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.
That dusk photo is of the Sony Insurance building just across from my final school in my Japan career in Nakano-Sakaue. Never been up there but the basement often had ladies selling some fine bento for lunch. I don't recall ever paying more than one coin of 500 yen for one of those. Not sure how much they would go for now, though.
The Kumi Miyasato（宮里久美）file on KKP isn't too large. In fact, this article will just be her third but it's the first non-anime-related song that I'll be writing about today when compared to "Lonely Sunset"（ロンリー・サンセット）which was associated with the "Megazone 23" franchise in the 1980s.
"Summer Lovers" is the first track on Miyasato's 3rd album "Unfinished" from July 1987. It begins life rather smoky and enigmatically before the singer's just-as-smoky vocals fill the space and time. Then the chorus rises into this late 1980s City Pop with those certain synthesizers which continue into the bridge along with a bluesy guitar. It all rather describes a smoldering romance in the big city. Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）took care of the lyrics while Ken Sato（佐藤健）was the composer.
Found another Kumi Miyasato（宮里久美）song from the 1980s, and as was the case with her first entry in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", "Kaze no Lullaby"（風のララバイ）, this song also had a connection with the "Megazone 23"（メガゾーン23）anime franchise.
I don't recall ever hearing "Lonely Sunset" during my anime buddy's anison hour at this place, like I did the aforementioned "Kaze no Lullaby", but I also like this one as well. Compared with the gentle and classy melody there, "Lonely Sunset" takes things into a much more City Pop direction, with some sax to oomph things up some more. I don't remember all that much from "Megazone 23 Part II" for which this song is associated (and there is one particular scene that I want to un-remember), but I think it would also have been at home on one of the soundtracks for "City Hunter".
"Lonely Sunset" was the B-side to Miyasato's 2nd single"Himitsu Kudasai"（秘密く・だ・さ・い...Tell Me Your Secret）which was yet another contribution to the anime. The single was released in January 1986, and was created by another couple of songwriting vets Goro Matsui and Kisaburo Suzuki（松井五郎・鈴木キサブロー）. "Lonely Sunset" was also part of her 2nd album"Allergy"（アレルギー）which came out later that year in August.
Well, happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians. I can hear some of the fireworks outside. Got together with a couple of my movie buddies in Toronto to catch one of the more anticipated blockbusters for 2017, "Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2". And it didn't disappoint. My anime buddy last week told me that he wasn't all that thrilled with it but I still had a good time, and strangely enough, there were even some poignant scenes at the end...I can guarantee if this had been released closer to Father's Day, there would have been some major waterworks from the guys. Finally, I did love the ending credits with most of the cast boogeying down (even Karen Gillan) along with David Hasselhoff chiming in.
Yesterday when I was doing the routine with my anime buddy, he put on a song that he hadn't done before during the music section of our session. It happened to be "Kaze no Lullaby" (Lullaby of the Wind), a ballad that had been included in the anime "Megazone 23" from 1985.
I barely remember that particular show although it was shown at U of T by somebody back in the day. Mind you, I do remember one scene from the 2nd part of "Megazone 23" in which a jet pilot gets ripped apart by a bunch of tentacles....I couldn't remember anything else including the sex scenes, and yet I remember that evisceration....kinda wish I could un-remember it.
"Kaze no Lullaby" was recorded by Kumi Miyasato（宮里久美）who actually had a starring role in the anime and my buddy told me that she had been groomed to be another Mari Iijima（飯島真理）who was immortalized because of her iconic character Lynn Minmay from "Macross". Miyasato didn't quite make that level of fame apparently (she left showbiz in 1989) but I did enjoy "Kaze no Lullaby" which has that gentle and classy European-sounding melody reminiscent of Gazebo's"I Love Chopin" which was famously covered by actress-singer Asami Kobayashi（小林麻美）as "Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe"（雨音はショパンの調べ）. I've heard other songs by young female Japanese singers with a similar arrangement in the 1980s which makes me wonder whether the Gazebo hit had become quite the influence.
The song was written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）and composed by Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）, and it was a track on Miyasato's debut album"Hitomi de Whispering"（瞳でウィスパリング...Whispering With My Eyes）from October 1985.
