I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Well, as I stated in my previous article, I got to see some new anime for the first time in a long while and the examples happen to be from the spring season this year which is now crossing the finish line. One such show is "Ninja to Koroshiya no Futari Gurashi"（忍者と殺し屋のふたりぐらし...A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof） , or NinKoro for short, which I consider to be one of those odd-couple anime comedies. The couple here consists of a cute, well-meaning but bumbling ninja warrior and a a stoic and manipulative high school assassin who is brutally effective at her job but cleaning up after the fact is something that she has problems with.
Although seiyuu Haruna Mikawa（三川華月）as the assassin Satoko is unknown to me, her co-star as ninja Konoha is very familiar. I haven't heard from Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）in a couple of years, so it's nice to see that she's still active. And Satoko's victims are being played by some major A-lister seiyuu; they are quickly dispatched with a brevity that reminds me of all of those ill-fated special guest stars on the short-lived sitcom "Police Squad".
Hanazawa is also responsible for the opening theme "Yarenno? Endless" (Shall We Do It? Endless) which was written by Hidefumi Kenmochi（ケンモチヒデフミ）of Suiyoubi no Campanella（水曜日のカンパネラ）fame and composed by Taku Inoue（井上拓）. Although I don't think the song will ever approach my top ten anison, it's still catchy enough in a jangly way.
After I put up Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni"（タイムマシーンは突然に）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus" the other day, I came to the realization that there were quite a few songs in Japan regarding time travel or at least there was some mention of it in the title. In fact, I found a few that I hadn't covered but perhaps I will in a future article. But in the meantime, here are a few that we did cover over the years.
Hello and welcome to another weekend edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Of course, with the title of this song of note, I just had to bring in a "Doctor Who" video. To be honest, I've been a somewhat lapsed Whovian for the past few years since I've been off-and-on regarding Jodie Whittaker's time as the Doctor and can no longer access any of the newest episodes without signing up for Disney+...which I will not be doing.
The lyrics in "Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni" (Suddenly, A Time Machine [although the official English title is simply "Time Machine"]) make me wonder whether Hair Kid and Q.i, the dynamic duo known as Milk Talk, are Whovians themselves. The song is a track on seiyuu/singer Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）latest album"Tsuioku to Yubisaki"（追憶と指先...Memoirs and Fingertips） which just got released a few days ago on April 10th.
I know that Hanazawa has done her thing for anime king and country with her peppy anison such as the classic "Ren'ai Circulation"（恋愛サーキュレーション）, but I'm also happy that anime hasn't been her only source for music. It seems that in the last several years, she's been collaborating with songwriters such as Katsutoshi Nakagawa（北川勝利）, who's been seen as a father of sorts of the hybrid genre of Akishibu-kei, and I just read on Wikipedia that Hanazawa herself is considered to be the singing representative of the genre.
Well, this time around, perhaps Hanazawa is going for something technopop dance clubby with "Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni" which fits the Milk Talk oeuvre. Both members of the duo took care of the lyrics while Hair Kid provided the music and arrangement which has got some good mean bop to it. Not sure if "Time Machine" is going to be attached to any anime project but I would love to see a music video if one gets made. Hanazawa can play the harried companion while some thespian can play the J-Doctor. Heck, I can imagine anyone from Koji Yakusho（役所広司）to Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）of Arashi（嵐）to Yuki Amami（天海祐希）operating the TARDIS.
By the way, I have to put up another Milk Talk song on Friday.
Had a rather bizarre dream last night in which I was supposed to head over to a friend's house for a party when I experienced that most horrible of situations in which I lost my way. And the longer the dream continued and the more I tried to get on track, I ended up further and further away from my goal. By the time my leg cramps got me awake, I ended up in some abandoned inner city alleys. Thank the heavens that I did come out of Nightmare Land.
Well, according to seiyuu and singer Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Don't Know Why", a track from her most recent album, the February 2022"blossom", her dreams are so much more pleasant that she gets rather frustrated when she has to wake up to reality. The song does make it rather tempting in that technopop blippity-bloppity way. With music and lyrics by Katsutoshi Nakagawa（北川勝利）, and seiyuu Konomi Fujimura（藤村鼓乃美）also assisting on the words, I do like the melody but I've found myself in a slight quandary. There's something about the arrangement that reminds me of the 80s synthpop and 2010s Vaporwave which then has me thinking about the music of California-based Ginger Root. So I wonder whether I should even be adding an extra label of Neo-City Pop. You Kana fans can let me know.
Certainly the video also helps out in that feeling of music past with the mirror ball people and the shimmery curtains in the back. In fact, I'd say that the set is also reminiscent of an old Men Without Hats video from those halcyon 1980s. As for "blossom", it peaked at No. 19 on Oricon.
I had put up the above photo of my Shiro Noir from Nagoya-based Komeda Coffee when I was writing about the Nagoya-based anime "Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki"（八十亀ちゃんかんさつにっき...Yatogame-chan's Observation Diary） through Haruka Tomatsu's（戸松遥）theme song "DELUXE DELUXE HAPPY". The franchise has sprouted all over Japan now because of the Shiro Noir and any other sweets on its menu, although things didn't start booming for Komeda Coffee until I had already returned home for good.
But it does bring up the question. What if I had remained in Tokyo throughout the 2010s, and perhaps instead of a kayo kyoku blog, I whipped up a blog focusing on the the wonderful dishes of franchise restaurants such as Skylark, Cocos and Royal Host? I already had blogging experience and that Casio digital camera, so it wouldn't have been too difficult to begin.
Well, over the summer this year, TV Tokyo presented a late-night live-action drama on that very topic starring Marika Ito（伊藤万理華）, formerly of the aidoru group Nogizaka 46（乃木坂46）. Known as "O-Mimi ni Aimashitara"（お耳に合いましたら。...If You Like It）, Ito plays an introverted woman, Misono, working at a pickled vegetable factory who usually brings home takeout from her favourite restaurants. A friend of hers then suggests that Misono ought to do podcasts talking about those dishes since that is the only time when she actually gets quite animated.
I'd never thought about actually podcasting "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since I was rather discouraged by that one chapter in a guidebook to the hobby which basically said "Don't do music podcasts!" Well, judging from some of my friends from the City Pop realm, that chapter didn't scare any of them. Still, it's almost been a decade now since I first started writing about Japanese popular music of all decades, so I'm quite happy typing away although I have helped out Rocket Brown and Van Paugam at times on their own podcasts.
Earlier this afternoon, I wrote on the anime "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san" (舞妓さんちのまかないさん...Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House) starring veteran seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）. Strangely enough, that show is also all about the food, but for "O-Mimi ni Aimashitara", though Hanazawa doesn't play any role on the show, she does sing the opening theme song "Moonlight Magic" which is a happy-go-lucky disco-touched pop song. As someone commented online, it's a "super-kawaii" tune.
To be honest, though, I can't read the lyricists' names because I think they are Chinese, but here they are just in case any of you viewers can read them and get back to me: 唐軼 and 洛松維. The composer was Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）who has come up with one other Hanazawa song, 2014's"Summer Sunset". "Moonlight Magic" was released as a single a few weeks ago in September.
Some lunch at Vie de France!
P.S. I ought to really finish things off here with an adorable how-to-dance video with Kana.
And if I'm putting a dancing video with her, I simply must include her famous attempt at the Macarena.
Well, congratulations to seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）on her marriage to fellow voice actor Kensho Ono（小野賢章）on July 8th a few weeks ago. Apparently, according to "Oricon News", Hanazawa made the announcement on her Twitter account.
I've seen her in many roles over the years but I will always adore her Mei-Mei from "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）, and I hope that she was feeling very much the same thing on her wedding day as her character did here.
Perhaps one fellow seiyuu who may be feeling some slight blues right now is Tomokazu Sugita（杉田智和）. Man, the above video has been one on my heavy rotation over the years just for Sugita's constant razzing of Hanazawa. Not sure if that's going to happen all that often anymore. Oh, well, I guess he can always tease Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）.
Well, in commemoration of the blessed event (though belated), I give you "Summer Sunset" by Hanazawa on her 2nd album"25" released in February 2014. A nice slice of Latin-spiced mellow pop, it was created by lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composer Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, the same duo who came up with the more uptempo "I♥New Day!" in her 3rd album"Blue Avenue". Personally, I'm glad that she uses her higher-pitched voice to sing rather than the voices of her scarier characters.
Would also like to take this opportunity to pay a little tribute to fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto（山本寛斎）who passed away almost a week ago at the age of 76. He was always the very flamboyantly eccentric character who would come up with some very crazy designs for clothes and events. I don't quite remember how but I ended up with a tote bag with his name on it years ago when I was in Japan, and it's still with me today although the handles have lost some of the outer coating. In fact, I used it to go shopping at the local supermarket this morning.
I don't usually listen to songs by seiyuu outside of their performance on anime theme songs that I like, but I have to admit that I have taken a liking to one tune by Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）. Mind you, she is already fairly well represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" through her anison.
"Brand New Days" from her "25" album of February 2014 has got a nice 80s New Wave-ish beat to it, and she demonstrates what is probably the most kawairashii example of scatting and rapping that I've ever heard. In fact, I think "Brand New Days" has got some inspiration from Scritti Politti's"Perfect Way". The song was written and composed by music producer and drummer Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）. The album broke the Oricon Top 10 by peaking at No. 8.
Happy Monday to you folks! Feeling nice and seasonal out there today and I gotta pick up my cleaning tomorrow morning. Anyways, for the past several months, I've often watched the compilation videos made by Anime Brain which mixes in anime excerpts with the brain of Monty Python, it seems. It's been fun for the most part, but there are only so many Beyblade and "nikko, nikko, nii~" gags before things get repetitive. Still, one of the anison that has frequently been used in the videos has been burrowing relentlessly into my skull due to its incredibly cheerful delivery, and I've been somewhat curious as to the title and singer behind it.
Well, last night, I finally found out by chance. I saw this concert video featuring famous seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）hovering on the YouTube page, so I decided to take a gander. Yup, it was indeed the song, and I realized that Anime Brain had not only used the beginning but also the middle in its videos all these months.
The earworm in question is titled "Ren'ai Circulation" (Love Circulation), and it was one of the opening theme songs for the 2009 anime "Bakemonogatari"（化物語...Monster Tales）. I never saw the show since I was out of the anime world at the time but according to TV Tropes, it was a fairly polarizing program depending on which side of the Pacific Ocean anime fans lived on. However, the same site also reported that Hanazawa's character of Nadeko Sengoku and "Ren'ai Circulation" were her breakout role and song respectively.
I've gotten a fair number of Hanazawa songs now due to her later contributions in fare including "Gabriel Dropout"（ガヴリールドロップアウト）and "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）, so I will kindly invite her fluffy "Ren'ai Circulation" to the category. Perhaps it might be my first time that I have ever heard of moe groove before. Satoru Kousaki（神前暁）was behind the circus-like melody while meg rock took care of the lyrics.
I haven't seen or heard seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）this year aside from her co-starring role in the Winter 2017anime "Gabriel Dropout"（ガヴリールドロップアウト）since my anime buddy hasn't shown anything with her although considering that she's an A-lister, she probably has had another busy year.
However, I've been having some fun watching an old series of videos in which Hanazawa and one of her co-stars from another show, the irrepressible Tomokazu Sugita（杉田智和）, showed up for a cast live-action event. Basically, Sugita mercilessly teases the heck out of her including in a game of "Guess What's In The Box?"
Although I never saw that particular anime that Hanazawa and Sugita appeared on, my memories still return to my beloved "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）in which she played the younger sister of the main character Panda-kun, Mei-Mei. Her schtick was that she was crazily in love with Mr. Handa, the chief zookeeper where Panda-kun worked. To say that she fangirled whenever she was in his presence is a gross understatement.
Hanazawa, being one of the cast members, also had her time in the sun as the singer of one of the multiple ending themes for "Shirokuma Café". So she sang a song for her beloved Handa in the form of "Bamboo Rendezvous" with her secret code of "H-A-N-D-A". This particular song came out in January 2013 going into the homestretch of the year-long anime.
To say it's cute is like saying Mt. Fuji is a nice hill. She even fangirls near the end of the song. As was the case with all of the ending themes for "Shirokuma Cafe", "Bamboo Rendezvous" was written and composed by Saki（紗希）. It's a 1980s candy pop tune that would probably be more at home for one of those Sunday morning anime. It's definitely a great fit for Mei-Mei.
Of course, everyone is going panda wild for Shang-Shang, the baby panda born at Ueno Zoo a few months ago.
Had another anime-and-food outing with my friend today. It's hard to believe that the Winter 2017 season is approaching its end, especially since we've been enjoying more shows than we had expected this time around. It'll be a pity to see them go.
One of those shows has been "Gabriel Dropout" (ガヴリールドロップアウト) with the episodic hilarity involving two teen angels and two teen demons in the same high school. I've already written about the earworm opening theme "Gabriel Dropkick" (ガヴリールドロップキック) starring the seiyuu behind those 4 characters: Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）, Naomi Ozora（大空直美）and Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）.
Well, they're also at it again with the ending theme "Hallelujah Essaim". I had to look up what essaim means, and apparently it is the French word for swarm. I'm not quite sure what the connection is, though.
Written by Ryuji Sakai（坂井竜二）and composed by Shingo Yamazaki（山崎真吾）, it wasn't quite the immediate earworm for me that "Gabriel Dropkick" was but it's grown on me gradually over the weeks. And it has that similar back-and-forth banter among the seiyuu while the rock and techno (a bit of chip tune, perhaps?) are blasting away. From what I could get from Sakai's lyrics, it sounds like I'm hearing how the girls really feel for each other despite all the over-the-top bickering in the episodes.
Well, today is an off-Sunday from the usual biweekly anime-and-food sessions with my friend, and it is just as well since the city is being pounded by a good heaping of snow. I don't think even he would have wanted to travel out on the roads today.
However, the winter anime season is in full swing and it looks like the shows that we have been watching are of the magical and mystical variety. At this point, "Little Witch Academia" seems to be the big hit so far but we've also been having fun with this other purely comedic program called "Gabriel Dropout"(ガヴリールドロップアウト).
The plot reads like something for an old 1960s daffy sitcom on the order of "Bewitched" or "I Dream Of Jeannie": the top student, Gabriel, at the Angel Academy in Heaven gets sent down to Earth to learn the ways of humanity (I guess this would be the divine equivalent of an immersion programme) only to crack and end up as a rude and antisocial slacker. Meanwhile a couple of devils-in-training, Vignette and Satanichia, who end up as classmates are far less malicious than Gabe (who even has her horn) while the No. 2 angel, Raphiel, gains a reputation as a slightly psycho stalker. Your weekly dose of irony, anime fans!
The opening theme, "Gabriel Dropkick" seems to be gaining a reputation itself as a sinister earworm including for my own auricular canals. I mean, even it has some ambitions to be a fun 60s-sitcom theme. Sung by the seiyuu for the 4 main characters, Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）as Gabriel, Saori Onishi（大西沙織）as Vignette, Naomi Ozora（大空直美）as Satanachia and Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）as Raphiel, it's a back-and-forth musical onslaught between the light and dark side...a little gospel here, a little rock there...all fun everywhere. And I gotta say that Tomita has got quite the angelic voice despite her devilish character.
Veteran anison creator Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）took care of words and music. It looks like the full single is yet to come out (February 22nd is the release date) since we're not that far into the new season but I'm looking forward to getting my copy.
I guess it doesn't matter where you come from. If you're in Japan, you are automatically terrified of cockroaches.
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.
Dang! For a roly-poly girl panda, she sings pretty well. Yup, I still got Mei-Mei on the brain whenever I think of seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）although I've seen her in a number of anime such as "Sasami-san@Ganbaranai"（ささみさん@がんばらない）and "Bodacious Space Pirates". And she has provided her singing voice in other anime productions as well such as "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）and "Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin"（世紀末オカルト学院）.
However, coming across her 3rd album from 2015"Blue Avenue" which was released a number of months ago on YouTube, I was pretty darn impressed with the opening track " I♥New Day!". It has a mellow Sunday afternoon Smooth Jazz arrangement that I've rather missed since its appearance in Japanese pop music in the late 90s and early 00s. As soon as I heard the popping percussion in the intro, I automatically got reminded of an old Original Lovenumber. And although I could imagine a songstress with a slightly more huskier delivery tackling " I♥New Day!", I also enjoyed the high-toned Hanazawa.
The lyrics were provided by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）who has also written songs for Miki Imai（今井美樹）and provided an anison theme for one of my favourite shows in 2015, "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）. As for the melody, it was created by Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, the bassist/guitarist/vocalist for the band Round Table which specializes in anime soundtracks.
"Blue Avenue" managed to peak at No. 12 on the Oricon album charts.
A bit of a follow-up from an article I did on Puffy's debut single, "Asia no Junshin"（アジアの純真）all the way back in 2012. Ami and Yumi really pulled off quite a splash when they started their singing career with this zanily-worded travelogue that was reminiscent of good ol' Electric Light Orchestra.
Then I found out a couple of covers of the song on YouTube. The above was done by seiyuu Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）who's been all around the anime universe for the past several years, although for me, I know her best as the hyperactive Mei-Mei, the little sister of main character Panda from "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）. She did her own version of "Asia no Junshin" back in 2010 for the anime "Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin"（世紀末オカルト学院...Occult Academy）, and I found out that it wasn't even made into either the opening or closing theme. It was actually used as the song backing the announcement for the next episode. Kinda too bad since Hanazawa does a pretty good job here. The arrangement is fairly close to the original Puffy version and I actually like it when Hanazawa breathes out some of the lyrics.
Earlier than that...much earlier...the songwriters for "Asia no Junshin" themselves, Yosui Inoue and Tamio Okuda（井上陽水・奥田民生）performed a cover of the song for the duo's first album together, "Shopping" which was released in March 1997. This album version has a slightly footloose-and-fancy free 70s vibe to it. I wonder if the two were imagining driving an old yellow Volkswagen van in the countryside while they were singing to it. The above video has more of a honky-tonk feel. "Shopping", by the way, peaked at No. 4 on the charts.
A cute strawberry milk at the maid café Maidreaming
Ahh...couldn't resist...have to put in that Mei-Mei.
