Kana Hanazawa -- Don't Know Why

 

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.

ROUND TABLE featuring Nino -- Let Me Be With You

 

It wasn't too long ago that I introduced this music group called ROUND TABLE with their long-time guest vocalist Nino as a unit that delved into the wonders of Akishibu-kei（アキシブ系）, music for the anime lovers out there done in the funky style of yesteryear. Not surprisingly, a lot of these songs were used as theme tunes for anime starting from the turn of the century, and my first article on ROUND TABLE featured one such song, the 2005 "Groovin' Magic" for the show "Top wo Nerae 2!"（トップをねらえ2!）.

ROUND TABLE and Nino's first collaboration though was back in 2002 when they came up with "Let Me Be With You", the opening theme for the anime "Chobits"（ちょびっツ）. Written and composed by vocalist and guitarist Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, it was indeed a match made in heaven when it was released as a single in April that year with the adorably high-pitched and silky vocals of Nino and the bouncy R&B. The bouncy and catchy "ooh, ooh" don't hurt either plied with the bass.

ROUND TABLE featuring Nino -- Groovin' Magic

 

Happy Victoria Day! Hope my fellow Canadians have been able to get some relaxation over the long weekend. 

With all of the myriad genres of music out there, it's inevitable that some of them have merged into something often new and fascinating...just like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (which I love, by the way). Jazz and rock joined into fusion, Caribbean genres met jazz/R&B to create ska, and even ska encountered New Wave and punk to make Two-tone. Even within Japan, Hawaiian and Latin got together with kayo kyoku to form Mood Kayo. It's kinda like seeing soap suds on the surface of water and having bubbles join up to form newer bubbles.

All this merging and evolution have continued up to the present day, and recently, I discovered that anison and Shibuya-kei had a mind meld of sorts as early as the late 1990s to give birth to Akishibu-kei（アキシブ系）, a portmanteau of Akiba-kei (after the Tokyo anime/electronics district of Akihabara) and Shibuya-kei. To me, this particular hybridized genre sounds like a new breed of Japanese dog but I've realized that sample songs are really bouncy disco-like anime themes. If this is indeed the case then perhaps I already have representatives of Akishibu-kei here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" such as "Egao ni Naru"（笑顔になる）by Rina Sato & Asuka Ohgame （佐藤利奈・大亀あすか）for the anime "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）, seiyuu Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Moonlight Magic" and Kohmi Hirose's（広瀬香美）"Groovy!" from "Card Captor Sakura"（カードキャプターさくら）.

My realization that there was a genre known as Akishibu-kei came about because I found this song called "Groovin' Magic" by this musical unit called ROUND TABLE which delves into J-Pop, Neo-Shibuya-kei, guitar pop, soft rock, anison...and Akishibu-kei. The group formed in 1997 with vocalist and keyboardist Rieko Ito（伊藤利恵子）and vocalist and guitarist Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）; not surprisingly, Kitagawa was behind two of the songs that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Between 2002 and 2012, there was also a guest vocalist by the name of Nino who helped with ROUND TABLE to provide songs, and so in those cases, the group was logically known as ROUND TABLE featuring Nino. One single from February 2005 under this name was "Groovin' Magic" which was the opening song for the 2004-2006 mecha anime OVA "Top wo Nerae 2!"（トップをねらえ2!）or "Diebuster". The aforementioned "Egao ni Naru" for "Koufuku Graffiti" had its Burt Bacharach and Sunshine Pop influences but "Groovin' Magic" tends more toward the disco/R&B side of things a la Bird and Misia of the early 2000s. Vocalist Ito was responsible for both words and music.

Kana Hanazawa -- Moonlight Magic

 

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.

Negicco -- Cream Soda Love（クリームソーダ Love）

Whenever the aidoru group Negicco gets mentioned to me, my eyes and ears will always perk up happily. Since Marcos V. first mentioned this band on his "Retro Grooves and Underground Aidoru Gems Playlist" back in 2014, I've become interested in what Nao☆, Megu and Kaede have had to offer me. I've also been happy for Negicco since this was a group of which the above three were the original three of four that were just supposed to have been together for a one-shot campaign project to support the green onion industry in Niigata Prefecture back in 2003 but have since grown from their local aidoru status to national recognition. Plus, I'm sure that they have gained some international fans...like me.

It's been just about a year since I put up my last Negicco article on KKP so it was good that commenter Michael came up with his own favourite happy tunes and recommended this one by the aidoru group, "Cream Soda Love". This was a track from their 2nd studio album "Rice & Snow" from January 2015.

Written by Negicco member Nao☆ and composed by connie with arrangement by Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, "Cream Soda Love" has quickly become something that I've warmed up to as well because of that sunny jazzy pop that I think puts Negicco on the same level as Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）and microstar. The trio has been categorized in J-Wiki as a group in tribute to City Pop and Neo-Shibuya-kei, and those warm-and-fuzzy horns in "Cream Soda Love" kinda take me back to the Bacharach 1960s. As for "Rice & Snow", that peaked at No. 18 on Oricon.

It's ironic, though, since I am no fan of cream soda. In fact, I put it up there with natto and liver in terms of ingestibles that I really can't take. Maybe the cause for my cream soda non-love originated back in the 1970s when my family brought back home all sorts of soda pop from the supermarket, and the company-brand sodas each had their own decade-typical pop art symbology to delineate each type of drink. The cans of cream soda were characterized by purple diamonds, and to my naïve eyes, I had assumed that they had grape soda. One swig had me going BLEAHHH with more force than a disgusted Snoopy and since then I haven't been able to touch the stuff. It's also significant to note that I don't like the combination of ice cream and any carbonated drink proper at any diner. I'm quite happy with a good old milkshake.🍦

Kana Hanazawa -- Summer Sunset

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.

Megumi Nakajima -- Hello!

In my collection of anison, I've got Megumi Nakajima's（中島愛）concert version of "Hello!" alongside her cool and urban "TRY UNITE!", the opening theme for "Rinne no LaGrange"（輪廻.のラグランジェ）. I didn't realize that "Hello!" was the actual coupling song to that opening theme and that it was even the first ending theme for that particular anime. I should have read the J-Wiki article a bit more closely.

In any case, I also enjoyed listening to the super cheerful "Hello!" which would represent the ideal English conversation student to me...bright and friendly and willing to speak the language. Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）of the group Round Table wrote and composed this song which came out with Nakajima's 6th single "TRY UNITE!" in February 2012 (which peaked at No. 11 on Oricon), and I think there are some melodic similarities to some of the stuff that really genki singer-songwriter Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）put out a couple of decades earlier. From the reaction at the concert, I get the impression that "Hello!" will always be a crowd pleaser.

Kana Hanazawa -- I♥New Day!

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 Love number. 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.

Rina Sato & Asuka Ohgame -- Egao ni Naru （笑顔になる）

Ten-don YUM!

Ahhhh, yes...it's been a great thing watching the foodie foreplay that is "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）before my anime buddy and I go out for dinner. It gets us into a good mindset. By the way, yesterday's dinner was Spicy Coconut Chicken Curry (very much YUM!).

And the theme songs have been fine for the ears as well. About a month ago, I featured the opening theme, "Shiawase ni Tsuite Watashi ga Shitteiru Itsutsu no Houhou"（幸せについて私が知っている5つの方法）by Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）. And here tonight, it's "Egao ni Naru" (You'll Smile) by the two seiyuu stars of the show, Rina Sato（佐藤利奈）and Asuka Ohgame（大亀あすか）as their characters Ryo and Kirin respectively. Written by Yuuki Matsuura（松浦勇気）and composed by Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, it's another sunny and smiley song that has that hint of 60s Bacharach and David. For those who can understand the Japanese lyrics, Ryo and Kirin adorably pepper the melody with various dishes and the onomatopoeia that accompany them. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the night owls who have been dedicated to "Koufuku Graffiti" (it's a late-night anime) rushed out of the apartment and headed for a 24-hour konbini for whatever's left on the bento shelves. My friend and I are most fortunate that we get to see this on Sunday afternoons.

And of course, I have to leave off with another adorable rendition of "Shiawase Graffiti"（しあわせグラフィティ...Happy Graffiti） with one of my favourite dishes. There is a full version but I'll leave that for next month.

Sashimi platter

Hamburg platter