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.
Wow! All this time knowing the song "Akai Sweet Pea"(Red Sweet Pea) by Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and the above 1910 painting is the first time I get to see a real red sweet pea. This is by Edward H. Mitchell (1867–1932) and it's in the public domain according to Wikimedia Commons.
One other thing that I found out on the first episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）in 2026 last night was that "Akai Sweet Pea" is celebrating its 44th anniversary today since its release in 1982. Well, of course, I wrote up an article on one of Seiko-chan's evergreen hits all the way back in 2012 so I can't really repeat myself. However, I did look up the many cover versions of "Akai Sweet Pea" via J-Wiki and found this one.
It is indeed a very sweet version via the December 2020 album "VOICE ~ Seiyuu-tachi ga Utau Matsuda Seiko Song ~ Female Edition"（VOICE〜声優たちが歌う松田聖子ソング〜 Female Edition...Voice Actresses Sing the Songs of Seiko Matsuda）. As the title says, a whole bunch of the big guns in the anime voice actress industry came together to provide their own versions of Matsuda's music. Their take on "Akai Sweet Pea" is the 12th and final track on the album and it is an appropriately stately but adorable cover sung by all of the seiyuu involved in the project to wrap things up: Aki Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）, Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）, Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）, Miku Ito（伊藤美来）and Momo Asakura（麻倉もも）. Probably not a dry eye in the house.
Anyways, all hail "Akai Sweet Pea"! All hail Seiko-chan!
Yes, I already have one article up today, but I still wanted to point out that we're in November now. Hard to believe that we're in the penultimate month. At least for the next couple of weeks, we'll be in that holding pattern between Halloween and all of the Xmas festivities, although department stores have already signified that the Holiday shopping season is once more upon us. Right by Lake Ontario, Toronto is getting its Christmas market up and ready by bringing in the traditional tall pine.
Speaking of the Yuletide, I found this one scene from the second season of "Komi-san wa, Komyu-sho desu."（古見さんは、コミュ症です。...Komi Can't Communicate） which has the gang getting together at Komi's house for a simultaneous celebration of Xmas and Komi's birthday. Yep, I've been catching up on that second season for the past several weeks. Since I've got about six past anime to go through during the week, "Komi-san" has been in the Monday slot. It's been fun as usual; despite all of the characters having their quirks, including psychotic Ren, just about everybody in that high school are decent sorts (even Ren can be nice...occasionally and just to Komi).
The opening credit sequence for the second season is as heartwarming as ever. One commenter has sagely posited that whereas the opening for Season 1 seemed to have been kindhearted if average guy Tadano's view of things with the accompaniment of Cider Girl's"Cinderella"（シンデレラ）, the sequence for Season 2 is through Komi's eyes as she slowly but assuredly gains those one hundred friends as promised at the beginning of the series.
Singer-seiyuu Miku Ito（伊藤美来）is behind the homier and poppier second season opening theme "Ao Hyaku Shoku" (Blue 100 Colours) whose melody and arrangement looks to match Komi's personality deep inside although she's still struggling at this point to make her point clear. Singer-songwriter Makoto Kawamoto（川本真琴）was responsible for the words and music with Maruko Hiyoshi（日吉円子）also helping out on the lyrics. It was a surprise seeing Kawamoto's name in there since I had always envisioned her as that rapid-fire vocalist behind the guitar all the way back in the 1990s with her big hit "1/2", but then I realized after the fact that Ito does race through a couple of the verses just like her songwriter did.
"Ao Hyaku Shoku" is Ito's 10th single from April 2022 which hit No. 12 on Oricon. Also, this is her first entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" but I have seen her name bandied about in various anime, a few of which I have seen over the years. One is the notorious "Mangaka-san to Ashisutanto-san to"（マンガ家さんとアシスタントさんと...The Manga Artist and His Assistants） from 2014 where she played impish younger sister Sahono Ashisu.
Getting back to the more wholesome "Komi-san", I guess that I can put in that Komi-san category in Labels, so you can also take a look at the first season ending theme "Hikare Inochi"（ヒカルイノチ）by Kitri.
