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.
Showing posts with label Minoru Komorita. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minoru Komorita. Show all posts
Well, the Winter Solstice arrived at around 10 am here yesterday morning, so we had the shortest day of the year. The good news of course is that now the days are going to get progressively longer until June. Even better is that Christmas is now in the homestretch. I've basically completed this year's Xmas shopping. Just a couple of more items and I'll be done.
80s aidoru Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）was pretty ambitious when she put out an album which was not only her first one with a Christmas theme but also one that was a concept creation. Titled "Snowflakes", it was released in December 1988 and each track covered the following things: dreams, hope, tears, sadness, joy, loneliness and love. Mind you, there are eight tracks so a couple of them shared one of those concepts.
I'm pretty confident in my guess that the penultimate track on "Snowflakes" takes care of the "joy" theme. "Lift no Shita de Aimashou"(Let's Meet Under the Lift) was written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）and arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光男）and neatly covers the two things that occupy a lot of young Japanese minds during this special time of year: Christmas and skiing. There's probably nothing better than enjoying the Holidays while shushing down the slopes at resorts such as Naeba. And yup, this song is just perfect for Nanno's effervescently skippy vocal stylings. The album itself reached No. 2 on Oricon.
And here I thought that Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）got all her Xmas feelings out when she released her 1987 "Snow Garden". Well, apparently not.
At the very least, she did have one more Christmas song in the form of "Futari dake no Christmas" (A Christmas Just For Two) which was a track on her December 1989 album"Precious Moment". Seiko-chan herself came up with the lyrics (as she did for all of the tracks) with Minoru Komorita（小森田実） as the composer and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）as the arranger. Speaking about arrangement, "Futari dake no Christmas" has this solemn and hushed atmosphere but also seems to possess a child-like wonder about the Holidays as if a couple were getting married in an ancient church on Christmas Eve. As for "Precious Moment", it scored a No. 6 ranking on Oricon.
I have to say that although I've loved Miho Morikawa's（森川美穂）City Pop and pop/rock numbers in the last few years of the 1980s going into the 1990s, I've also been impressed by her early years as an aidoru in the mid-1980s. Not sure if it's a cosmetics things, but she even looks different when comparing those two times.
Case in point: one of the tracks on her July 1986 debut album"Takan Sedai"（多感世代...The Sentimental/Impressionable Generation） is "Left Alone". Written by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, it's quite the refined and sweeping song with the relatively galloping synths and percussion. But the urgency there is given some lightness thanks to those strings and Morikawa's bright vocals. It's interesting to hear her sing while she was focusing on those higher registers back then.
Well, welcome to December! Unlike this time last month, we in Toronto are finally getting seasonal weather in the form of cold temperatures and a lot of snow up north. The big city hasn't seen a flake yet but I'm sure that will change in the next few weeks. Maybe we will get a White Christmas this year.
To continue with the Christmas season here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've got another seasonal tune by singer-songwriter Minoru Komorita（小森田実）. "Rinjin wa Santa Claus"(My Neighbour is Santa Claus) is a track from his third original album "Panorama" released in August 1991. This one is a techno jazzy boogie about someone making a huge discovery in his neck of the woods but it's not quite as bizarre as a similarly arranged tune that he put out years later titled "Bunny, Bunny". However, it's the same songwriting duo of composer Komorita and lyricist Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）. I also hear hints of New Jack Swing in the rhythm although I could be wrong, but in any case, it's a fresh new take for me on the usual J-Xmas fare.
To start off this Friday's Urban Contemporary regimen of songs on KKP, there was Yutaka Ishio's（石尾豊）"Onna ni Juku shite Kaettekina"（オンナに熟して帰ってきな）with its swinging champagne-and-caviar City Pop arrangement.
We've got another one along the same lines with Miho Morikawa's（森川美穂）"Standard" from her 4th original album"1/2 Contrast" released in June 1988. It's got a kinder if plainer title but it also possesses that smash-bang live-it-up and paint-the-town-red vibe with plenty of horns to lead listeners into the bright lights of Ginza (as pictured above) or Akasaka. Written by Junko Sato（佐藤純子）and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, "Standard" shares track space with the first song on the album "Splash Blue". Just imagine heading down into downtown Tokyo by car while this is playing on the stereo.
Easter is coming along the way so I figured that it was time for a rabbit song once more. So we've got Kayo Grace cuddling the bunnies.
Perhaps I can give the moral of the story right from the beginning: be careful of what you ask for. Back in early February, I noted that singer-songwriter Minoru Komorita（小森田実）was finally getting his own byline on a KKP article after just getting his deserved songwriting bona fides in Labels all these years, and then a few weeks ago, he popped up again as the lead singer for the 80s band Alpha. And today, he's back here again with his own third byline...you might say that he's multiplying like bunnies.
Strangely enough, that is the title of a perky little tune that he composed: "Bunny, Bunny" (2020) under a slightly altered form of his name...Minoru Comorita. The lyrics were written by Hiroshi Yamada who may just be the same fellow who had come up with the words for Mineko Nishikawa's（西川峰子）February 1977"Guitar Nagashite Konbanwa"（ギター流して今晩わ）, a song that I featured on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" last night. Mind you, the name is a common one in Japan and I could only find the romaji form of the name under the YouTube video so he could also be a totally different Hiroshi Yamada.
Anyways, the music is a happy-go-lucky techno funk-boogie tune as Comorita sings seemingly in the style of Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）. I have to admit though that I never thought that I would ever hear a nihilistic party tune with rabbits as the theme animal; the guy whose parents have left his mortal coil is now nonchalantly and hedonistically heading into the abyss...and singing the praises of Tokyo as well, so I gather that "Bunny, Bunny" can also be considered as a go-touchi song. Especially with that music video, I can say that all involved in the production could have sipped a bit of that absinthe of malice.
Looks like Kayo Grace Kyoku is enjoying her time tripping the light fantastic under the moon. Hopefully, it won't be too long before the climate stabilizes somewhat in both Japan and Canada and all of us can enjoy some nice weather for spring.
Well, this is quite the discovery. I've known about The Alpha for a few years now as a band into its cool rock and New Wave going into the late 1980s, and then there is singer-songwriter Minoru Komorita（小森田実） who's been showing up on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" all these years in his songwriting capacity but not so much as an actual singer until last month when I posted up his 1989 solo debut single"Natsu dake no Diana"（夏だけの女神）. I also discovered that Komorita had been once part of the band in the early 1980s.
Back in that first half of the decade, the band was officially known as Minoru Komorita & Alpha. I guess that back then, the band was into lighter pop fare after listening to their December 1983 second single "Moon Light Dance". Certainly, the single's cover hints that the band did love to goof around. Written and composed by Komorita himself, "Moon Light Dance" is a nimble-footed and bouncy urban synthpop tune, and I have to confess that the singer sounds a bit like the late KAN.
I referred to him just in my previous article, Yaya's（やや）"Onna Myouri"（女冥利）and up to now, Minoru Komorita（小森田実）has been popping up in KKP as a songwriter. However, he's also been a singer and was once a part of the band The Alpha until 1984.
So, although he's been a part of the Labels since 2014, Komorita is finally get his first byline on the blog with his June 1989 debut single"Natsu dake no Diana" (Diana [Goddess] for Summers Only). A spritely and, yes indeed, a very summery song, the lyrics were by Anju Mana（真名杏樹）with the melody/arrangement handled by Komorita and Seiichi Kyoda（京田誠一）. As the Japanese title and its furigana will state, the protagonist does hold his Diana on a pillar for goddesses only...or maybe he's really paying tribute to the actual Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals.
"Natsu dake no Diana" also pops up as the first track on Komorita's first album"Squall" which came out on the same day as the single. He's released six singles up to the early 1990s along with four albums. A "Golden Best" compilation of his was put onto the shelves in May 2006. He really put up a dog-and-pony show on his website.
The last time I wrote about Yaya（やや）, aka Yaeko Kojima（小島八重子）, was last August when I posted an article on what was arguably her most well known song "Yogiri no House Mannequin"（夜霧のハウスマヌカン）from 1986. It had the feeling of a Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）Mood Kayo with some of that boisterousness of a Checkers' tune.
Well, a couple of years later, Yaya came out with another single, "Onna Myouri" (The Joy of Being a Woman). Written by Yoshiko Oga（雄鹿美子）and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, this one is quite different in arrangement. Just my opinion, but the song strikes me as one of the latest examples of exotic kayo or Fashion Music that I've ever come across. Usually for either of those two types of music, I have to go back a decade prior or around the early 1980s, not really 1988.
There is something rather refined and kayo about "Onna Myouri", a song describing the complex feelings of a woman after another heartbreak. Through Oga's lyrics, I picked up on signs of defiance and resentment and rationalization of the situation. Maybe the setting is a sophisticated café somewhere in Aoyama but the roiling feelings inside prefer a plain nomiya in Yurakucho.
Well, I did have the above CD cover as the photo of the week in the upper-right corner for about a week so I figure that at least I should find out what the song is all about. I've not covered aidoru Rieko Miura（三浦理恵子）before now.
The tune is associated as an image song with an interesting anime created by Italian production companies and broadcast on NHK from 1994 to 1995. Titled "Montana Jones"（モンタナ・ジョーンズ）, it was about anthromorphized cats with an adventurous streak, and yes, the show was inspired by a famous Hollywood hero-adventurer.
Not sure how Miura's "Rakuen no Tricot" fit in as an image song for "Montana Jones". Perhaps it was placed as a track in the soundtrack or a character song album. However, the aidoru's 8th single from August 1994 is a cheerful and bubbly tune with some cool horns to add some urban jazziness to the proceedings. Written by Hirofumi Nagatomo（長友博文）and Neko Oikawa（及川ネコ）with Minoru Komorita（小森田実）and Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）handling composition and arrangement duties respectively, though I wouldn't quite place it as a 90s City Pop song, there is something of the caviar and champagne in there. Incidentally, I had to dig a tad to find out what a tricot was...apparently, it's some sort of knitted fabric so I gather that "Rakuen no Tricot" can be translated as "Paradise Fabric". It peaked at No. 38 on Oricon.
Miura went on a solo aidoru career once her group CoCo called it quits in 1994. However, I recall seeing her more on television as a tarento, although she would continue releasing albums and singles on her own until 1997.
Well, it looks like we have our third Tomoyo to join Tomoyo Harada（原田知世）and Tomoyo Kurosawa（黒沢ともよ）on the blog. The new kid on the block, so to speak, is Tomoyo Yoshida（吉田朋代）who is a singer-songwriter from Iwate Prefecture. One other observation is that she looks like she could be a sister to Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）.
Debuting in the mid-1990s, she came out with her 7th single in May 1996, "Uso da to Itte"（嘘だと言って...Tell Me It's a Lie） but I wanted to use this space to highlight the single's coupling song "Ai made Todokanai" (Doesn't Get to the Level of Love). It's a nice slice of 90s City Pop or maybe it can be treated as some nicely dynamic pop. There's something about the synthesizer work that screams urban contemporary, though. Written by Yoshida and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, it's a pretty upbeat song about heartbreak.
Beginning her career in music during her teens, Yoshida has been a radio personality and a singer in commercials. Up to 1998, she released 10 singles and 2 original albums. In 1997, she passed an audition to get into Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）project "VOCALAND 2", and in 2001, she joined up with veteran composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and musician Cheep Hiroishi（チープ広石）to form the band Grunion, according to her J-Wiki profile.
In the annals of my Japanese television viewing history, one show that has popped up in my memories is the NTV Sunday evening"Tensai ~ Takeshi no Genki ga Deru Terebi!!"（天才・たけしの元気が出るテレビ!!...Genius ~ Takeshi's Cheerful Television!!）which was hosted by the one-and-only Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）. It was a wild-and-crazy variety show that may have begat at least some of those terrifying and hilarious (?) scenes of comedians getting pummeled in obstacle courses that managed to get over to this side of the Pacific. My impression is that comedians could get their fifteen minutes of fame on "Takeshi", but they really paid through the nose and perhaps other orifices for it.
There were a couple of mainstays on the show, and they were regular tarento all throughout the TV spectrum way back when. Junji Takada（高田純次）, whom you can see above, may have looked like the most attentive department store salesman but he was absolutely zany and perverted. On the other hand, Yuki Hyudo（兵藤ゆき）struck me as being an amiable post-punk New Wave type.
Well, the show had a few theme songs during its 1985-1996 run on NTV, and one of them was "Chance! Kokoro Tokimeite"(Chance! My Heart's A-Flutter) featuring Takada and Hyudo in a duet. Released in March 1988, it's quite the fast-paced galloping tune that was written by Hyudo herself and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）. The two tarento actually do a pretty good job behind the mike; I'd say that they were better than the average amateur in a karaoke bar.
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.
Happy Saturday! Not too bad out there, weather-wise. It may be chilly but the sun is out and the room doesn't feel all that stuffy.
We're starting off with another singer-songwriter that I hadn't heard about but it's someone whose voice I do like. Emi Shirasaya（白鞘慧海）was born in Hiroshima Prefecture but raised in Ehime Prefecture. She began her music career while attending Waseda University in Tokyo, and she debuted under the stage name of Chiemi（千恵美）in 1995 with four singles and one album up to early 1997. But making a switch to another record company, she returned to her original name albeit written in hiragana（しらさやえみ）.
Then in July 1997, she released two singles on the same day, one of which was "Kimi no Soba ni" (By Your Side), a heart-on-your-sleeve love ballad with that touch of old-fashioned class in there. Not only that, but "Kimi no Soba ni" has some major veterans helping out such as Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）on the melody with Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）arranging everything as if the song had been made for an old Hollywood movie soundtrack. The lyricist is written down as MACO but touching the link for this person beside the title on Shirasaya's J-Wiki article took me to one Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）!
I also love Shirasaya's resonant vocals on "Kimi no Soba ni" as well as on the coupling song "Mayonaka no Pride"(Midnight Pride). This time with the singer handling the lyrics and Minoru Komorita（小森田実）providing the music and the arrangement, this is some fine light soul which was used as an ending theme for the 1994-2004 NHK-BS program "Mayonaka no Oukoku"（真夜中の王国...Midnight Kingdom） aimed at the young folks, probably in their late teens and twenties considering the lateness of the broadcast starting from at least 11:15 pm.
Shirasaya went over for several months in 2001 to New York City to perform in various venues after which she started her own label and self-produced a new album in 2002. She then converted to Christianity, working as a staffer at a church before becoming a pastor. In 2014, she restarted her music career and is also currently a gospel singer and a voice trainer.
Last Saturday, there was a special on NHK via TV Japan called "Live Yell" which I'd assumed was yet another retrospective on that popular morning serial "Yell" which had aired for a good chunk of last year on the national broadcaster. I kinda rolled my eyes since though I knew how much folks loved the program but I felt that it was time to let it go and move on.
But actually I was mistaken. "Live Yell" is the second annual music-based special that was first aired last year as a means to cheer up the nation during this pandemic. Basically it's the summer version of the New Year's Eve Kohaku Utagassen which itself had been established decades ago to also lift people's spirits up during the first uncertain years of Japan's recovery from World War II. Even the hosts, comedian Teruyoshi Uchimura（内村光良）and NHK announcer Maho Kuwako（桑子真帆）, were straight from the Kohaku. This year's edition may have been even more needed perhaps since it isn't just about COVID, as really bad as it is now, but also about the torrential rains and floods that have been damaging parts of Japan.
The first up to bat was the marvelous Misia who had not only performed Japan's national anthem at the Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics a few weeks ago but also what I gather was the welcoming song for everyone in the stadium. Misia indeed performed that latter song, "Welcome One", which is her 50th single released in April this year.
"Welcome One" isn't Misia's first Olympic-related contribution. Back in 2002, she provided NHK's official theme song for its coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the epic power ballad "Hatenaku Tsuzuku Story"（果てなく続くストーリー）. With "Welcome One", though, it is more of her earlier disco music mixed with some Disney cheer.
Written by Misia & Kelli Smith and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）& Liantian, "Welcome One" doesn't have quite the affecting impact for me as "Hatenaku Tsuzuku Story" did, but it's still a fun and positive Misia number that would have been very welcoming for the tourists and athletes alike if they'd been able to tour through the megalopolis of Tokyo. I'm hoping that they will come back soon enough. One last point of trivia is that "Welcome One" hadn't started out as the Olympic welcome song; it was actually the campaign tune for the Japan Racing Association.
I knew that Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）started out as a mid-1980saidoru before going into power pop although I'm not sure when the turning point was.
However, I'm pretty certain that the transition was complete by the launch of her 4th original album"1/2 Contrast" in June 1988. I've been listening to some of the album and it seems as if Morikawa partly opted for a party atmosphere in the tropics as a theme...kinda along the same lines of Akemi Ishii（石井明美）. Not a bad way to begin the purely pop phase.
The first track is "Splash Blue" and it sounds like Morikawa was enjoying a major cruise on the Love Boat. With a happily danceable (secretly anyways) Latin-tinged arrangement by Shingo Kobayashi（小林信吾）for Minoru Komorita's（小森田実）melody and Keiko Aso's（麻生圭子）lyrics, this is about as active a Resort Pop as I've ever heard, and Morikawa's vocals here are the ones that I was introduced to when I first heard the singer on her "Blue Water" in 1990. As for "1/2 Contrast", it peaked at No. 17 on Oricon.
Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）isn't a singer that I have covered a lot but my impression had always been based on her "Blue Water", the theme for the NHK anime "Fushigi Umi no Nadia"（ふしぎの海のナディア）, and I think for that article, I compared her to power pop specialists such as Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）.
Little did I know that half a decade earlier, Morikawa had debuted as a typically high-voiced aidoru of the mid-1980s. But that was indeed the case with her first single"Kyoshitsu" (The Classroom) released in July 1985. Certainly from that music video above, I would never have recognized this lass as Morikawa of 1990 who looked more like a happy-go-lucky rock singer with long wavy tresses according to one album that I have of hers.
"Kyoshitsu", which was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, is one of those bittersweet tunes of parting-is-sweet-sorrow themes, as a high school girl, who for some mysterious reason can no longer attend the same school as the target of her affections, makes one final trip to his desk to plant a kiss there before leaving forever. Ah, seishun! It's a short-but-sweet number that probably didn't make Morikawa an overnight sensation but it didn't too badly on Oricon, placing in at No. 38.
I have a tradition whenever the 9th month of the year arrives, and that is to listen to both versions of "September", the early single by Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and the epic joyful R&B anthem by Earth Wind & Fire. "September" by EW&F was released in 1978 but it seems like a song that I've been hearing ever since my early childhood. Moreover, it's been the one song that could get me dancing each time in my chair at home, and as far as I'm concerned, it will be the only song that will get me onto the dance floor even at my current age (as horrifying as that image might be to many).
Then one day, not too long ago, I came across this video:
To say that I was smitten and delighted would be an understatement. This was a minute of concentrated anime joy!
What I would later discover that the original song was "Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara"(When the Rune Sparkles), one of the ending themes for the 2016anime "Macross Delta"（マクロスΔ）which just has to have been inspired by "September".
A dang catchy song in itself, "Rune" was performed by the aidoru group in the show, Walküre（ワルキューレ）, with Freyja Wion as played by seiyuuMinori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）as the lead vocal, and then the rest of the band helping out through fellow voice actors JUNNA, Nao Toyama（東山奈央）, Kiyono Yasuno（安野希世乃）and Nozomi Nishida（西田望見）. The above is the full version covered by Nyadus on YouTube, but man, she really does sound like Suzuki! You know, this could be the type of feel-good song that could even be covered by Little Glee Monster.Naoki Nishi（西直紀）wrote the lyrics while Minoru Komorita（コモリタミノル）took care of the music.
"Rune" was one song on the Walküre single "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） released in May 2016. It made it to No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 94th-ranked single of the year. That first song was also the first of the two opening themes for "Macross Delta". Both songs were also included on "Walküre Attack!", the group's debut album released in July that year which made it to No. 2 on the album charts and later became the 34th-ranked album.
Of course, with YouTube, the ever-popular "September" and the similarly groovy beat throughout "Rune", it was inevitable that an epic mashup just had to be done, so thanks to folks like Emdyion, there is "When the Rune Sparkles in September". Dance away!
But Emdyion wasn't finished. The YouTuber even came up with an amazing inverted version of the song, this time with the late, great Maurice White taking over on vocals.
I learned a lot here. I will no longer admire Minori Suzuki for just "FEELING AROUND" and I have a new song to love from the "Macross" franchise.
Back on Thursday night, I wrote an article about Bread & Butter's relaxing song "Summer Blue" as I was commenting on the fine summer weather for getting together with a few buds for some brewskis at the outdoor section of the bar. Well, I didn't exactly do that today but I did enjoy catching the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's franchise "Ant-Man" today with a good friend, sipped some Iced Chocolates at the nearby café before his wife arrived from work so that all of us could have a delicious Italian dinner.
Strangely enough, I came across another "Summer Blue". This was sung by late 80saidoru Sayuri Kokusho（国生さゆり）for her 1988 4th album, "Summer Snow", and instead of the laid-back vibe enjoyed by a couple of older folk for B&B's"Summer Blue", Kokusho's namesake song has that young spirited feeling of running along the beach. After listening to it a couple of times, I think it's a notch up on the usual aidoru song with the Latin-tinged synths sounding like something that I would have associated with an early Miki Imai（今井美樹）contribution. Kokusho's high-pitched vocals kept it in the aidoru arena for me. Kudos to writer Yuriko Mori（森由里子）and composer Minoru Komorita（小森田実）.
For lunch today, I got to meet a couple of my foodie buddies downtown for lunch. We wanted to try the latest example of Japanese cuisine to grace this side of Lake Ontario, gyudon（牛丼）, through the restaurant GyuGyuYa. My anime buddy had been raving about this place for months and we finally got the chance to hit the place. And although it was considerably more expensive than the famous example at Yoshinoya back in Japan, I was quite happy with my beef bowl. The thin slices of fatty beef were of the right consistency, the sauce was flavourful without being overpowering, the onions were tender and the beni-shoga added that nice sharp accent.
It's always nice to get together with good friends over good food at this time of year. The weather gets colder (today's high was all of -4 degrees C) which further incentivizes the bunch of us to gather and enjoy lunch or dinner in a warm environment. People seem to get mellower as the winter approaches. And so I introduce my article for today, SMAP's 32nd single from August 2000, "Lionheart". Keeping with my food theme, this ballad was not only just as mellow as some non-shopping wintry Torontonians armed with a cafe latte, but it was also used as a theme for a Japanese comedy-drama with a food theme.
"Food Fight" was an NTV show from 2000 that featured SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi（草彅 剛）as Mitsuru Ihara (for those who know their Japanese, a rather cute little pun considering the point of the show), a legendary food fighter with a black hole for a stomach that enters eating competitions.
I heard "Lionheart" a fair bit over the months following its release, and it was pretty interesting to have it as the theme song for "Food Fight" since it sounds like the perfect song to listen to after a very absorbing dinner. You might say it's music to digest to. As for me, it would be the ideal theme to describe my 2nd paragraph.
Written by the screenwriter Shinji Nojima（野島伸司...although he wasn't responsible for "Food Fight"）, and composed by Minoru Komorita（コモリタミノル）, the lyrics have nothing to do with food at all and everything to do with a man with that proverbial heart of a lion vowing to protect his lady love. Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）had the lion's share of balladeering here, and apparently since he got married to former aidoru Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）right after this song's release, people have gotten it into their heads that that this was KimuTaku's musical proposal to Shizuka-chan. It has become one of those wedding-friendly ballads in any event.
Not surprisingly, it did hit No. 1 on Oricon and was SMAP's 2nd million-seller following its 1998 big hit "Yozora no Mukou"（夜空ノムコウ）. Takuya and the boys also made it onto the Kohaku for the 10th time to perform the ballad that year and it became the 6th-ranked song for 2000.
And maybe that is what a bowl of gyudon is all about. It's a Japanese form of soul food.
