L'Arc-en-Ciel -- metropolis

 

Ahhh...yes, I remember watching the second-ever episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" back in my senior year of university. The pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint", was an OK start to this new version of "Star Trek" although I was still somewhat skeptical. The second episode "The Naked Now" along with the next episode had me basically predicting "Ah, well, nice try Gene (Roddenberry)...can't win 'em all". I wasn't impressed with this sequel to TOS' "The Naked Time"; I just thought it was way too early to have the command crew of the Enterprise-D get high/drunk without getting used to their usually professional selves.

My point? Oh, sorry...just had a lot of opinions piling up about this one. Anyways, one scene of this "Star Trek" version of "Reefer Madness" had Lt. Commander Data getting seduced by then-Chief of Security Tasha Yar once she joyously heard her superior officer's matter-of-fact statement that he knew multiple ways of pleasuring. So, I guess this was a case of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sex?".

Some weeks ago, a commenter asked me about this song by the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel, "metropolis". He specifically wondered if this would be a City Pop tune. Well, after listening to it, I thought it really didn't belong under that genre umbrella although it does have a wacka-wacka guitar beat which reminded me of 1970s soul. Actually, reading the lyrics by hyde, that wacka-wacka was quite appropriate since there is apparently some android knocking of boots going on. 

"metropolis" was the B-side to L'Arc-en-Ciel's 8th single "winter fall" which was released in January 1998. When I first heard the song those weeks ago, I thought it was a rather oddly arranged tune with those cyber-porn lyrics and the relevant J-Wiki article described them in the same way. In fact, the composer, guitarist ken, pointed out that the song had been initially constructed several years previously with the idea of heavy metal guys deciding to try for a New Order sound. Strangely enough, there is one synthesizer in the song that had me thinking that this instrument's sound probably has been used in at least a few songs of the British band's music. Bassist tetsuya also pointed out that the bass riffs he'd played weren't anything that he expected to be used in the final copy of "metropolis" but there they were, and he likened them to the licks in "Let's Dance" by David Bowie. It's quite the interesting potpourri.

Well, if I ever see "The Naked Now" again (hmm...doubtful), I'll think of "metropolis". Meanwhile, I couldn't quite resist putting in this last video. Just out of courtesy...I'll say it's between PG-13 and R-18.😁

L'Arc-en-Ciel -- Driver's High

 

Well, Happy Mother's Day to all! I took my folks out for breakfast this morning and boy, was our local diner busy with families wishing to give gastronomical tribute to all of the Moms out there. Can't complain about the weather though. It's been a decent spring weekend.

Commenter Fireminer told me about rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel's "Driver's High" some time ago which I didn't know as well as I did their hit the following year, "Stay Away". But when I heard the melody by band member tetsu and the words by hyde, some of those memory engrams flashed in recognition once more. This was their 17th single from August 1999, and according to the J-Wiki article on the song, the band wanted to create a number that just sounded good while bombing down the highway. Well, the title was probably the final cap onto this song in love with fine driving.

"Driver's High" hit No. 2 on Oricon and ended up as the 60th-ranked single of 1999, going Platinum. It was also used as the first opening theme for the anime version of "Great Teacher Onizuka" (I did write about another theme song for the anime some time ago). It would also be a track on L'Arc-en-Ciel's 6th studio album "ark" from July of that year; it reached No. 1 on the album charts and was the No. 5 album of the year.

Halloween Junky Orchestra -- HALLOWEEN PARTY

 

Ahhh...memories of Halloween. Two of the three Jack O'Lanterns that you see above were created by me years ago when I was teaching the masses how to carve pumpkins. The other one was actually quite delicious.

Indeed, tomorrow will be Halloween although unfortunately things are not going to be quite as festive due to the horrors of COVID-19. The medical experts here have stated that trick-or-treat is going to be a no-no and that families ought to search for more virtual/internal activities to celebrate the bewitching night. I checked the YouTube channel with the live cameras over Shibuya, Tokyo. Usually if Halloween falls on a weekend there, it was guaranteed that the preceding Friday and the two nights afterwards would probably have thousands of folks squeezing into the neighbourhood like old-fashioned college students trying to stuff themselves into a taxi or a telephone booth. Thankfully if sadly, I didn't see any of that on the cameras today.

As for me, my Halloween education was left back in Japan years ago and our family no longer gives out the treats since that was made into a collective neighbourhood activity years ago as well. And cosplay was never my thing to begin with.

Odd bodkins! I was searching a couple of days ago for something that would fit the theme of Halloween when the perfect video was discovered on YouTube. If anyone ever fantasized how Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" would like with a Japanese cast and a Danny Elfman-esque song to match, this is for you.

Plus, if you are a visual kei band fan and wondered about an "Ocean's Eleven" collaboration, "HALLOWEEN PARTY" is most definitely for you. Created by L'Arc-en-Ciel's vocalist and songwriter Hyde, he along with Oblivion Dust's guitarist K.A.Z. got together to form the rock unit VAMPS in the late 2000s. Then a few years later, the pair got together a whole bunch of rockers for the event known as "HALLOWEEN PARTY 2012" under the band name of Halloween Junky Orchestra where the single "HALLOWEEN PARTY" was introduced and then released on October 17th that year.

So along with VAMPS, Halloween Junky Orchestra included actress/singer Anna Tsuchiya（土屋アンナ）, Ryuji Aoki（青木隆治）, Aki（明希）of the rock band Sid, Acid Black Cherry, kyo from the band D'ERLANGER, singer/tarento Daigo, Tatsuro（逹瑯）of MUCC, Tomoko Kawase（川瀬智子） in both of her incarnations Tommy february6 and Tommy heavenly6, guitarist Hitsugi（柩）of NIGHTMARE, musician RINA of the band SCANDAL and singer/cellist Kanon Wakeshima（分島花音）.

I have to say that the video is glorious and director Ken Nikai（二階健）, who had also taken care of the music videos for Hyde and those two bands of his, ought to get a firm and hearty handshake from Burton. It seems right out of the FAO Schwarz idea for Halloween. Plus Hyde apparently must have listened to the soundtracks for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Beetlejuice" (and perhaps even the music for the past several years of "Doctor Who") for inspiration for "HALLOWEEN PARTY". It's truly a grand march for the boys and ghouls. 

The single peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and despite the lateness of the release, "HALLOWEEN PARTY" ended up as the 80th-ranked single of 2012, going Gold.

L'Arc-en-Ciel -- Niji（虹）

In recent conversations about the Fall 2019 season of anime, my friend and I have assumed that things may become slightly sparser in terms of shows that we will want to watch when compared to the relative bounty of riches that we've had in previous seasons. However, the two of us were pleasantly surprised by the pilot episode of "No Guns Life" and so maybe there are a couple of more hopefuls out there.

As such yesterday, to fill up the time on our biweekly anime-and-food outing, he decided to put on the 2012 live-action version of "Rurouni Kenshin"（るろうに剣心）starring Takeru Sato（佐藤健）as Kenshin, Emi Takei（武井咲）as Kaoru and Koji Kikkawa（吉川晃司）as the evil Jin-e Udo. When my friend first told me what we were to see, even when he reassured me that this was a good flick, I couldn't help but roll my eyes due to my memories of failed anime/manga-turned-Hollywood versions. However, after 2 hours and change, I went out to dinner with my buddy feeling quite satisfied with the movie. Along with the battle scenes, the acting was more refreshingly toned down than what I had been expecting ruefully.

"Rurouni Kenshin" is one of those manga/anime projects that I had heard about over the years. I can't quite remember when and in what way, but I believe my buddy and his buddies did set up some sort of presentation of the animated movie, "Rurouni Kenshin ~  Ishin Shishi e no Chinkonka" (―維新志士への鎮魂歌...Requiem for the Ishin Patriots) which had originally released in December 1997. One reason that I remember is because of the theme song for that movie, "Niji" (Rainbow) by the rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel. I don't think that I had ever heard a rock theme for any sort of samurai drama, live-action or anime. My impression had been that it would usually be some urgent horns-and-string battle tune, often with a Latin bent. However, looking at the characters as they were portrayed in the manga and anime, and even seeing the live-action versions yesterday, I thought that Kenshin and a number of the other characters looked like punk rockers transported back to the time of the Meiji Restoration, so L'Arc-en-Ciel was the right choice.

"Niji" was released as the band's 7th single in October 1997 with vocalist hyde taking care of the lyrics and guitarist ken handling the music. Going Double Platinum and selling more than 700,000 copies, the single peaked at No. 3 on Oricon and became the 53rd-ranked single of the year. It is also a track on L'Arc-en-Ciel's 5th album "Heart" from February 1998 which hit the top spot on the album chart and ended up at No. 15 in the yearly rankings.

L'Arc-en-Ciel -- HONEY

It's gonna be a soggy New Year's Eve going into 2019 unfortunately but compared to the deep freeze last year that curtailed a lot of the celebrations, I think people won't mind too much this year. Just bring the umbrellas.

This will probably be my final article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for 2018 since in a little more than an hour from now, the re-broadcast of the Kohaku Utagassen will be starting up. NHK has rather made December 31st a half-day of Red-and-White festivities comparable to all of the lead-up on Super Bowl Sunday. Along with the shortened 15-minute 7 pm broadcast of news just before the start of the special, there are the warm-up programs on the network on the 30th and 31st to get viewers into the mood.

Of course, No. 69 also being the very last Kohaku Utagassen of the Heisei Era, things have taken on an especially auspicious tone, and the Japanese do love to look back on everything. For the episode on the 30th, there was a long retrospective on each of the Kohaku starting from 1989 to 2017 featuring the big names that appeared in each special.

One such act was rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel which had its debut appearance on the Kohaku 20 years ago with their hit "HONEY" (yes, indeed, time flies by). This was the band's 10th single released in July 1998, and even though I'm not a huge rock fan, listening to hyde and company and their fast jangling guitars once more brought a good measure of nostalgia back.

One reason for the natsukashii feeling was that I used to hear "HONEY" all the time on the music ranking shows. The song was written and composed by hyde, and it hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 7th-ranked single for 1998, as it broke the million-seller barrier and went Platinum, selling around 1.2 million copies. "HONEY" was also included in L'Arc-en-Ciel's 7th album "ray", released in July 1999. That album reached No. 2 on the charts and also became No. 7 in the yearly rankings.

According to the J-Wiki article on the song (the original source was the liner notes from the 15th anniversary Expanded Edition for "ray"), it was one of the more atypical entries since L'Arc-en-Ciel was apparently known for quite a bit of production on their tracks, but in the case of "HONEY", the recording was kept to basically the trio of guitar, bass and drums. In fact, the recording was wrapped up so quickly during the time that had been scheduled for just pre-production that the producer and even the band members apparently don't have any memory of the recording session at all. Maybe simple is indeed best.

L'Arc-en-Ciel -- Stay Away

I heard my first L'Arc-en-Ciel song, "Niji"（虹...Rainbow）, while watching the movie for the "Rurouni Kenshin" anime back in the late 90s. But what really got my attention about the band was the music video for their 20th single, "Stay Away". To paraphrase a well-worn expression, "Come for the song, stay for the video".

Written by lead vocal, hyde (aka Hideto Takarai...寶井秀人), and composed by bassist tetsu (now tetsuya), "Stay Away" was released in July 2000, and immediately made an impact by selling over half a million copies in its first week alone. It peaked at No. 2 and became the 24th-ranked song of the year.

However, I think it was the video that hooked everyone. I'm sure the sight of seeing hyde and the rest of L'Arc-en-Ciel (tetsuya, ken and yukihiro) dressed up as the coolest and most intimidating students in the high school probably got a lot of the fandom's hearts-a-racing. But then came the choreography....seeing hyde writhing around as if he had gotten lessons from Sadako of "Ringu" fame, and then the finale of the band and a lot of other folks frolicking about on a sports field most likely had quite a few jaws dropping (although I know CG helped out here). Ironically, I couldn't stay away. In the years before YouTube, I just wanted to see that video again and again. Not surprisingly, the video won Best Video of the Year and Best Group Video of the Year for the "Space Shower Music Video Awards". And on top of that, the Osaka band got another invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen.