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 Miyuki Kajitani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miyuki Kajitani. Show all posts
So far, singer-songwriter Miyuki Kajitani（梶谷美由紀）has been represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for her contribution to the "Sailor Moon" franchise with the happy-go-lucky ""Rashiku" Ikimasho"（”らしく” いきましょ）ending theme. And on her J-Wiki page, it's been said that she's been mostly known for her anison.
However, Kajitani did release her 5th single in November 1996, "Kiss The Sunlight", which apparently didn't have any anime connections (although it was used as the ending theme for a weekly animal documentary program on TBS). It's also quite the peppy bossa-pop number that starts with a rollicking keyboard sequence that I quite like. For a while, I thought maybe it could also qualify as a Shibuya-kei piece but ultimately I went with Latin and Pop. Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and Kajitani were the lyricists here while Hirofumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）took care of the amiable melody.
Didn't quite believe that I hadn't ever put up such an Author's Pick before. I've probably got some sort of Favourite Anison list out there but just haven't come across it in some time. However, such as it is, I did want to get a list up there showing how some of these anime themes can get under my skin to have me bust a move...or a hip because they are so funky and catchy.
Earlier today, I went to Fan Expo, the annual sci-fi/anime/pop culture convention that comes to Toronto every August. It was my 2nd time going there since coming home from Japan. I had a good time there....I was able to see a lot of the folks decked out in all sorts of costumes and I got to get my picture taken with Mr. Sulu (known as Mr. Kato in the Japanese dub) from the original "Star Trek"....George Takei himself. We even had our brief 20-second conversation totally in Japanese.
But the entry here doesn't concern Takei-san, but on another mainstay of ComiCons. As I've always said, it isn't a pop culture convention unless a Sailor Moon is walking somewhere in the hallways. And sure enough, I did come across a few of the sailor-suited dumpling heads in the Metro Convention Centre.
I'll have to make a confession here. Thanks to my anime buddy, I did enjoy watching the "Sailor Moon" series when it came out in the 90s, not especially because of the fact that the Sailor Soldiers defeated evil in the name of the moon, but because of the "I Love Lucy" humour that was liberally sprinkled in many of the episodes. Of course, Usagi-chan was the Lucille Ball of anime at the time, right down to the frequent bawling.
However, it wasn't just the zaniness. Along with the famous theme, "Moonlight Densetsu"（ムーンライト伝説）, there were also a few other catchy themes over the years that it was on. One of them was "'Rashiku' Ikimasho"(Let's Do It In That Sort Of Way) by singer Miyuki Kajitani（梶谷美由紀）, or as she was known for this song, Meu. The Shimane Prefecture-born singer released only 9 singles in the 90s with her contribution to "Sailor Moon" being her 3rd single in July 1995. It was used as the ending theme for the 4th season of the series, titled as "Sailor Moon SuperS".
"'Rashiku' Ikimasho" evolved into my earworm that year because of that little bit of house and R&B arrangement, and Kajitani's cute little delivery. Plus I'm also a sucker for a nice horn section. Composed by Masao Mizuno（水野雅夫） and with words by the creator of the original manga, Naoko Takeuchi（竹内直子）, herself, the song peaked at No. 71 on Oricon.
I heard there may be a reboot of the series in the near future. I just hope that the Lucy humour and the catchy themes will be part of the package.
