三）, a Japanese music production company.

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm21940730

Inori Minase -- Kaimin! Anmin! Syalist Seikatsu（快眠！安眠！スヤリスト生活）/ORESAMA -- Gimmme!

 

It was about a year ago that due to various circumstances my family was without live television for about a week and for a couple of days, even the Internet was inaccessible. A high-tech fellow I am not, and that was a pretty difficult time since I had to be my family's ad hoc television scheduler through a combination of ancient videotapes of Japanese TV and YouTube programming. Until everything was finally resolved, I was getting pretty frazzled.

Last night, there was a large series of thunderstorms which roared through the Southern Ontario region like a biker gang, and it apparently sent a few conniptions through our TV box so that we found ourselves without television. Luckily, the outage was just overnight and I was able to find a way to get the TV back early this morning. However, I realized that I must still be suffering from a form of PTSD from last year's telecommunications nightmare since sleep definitely abandoned me. I ended up getting up a couple of hours before schedule and I basically just tackled the TV problem until the solution was finally discovered. Hopefully, I will get my proper rest tonight.

Ironically enough, there is an anime in this current Fall 2020 season which involves a moe but surprisingly ruthless princess who only desires a good night's sleep and will do anything to get it. My anime buddy told me about "Maōjō de Oyasumi"（魔王城でおやすみ...Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle） in fairly glowing terms and unfortunately although I cannot find any whole episodes, there have been some amusing scenes on YouTube.

Seiyuu Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）as one of the current A-listers in the industry has a full plate on her schedule this year, and she's also back in Season 3 of the "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）franchise as the button-down Chino, day barista at Rabbit House. However, she's also playing the sleep-deprived Princess Syalis on "Maōjō de Oyasumi" and takes care of the opening theme, "Kaimin! Anmin! Syalist Seikatsu" (Sleep! A Good Night's Sleep! Syalist Life), a bouncy pop tune with a bit of the Transylvanian fantasy treatment created by Shun Aratame（新田目駿）. One would think that this could have been a cute little ditty to be inserted into "The Addams Family".

I've also discovered that the electro-funk duo ORESAMA was taking care of the ending theme, and it's been a good long while since I've heard from vocalist Pon（ぽん）and guitarist Hideya Kojima（小島英也）. I think the last time I mentioned about them was for their contribution to the fun 2017 "Mahoujin Guruguru"（魔法陣グルグル...Magical Circle Guruguru）, "Ryuusei Dance Floor" （流星ダンスフロア）. Nice to hear their brand of disco and candy pop once more.

"Gimmme!" may describe Princess Syalis' demands (including a decent pillow) but it's also the ending theme for "Maōjō de Oyasumi" and their 9th single released about 10 days ago on October 14th. Written by Pon and composed by Kojima, ahhh, it's certainly nice to hear the beats from these guys again. Nighty-night!😴

Petit Rabbit's -- Tenkuu Cafeteria（天空カフェテリア）/Chimame Tai -- Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!（なかよし！○！なかよし！）

 

My anime buddy and I were talking the other night and he marveled at the fact that 5 years have gone by since the second season of that show of moe and coffee and rabbits had ended its run. Yes, indeed. I am talking about the franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）. At one point, I thought that everything was all done with Cocoa, Chino and the rest of the characters but a couple of specials in the intervening years kept hope alive, and sure enough, last year, it was announced that a Season 3 called "Bloom" would be heading out the gates in October...which it has.

I've been able to see the first two episodes of "Bloom" via YouTube and not through the auspices of my friend's giant TV screen this time around, but that's cool. The show has been fine and what better series to keep spirits nice and light like a well-made croissant during these times? It looks like the Japanese equivalent of Colmar, France is still going through summer, and I've gotten to see the girls and Tippy handle a flea market and the adventures of Lapin.

Of course, we gotta think about the themes and although the actual release of the singles will probably be some weeks down the line, at least, we can have a listen through the credits. The opening theme is "Tenkuu Cafeteria" (Heaven Cafeteria) by Petits Rabbit's (i.e. the main five seiyuu as listed at the bottom) as usual. Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed/arranged by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, the same duo behind Season 1's "Daydream Café" and Season 2's "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, "Tenkuu Cafeteria" has the bounciness of the former and the tempo of the latter to basically create the melodic equivalent of...well, a rabbit.

In terms of the ending credits, Season 1 had that spinning wheel and the adorable and sedate "Poppin' Jump"（ぽっぴんジャンプ）to accompany it. Then Season 2 had viewers go into diabetic shock in terms of the visuals and the ending song "Tokimeki Poporon" （ときめきポポロン♪）, and the FBI in the United States was probably wondering why their offices got inundated with phone calls.

Well, this time around, the ending credits and song have their cuteness but quite a bit more toned down compared to Season 2. Going mostly with an "Alice in Wonderland" motif, Chimame Tai（チマメ隊）consisting of seiyuu Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Sora Tokui（徳井青空）and Rie Murakami（村川梨衣）sing, as they did for the above two enders, and go a bit jazzier with "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" (Buddies! Circle! Buddies!). Although I like both the new opening and ending themes, I am even more curious about how the full version of "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" will sound since I would like to hear the jazz band get even more into the riff during the instrumental bridge. Hata was again providing the lyrics while Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）took care of music and arrangement. It's nice and catchy and this time, I don't think the FBI will need to hire more operators.

(cover version)

Asami Seto, Nao Toyama, Atsumi Tanezaki, Maaya Uchida, Yurika Kubo & Inori Minase -- Fukashigi no Carte（不可思議のカルテ）

Never heard of this anime or the series of light novels that it originated from (then again, my anime buddy has developed an allergy against light novels for the past several years, so it's no surprise that he's never informed me), but by chance the other day, I heard the ending theme for "Seishun Buta Yaro wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai"（青春ブタ野郎はバニーガール先輩の夢を見ない...Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai）, "Fukashigi no Carte" (Inexplicable Carte). I think I heard it for the first time when it was used as the ending music for one of those anime compilation videos on YouTube whether it be KHORnime or one of the other channels.

I only took a glance at some of the scenes and apparently it's some psychological slice-of-life involving a bunch of high school girls and their relationships with one rather blunt-talking high school boy (would explain why I seem to have only caught scenes where he's being yelled at). The Fall 2018 anime had a pretty high-powered cast including Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）and Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）who also hail from "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）, along with Nao Toyama（東山奈央）, Atsumi Tanezaki（種崎敦美）, Asami Seto（瀬戸麻沙美） and Yurika Kubo（久保ユリカ）.

Getting back to "Fukashigi no Carte", I like it because of the cool jazziness of it all although I wouldn't place it strictly as a jazz piece, and I noticed a reggae rhythm in there, too. Strangely enough, there is something Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）about it as well; not sure if she's even ever provided an anison. It just relays a feeling of a pleasant nighttime walk through the metropolis for me. Ameko Kodama（児玉雨子）and Hidehiro Kawai（カワイヒデヒロ）were responsible for lyrics and music respectively. The above video has all of the seiyuu singing together.

At the end of most of the episodes, the seiyuu performed "Fukashigi no Carte" separately although everyone got together for the song for the first and last episodes. The above video features Kubo's part while the video below stars Toyama.

Petits Rabbit's -- Takarabako no Jet Coaster（宝箱のジェットコースター）

Welcome to another new week. News has perhaps not been the happiest of late but for those fans of "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）, I think there's something to celebrate. Late last month, it was announced that the third season of high school girls, rabbits and cafes that can soothe the heck out of viewers has been slated for October 2020, so hopefully, in another 6 months, we can all see the latest adventures of Cocoa, Chino and the rest of the hot drink-loving gang in their lovely town.

In the meantime, we can all enjoy "Takarabako no Jet Coaster" (Treasure Box Roller Coaster) that came out in July 2015, between the first and second seasons. Performed by Petits Rabbit's, namely the main quintet of the cast: Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Risa Taneda（種田梨沙）and Satomi Sato（佐藤聡美）, it's a supremely breezy and bouncy number which brings to mind the opening theme for the second season, "No Poi!". Not surprisingly, it was made by the same duo, lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composer Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）.

This is probably a very cornball thing to say, but I think if there is that hidden character that makes "GochiUsa" the adorable and popular franchise it is, it would have to be the town itself. The architecture and layout have always struck me as being so heartwarming and welcoming that I would love to visit it. Of course, with the money and time, I can because it does exist as the city of Colmar in northeastern France (the above video is given in French). Perhaps a good chunk of the inbound tourism to Colmar in the last few years has perhaps been due to those particular anime fans themselves. I can add that the original manga artist Koi should have earned a key to the city from the mayor.

Anyways, here's hoping that our current problems will blow away soon enough so that "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? Bloom" will hit screens on schedule later this fall, and tourism will return in good numbers again to Colmar.

Nana Mizuki & Inori Minase -- Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory（銀のスプーン）

A nice little treat that I got during last night's usual anime-&-food session was seeing this September's OVA of "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, titled "Sing For You". I will always welcome the oh-so-mellow anime franchise of girls running cafes, and the 30-or-so (?) minute special dealt with the usually stoic and level-headed Chino Kafu（香風智乃）played by Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）blowing a gasket over the fact that she has to do a solo part in her school's chorus performance. Of course, the rest of the gang rush over to help out and get her over the hump of her stage fright to varying levels of humour.

During those 30 minutes, "GochiUsa" fans finally got one mystery resolved to a certain extent: that of Chino's mother who had passed away some years before the start of the series. Apparently, her name was Saki（香風サキ）and she was a regular singer at Rabbit House, with her husband and Chino's father, Takahiro（香風タカヒロ）, and even current Rabbit House barista Rize's father backing Saki on instruments.

(instrumental only)

As soon as I heard Saki sing in the OAV, I knew it was Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）right away. Her "Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory" (Silver Spoon) is a good ol' jazz waltz which I could actually imagine being played during some sort of live performance in a club somewhere.

However, the more adorable and heartwarming pop version is the duet of "Gin no Spoon" between Mizuki and Inase. Finally, mother and daughter are together...may have brought a tear to the eye in many a fan. Created by lyricist/singer Junko Tsuji（辻純更）and composer/keyboardist Ruka Kawada（川田瑠夏）, the arrangement matches the overall feeling of the music that has been invested into "GochiUsa" all these years, that sunny, optimistic and wistful atmosphere (almost sounds like a swinging 1960s pop song) that seems to inhabit the unnamed town/small city with a European style where all the girls, cafes and rabbits live.

Definitely looking forward to Season 3!

Petits Rabbit's -- Nantonaku Mirai（なんとなくミライ）

I couldn't quite believe it when I first heard about this Japanese cafe's existence in Toronto (as of this writing, it's been open for about a year). Not that I didn't think that a Japanese sweets establishment would actually show up in my city (we've been getting a diversity of Japanese restaurants over the past decade: ramen, izakaya, udon, tonkatsu, etc.), but I had never assumed one with that particular name, Amausaan Uji Matcha, existed.

The reason is the anime "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?）which deals with happy-go-lucky teenagers taking care of their own distinct cafes. The prim and proper young lady with a subversive streak, Chiya Ujimatsu（宇治松千夜）, is the proprietress of Amausaan「甘兎庵」, a cafe specializing in traditional Japanese sweets. If I'm not mistaken, the same kanji is used to describe the one that I went to yesterday afternoon, and with that rabbit logo, I just had to go "Hmmmm...". Getting back to the real Amausaan in Chinatown, apparently, Toronto is the latest in a number of branches in Asia and North America with this particular one being the biggest in floor size.

I had the matcha mille-feuille cake along with the cold hojicha. The cake was good and had both sweet and bitter tastes, and I was surprised that my hojicha was quite sweet...truly like iced tea from down south. It was also nice that it wasn't too busy during our hour there; don't let the interior photo fool you, customers did come in after the photo had been shot.

Since we're on the topic, allow me to throw in "Nantonaku Mirai"（Somehow The Future）, the ending theme for the finale of Season 2 of "Gochuumon". Unfortunately, I could only find the truncated version but it's good enough to give you the idea of how the two seasons and movie have been like in terms of atmosphere: all very positive and gushingly cute. Performed by the main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's (you can see the cast names in Labels under the article), "Nantonaku Mirai" was the coupling song for "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, the 3rd single by the unit released in November 2015 which peaked at No. 4 on Oricon. Prolific anime lyricist Aki Hata（畑亜貴）was at work here along with Tadashi Tsukida（ツキダタダシ）for the adorable music.

The thing is that when "Nantonaku Mirai" was playing over the ending credits for that second season finale, it just seemed to me and I'm assuming much of the viewing audience that the producers were putting a big period at the end of the "Gochuumon" sentence. However, a movie did come out and an OVA is scheduled for this month followed by a third season sometime next year. The gift indeed keeps on giving.

I don't get a chance to go downtown all that much but I figure that I will probably meet up with a fellow translator for lunch sometime this month and he was pretty eager to try out a new tendon place, Akimitsu, not too far away from Amausaan. The walk between the two establishments will come in handy, although calorie guilt will arise at the end of that day.

Petit Rabbit's with beans -- Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!（セカイがカフェになっちゃった！）

After several months of waiting following the release of the 60-minute special for "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??"（ご注文はうさぎですか??...Is The Order A Rabbit??）titled "Dear My Sister" in theatres late last year, my anime buddy was finally able to get his hands onto the Blu-Ray (although he did see it at the theatre in Japan when he visited).

Yup, yesterday was the usual biweekly session of anime-and-food, and there was a fair bit of drama mixed in with the comedy for the afternoon part. However, after coming back from dinner (a lot of dumplings and fried rice), my buddy warned me that watching this short movie of the cafe-based adventures of Cocoa, Chino and the rest could potentially plunge me into either sugar shock or cotton-swaddled euphoria. Actually, it wasn't nearly that fatal although it was rather pleasant to see something so harmless that wouldn't even hint at psychological damage.

Heck, even in the rare moments when characters are angry (yes, even Cocoa has a momentary snit), they are cute angry. And any drama generated in "Dear My Sister" was basically at the beginning of the movie with some of the girls overreacting to Cocoa leaving town...for an entire week.

The ending theme for the movie is "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" (The World Has Become A Cafe!). Now, my favourite theme song for the entire "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??" franchise will always be "Daydream Cafe", but "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" is pretty nice and is more reminiscent of the really genki second season opening theme "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）with some of that sunny 60s and some disco thrown in there. No surprise since both songs were written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）who also took care of "Daydream Cafe".

The only difference with "Sekai ga Cafe ni Nacchatta!" is that all of the seiyuu voicing the teen baristas, aka Petit Rabbit's and Chimame Tai are together for perhaps the first time singing a theme song in the form of Petit Rabbit's with beans. And, yes, I would say that they probably would have needed to have downed quite a lot of coffee to record this with the energy that was mustered here.

On the way home, I asked my friend whether there could be another series or another movie from the franchise since one of the characters had hinted the possibility of the baristas going over to Cocoa's smaller hometown to the Hot Bakery. We both later agreed that chances are possible if small since we've heard that most of the material from the original manga has been used up for the original anime and that "Dear My Sister" is a wholly new work not based on the manga. Well, if so, then the movie was a nice way of saying goodbye to everybody in the world of coffee and rabbits.

Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive -- Best FriendS

Basically speaking, my anime buddy and I agree on what we like to watch but there are inevitably some discrepancies. He's a huge fan of "Jojo no Kimyo na Boken"（ジョジョの奇妙な冒険...JoJo's Bizarre Adventure）; I was immediately turned off with the murder of the dog in Episode 1 and haven't been back since then. I was quite all right with the cute show with moments of hilarity, "New Game" from this year but after the first couple of episodes, he never mentioned or showed it again on the screen.

Then I also mentioned at another time about the anime "Love Lab"（恋愛ラボ）. I've been watching various excerpts of this 2013 show on YouTube and have just been having a fun time with all of the gags and parodies. Again, my friend kinda went "Meh" since he felt it was just too wacky. But then again, we've been enjoying the absolutely nuts "Kei-jo!!!!!!!" this season so I'm kinda wondering what gives. Still, I am starting to get very tempted to actually purchase the DVD set of this one.

The two stars are seiyuu Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）and Chinatsu Akasaki（赤﨑千夏）as the short-tempered Riko and completely insane Natsuo respectively. I'm totally accustomed to seeing Numakura playing the stoic-to-cranky roles but Akasaki playing Natsuo was pretty revealing since I had been seeing her as the suffer-no-fools-gladly Nibutani from "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!"（中二病でも恋がしたい!）. Natsuo is the type of girl that Nibutani would be more than happy to kick over a couple of mountains in frustration.

Among all of my amused viewings of the antics of the Fujisaki Girls Academy Student Council Executive known in Japanese as Fuji-jo Seitokai Shikkou-bu（藤女生徒会執行部）, I've also managed to find a perky little earworm as the ending theme for "Love Lab" called "Best FriendS" as sung by the entire executive via the seiyuu Numakura, Akasaki, Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）and Yo Taichi（大地葉）.

With lyrics by ENA☆ and music by Naoki Chiba（千葉"naotyu-"直樹）, it's the usual happy-go-lucky song but I think there's also a little hint of Shibuya-kei in there which pulled me in further. In any case, another temptation for me to pick up the set, if possible.

The aforementioned Sakura and Minase would get together for another popular anime and theme song the following year.

Petits Rabbit's -- No Poi! （ノーポイッ!）

Well, almost 3 months ago, I put up an article about what could be one of the most diabetes-inducing anison themes of the year with "Tokimeki Poporon"（ときめきポポロン♪） which has been the ending theme for the mellow "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??"（ご注文はうさぎですか？？）

Now that the 2nd series of moe girls in cafes is about to wrap up this weekend, I thought it was as a good time as any to talk about the opening theme "No Poi!" Compared to the adorable "Daydream Cafe" from the 1st series, "No Poi!" has more of a dynamic streak which rather fits the slightly more fantastical opening credits. I would say that there was even a bit of Swinging 60s pop fueling the song created by Aki Hata and Kaoru Okubo（畑亜貴・大久保薫）, the same duo behind "Daydream Cafe".

(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)

I've got to give my compliments to XLEZZYTECHNIKA, the YouTube uploader and one of the folks who brought the band together to give their extended take on "No Poi!" After listening to this version, I'm now reconsidering whether I like the opening or ending themes better. I had thought that "No Poi!" was in an unenviable position being the 2nd opening theme after the great and still my favourite of all the themes for "GochiUsa", but listening to the full version on a cloud service, I've come to appreciate the joyful aspects of the song especially with the main voice cast being further challenged here.

And as it turned out, "No Poi!" has become the most successful of the themes on Oricon, getting as high as No. 4 on the charts.

Kikai♡Shoujotai -- Robot Girls Z（ロボットガールズZ）/Robot Girls Team Z -- Team Z no Chikara（チームZのチカラ）

There are a number of us reading this in our middle age who may remember a compilation of mecha anime known collectively as "Force Five" back in the early 1980s. At least in my neck of the woods, the show came on the heel of "Gatchaman"（ガッチャマン...known as "Battle of the Planets"）and "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト...aka "Star Blazers"）and perhaps just before the arrival of "Robotech" and "Voltron". Despite the not-so-great dubbing and the fact that none of the five series in "Force Five" seemed to show the final episodes, it was still pretty good to me because when it comes down to it, dang it all, it was Japanimation! And Japanimation was cool! My favourite entries for "Force Five" were "Starvengers"（originally known as "Getter Robo G"...ゲッターロボG）and "Gaiking"（ガイキング）.

Of course, when there have been so many mecha anime programs over the decades, some folks in the industry decided that it was time to take a poke at the genre. And so my anime buddy introduced me to a series called "Robot Girls Z" which premiered last year. Based on the works of manga artist Go Nagai（永井豪）who pioneered all those robot series with "Mazinger Z" and the ecchi genre, "Robot Girls Z" provides some hearty parody of the former and a bit of the latter. However, instead of manly young men jumping into the cockpit heads, the myriad characters are almost all moe girls sporting robot outfits. In fact, there are so many famous female seiyuu popping up and going full ham in the show that I wonder if the show is a mix of "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (yep, I'm definitely showing my age with that reference) and a crazed social club for the ladies. My friend and I have often remarked "SHE'S in this show?!" whenever a new character pops up.

As for the opening theme "Robot Girls Z", I could only imagine that this was created by musicians specializing in old 70s mecha anime after a few bottles of shochu. Written by Robot Girls Kenkyu Ongaku-bu（ロボットガールズ研究所音楽部...Robot Girls Research Music Department）and composed by ARM (IOSYS), it's not quite at earworm level for me but I really like the opening twangy guitar which sounds as if it had been inspired by Duane Eddy before the music and the singers take off. Speaking of the singers, Kikai♡Shoujotai（きかい♡少女隊...Machine♡Girls Squad）consists of the three starring seiyuu of Mariko Honda, Inori Minase and Kazusa Aranami （本多真梨子、水瀬いのり、荒浪和沙）and featured seiyuu Maaya Uchida and Minami Tsuda（内田真礼、津田美波）as they sing, yell, chant, hoot and generally have fun at the mike (that must have been some primo shochu being passed around in the recording room...or karaoke booth).

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm26608438

I couldn't find a full recording of it, but the ending theme for "Robot Girls Z", "Team Z no Chikara"（チームZのチカラ...The Power of Team Z）makes for pretty fun listening, too. Honda, Minase and Aranami as Robot Girls Team Z just have some happy-go-lucky times finishing off another deranged episode. Shuichiro Fukuhiro（福廣秀一朗）wrote and composed the plucky song, and considering that the composer and arranger has created jingles for McDonalds and Tokyo Disney Sea, I'm not surprised at the catchiness of it all.

Just had to finish everything here with the original opening from "Getter Robo G" with legendary Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）providing the vocals.

Chimame Tai -- Tokimeki Poporon （ときめきポポロン♪）

NORMAL BLOGGING HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED FOR THIS EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT!! OVER THIS PAST WEEKEND, THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTS OF SUDDEN AND POTENTIALLY FATAL SACCHARINE OVERLOAD ON YOUTUBE. VIEWERS ARE REQUESTED TO REMAIN CALM AND AVOID REPEATED EXPOSURE TO THE ABOVE VIDEO. FURTHER DETAILS WILL BE REPORTED AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE. WE NOW RETURN TO YOUR NORMAL BLOGGING...

Yup, when the opportunity presents itself, I do like to lay it on rather thick. A certain part of YouTube probably did implode from sugar shock over the past few days when the 2nd series of the anime "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" （ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）premiered. To be specific, the culprit is the ending theme by the three voice actors who make up Chimame Tai（チマメ隊）, "Tokimeki Poporon" (Palpitating Poporon). I've got no idea what "poporon" is, by the way.

"Earworm" doesn't even begin to explain this musical invasion of the isles of Langerhans (Google it).  Written by the same duo, Uran and Tomotaka Ohsumi（うらん・大隅知宇）, who had come up with the special ending theme for the finale of Season 1 of the show, "Nichijo Decoration"（日常デコレーション）, I had thought that the normal ending theme "Poppin' Jump"（ぽっぴんジャンプ）was moe than enough, but then I saw the upload of the ending credits for Season 2. And now Chimame Tai has added one of the cutest examples of ending animated dancing that I've ever seen. To paraphrase TV Tropes, the sweetness has been weaponized to the level of getting the CDC's attention.

And I have yet to see a single second of the season premiere although that will be coming this weekend when I meet up with my anime buddy. Plus, the actual full version won't be released probably for at least several weeks...unless the GochiUsa fans in Japan start banging on the doors of animation studios White Fox and Kinema Citrus with pitchforks and torches in hand.

To finish off, the crazy thing for me is that the refrain sounds somewhat like "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen. Maybe someday, some enterprising uploader will create a merging of the two songs.

Petits Rabbit’s -- Nichijo Decoration （日常デコレーション）

Well, in commemoration of the return of the bunch from "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）for their 2nd season tomorrow morning Toronto time, I've decided to put up "Nichijo Decoration" (Everyday Decoration). This was the goodbye (or see you again soon, as it turned out) song that was at the end of the final episode of the first season of the anime which went from April to June 2014 last year.

Sung by the entire main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's, "Nichijo Decoration" is not quite as hoppy as the opening theme, "Daydream Cafe", but it's still plenty sweet...as in "Would you like some coffee with your sugar?" sweet. This would be the type of song that would get the often insecure and dour character of Sharo flying all over the place. Written by Uran（うらん）and composed by Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）, it was a nice way to finish things off for the next several months before "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??" (now with added question mark).

As much as this song, "Daydream Cafe" and the official ending theme of "Poppin' Jump" were some of my earworms for 2014, the entire anime has become an eyeworm of sorts since I've gone through the series about 3 or 4 times already and enjoyed specific funny scenes a number of times more. So I will be waiting with some anticipation the next time I head over to my anime buddy's home in about 10 days.

Petits Rabbit's -- Daydream Café/Chimame-tai -- Poppin' Jump （ぽっぴんジャンプ）

According to the good folks at Wikipedia, an earworm is "...a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing...The word earworm is a calque from the German Ohrwurm...first used in the 1980s".

I myself also like to envision the earworm as the Ceti Eel used to torture and subdue Commander Chekov and poor Captain Terrell in the original version of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" all the way back in 1982. One wonders whether a German Trekkie was inspired by that movie to come up with the name for a song that just...blast it all...won't leave your mind.

For this year, I've got a couple of those aural larvae hanging out in my brain, and they just happen to come from the same anime. My buddy unleashed "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）on me earlier this year, complete with the opening and ending themes. As for the show itself, it was adapted from a manga, and it's basically a pleasant half hour of watching 5 cute girls going through life while working at 3 different cafés in a small European-type town. Mind you, among those kids are a girl with a sister complex, a future NRA member and a moe version of Mr. Spock (yes, another "Star Trek" reference). Bringing in the foodie analogy, when I view "Space Cruiser Yamato" as some serious kaiseki ryori and "Space Dandy" as delectable junk food, "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" is basically a nice cup of coffee with a small slice of strawberry shortcake. And I do appreciate my cup of joe and shortcake.

"Daydream Café" is the opening theme, and just like the show itself, it is an adorable and breezy ditty featuring all of the 5 main seiyuu put together as the group Petits Rabbit's (as a former English teacher, that apostrophe in there annoys me to no end). Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, it is as sugary as a Xmas candy cane but without the added calories and can almost get me to skip on the street whenever I hear it...over and over again. I was surprised to find out that Petits Rabbit's Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Risa Taneda（種田梨沙）, Satomi Sato（佐藤聡美）and Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）even pull off a nice little song-and-dance in the official music video as above.

Ceti Eel II is the ending theme, "Poppin' Jump" by Chimame Tai（ チマメ隊）. Inori Minase is joined by Sora Tokui and Rie Murakawa（徳井青空・村川梨衣）who voice two of the minor characters, and the name chimame is an acronym of the three characters of Chino, Maya and Megu who are classmates. If anything, "Poppin' Jump" is even cuter than the opening theme and if taken in large doses, could induce uncontrollable hopping just like the titular animal in the show's title. As it is, though, it has just gotten me to sway my head. Still, it is what it's doing inside my head that's been the problem. I can blame the creators of the song, Uran（うらん）and Yuuki Kimura（木村有希）for making me feel like a 5-year-old at Xmas time.

"Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" will most likely not enter the annals of significant anime in the 2010s (note from 2019 me: Oh, really?) but neither will it send me to bed racking my brain about what the meaning of life is or trying to purge existential horrors. And you know what? The songs there are probably what I would like to hear in my brain when I enter and exit a particularly welcoming small café...not a Starbucks or even a Timmies.

Tiramisu and coffee at Cova
in Shinjuku Times Square