J-Canuck's Favourite Anison (Since Coming Back Home)

The very first Author's Picks article in late 2013 belongs to JTM and he chose the opportunity to cover some of his favourite anison, J-Drama and Japanese movie themes. Strangely enough, I realized that I have yet to describe some of my own favourite anison although I have often touched upon the genre in articles going all the way to KKP's inaugural year of 2012.

Well, challenge accepted then! However, when I was dreaming up my list, I also realized that I had forgotten to include some of the very first anison themes that had come to my ears such as the ones belonging to "Space Cruiser Yamato" and other tunes before 2011. So, when it comes down to it, I've decided to make this list under one simple condition: my favourite anison are to be for shows that I've seen over the past decade since returning from Japan in December 2011. I will make a separate list for beloved anime themes pre-2011 at a later date.

Thinking up the list, I believe and I think you will also believe that a lot of my choices for favourite anison have that certain funk and groove, and that is probably due to the fact that my favourite genre in Japanese popular music is City Pop/AOR. But there will be a few exceptions.

Shall we being then? Ah, before I forget, the list isn't in any particular order.

1. Yasuyuki Okamura -- Viva Namida (Space Dandy, 2013)

An anime series doesn't necessarily demand a cookin' theme song to be successful. I've seen some pretty fine shows for which I can't really remember the themes, to be honest. However, a great opening theme can act as a splendid business card for what the show can bring to your senses. Case in point: "Viva Namida"（ビバナミダ）by Prince-ly funk artist Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）for the out-of-left-universe show "Space Dandy". As I mentioned in the original article for the song, I knew that I had to get the single when I heard it on Episode 1. Seeing all of the sexy opening credits paired with this sexy song made my choice pretty inevitable. I was getting major Bootsy Collins vibes from Okamura who at the time looked like a buttoned-down company cog until he began hitting the dance floor.


2. Masayuki Suzuki feat. Airi Suzuki -- DADDY! DADDY! DO! (Kaguya-sama Season 2, 2020)

Okamura got all funky? Well, so did Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, and he and his namesake, Airi（鈴木愛理）, added dollops of soul to "DADDY! DO! DO!" to this opening theme for the second season of "Kaguya-sama: Love is War" which will end next weekend, much to fans' disappointment. Folks had been wondering whether Martin would be back to reprise opening theme duties and they were celebrating in the streets when he and his new partner brought a song that may have even eclipsed the amazing "Love Dramatic" from Season 1. Like many YouTube viewers, I've listened to "DADDY! DO! DO!" a ton of times since it was put up and I've yet to get tired of it. Who would have thought that such cool songs would be associated with a rom-com manga-based anime (albeit maybe one of the most popular works ever made)? Now, the pressure is on whether Suzuki can pull off a three-peat with Season 3 (and yeah, there just HAS to be a Season 3).


3. Cast of "Joshiraku" -- O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte...YO! (Joshiraku, 2012)

Getting all sentimental here, but "Joshiraku"（じょしらく）is one of the first anime that I got to see at my buddy's place soon after getting back to Toronto for good. "Kaguya-sama" is the "Frasier" of anime to me, but "Joshiraku" has always been my anime "Seinfeld". The five female rakugo artists simply banter about anything under the sun in their tiny resting room away from the stage. And that raucous opening theme "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte...YO!"（お後がよろしくって。。。よ！）has had the same effect on me as the theme song for "The Flintstones" did for me whenever I got to see the adventures of Fred and Barney. It's just a welcoming happy tune for each episode while the credits show off the loony mayhem that is to follow. It's just a pity that a second season never came to fruition but at least I got to see the beginnings of Ayane Sakura's（佐倉綾音）career.


4. Petit Rabbit's -- Daydream Café (Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? Season 1, 2014)

Speaking of Sakura, here she is as part of Petit Rabbit's, the main cast singing the first opening theme for the franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）. "Daydream Café" in its own way is very similar to the opener for "Joshiraku" in that it gives off that welcome shiny and cheery tune basically describing a typical episode of what is basically Girls und Cafés, and the cast perform the tune in character. Although there have been a number of theme songs now for "GochiUsa" in the past six years of its anime existence (including the one that will adorn Season 3 later this fall), I think "Daydream Café" will always be the one theme that fits everyone to a tea...tee.


5. Chinatsu Akasaki, Haruka Tomatsu & Aki Toyosaki -- Wa! Moon! dass! cry! (Joshi Kosei no Mudazukai, 2019)

Since I've been throwing in these comparisons of these anime to American sitcoms that I've known, how about saying that the zany "Joshi Kosei no Mudazukai"（女子高生の無駄づかい）is a mix between "MASH" and "Welcome Back, Kotter"? Discuss! As I recall, there were a few really catchy theme songs in the summer of 2019, but "Wa! Moon! dass! cry!"（輪！Moon！dass！cry！）has come out on top for me because it has been the earworm that has kept on giving all these months leading to the 1-year anniversary since its appearance as an anime. Akasaki（赤崎千夏）, Tomatsu（戸松遥）and Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）who play the main trio in the show must have earned their vocal hazard pay in lunging into this playful sing-song rap with a dance remix rhythm. And the song even gets rather poignantly sweet at the end. It just makes me hope that a second season might come out.


6. Shonan no Kaze -- Grand Blue (Grand Blue, 2018)

Talk about hoping for a Season 2. It's hard to believe that it will soon be two years since the wall-to-wall hilarity of "Grand Blue"（ぐらんぶる）assaulted my funny bone. I still go to the reaction videos from time to time to share in the laughter, and I finally got my own copy of the show. "Grand Blue" the opening theme by Shonan no Kaze（湘南乃風）is the ultimate mood maker for summery good times and dancing on the beach (maybe there can be some actual diving, too!). Like the other themes, it has prepped me into a good mood for each episode.


7. Natsumi Hioka & Hiroki Yasumoto -- Kumamiko Dancing (Kumamiko, 2016)

Great theme (and it's an ending theme this time, too!)...too bad about the anime, though. Frankly, I thought that "Kumamiko"（くまみこ）finished its run somewhat like Roman Polanski's 1965 psychological horror "Repulsion", but on happier news, that ending theme "Kumamiko Dancing" was just oodles of fun along the same lines of "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars. Who'da thought that a tune about a relationship between a talking bear and a teenage shrine maiden could be so deliciously danceable? If the show hadn't ended the way it did, I would have said looking at the ending credits that everyone was in a happy place in that village.


8. Maaya Sakamoto -- Million Clouds (Amanchu!, 2016)

Of all of the shows listed here, "Amanchu!"（あまんちゅ！）is the one show that isn't a zany comedy. I mean, it has its examples of gentle humour but really the anime that really focuses on diving is one of the sweetest and most wistful slice-of-life shows that I've ever seen, and it's far away from the "Animal House" that is "Grand Blue". It would only be logical that the opening theme matches that calm coming-of-age atmosphere, and that has been achieved with Maaya Sakamoto's（坂本真綾）"Million Clouds", one very moving theme song that captures the feeling of growing up, making new friends and learning about life.


9. KMM Dan -- Witchcraft Activity (Witchcraft Works, 2014)

"Witchcraft Works" was an intriguing anime although as the episodes moved on, I was starting to lose track of the story. However, what stayed constant was the earworm status of the ending theme by KMM Dan, "Witchcraft Activity", and one of the group happens to be seiyuu Natsumi Hioka（日岡なつみ）who's already represented above. The first time I heard this song whipped up by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND at the end of the pilot episode was all I needed to get that urge to get the CD. The full-speed beats and the rat-a-tat delivery by the group absolutely bewitched me.


10. fhana -- Aozora no Rhapsody (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, 2017)

Another opening theme that welcomed me and other viewers into the world of corporate cogs, elementary school students and magical beings, fhana's "Aozora no Rhapsody"（青空のラプソディ）is trippy and sweeping at the same time. Those opening words and the disco strings had me crying "Uncle!" and what was additionally wonderful was that jazzy guitar bridge in the full version of the song. Now, if only a second season would come for this one, too.

Whew! Got those 10 up there. Hopefully, there are some of them that you like and I realize that there are some that I would have liked to have gotten up here but that's all she wrote. I'm just glad that I could finally get my first anison list up.

Shoukichi Kina & Champloose/Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan -- Haisai Ojisan（ハイサイおじさん）

It's rather amazing what I can find within a span of a few hours. I've said it before on the blog and it's happened again.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCppDP4y1L-5TWttVOkBDm7A

I dropped in at New J Channel's 24-hour broadcast of City Pop/J-AOR stuff as I do everyday and encountered one song by singer-musician Makoto Kubota（久保田麻琴）that sounded awfully familiar with its Okinawan twang. Didn't take me too long to figure it out either.

There was an episode of one of my favourite anime this decade, "Joshiraku"（じょうしらく）in which the character of Marii took some medicine for an agonizing toothache, and well, let's say it worked all too well on her. I had always thought that the music director for the show came up with the Okinawan festival jaunt.

Well, I found out that was probably not the case. I'm not particularly a fan of Okinawan music but even I have heard of Shoukichi Kina（喜納昌吉）who I think is one of the most famous musicians of the genre in the last several decades. Kina's debut single with his band Champloose（チャンプルーズ）was "Haisai Ojisan" (Hey, Old Man). Now, depending on either the J-Wiki article for the song itself or the Wikipedia article for Kina, the year of the song may vary. According to Wikipedia, "Haisai Ojisan", which was apparently created by Kina when he was in junior high school, was released in 1972. However, the J-Wiki article claims that the Okinawan record company Marufuku Records released the single in 1976.

"Haisai Ojisan" which is a cute little bit of banter between the old man and a boy became a big hit right off the bat for Kina as it sold 300,000 records. Initially, though, it was criticized as not being a true Okinawan folk song but over the years, it has been accepted as such and even as an example of Kachāshī, a festive form of Okinawan dance.

The one that I heard on J-Channel tonight is the above version by Makoto Kubota & Yuyake Gakudan（久保田麻琴と夕焼け楽団）which has a bit of an AOR intro before the familiar Okinawan melody (with a bit of Hawaiian added) comes in. His cover was on his 1975 album "Hawaii Champloo"（ハワイ・チャンプルー）.

To finish off, I found out from the J-Wiki article on "Haisai Ojisan" that one of the most famous characters by veteran comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）based his silly theme dance on the song. The character is Henna Ojisan（変なおじさん...Strange Man） who appeared on Shimura's long-running Monday-night variety show "Shimura Ken no Daijoubu da"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's OK）. To think that I had watched that shtick for so many years and I only discovered the source tonight. Talk about your pop cultural connections!

Sugamo

Sugamo, which has been called the Harajuku or Shibuya of the senior citizens in Tokyo, was, strangely enough, one of the places that I had been meaning to go to. Well, I am tilting ever closer to that age group anyways, and it's actually the next station over from Otsuka where I was staying at the R&B.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xua0t4

The other reason is that I fondly remember the anime "Joshiraku"（じょしらく）, especially in Episode 8 when the rakugo girls decide to visit the neighbourhood of Sugamo and even make the pilgrimage to the local temple.

And I did as well.

To be honest, I didn't make it a very detailed walk but it was just a nice little traipse in the area before I went back to the hotel. There were the usual stores selling the traditional Japanese wares and sweets but I do remember a couple of shops that sold red wear. I still don't totally understand the meaning behind the tradition but if any visitor is ever in need of red longjohns, Sugamo is the place to go.

Anyways, enjoy the catchy opening theme "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte...YO!"（お後がよろしくって。。。よ！）by the seiyuu themselves.

Joshiraku Girls/Miku Hatsune -- Hello, Sofmap World

Ahhh...Akihabara. I always liked that neighbourhood although ironically I never considered myself all that technologically inclined. (still don't have a cellphone). Still, it was interesting walking through Electric Town with all of its big and shiny stores on the main drag and the grimier shops on the side streets. That main street, Chuo Dori, had quite the heyday when it was closed down on Sundays and all of the street performers were unleashed. Unfortunately, a psychopath in 2008 went on a rampage on one of those Sundays by ramming his truck into the crowd and then killing seven people and injuring 10 others which led to the stopping of the tradition. Apparently the hokoten has started up again in recent years although I'm not sure if it has been allowed to approach the level of gaiety it once had.

As I said, I wasn't a huge buyer in Akihabara although I did purchase the digital camera that was used to take these photos. In fact, I bought it at the place shown above...the huge Yodobashi Akiba. It was just fun enough for me to browse around within Akiba itself (the store and the neighbourhood).Plus, I often took advantage of the free rubdowns via the demo models of massage chairs in any of the big stores!

When I first got to know Akihabara, food wasn't exactly a large priority, it seemed. The only eating places that I knew about was the McDonalds at the northern edge of Akiba on Chuo Dori and the Mansei Building at the southern edge with its many restaurant floors. However with the trendification of the area last decade, there are plenty of places to attract the foodies including this tsukemen restaurant that my friends took me to in 2014.

Anyways before I wax myself too poetically, I should get onto the music, shouldn't I? Of course, when one goes into any of the major stores of Akiba, there will always be the individual jingles that will greet you. They've all managed to get into my brain as part of my aural memories in Tokyo, including the one for Bic Camera.

Then there is the slightly funky jingle with an 80s dance sensibility from Sato Musen.

Finally, there is this one supremely cheerful jingle. I started watching the anime "Joshiraku"（じょしらく）again for the umpteenth time since its debut in 2012, and one of the things that cheered me up as the show was coming to an end was the above scene of the ladies from that last episode singing out that very jingle that I had heard numerous times when I was walking through Akihabara. I had first thought that they were singing a parody version only to find out that they were singing out the actual lyrics.

The jingle did work in that it now has permanent resident status in my brain but it had failed in that I couldn't remember which company it represented. Go fig! Well, I did some digging and found it is titled "Hello, Sofmap World", and of course, it represents Sofmap, the company selling new and used electronics. I also bought a number of my CDs in one of the branches in Akiba.

Sofmap is also a subsidiary of the aforementioned Bic Camera. However, as cheerful as the jingle for Bic is, "Hello, Sofmap World" has got that extra juice of a hundred My Little Ponys. It was actually released as a single in November 2004, and I was pretty gobsmacked to discover that the super-happy tune was composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who provided all those summery mellow 80s kayo including the happy-go-lucky "September" by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and written by Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）who wrote a lot of songs in that decade as well including tunes for songbird Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）.

These two songwriting powerhouses must have really gotten into the pure happiness of what a jingle is all about. Not to sound like a jingle sommelier, but I can hear some Disney in "Hello, Sofmap World" via "It's A Small World After All" and perhaps even some of that standard "Happy Days Are Here Again". Whatever inspired Hayashi and Yamakawa, "Hello, Sofmap World" will have customers entering and exiting a Sofmap branch swinging their arms away like the Joshiraku girls. I couldn't really say what the mental state of the staff was after a regular shift of listening to it, though.

Apparently, the song can be sung at karaoke and is even available in English, Korean and Chinese, but the original single only has the Japanese and English versions.

Cast of Joshiraku -- Never Give Up/Jigoku no Gyuudon （地獄の牛丼）

"Joshiraku"（じょしらく）has been one of my favourite anime since I first saw its run back in 2012. In fact, I'm currently seeing it again on my computer for the 3rd or 4th time. And before I go any further, I should give credit where credit is due and list the main cast of the 5 rakugo comediennes, something that I didn't do when I wrote the article on the super-catchy opening and ending themes back in 2013:

Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）as the aggressive Mari Buratei
Nozomi Yamamoto（山本希望）as the lucky Tetora Bohatei
Kotori Koiwai（小岩井ことり）as the cute (if secretly scary) Kigurumi Harokitei
Yoshino Nanjo（南條愛乃）as the bespectacled Gankyo Kurubiyutei
Saori Goto（後藤沙緒里）as the ever-blue Kukuru Anrakutei

In any case, as much as I still love those bracketing themes for "Joshiraku", there were also a couple of songs that intrigued me as well but didn't know they were actually on a CD that came with the Blu-Ray of the series. One was "Never Give Up", a cutesy AKB48-friendly tune concocted by Kohei of SIMONSAYZ and sung by the rakugo ladies for Episode 3 of the series when they were coerced to put in a song-and-dance (I think they were trying to emulate the 90s group ZOO) element to their performances.... much to the audience's fury. The song still works on its own, though.

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18818172

Then, there is "Jigoku no Gyuudon" (Gyuudon of Hell) which has the troupe going into death metal territory (Kigurumi's genre of choice) as they rock out the joys of that dish of flavoured beef and onions on hot white rice. I forgot which episode it was, but it was one of the later ones in the cour when Kigu and the gang suddenly transform into their own version of KISS for a couple of minutes. Anime director Tsutomu Mizushima（水島努）provided the lyrics, half of which are "gyuudon", while Masaru Yokoyama（横山克）came up with the headbanging melody.

Strangely enough, in all my time in Japan, I never really ate gyuudon at Yoshinoya or at the other franchises all that much despite how inexpensive it was. I can only surmise that karaage, sushi, hambaagu and tonkatsu had to come in first.

As one last piece of trivia for those who are not all that well versed in the seiyuu (I'm still trying to get a handle on all those names and characters), Ayane Sakura who plays the caustic Mari also played the much more adorable Cocoa in "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka"（ご注文はうさぎですか？）in which she also performed the opening theme with the cast.

Yoshinoya last year

Cast of "Joshiraku"/Momoiro Clover Z -- O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte...YO!/Nippon Egao Hyakkei （お後がよろしくって。。。よ！・ニッポン笑顔百景）

One of the other anime along with "Mawaru Penguindrum" and "Kamisama wo Hajimemashita" that I enjoyed last year was "Joshiraku" （じょしらく....Girls In Rakugo), a show about 5 zany rakugo comediennes bantering backstage and in the famous neighbourhoods of Tokyo. Based on the manga by Koji Kumeta（久米田康治）, it was a Japanese cartoon mix of the irreverent and irrelevant wordplay of "Seinfeld" and the gags of "Airplane" which took aim at just about anything within the Land of the Rising Sun including politics, restaurants, lottery tickets and Akihabara. There was even the most sociopathic rabbit since the little bunny from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". What's not to love?

The beginning and ending theme songs have also become the proverbial earworms in my noggin since I first started watching the show. The opening song which is sung by the cast is "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte....YO!" (Thank You For Your Continued Support), the signoff that is given by the rakugo-ka at the end of the performance. It is a fun frenetic blast of electric guitar, synth and shamisen that goes well with the crackpot joy of the opening credit sequence.

The song was released as a single in August 2012, and created by Aki Hata and Satoru Kousaki（畑亜貴・神前暁）. The theme kinda reminds me in spirit of the theme song for that old American cartoon, "The Flintstones" back in the 60s. Both of them have that welcoming feeling in asking the viewers to come and join the characters for a little while. "O-Ato ga Yoroshikutte....YO!" actually went as high as No. 20 on Oricon.

The ending theme by Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）, "Nippon Egao Hyakkei" (100 Views of Japanese Smiles), probably singlehandedly shredded the larynxes of the members of the aidoru group, Momoiro Clover Z (under the guise of Momokuro Tei Ichimon....桃黒亭一門) before they got it recorded for release, especially the pun-filled rap at the beginning. It has that mix of dance beats and festival-fueled patter and melody while the girls ham it up during the ending credits. Not sure if the DJ was wearing a backwards cap or a hachimaki.

Released in September 2012, the song peaked at No. 6 on Oricon, and guest-starred The Yoshida Brothers（吉田兄弟）, a shamisen act that has garnered attention within Japan and overseas. I've heard both themes on my anime buddy's massive stereo system, and afterwards, I needed something distinctly decaffeinated to calm myself down.