Kotono Mitsuishi -- Nigedasu kedo Dakishimete（逃げだすけど抱きしめて）

 

Had a slight medical issue last week...or probably it's more realistic to say that I went through a medical question. Last Monday, I had the runniest of runny noses followed by a few days of coughing. Well, considering the circumstances that we all currently live in, despite the fact that I am double-vaccinated, I went to get a COVID test anyways at the local hospital yesterday. Happily enough, this morning I found out that the results were negative and things are hunky-dory.

As for that famous nose swab test, it was the first time for me to undergo that, and to be honest, I've had wasabi nasal explosions that were far more painful.

On that reassuring note, you've heard this lady cry out those immortal words in anime decades ago.

And more recently, you've heard her gloriously growl out a cheer in the only way that her character, the legendary Tae Yamada, could do. Freddie Mercury was probably smiling in approval wherever he is now.

Now, without making this sound like an ancient K-Tel LP commercial, I bring you legendary seiyuu Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）singing some of that old-timey New Jack Swing (!) through her March 1993 debut album "Mo' Merry". Case in point is the track "Nigedasu kedo Dakishimete" (Gonna Run But Hug Me).

Ah, well...I'm not sure if she was going for overly innocently aidoru kittenish or an older version of Usagi Tsukino, but her delivery is fairly wobbly. Not that I was ever planning to go even partial Gordon Ramsay on her, but on reading one excerpt in her J-Wiki biography which stated that her first time in the recording booth was a traumatic experience (although things apparently improved markedly later on), I'm willing to chalk this one up to one of those things. Still, the music by Takeo Suzuki（鈴木武生）is nice especially with the saxophone with Aki Mana（真名杏樹）providing the lyrics.

And hey, she is Sailor Moon and Tae Yamada after all. Legendary!

Main Cast of "Sailor Moon"/Momoiro Clover Z -- Moon Revenge

Well, it is the anniversary of the moon landing, after all! I couldn't let the day go by without ignoring this one. So I am continuing on from today's moon-theme songs.

I recall my anime buddy showing me "Sailor Moon R: The Movie"（劇場版美少女戦士セーラームーンR）from 1993 years ago, and from what I could remember was the title character dying (again) and revived (again) on some sort of meteor with all of the other Sailors collapsing on her in a heap of relieved tears. You know it's serious when even Sailor Mars is happy to see Sailor Moon alive again.

To be honest, it's been the ending theme of that movie, "Moon Revenge", which has stuck with me in the years since. With the clamor of banging 80s synths and percussion, the song just takes off with such an intrepid beat that it could probably go up against "Moonlight Densetsu"（ムーンライト伝説）as the theme for the franchise. The music seems to be fairly screaming "I'M SAILOR MOON, B**CH!"

And for that, we have to thank singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）for that melody and lyricist Kayoko Fuyumori（冬杜花代子）. "Moon Revenge" got no higher than No. 85 on Oricon, but I think the Sailor Moon fans will always cherish it. Besides the entire main cast is behind the mike: Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, Aya Hisakawa（久川綾）, Emi Shinohara（篠原恵美）, Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）and Rika Fukami（深見梨加）.

I read that "Moon Revenge" has been covered by a few other singers including songwriter Kosaka herself back in 2013. And I did find this cover by dynamic aidoru group Momoiro Clover Z（ももいろクローバーZ）which was released in July 2014 as a part of their 12th single, "Moon Pride", the opening theme for the reboot series "Sailor Moon Crystal"（美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal）. The single peaked at No. 3. Nice guitar solo but I will have to go with the original.

Franchouchou -- Drive-in Tori（ドライブイン鳥）

One of my earliest gastronomical memories involved the family pickup of Kentucky Fried Chicken at the branch just across from the Don Jail here in Toronto (it's been used to film Tom Cruise's "Cocktail" and the cinematic version of "Chicago"). I was never sure about why the Colonel decided to set up shop across from a prison but perhaps it was to drive the prisoners insane over the smell of that oil and the 11 herbs and spices wafting through the bars. I also remember the commercials for KFC back then although the above video doesn't have the jingle that I used to hear.

Well, that memory once again came to the fore once I caught Episode 5 of this season's "Zombie Land Saga"（ゾンビランドサガ）. Part of the episode dealt with the zombie aidoru group Franchouchou（フランシュシュ）getting a deal to perform the jingle for a real-life chicken restaurant in Saga Prefecture called Drive-in Tori (Drive-in Bird). Sakura and the gang simply needed to do a tweak....namely, get the still-guttural Tae as played by Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）into the right frame of reference...and the commercial was a wrap, and the jingle has managed to burrow into my brain.

Drive-in Tori did indeed come up with the lyrics with Tsuyoshi Ishibashi's（石橋序佳）help in composing the cheerful music for its jingle, and about three years ago, the restaurant itself uploaded the commercial. Supposedly the original performers for "Drive-in Tori" were Riz☆Rie.

Less than a couple of weeks ago, one fellow from Gussie Channel decided to upload a video on his visit to Drive-in Tori for lunch. I wonder how much business has boomed since Episode 5 had gone to air, but I certainly wouldn't mind dropping by if I were in the Saga Prefecture neighbourhood. Chicken will always be my favourite form of protein.

And for one member of Franchouchou, this particular chicken may be her favourite form of protein. I will remember not to hit Drive-in Tori if she and her old gang ever decide to haunt the place again (no pun intended).

Main Cast of "Sailor Moon" -- Tuxedo Mirage（タキシード・ミラージュ）

Halloween is once again upon us. I was checking a YouTube live stream camera overlooking the famous scramble crossing in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo on Saturday morning (Saturday night in Japan). Considering the maelstrom of costume-wearing folks that has descended upon the area in recent years, I had been expecting a similar sight. However, due to the effects of Typhoon No. 22, the whole thing was literally a washout. Perhaps things might be different on Tuesday October 31st.

I may have mentioned this before in previous Halloween entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" but during the first several years of my stay in Chiba, the spooky holiday barely existed in Japanese pop culture. In fact, the only sign was a rogue bunch of English teachers who would hijack one car on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo for one round trip of costumed carousing. Of course, the local police did their best to deter the relative miscreants.

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In those early years, some of my fellow English teachers at NOVA and I tried to spread the word about Halloween to students through special events which even involved some of us wearing costumes. I made my own get-up in the form of Tuxedo Kamen（タキシード仮面...Tuxedo Mask）, the mysterious figure and love interest of the famous Sailor Moon（美少女戦士セーラームーン）since I did watch the series on videotape when I was back in Toronto in the early 90s.

Basically it involved a dark suit, a bow tie and the mask (both made of construction paper). Unfortunately if not particularly surprisingly, I didn't really get much of a response from most of the students (middle-aged people tend not to watch "Sailor Moon") on the costume but hey, the pumpkin carving was fun! And no, I didn't try to get long-stemmed roses either. There are a few photos of me on that night but they are staying locked up tighter than those JFK files...but the US government finally opened those last week, didn't it?

Let us now segue then to one of the many ending themes for "Sailor Moon", in this case, "Tuxedo Mirage" which was sung at the end of each episode during the third season known as "Sailor Moon S" between 1994 and 1995.

This was performed by the main cast of the show, namely the five Sailors: Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus as acted by Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, Aya Hisakawa（久川綾）, Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）, Emi Shinohara（篠原恵美）and Rika Fukami（深見梨加）respectively.

With lyrics by "Sailor Moon" creator Naoko Takeuchi（武内直子）and music by singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）, "Tuxedo Mirage" kinda struck me as sounding like a 1980s power pop ballad with ambitions of grandeur along the lines of those charity singles that were huge back then such as "We Are The World" and "Do They Know It's Christmas?". One would think that the song was trying to raise money for suffering formal wear stores.

The song was released as a single in October 1994 and reached as high as No. 53 on Oricon.

Claire/Yoko Takahashi/Hikaru Utada/Kotono Mitsuishi -- Fly Me To The Moon

As someone who grew up listening to standards and watching some of those old variety shows featuring folks like Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett and the original Rat Pack, the song "Fly Me To The Moon" is old hat to me.

Written and composed by Bart Howard in 1954, I was surprised to discover that the very first singer to try it out was actress and comedian Kaye Ballard. Now I believe that 99.9% of the readers of this article have probably never heard of her. In fact, aside from myself, I can only think of 2 other fellows with any connection to this blog who may have heard of her. As for me, she was one of the earliest TV personalities that I ever remember. My two adjectives for her are zany and loud-mouthed.

Usually when the title pops up in my head, the two folks who readily come to mind are Frank Sinatra and the aforementioned Tony Bennett as seen above. When these guys sang it, you knew that "Fly Me To The Moon" was a classic.

About 41 years after "Fly Me To The Moon" was first sung by Ballard, the legendary anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion"（新世紀エヴァンゲリオン）launched in October 1995. Of course, part of the show's lasting success was the opening theme, "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze"（残酷な天使のテーゼ）that seems to be an absolute must for any anime fan to get to know. In fact, one friend even remarked that it should be sung as an anthem of sorts. Well, I like my anime but I will simply listen and enjoy "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze".

For years, though, I also heard that a version of "Fly Me To The Moon" was also used in "Evangelion". And my first thought was "Why would anyone think of using a Tony Bennett song in an anime?" At the time, jazz and anison couldn't quite mesh with me...and this was before I discovered "Tank" for the later anime hit "Cowboy Be-Bop".

Then today, I had my follow-up appointment with my doctor to find out that my bad cholesterol had decreased somewhat, and I was able to get a small translation assignment done pretty lickety-split. So my levels of whimsy were frankly off the scale and I decided to check out what "Evangelion" could do with "Fly Me To The Moon".

Dang, quite a lot actually. I had the window to my room open today so a lot of refreshingly cold air wafted in. Plus I heard the ending theme for "Evangelion" which was indeed "Fly Me To The Moon". And boy, my goose pimples were extremely exhausted! Singer and graphic designer Claire Littley had me at "Fly". Well, that's not exactly true...Toshiyuki Omori（大森俊之）who composed "Zankoku na Tenshi no Tehze" arranged the old standard as a nearly tear-inducing and goosebump-exploding bossa jazz epic right from note one. I still don't know who on the production staff was inspired to get this song but I hope he got a fat bonus at the end of the year. Tony could be standing up and giving some applause.

Littley's full version is above. Apparently, a couple of versions of the CD single were released a few weeks after the beginning of "Evangelion" with Claire and "Zankoku" singer Yoko Takahashi（高橋洋子）singing their takes on "Fly Me To The Moon".

Takahashi's 4-beat version is above in its TV size. Her take is a more straight-ahead jazz combo. The CD single that had both versions peaked at No. 52 on Oricon, while the other single that had Takahashi's "Zankoku" and then Claire's "Fly Me" got all the way up to No. 17.

But that wasn't the only version of "Fly Me To The Moon" associated with Japanese pop culture that I remember. Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）recorded her tribute to the song as a coupling song to her 5th single "Wait & See ~ Risk"（Wait&See 〜リスク〜）from April 2000. Her take was officially titled "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)".

The famous "White Christmas", to my surprise, actually had an original opening verse which referred to boring sunny life in Los Angeles. I found out that "Fly Me To The Moon" is in the same situation. It also had an opening verse that was usually not sung but is sung here by Utada and also by Bennett above. Not surprisingly, Utada's tribute has more of that downtown grooviness but the arrangement is still light enough that I have categorized it as a pop song rather than something from the R&B genre. "Wait & See" hit No. 1 on the charts and broke the million barrier, becoming the 3rd-ranked single of 2000.

I couldn't finish this article without mentioning that one of the seiyuu in "Evangelion", veteran Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, also covered "Fly Me To The Moon" along with some of the other voice actresses on the show. Considering her most famous role, I kinda wonder if it shouldn't have been titled "Fly Me To The (Sailor) Moon". Har de har har!