Mai Kuraki -- Togetsukyō ~Kimi Omou~ (渡月橋 〜君 想ふ〜)

 

J-Canuck here and once again, we have special guest contributor Fireminer with his thoughts on a song from the "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Case Closed） anime franchise. 

There are anison singers, and there are singers whose songs just happen to end up in a lot of anime. Where will you put Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）then? A glance through her discography and you will be forgiven to think that she belongs to the first category -- to date she has 29 (as many as I can count) anime theme songs, of which 27 have appeared in the famous Case Closed aka Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン) and its various spin-offs. She held the Guinness World Records for the artist with the most songs featured in a single animated franchise from July 25th, 2017 to May 19th, 2023 when she was dethroned by the duo angela, who have 34 songs in Soukyuu no Fafner (a personal favorite of mine that I will recommend to anyone who likes mecha anime). But given that Fafner has reached its ending and Case Closed is still going strong, expect Mai Kuraki to break the record once more.

Anyway, back to the original topic, do you consider Mai Kuraki an anison singer? I personally do not, given how extensive Kuraki’s catalog is and how many non-anime hits she has. It is the same case as with B’z, another regular presence on Case Closed. I imagine these artists have a very strong relationship with the producers of the series, if not being fans of it themselves, thus why their songs are featured so regularly. Hell, Kuraki is a character in Case Closed, her counterpart also a popular singer who sometimes makes cameos in the bizarre cases of Conan Edogawa.

That is not to say some of Kuraki’s most successful hits are not tied to Case Closed like the subject of this topic, 2017’s Togetsukyō ~Kimi Omou~ (渡月橋 〜君 想ふ〜 Togetsu Bridge ~Thinking About You~). The song was used as the 55th ending theme of Case Closed as well as the closing song for its 21st movie The Crimson Love Letter. Given how the movie takes place in Kyoto, it is only given that Togetsukyō centered around the titular Togetsu bridge. I have never been to Kyoto, but from the images alone it certainly looks stunning in fall, with white bridge on a backdrop of red from the maple trees. The song ties that scenery to the classic story of a woman far away from her lover letting her emotion pour over the Katsura river, in hope that the water will carry it to him.

Togetsukyō has been Mai Kuraki’s best-selling single since 2004, peaking at 2nd on the Japan Hot 100 Chart and 5th on the Oricon Chart. And it is not hard to see why. There is bound to be someone who heard of this song and immediately thought “I should make time for Kyoto.” It is a classic song in theme and styling, much like a classic landscape painting harmonizes the tones of different subjects. It draws up a beautiful vision of the Togetsu Bridge and imbues it with a fantasy that anyone would have had put themselves in at least once.

(shortened version)

B'z -- Sekai wa Anata no Iro ni Naru（世界はあなたの色になる）/Mai Kuraki -- SAWAGE☆LIFE

As usual, Thursdays at 6:30 is time for "Case Closed", aka "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン）, the adventures of the pint-sized master detective.

Usually it's a case of take-it-or-leave-it when it comes to the large store of "Conan" opening and ending themes. Obviously, the ones that appear here on KKP are the ones that I have actually enjoyed. And in this case, I am currently liking both opening and ending themes for the 2016 season of the show (apparently TV Japan is about two and a half years behind).

The 43rd opening theme, "Sekai wa Anata no Iro ni Naru" (The World Becomes Your Colour) by B'z is a digital download from October 2016. As the original song, I could only find the actual opening credits, and therefore, truncated version (just the opposite now😖). I have to say that the song which was also written and composed by the B'z boys, is helped a lot by that opening sequence that has almost every character in battle mode, and heck, even snarky Haibara looks scared! The song strikes me as being a bit reminiscent of late Beatles with the inclusion of those strings. "Sekai" reached No. 1 on iTunes and was ranked No. 50 for that year according to the mora music store.

The 52nd ending theme, "SAWAGE☆LIFE" (Exciting Life) by Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）was also a digital download from July 2016. It comes across to me as this quiet rock strut that could have been sung by someone like Gwen Stefani and her Harajuku Girls. Again the ending credits are of a cast-participatory variety with the Detective Boys and the high school buddies of Ran, Sonoko and Masumi deciding to get the band together. The cheerleading element of the song has dug itself into my brain. While Kuraki wrote the lyrics, Alaina Beaton and Bobby Huff took care of the melody.

Mai Kuraki -- Secret of my heart

It's not every day that I get to see Haibara speechless on "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン）so that is the reason that I put up that video above. Yup, now that the Holidays are over for another year, "Case Closed" is back on its regular Thursday night lineup on TV Japan. It's always amazing how these kids manage to see bodies on an almost daily basis without ending up in perpetual fetal positions.

I was a bit surprised to find out that Mai Kuraki's（倉木麻衣）3rd single "Secret of my heart" was actually an ending theme for the long-running "Conan", although I shouldn't have been since Kuraki has provided a lot of the show's theme songs over the past couple of decades. According to the Wikipedia article for "Secret of my heart", the count is up to 21 including this one which probably means that Kuraki may rival (or even exceed) B'z's contributions to the "Conan" song file.

Released in April 2000 during my time in Japan, my surprise was due to the fact that I had always seen "Secret of my heart" only on the various rankings shows on television and there was never any connection made to "Conan". The single, which was written by Kuraki and composed by singer-songwriter Aika Ohno（大野愛果）, solidified that laidback and creamy sound that I've always associated with Kuraki.

From the J-Wiki article for the ballad, Kuraki had written the lyrics to relate her feelings about having to conceal her identity from at least some of her friends...or from a particularly close buddy. That led to my second surprise which is that apparently Kuraki may just be her stage name but not her real name. "Secret of my heart" became a million-seller and peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies, ending up as the 16th-ranked single for 2000. Furthermore, getting back to the "Conan" sphere, as of 2016, "Secret of my heart" is the best-selling single associated with the series.

The song also ended up on Kuraki's debut album "Delicious Way" released in June 2000 which later became the No. 1 album of the year, breaking the 3-million barrier.

Mai Kuraki -- Stay By My Side

Squeezing among all of the rebirth of the female aidoru via Hello Project, the glory days of SMAP and the other young turks at Johnny's Entertainment, and the big burst of J-R&B at the beginning of the 21st century was Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）. Well, I don't think it's fair to use the verb "squeeze" since it would hint that the lass was somehow struggling to keep her head above water at the time, and that certainly wasn't the case here. She carved a nice little niche for herself in terms of the charts and public attention as someone who was not an aidoru and not an R&B chanteuse but an up-and-coming singer with her own brand of gentle pop. Perhaps the reason that I had mistakenly assumed that she was a native or near-native speaker of English was that her delivery of her first few singles struck me as being so American...not along the lines of a Britney Spears but more along the lines of earlier teen popsters such as Debbie Gibson and Tiffany.

(short version)

Like her breakthrough single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow", her 2nd single, "Stay By My Side" was one of those songs whose video excerpt popped up all over the TV for months and yet, it was awfully hard to see her perform it on the telly through shows like "Music Station". But at the time, I found that a number of singers also refrained from TV appearances such as Misia and bird. Not that I complained too much since I could understand the desire to keep the mystery and freshness of a talented singer from getting overexposed.

In any case, "Stay By My Side" is a pleasant and gentle ballad written by Kuraki and composed by Aika Ohno（大野愛果）which came out in March 2000. Not only did it hit the top spot for 2 weeks on Oricon, it went Triple Platinum and became the 17th-ranked song of the year. And although it took a few years, Kuraki was finally invited onto the 2003 Kohaku Utagassen to perform it live from a temple in Kyoto. As for the setting in the music video, it was filmed at Oimachi Church in Tokyo.

Up to now, I never purchased a Mai Kuraki album or single but remembering some of the excerpts of songs that she has released over the past 16 or so years, I would be tempted in getting a BEST compilation. The only strike I might have against her is that I've perceived a certain sameness in her singles output at least. However, I hope that I can be proved wrong. Perhaps a Mai fan could give his or her opinion on this.

Mai Kuraki -- Love, Day After Tomorrow

Interesting thing about Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）. I had often seen her as the Greta Garbo of Japanese pop music along with the late Izumi Sakai（坂井泉水）of ZARD since neither of them showed up all that much on the music shows, and even though the songs and videos by Kuraki came out fairly frequently over the years, she struck me as a singer whose fame progressed somewhat quietly. Once in a while, an announcer on Fuji-TV might declare one of her new singles coming out but otherwise media attention didn't seem to be over the top when it came to her.

Perhaps the mystique surrounding Kuraki has all been just in my head but what added to it was the repeated showing of excerpts from the official video of her very first single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow" which was released back in December 1999. TBS' "Countdown TV" made it a habit to show Kuraki bopping about on that comfy sofa in monochrome for what seemed to be months on end. And I'd heard rumours to the effect that I assumed that she was either a very fluent speaker of English or she was a Japanese-American like Hikaru Utada（宇多田ヒカル）. Utada's star was very much in the ascendant at the time Kuraki got her start and Kuraki's vocal style resembled that of Utada which had me connecting a few dots....erroneously as it were. But as it turned out, Mai-chan was actually from a city which was just a few stations down my old Tozai Line, Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture. She was practically a neighbour! And all that talk about her connections with the United States was probably connected with the fact that she had actually made her US debut before her Japanese one under the name of Mai K. with the song "Baby I Like" around a couple of months before "Love, Day After Tomorrow". The song didn't make any waves Stateside so it was back to Japan.

In any case, the 2nd time was the charm. "Love, Day After Tomorrow"  debuted at No. 18 on Oricon before going all the way to No. 2, selling around 1.4 million copies. It would become the 4th-ranked single of 2000. Kuraki was the one behind the lyrics while Aika Ohno（大野愛果）took care of the melody. Ohno would compose music for many of Kuraki's songs and also for ZARD.

I realize that she's been around for 15 years but it's hard to believe that the lass is in her 30s now.