Sayonara Ponytail/Houkago Tea Time -- Tenshi ni Fureta yo!（天使にふれたよ！）

 

I have covered the female group Sayonara Ponytail（さよならポニーテール）a few times in the past, including their "Shin Sekai Koukyougaku"（新世界交響楽）which was one ending theme to the truly chaotic anime "Kill La Kill"（キルラキル）.

Just by happenstance, I stumbled across another song by this mystery group whose members have apparently never appeared live in concert or through any other visual media. They may not have even seen each other...at least as a full group. But anyways, there is much to like about their "Tenshi ni Fureta yo!" (We Met An Angel!) which was written by Emi Inaba（稲葉エミ）and composed by Susumu Kawaguchi（川口進）. It's got a nice groove but also has this wistfulness which comes with being reminded of those salad days in school. Plus, I like the illustrations accompanying the video which make it look like the disparate members of SayoPony actually hung out together all those years. The song was a bonus track on the group's three-disc album "Enban Utopia"（円盤ゆ～とぴあ...Disc Utopia） which was released in November 2015.

The crazy thing is that the SayoPony song is actually a cover of an insert song from the popular anime "K-ON". I'd always heard about this show from my anime buddy but never got to see it although it's gained quite the reputation over the years since it was first shown in 2009. I was surprised by the original version that was performed by the in-universe band Houkago Tea Time（放課後ティータイム...Afterschool Tea Time） with its different pop-rock flavour as performed by Aki Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）, Yoko Hikasa（日笠陽子）, Satomi Sato（佐藤聡美）and Minako Kotobuki（寿美菜子）, seiyuu that have become very familiar to me through other roles in other anime. "Tenshi ni Fureta yo!" was placed as a track on the October 2010 album "Houkago Tea Time Second"（放課後ティータイムII）.

Onyanko Club/Sphere -- Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai（夏休みは終わらない）

 

Ah, yes...the kids are out on summer vacation for the next several weeks. When we were little, we had the same attitude of fun and relaxation, too, and of course, we rued the arrival of Labour Day in September since beyond that was the beginning of another school semester. 

I didn't know about this particular song by the 1980s aidoru supergroup Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）titled "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai" (Endless Summer Vacation), but it's a pretty funky number by the gang. Written by Onyanko Club (and later AKB48) guru Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, composed by Ken Takahashi（高橋研）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai" was a track on the Club's 3rd original album, the Oricon No. 3-ranking "Panic The World" from July 1986. Just for the record, the four members fronting the song were Kazuko Utsumi（内海和子）, Ruriko Nagata（永田ルリ子）, Yukiko Iwai（岩井由紀子）and Marina Watanabe（渡辺満里奈）.

Actually, the first time I did hear of "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai" was from a cover insert song version done for the 2012 anime "Natsuiro Kiseki"（夏色キセキ...Summer-Coloured Miracle）. This was a mere YouTube discovery by chance; I never caught the show myself and I don't recall my anime buddy ever mentioning it. However, it did have seiyuu who are now veterans of the art: Aki Toyosaki（豊崎愛生）, Ayahi Takagaki（高垣彩陽）, Haruka Tomatsu（戸松遥）and Minako Kotobuki（寿美菜子）. I get the impression from the premise that "Natsuiro Kiseki" was a mix of magic, slice-of-life and "Stand By Me". The animation style has me thinking a PreCure series without the PreCure powers or situations.

Whether it was by lucky happenstance or not, the four main seiyuu also happen to be members of the pop group Sphere（スフィア）and so they apparently handled all of the main songs including "Natsu Yasumi wa Owaranai". This version seems to have more of the dance beats and synthesizers going on full thrusters, thanks to Masaya Yamaguchi's（山口雅也）arrangement. For some reason, the song reminds me somewhat of "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 "Kill Me Baby" which was another 2012 anime.