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.

Maki Hanatani -- Datte, Gyutte Shite (だって、ギュってして。)

Well, I finally got my copy of the early 2016 anison earworm "Kumamiko Dancing" from the anime "Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear" (くまみこ). I wrote about the song almost a year ago, apparently while the show was still playing.

At the time, I mentioned that although the first episode looked very promising, the bandwagon seemed to lose a few tires as the episodes rolled along. Well, that final episode pretty much sent that 18-wheeler over a cliff (to paraphrase a description of one of the local teams here during a very bad season). In fact, from my anime buddy and some of the comments I've read online, the reaction over the fact that the main character of Machi ends up mentally broken and controlled by her best bruin friend Natsu and the rest of the village while the happy music is playing in the background left everyone, including the original author of the manga, very cold. It actually kinda reminded me of a 1960s Roman Polanski psycho-horror.

After the finale aired in front of me, I simply wondered aloud "Wait a minute...all this time she was going through this sturm und drang about having a life in the city while fighting demons internal and external, and she ended up going goo-goo and happily staying in her remote village prison?!"

Years ago, some fellow ingeniously crafted a number of scenes from Stanley Kubrick's horror "The Shining" and turned it into a parody trailer for a happy-go-lucky heartwarming flick "Shining". I will never hear Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" again without getting an urge to giggle.

I think there might be some enterprising fellow out there who could take scenes from the supposedly serene slice-of-life anime "Kumamiko" and create a psycho-horror trailer out of that.

Although not quite the earworm that "Kumamiko Dancing" is, I remember the opening theme "Datte, Gyutte Shite" (Well, Because...Hug Me) sung by Maki Hanatani（花谷麻妃）fairly fondly. It's quite the twinkly little number with the credits showing Natsu and Machi having a fine old time in places like Paris. Frankly, I would have enjoyed some of that stuff in the actual show.

The other thing that caught my attention with "Datte, Gyutte Shite" was the lyricist and composer Bonjour Suzuki (ボンジュール鈴木). She's already been mentioned in the blog through her creation of another anison for the goofy and less sinister show "Sekko Boys"（石膏ボーイズ）, the Bay City Rollers-like "Hoshizora Rendezvous"（星空ランデブー）.

But I also remember her from a couple of years earlier when she created and sang the opening theme for yet another bear-themed anime "Yurikuma Arashi" (ユリ熊嵐...LOVE BULLET YURIKUMA ARASHI) that my friend and I saw back in 2015. That was also a rather bizarre show with some "Suspiria" undertones. Her "Ano Mori de Matteru" (あの森で待ってる...I'll Be Waiting In Those Woods)...I'll have to talk about it soon...was haunting and sexy at the same time thanks to her whispery delivery with that slight French accent. According to her biography at her website, she spent some time in France at university at least.

With "Datte, Gyutte Shite", Hanatani is more straight-on cute although the French vocabulary is peppered in there. It's almost as if she is channeling a much more well-adjusted Machi having the time of her life. Well, I can only hope she has fared better in the manga.

Natsumi Hioka & Hiroki Yasumoto -- Kumamiko Dancing

It's been another Sunday with the anime buddy for some new programming from the spring season. And I gotta say that one of the weirder pilot episodes for an anime I've seen so far this year belongs to TV Tokyo's "Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear"（くまみこ）. It's all about a miko (shrine maiden) by the name of Machi who desperately wants to leave her isolated hamlet in the mountains and go to school in the big city. The problem is that her best friend, Natsu the talking bear, isn't too keen on the idea. As someone who started post-university life in a town in the Japanese Alps, I can relate to Machi's plight to a certain extent although I liked the former Tsukiyono-machi very much (it was absorbed into what is now Minakami City); once a month, I just had to get some city under me by heading by Bullet Train down to Tokyo.

As I said, the out-there humour was quite something in the pilot episode with Machi doing a bit of cursing and getting accused of having a "deeper" relationship with Natsu while an even younger girl suddenly screamed "SEXUAL HARASSMENT" and "DON'T TOUCH ME!!" at the dopey civil servant. The following four episodes weren't quite as hilarious and the pacing hasn't been quite as fun which means I'm not totally convinced of success as of yet.

However I think the ending theme has become an earworm for me right from the end of Episode 1. Sung by seiyuu Natsumi Hioka/日岡なつみ (Machi) and Hiroki Yasumoto/安元洋貴 (Natsu), "Kumahiko Dancing" has got that funky rap down pat to a catchiness that is along the lines of last season's "Hoshizora Rendezvous"（星空ランデブー）from the nutty "Sekko Boys"（石膏ボーイズ）. "Kumahiko Dancing" was written by Ryuji Sakai（坂井竜二）and composed by Shingo Yamazaki（山崎真吾）.

(April 21 2017: I came across a pretty good remix of the song by no.19 u-z on YouTube. There are quite a few remixes out there.)