Kyohei Shibata -- Nantonaku, Crystal（なんとなく、クリスタル）

 

When I got my invitation to come onto the "Tokyo House Party" talk about a month ago, I discovered the theme for the show on February 27th is to be the pop culture of the Bubble Era, those five years at the end of the 1980s which had the Japanese going through money like me going through a can of Pringles (yes, I'm quite ravenous about my potato chips). As such, I decided to get a translated copy of Yasuo Tanaka's（田中康夫）"Nantonaku, Crystal" (Somehow, Crystal).

The reason for the purchase was three-fold: 1) I'd heard about this 1981 Bungei Prize-winning novel by the future governor of Nagano Prefecture (2000-2006) ever since I was in university, 2) the story was all about the rich, footloose and fancy-free life of college-age students in Tokyo, a topic that I'd been interested in ever since that graduation trip to the nation that occurred, coincidentally enough, in that same year, and 3) I thought that reading the book would help give me some more insights about those times when Saira, Derrick and I start chatting on Saturday.

I'd already read a few reviews about "Nantonaku, Crystal" and they were wide-ranging. My feelings on the novel are that I was frankly surprised that it actually won the Bungei Prize since it's not particularly a long story (half of it consists of somewhat snarky footnotes by Tanaka) and it barely has any plot, and I've always thought that the judging panels for literature in Japan were a pretty starchy conservative lot. It truly is a slice-of-life book and the story ends very abruptly.

There aren't many characters in the 137 pages of the book (including footnote pages) but the story centers around a college student and part-time model Yuri and her days and nights of enjoying in a very blasé manner the life of shopping, dancing and fooling about. What was interesting for me was the amount of name-dropping that she does in terms of the famous shops, restaurants and even the West Coast AOR stars such as Michael Franks and Airplay that were coming into the local radio stations and record shops (plus some mention of the Japanese singers of the time).

For a book that was issued in the early 1980s, "Nantonaku, Crystal" struck me as something that would have also described life during the Bubble Era between 1985 and 1990 which made me wonder whether Japan was already having the time of its life from the beginning of the decade. It also made me think about how things must have been truly like at the height of the Bubble with super-expensive gold-flecked coffee and purchases of overseas properties.

"Nantonaku, Crystal" has stuck in my head all these years because the book apparently had such an influence that the media crowned that generation of college girls of the time as the "Crystal Tribe", whether or not the members of such a tribe particularly appreciated the label. And indeed a movie came out of the book in the same year; the video above has the first few minutes with Kazuko Kato（かとうかずこ）playing Yuri. Not surprisingly, the song that plays is an AOR tune: "I Go Crazy" by Paul Davis. According to the J-Wiki article on the novel, the soundtrack consists of such songs.

When I saw actor Kyohei Shibata's（柴田恭兵）name in the J-Wiki article, I naturally assumed that with his charisma and looks, he was the other star of the film adaptation. Nothing of the sort. His only contribution was his 5th single, "Nantonaku, Crystal", that was released in April 1981. It had been advertised as the main theme of the movie, but it actually never shows up in it at all, despite author Tanaka providing the lyrics against Haruo Chikada's（近田春夫）melody.

Speaking of the melody, "Nantonaku, Crystal" the song doesn't really come across as a City Pop or AOR tune (which may have explained why it wasn't used in the movie proper), but that impressive piano rumbling away adds some New Music flavour. I'd say that it probably would be ideal for one of those cop shows that Shibata was appearing in.

In any case, to sum up, I've let you know about the idiosyncrasies of "Nantonaku, Crystal" but if you are OK with the overall premise it and/or if you can find it in a library somewhere, have a look.

Kyohei Shibata -- Yokohama Daybreak（横浜DAYBREAK）

Nope, despite what the above thumbnail shows, there is nothing about Shiseido or Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）here tonight. However, at the 15-second mark, there is a brief teaser about a 1989 12-episode TV series called "Katte ni Shiyagare Hey! Brother"（勝手にしやがれヘイ！ブラザー...Do Whatever The Hell You Want Hey! Brother）starring Kyohei Shibata（柴田恭兵）and Toru Nakamura（仲村トオル）. For those who watch the 80s Japanese cop shows, those two names ought to be automatically recognizable but strangely enough, this NTV show has nothing to do with "Abunai Deka"（あぶない刑事）although according to the J-Wiki article, the production staff for the famous cop series was pulled in to help make this different animal which still apparently retains the nutty comedy and action of "Abunai Deka".

Well, I figured that since I wrote up something about one of the stars from "Abunai Deka", Nana Kinomi（木の実ナナ）, about a couple of weeks ago, I ought to tackle the ending theme for "Katte ni Shiyagare Hey! Brother" since it was performed by one of the other stars, Shibata himself. Plus, the song "Yokohama Daybreak" has a really nice late 80s/early 90s City Pop vibe.

I think Shibata acquits himself pretty well with this classy drive-through-downtown-at-night (Minato Mirai 21, anyone?) arrangement with "Yokohama Daybreak" despite the title. His vocals sound rather reminiscent of another TV drama veteran and crooner, Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊）, especially when it comes to that Kuri karaoke classic "Koibito mo Nureru Machikado"（恋人も濡れる街角）. Plus, the song has me thinking that Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）could also handle "Yokohama Daybreak" with aplomb. Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）wrote the lyrics while Akihiko Kawakami（川上明彦）composed the music.

Kyohei Shibata -- FUGITIVE

At last, I had watched an "Abunai Deka" (あぶない刑事) film! I managed to catch the latest installment of the buddy cop franchise that spanned three decades on the way to Japan about a month ago and it was aMAzing to finally see Hiroshi Tachi (舘ひろし) and Kyohei Shibata (柴田恭兵) in action.

Admittedly, the plot for "Saraba Abunai Deka" was rather weak, just as any nth sequel would have, and that it was pretty much an 80's action flick in modern clothes *ahem "The Expendables"*. But it did have its insanely cool and surprisingly funny moments. Plus, most of the guys were impeccably dressed and stunning to look at - Koji Kikkawa (吉川晃司), who played the villain, looked incredible with his silver hair, and there were even times where I didn't know who to root for! However, I think I might have appreciated it more if I had watched the previous films and/or the TV series as there seemed to be some running gags in there.

twitter.com/k0_8_1_8s/status/753277521811021824

There were a number of scenes that had my eyes popping right open and my excitement levels to the max. That includes Tachi going head to head with Kikkawa in a fist fight, and him riding a Harley with hands occupied by a shotgun - totally makes up for at least 5 minutes of seeing him mope and sulk after the tussle. And let's not forget about Shibata; dang, that guy really impressed me in this movie. He's got some slick dance skills, and seeing him sprint like his life depended on it (seems like a staple in the series) was incredible at his age!

I was quite taken by Shibata's chase scene, as you can tell from up there, and the background music that played as Sexy Oshita hunted down his target fascinated me. From what I vaguely remembered, there was this cool vibe to it, but at the same time it also had an element of urgency. Without a title and the only clue being that it was most likely sung by Shibata himself, I had to do some hunting myself.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm21674257

It wasn't particularly hard to find what I was looking for as Kyo-sama's discography isn't particularly extensive, and I mainly focused on songs that sounded like they could be used in an intense chase scene. After some digging around in YouTube, I narrowed it down to "RUNNING SHOT", "TRASH", or "FUGITIVE". From what I'd been reading, "RUNNING SHOT" seemed to be the song I was looking for. But somehow I was underwhelmed when it was playing - I expected more. "TRASH" was decent, though I was aware that this was the least likely choice. Lastly, "FUGITIVE". The name itself also potentially implies hunting down a criminal so there was a chance that it might fit the bill.

If there's one word to use to describe "FUGITIVE", it's "unpredictable". Why? As the first few seconds of the song unfolded, you'd think it's some calm and soothing piece as the piano and sax hits your ears. Just as you're about to get nice and comfy, the drums, loud and sudden, kick in with a nice beat to wake you up, followed by the shrill synths to make a quintessentially 80's, high octane melody that keeps one (me, at least) going back for more. Also, I like Shibata's voice - deep and mellow. "FUGITIVE" is definitely my favourite out of the three tunes I picked.

Composing this was Ichiro Hada (羽田一郎). As for Chiroru Yaho's (谷穂ちろる) lyrics, I'm not entirely sure if they are in the wanted criminal's or the cop's point of view. Either way, to make sense of the sudden jump in tempo, I'm guessing that one of them must've been relaxing, maybe getting a cup of coffee or something, but one spots the other, setting off alarm bells in both their heads, and the game of cat and mouse begins.

Dang, he was really cute back in the day... And that voice... ~.~

Although I'm still unsure about whether or not "FUGITIVE" or "RUNNING SHOT" was used in Sexy Oshita's chase scene in "Saraba Abunai Deka", I managed to find a clip of half of the duo running after the bad guy with the former tune playing in the background. You can kinda see Shibata's knack for sprinting too - probably stemmed from his love of baseball.

"FUGITIVE" wasn't one of Kyo-sama's 15 singles, but it was released in his 1st album "SHOUT" on 21st June 1987.

"Ikuze!"