SEAMO feat. May'n -- Hadaka de Dotsukiai（裸でどつきあい）

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Well, I gather that it's perfect timing that on the annual Ocean Day holiday in Japan, I'm taking care of the ending theme of a popular anime that...nominally...has something to do with diving. Of course, I'm talking about "Grand Blue"（ぐらんぶる）which happily started its second season in the last few weeks.

Yep, I did catch Episode 2 last week which introduced Iori's scheming little sister, Shiori, and in that one episode, I got the impression of what the entire season might look like: lots of the usual deranged humour from Season 1 but with the addition of some more heartwarming moments.

A week ago, I featured the let's-hit-the-beach-running opening theme "Seishun Towa"（青春永遠）with the duet of Shonan no Kaze（湘南乃風）and Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. The ending theme is just as dynamic with another duet and it involves a couple of artists that I haven't featured here on the blog for about a decade. Rapper SEAMO was someone that I posted about in 2014 for his epic "Drive" twenty years ago and May'n was up here in 2016 for her contribution to the anime "Shuumatsu no Izetta"（終末のイゼッタ...Izetta The Last Witch）.

Well, they're here together to provide "Hadaka de Dotsukiai" (Naked Fellowship). Created by Naoki "SEAMO" Takada（高田尚輝）and Giz'Mo, and true to his "Drive", it's a mile-a-minute Latin rap extravaganza that describes the Peek-a-Boo philosophy of having fun: copious amounts of drinking and the opposite amount of clothing. Overall, the song reminds me some of the stuff that Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）was singing a few decades back.

Walküre -- Ikenai Borderline（いけないボーダーライン）

 

This is a slightly irregular approach for this particular tune but if you can bear with me. I was doing a bit of adjusting last night on an old 2015 article featuring "Futari no Kimochi no Honto no Himitsu" （ふたりのきもちのほんとのひみつ）, the ending theme for the nutty anime "Kill Me Baby", and as I was doing so, I noticed at the right side of YouTube that there was another song from another anime, and something told me that I should give it a shot. Instinct has led me to many a great tune in the past on the blog, so I did as I was inspired.

Instinct...I owe you a Big Mac set! I heard "Ikenai Borderline" (The Borderline You Don't Cross) and was automatically smitten by the really bouncy ska beat and the feeling that this could have been the theme song for a really action-packed anime.

Well, I wasn't too far off the mark. This was actually Track 3 on the debut single for the fictional aidoru group, Walküre（ワルキューレ）, on the 2016 anime "Macross Delta"（マクロスΔ）. And sure enough, that single was "Ichido dake no Koi nara/Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara"（一度だけの恋なら/ルンがピカッと光ったら...If It's a One-Time Love/When the Rune Sparkles） whose second song was one that I covered back in 2019. "Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara" was also one banger of a tune whose spiritual ancestor happens to be one of my favourite songs of all time, "September" by Earth Wind & Fire.

As was the case with that song, "Ikenai Borderline" was also created by lyricist Naoki Nishi（西直紀）and composer Minoru Komorita（コモリタミノル）. This time, it's actress JUNNA as Mikumo on lead vocals with the rest of Walküre on backing vocals.

This video only came up in the last 48 hours or so and that is because the album only came out in the last 24. Yup, on April 6th, "Macross Yonjuu Shuunen Kinen Korabo Album Deculture!! Mixture!!!!!"（マクロス40周年記念コラボアルバム デカルチャー!! ミクスチャー!!!!!...Macross 40th Anniversary Collaborative Album） was released, and a cover of "Ikenai Borderline" is included as sung by seiyuu May'n and Megumi Nakajima（中島愛）as their characters Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee respectively.

May'n -- Hikari Aru Basho e （光ある場所へ）

Had some extra stress added to my life today with the sudden emergency request for translations by the end of the month and then the final arrangements before some needed work inside the home gets done tomorrow. I need a few hours to relax before I hit the hay.

For this season, another anime that we've been watching has been "Shuumatsu no Izetta"（終末のイゼッタ...Izetta The Last Witch）which started out as something akin to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with plenty of derring-do escapes starring a princess of a besieged European country who has as much spunk as another princess long ago in a galaxy far far away. There's also that feeling of a Studio Ghibli production as well...not surprising considering that the princess has a secret weapon/best friend in the form of a witch. However over the past number of weeks, the World War II setting and the interplay among the various characters including Princess Fine and Izetta The Last Witch have given me the impression that the plot is heading down through some very dark territory. Perhaps the best I might hope for by the end of its 12 or 13 episodes is a very bittersweet epilogue.

What keeps that impression within me is the ending theme "Hikari Aru Basho e" (To A Place With Light) that starts out with some dramatic and all-together not particularly happy piano. However it is arranged beautifully as the darkness turns into hope through Kazao Fujisawa's（藤澤風緒）melody; I can hear that light peeking through the middle part of the song before that piano crashes again on that last note. Man, I hope it isn't trying to warn me about how the story is going to unfold in the last half of the series.

May'n is the songbird behind "Hikari Aru Basho e" with Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）providing the evocative lyrics of trying to persuade the listener that there is no light without the dark. The singer's voice reminds me a little of Ayumi Hamasaki's（浜崎あゆみ）delivery as she tenderly navigates through the sensitive topic of having to get hurt to get stronger and that all the prayers in the world won't help you unless you take the difficult steps yourself. Tough love, folks.

"Hikari Aru Basho e" is May'n's 14th single since her debut under her stage name in May 2009 (she did release 3 earlier singles under her real name of Mei Nakabayashi（中林芽依）back in 2005 and 2006). There are no reports on how it has been doing since it literally got released a couple of days ago. Her biography can be found at Wikipedia while the translation of Iwasato's lyrics can be found at Lyrical Nonsense.