Izu no Kaze/Nana Mizuki -- Konpeki no al Fine（紺碧のアル・フィーネ）

 

It was exactly five years ago today that I posted Shonan no Kaze's（湘南乃風）"Grand Blue", the bro-tastic opening theme to the Summer 2018 anime of the same name. At the time I wrote up the article, I was just on the verge of watching Episode 1. Oh, how very poignant. Little did I know that I would have the most hilarious time over the next three months watching those lunkheads Iori and Kohei fighting and mucking about on the Izu Peninsula and occasionally go diving (but mostly going drinking). Just about every character on the show had some quirk about them which could be lit like the "oolong tea" into some of the funniest humour ever seen on anime.

I knew that "Grand Blue" was a star-studded affair in terms of the seiyuu cast but I finally realized that I'd already known the actors behind the Peek-a-Boo club leaders, Shinji "Tokki" Tokita and Ryujiro "Bukki" Kotobuki: Hiroki Yasumoto（安元洋貴）and Katsuyuki Konishi（小西克幸）respectively. Yasumoto was paired with fellow voice thespian Natsumi Hioka（日岡なつみ）to perform the wickedly contagious "Kumamiko Dancing" the ending theme of "Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear"（くまみこ）a few years earlier, and Konishi played the far milder Jougin Panda（常勤パンダ...Full-Time Panda） in the even earlier "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）a decade ago and he had his own musical contribution in the form of "ZOOtto, ne"（ZOOっと、ね♪）. So, they have their representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Now, to be frank, I liked the ending theme for "Grand Blue" a lot less than the celebratory opening theme, but I figure that after five years, maybe I can still mention it. "Konpeki no al Fine" (Azure al Fine) sounds like a pop/rock piece from a Johnny's Entertainment musical as performed by the two main characters, Iori (Yuuma Uchida/内田雄馬) and Kohei (Ryohei Kimura/木村良平), with karaoke support from Tokki and Bukki. Together, they were put together as Izu no Kaze（伊豆乃風）.

I hadn't been sure about what the title meant. First, I was wondering who Al Fine was but then putting the "name" through the search engine, I finally discovered that it's actually a musical term whose definition I'll let you see at "The Carolingian Realm". Perhaps "Konpeki no al Fine" is actually showing that score direction.

But Izu no Kaze's version was just the four dudes singing karaoke on behalf of the original singer, Kohei's oshi, aidoru/seiyuu/diving enthusiast Kaya Mizuki（水樹カヤ） as played by the one-and-only Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）just for the ending credits of the beloved Episode 11. She has apparently appeared in the manga though not in the anime...which begs the question: When will Season 2 ever come to pass? Ah, I should mention that Ryutaro Fujinaga（藤永龍太郎）and Ryota Suemasu（末益涼太） were behind words and music respectively; both are part of the composing group Elements Garden.

My Anisong Highlights of 2021

Been a while since I posted anything in here. In fact, I have dedicated most of this year to my master's thesis, which is coming to an end very soon. In the meantime, I managed to watch some anime series. My motivation for watching anime had been dormant for about a year until I rewatched Sailor Moon last year. I definitely don't pick up as many series as I did back in the day (I used to follow a lot of seasonal shows), but it's still as enjoyable.

I would like to talk about some songs that marked this year for me in terms of anime. They haven't necessarily come out this year, but they're from series I watched in 2021.

Masami Okui - Rondo-revolution (輪舞-revolution)

I have literally just found out the reading of the title was "rondo" and not "rinbu." Anyway, if I only had to pick only one song to describe this year for me, it would probably be this one. I could not get tired of hearing it in every single episode of Shoujo Kakumei Utena. This was a series I had been longing to watch and I finally got to it. It climbed to my favorites list and I ended up rewatching the movie one week after my first watch. Series like Sailor Moon and Mawaru Penguindrum have got me fascinated with the mind of Kunihiko Ikuhara so I really expected I would like it as much as I did. I was excited about the character of Utena but ended up captivated by Anthy's complexity as a character.

I also wondered how I had kept myself from listening to this song for so long. I actually also got more into 90's J-pop in general this year, and Rondo-revolution was right up my alley. The upbeat song and lyrics fit perfectly with the image of the anime series. Song and lyrics were authored by Masami Okui (奥井雅美), now a member of ani-singer supergroup JAM Project, and composed and arranged by her producer Toshiro Yabuki (矢吹俊郎).

Nana Mizuki - ETERNAL BLAZE

None of the videos for the original song would embed so here's Vtuber Subaru Oozora's cover as a placeholder. You can go on YouTube to listen to the original song. Sorry about that!

Another series I had been longing to watch for many years was Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. It was interesting to see how much the first season was similar to Madoka Magica as they share the same director. However, the second season of Nanoha was the true highlight for me. The story and universe were so well fleshed out that I enjoyed every single episode and had a blast watching the remake/recap movie.

The opening song ETERNAL BLAZE helps to build up that hype by boosting Nana Mizuki (水樹奈々)'s powerful vocals into a song which I believe conveys the feelings of the character she voices in the series, Fate Testarossa. It matches how ardent and at the same time heartwarming her feelings for Nanoha are, as her first and best friend (they are dubbed the "mothers" of yuri doujinshi works... do with that what you want). The song was also a landmark in anisong in general as it was the first single by a voice actress to reach number 2 in the Oricon charts. Mizuki herself wrote the lyrics while the great composition and arrangement are work of Noriyasu Agematsu (上松範康) from the Elements Garden team.

fhána - Ai no Supreme! (愛のシュプリ一ム!)

I actually had not finished a seasonal anime since 2018, the year I spent watching the amazing Hugtto! Precure. This year I decided to give it a shot again, one or two series at a time, and the first was Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon S. I had watched the first season back when it aired and I am a huge Kyoto Animation fan. I was taken back to that day when my favorite animation studio showed up in the news of my country - for the worst possible reason... It was weird and touching seeing some staff credited in Kobayashi's production knowing they had already passed away.

J-Canuck has already touched on this song on his own post so you may already know the new tune by fhána maintained the catchiness of the first opening theme. This time they gave even more attention to the choreography and posted some videos with the Chorogons, the unit composed by the voice actresses of the anime. I have known fhána ever since their debut single which was the ending theme for Uchouten Kazoku and I like their sound very much.

Liella! - Tokonatsu☆Sunshine (常夏☆サンシャイン)

Another series I watched every week was Love Live! Superstar. I have followed the Love Live! franchise for several years, starting from the mobile rhythm game and going through all the anime series. This year I watched the newest spin-offs, Nijigasaki and Superstar. Nijigasaki had a different feel from the other series (in a good way), but Superstar gave me that goofy and character-driven plot that I would expect from a Love Live! series. Within the fictional group Liella!, I fell in love with the Chinese-Japanese character Kéké Tang. As expected, a second season was already announced and I am very excited for it.

This song in particular, Tokonatsu☆Sunshine, was one that particularly caught my attention for its tropical and groovy vibe with plenty of horns. It instantly reminded me of the Mermaid festa series of songs released back in the day by the original Love Live cast. It was composed and arranged by EFFY with lyrics by Junko Miyajima (宮嶋淳子), two artists with plenty of anisong titles, particularly of the idol genre.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into anisong old and new that marked the year of 2021 for me. I have pretty much given up on scoring shows or having a backlog list so I will continue to go with the flow and watch whatever I feel like in the next year, hoping for more great music releases.

Nana Mizuki -- DISCOTHEQUE

Once the all-clear is given regarding the worst medical crisis in recent human history, I'm betting that a good cross-section of folks will be more than happy to cut up a rug or a thousand in the dance clubs. All that pent-up tension has got to go somewhere in celebration, so let's hope that it's sooner rather than later.

In the meantime as far as this blog is concerned, we can always look for some J-Disco. Found this one purely by accident under YouTube recommendations. At first, when I saw Nana Mizuki's（水樹奈々） "DISCOTHEQUE", I had assumed that this was one of her latest singles, but actually, it's a track from one of her earlier singles all the way back in October 2008, "Trickster". I swear, the lass doesn't age!

The music video for "DISCOTHEQUE" is fun enough but then I discovered that the song was also the second opening theme for an anime called "Rosario to Vampire"（ロザリオとバンパイア...Rosario+Vampire）, another fish-out-of-water comedy series involving a human boy having to attend a high school academy for monsters. And the title vampire is actually played by Mizuki herself. I do recall a similarly-sounding series that has just wrapped up.

Lyrics were written by Ryoji Sonoda（園田凌士）and music was composed by Noriyasu Agematsu（上松範康）. As for "Trickster", it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and went Gold. It also managed to finish the year as the 100th-ranked single. Apparently, disco never died...it just went to Japan and set up shop in Akihabara.

Nana Mizuki & Inori Minase -- Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory（銀のスプーン）

A nice little treat that I got during last night's usual anime-&-food session was seeing this September's OVA of "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）, titled "Sing For You". I will always welcome the oh-so-mellow anime franchise of girls running cafes, and the 30-or-so (?) minute special dealt with the usually stoic and level-headed Chino Kafu（香風智乃）played by Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）blowing a gasket over the fact that she has to do a solo part in her school's chorus performance. Of course, the rest of the gang rush over to help out and get her over the hump of her stage fright to varying levels of humour.

During those 30 minutes, "GochiUsa" fans finally got one mystery resolved to a certain extent: that of Chino's mother who had passed away some years before the start of the series. Apparently, her name was Saki（香風サキ）and she was a regular singer at Rabbit House, with her husband and Chino's father, Takahiro（香風タカヒロ）, and even current Rabbit House barista Rize's father backing Saki on instruments.

(instrumental only)

As soon as I heard Saki sing in the OAV, I knew it was Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）right away. Her "Gin no Spoon ~ Blend of Memory" (Silver Spoon) is a good ol' jazz waltz which I could actually imagine being played during some sort of live performance in a club somewhere.

However, the more adorable and heartwarming pop version is the duet of "Gin no Spoon" between Mizuki and Inase. Finally, mother and daughter are together...may have brought a tear to the eye in many a fan. Created by lyricist/singer Junko Tsuji（辻純更）and composer/keyboardist Ruka Kawada（川田瑠夏）, the arrangement matches the overall feeling of the music that has been invested into "GochiUsa" all these years, that sunny, optimistic and wistful atmosphere (almost sounds like a swinging 1960s pop song) that seems to inhabit the unnamed town/small city with a European style where all the girls, cafes and rabbits live.

Definitely looking forward to Season 3!

Akai Tori/Nana Mizuki -- Akai Hana Shiroi Hana（赤い花白い花）

Another Hump Day is passing us by so perhaps something a little more sedate would be nice tonight. I've dug out a sweet and lilting ballad by folk group Akai Tori（赤い鳥）called "Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" (Red Flowers, White Flowers).

Created by Mie Nakabayashi（中林三恵）, the song is notable for the guitar work which sounds like running water in a brook while the vocals by Junko Arai（新居潤子）, who will go onto sing for vocal group Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）under her married name of Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）, and Yasuyo Hirayama（平山泰代）, later of folk duo Kami Fusen（紙ふうせん）, gently describe the kind act of presenting flowers. No ulterior motives here...just an innocent and kind tune.

"Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" is the B-side to Akai Tori's 2nd single "Jinsei"（人生...Life）released in June 1970. The following year, it became a track on the group's 4th album from July 1971, "Takeda no Komori"（竹田の子守唄...Takeda's Lullaby）. The video of the old footage below has Yamamoto giving a solo performance. Strangely enough, if I'm not mistaken in my comprehension, she may have said that the songwriter was unknown at the time. It's a lovely performance.

Apparently, there was a cover version of "Akai Hana Shiroi Hana" performed by seiyuu Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）in the 2019 anime retelling of Osamu Tezuka's（手塚治虫）"Dororo"（どろろ）. Mizuki played the virtuous but doomed character of Mio, and though I never saw the anime, just seeing this video had me getting all lumpy in the throat. Just want to make sure, though...the above is indeed Mizuki singing this?

Nana Mizuki -- Eisai Haramasukoi（エイサイハラマスコイ）

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Team_Epic

Well, I did say for some of the other articles associated with anime's Winter 2018 season that there haven't been any crawling earworms. I may have to swallow down a slice of crow to go with those worms. And it's all because of "Pop Team Epic"（ポプテピピック）, the crazy anime that I've had to watch excerpts on YouTube since my buddy really won't get into it.

It's rather ironic since the one other semi-earworm this season also came from "Pop Team Epic" through their parody of "Let's Groove" originally by Earth Wind & Fire.

A few episodes ago apparently, there was one segment in which Popuko（ポプ子）demonstrated this little jig called the Eisai Haramasukoi which may or may not have been inspired by minyo. Popuko innocently asked her best buddy Pipimi（ピピ美）whether her invention would sell after which Pipimi considered two potential consequences and decided...wisely...to go with continuing friendship.

Then in the penultimate episode, the seiyuu for the female half of the show were Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）and Mamiko Noto（能登麻美子）portraying Popuko and Pipimi respectively. Mizuki put on her best traditional singing voice on for those vital few seconds, and basically the same skit occurred from the original version a few weeks back. Pipimi gave her blessing.

Guess what? Inspiration broke in the form of a dance remix which became the opening credits for the episode. And I gotta say...nice piece of dancing by Popuko. Furthermore, it's the techno version that has dug itself into my brain. I don't know for sure who came up with the music but most likely it's the fellow behind the music for the show in general, Gin（吟）.

Along with "Who shot J.R.?" and "Who is Keyser Soze?", "What is Eisai Haramasukoi?" initially did pop up in my head as one of the biting pop culture questions. Assuming that it was based on an actual traditional dance, I tried looking it up but I couldn't find anything online. So for now, I will think of it as another crazed creation by the good folks at "Pop Team Epic". That final episode should be rather the last word in the title.

Nana Mizuki -- Koi no Okehazama （恋の桶狭間）

OK, I'll have to be a bit honest here. There was that movie "Tim Burton's The Night Before Christmas" which is probably regarded as one of the more endearing fantasy movies for a generation. Normally, I liked Danny Elfman's scores for the 1989 "Batman", "Dick Tracy" and "Beetlejuice" but frankly I just found his songs for "Nightmare" to be repetitive and as the movie went on, I got more and more tempted to look at my watch.

I've got the same feelings for the "Symphogear"（シンフォギア）anime franchise. Actually I do like it better than "Nightmare" but only because of the battle scenes and those epic visual pronouncements of the super weaponry such as "MEGA DETH SYMPHONY" and "HORIZON†SPEAR"! Can you imagine any of the Marvel movies pulling that off? We'd end up with each movie a half-hour longer!😆

Getting back on to topic, I have tended to turn my mind off the songs that Hibiki and Tsubasa and the others have to sing to be effective in the fights against the Noise since they all strike me as being variations on the same rock anthem, although I did have some like for the opening theme "Synchrogazer". I realize that I may be putting a number of "Symphogear" fans' noses out of joint by saying this (including my anime buddy who has bought all of the soundtracks) but that's how I feel.

Noriyasu Agematsu（上松範康）of the music production brand Elements Garden came up with most of the songs, and although I haven't remembered too many of them, I actually did enjoy one tune since it was so atypical in the show. Plus, it was only featured for a mere matter of seconds during one of the lighter scenes in the first season of the show back in 2012.

The scene in question was when warriors Hibiki and Tsubasa along with Hibiki's buddy Miku go for a fun session at a karaoke box. Tsubasa, as played by seiyuu/singer Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）, suddenly opts for a visceral enka song. When I first saw this, it wasn't only the jaws of Hibiki and Miku which hit the floor. At the time, when I was still gathering knowledge about the various voice actors in the anime industry, one of the first seiyuu that I had started to know was Mizuki due to her prevalence in the various shows and her string of appearances on the Kohaku Utagassen. From those performances and her work in "Symphogear", I had assumed that the singer was a rock queen at heart.

Little did I know that Mizuki had been trained in enka and so "Koi no Okehazama"（恋の桶狭間...Okehazama of Love）, the song her character performed in the karaoke box was my first realization of her prowess in the long-existing genre. Agematsu was also responsible for creating this one and I kinda regret that I haven't been able to find a full version online although one of the many "Symphogear" soundtracks that my anime buddy gave over to me has got it somewhere. It's got quite the muscular melody about a certain area in the city of Nagoya.

Although it's not Mizuki herself, I did manage to find someone performing the full version of "Koi no Okehazama" at karaoke although there's a bit of annoying noise (not the Noise) that pops up during the video. Since that revelation of Mizuki being an enka princess, she's popped up on some of the kayo programs from time to time to cover some of the oldies, and being an old-fashioned guy myself, I'm kinda hoping that she may actually release a true-blue enka single again.

My anime buddy has breathlessly told me that another "Symphogear" season will be premiering in less than 2 months. I will enjoy the show but I hope that the battle songs will have a bit more variation this time.

GUMI/Ari Ozawa, Nana Mizuki, Sumire Uesaka, Nao Toyama -- Kokoro Palette (ココロ＊パレット)

It's been several months since one of my favourite anime from the Summer 2016 season, "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru!" (この美術部には問題がある!), finished its run, and being a fan of the comedic slice-of-life sub-genre, the show managed to fulfill a promise that any televised project wants to achieve...leave the audience wanting more. I've read that the original manga is still plowing ahead but I don't know whether there will be a second season. However, that ending scene in the final episode was good enough for me.

Of course with this blog, I've brought in the anime for the purpose of introducing anison earworms and near-earworms, and what also helped "Konobi" was the really catchy themes of Nana Mizuki's（水樹奈々）"STARTING NOW!" and Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形）. And of course, I already wrote about those two tunes as the series was wrapping up.

However, I neglected to talk about a cute little tune adorably sung by Ari Ozawa's（小澤亜李）main character of Mizuki Usami（宇佐美みずき）during a brief montage scene in the penultimate episode which involved prepping for the annual Culture Day festival at the school. I later found out that the song was titled "Kokoro Palette" (Heart Palette).

Then "Kokoro Palette" came out in its full rousing glory as the ending theme for that final episode with the four main female seiyuu, Ozawa, Mizuki, Uesaka and Nao Toyama（東山奈央）bringing the group effort. I was finally able to get my own copy of "Konobi" and enjoyed my second round; listening to the song once more made me realize that this was a pleasant and worthy song to talk about.

But the final trigger was when I was reading the "TV Tropes" entry on the show and I discovered this kernel of knowledge in the YMMV section. Apparently, the song wasn't a product of the anime and was actually a campaign song for the manga by Imigimuru (いみぎむる) a number of years before. I couldn't be sure of the actual year that "Kokoro Palette" was recorded but considering that the original manga came out in 2012 and the YouTube video above was uploaded in 2013, I think 2013 is a fairly safe bet.

The original recording artist was a Vocaloid by the name of GUMI with "Kokoro Palette" written and composed by musician 40mP. It was a hard choice but ultimately I went with this original version as my favourite due to that hint of Shibuya-kei in there. Plus, that video above with the manga characters being drawn in as the song is playing struck me as a true labour of love. I wouldn't have been surprised if the author got slightly misty-eyed watching it.

And perhaps some of the fans of "Konobi" even before the anime must have gotten a thrill at hearing the song performed in the show, thinking that it should have been used as either the opening or closing theme.

Nana Mizuki -- STARTING NOW!/Sumire Uesaka -- Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo) （恋する図形）

Looking above at one particular scene from Summer 2016 anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！...This Art Club Has a Problem!）, I do remember some of those weird vending machine drinks. Yup, I recall drinking banana au lait and peach nectar especially the latter during the scorching hot months in Tokyo (I've got no idea how the athletes are gonna cope in 2020...hope they have a lot of spare change). There was also this one drink called MAX COFFEE which supposedly was only sold east of Tokyo (not quite true...I have seen a few examples in the west end of the megalopolis) that I was greatly addicted to even more than Coke. It was basically coffee-flavoured liquid sugar that I just gulped down with my Chip Star...and so you must wonder how I actually survived past 2010. However, I must digress.

"Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru" is one of the shows that my anime buddy and I have been watching for the past several weeks and it's been fun. Strangely enough, it's another Ari Ozawa（小澤亜李）-headed show featuring her as a high-strung high school student in love with a romantically oblivious schoolmate who is a talented artist while she is supported by at least one other high-powered seiyuu. If I had seen the script treatment before watching the show, I would have thought that a sequel to "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）was finally on the air. To be fair, though, the target of Ozawa's character's love this time is not a hulking fellow with a basso profundo voice but someone who looks a lot more twerpy.

Another similarity between "Bijutsu-bu" and "Nozaki-kun" is that both programs have earworm-y opening and ending themes.

First up is the opening "STARTING NOW!" with that high-powered seiyuu, Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）, showing that she hasn't left her anison world behind. I'm not usually a huge rock anison fan but there is something about this one including the part where Mizuki uses the vocoder to yell out the title that really sticks in my eardrums along with the usual wax (my apologies if you were eating something when you read that just now).

Man, is she the youngest-looking 36-year-old (as of this writing) or what? In any case, "STARTING NOW!" was released in July 2016 with Mizuki coming up with the lyrics while Takuya Fujita（藤田卓也）composed the tune. Perhaps it has already peaked, but at this point it has gotten to No. 3 on Oricon. The above video is just a 2-minute short version but there is the longer take on the song via TV below. By the way, Mizuki plays the shy rookie teacher, Tachibana-sensei who supervises the art club in question.

Over the past few years, I've learned that whenever I hear a bunch of YMO-era syn-drums on an anison, it has got to be the TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND behind it. Ever since hearing that earworm the size of an anaconda by them, "Witch Activity"（ウィッチ☆アクティビティ）, which ended each episode of "Witchcraft Works"（ウィッチクラフトワークス）a couple of years ago, I've been wondering if the Technoboys could come up with something that could top that.

Well, maybe I have with the ending theme for "Bijutsu-bu". This is "Koi suru Zukei" (A Figure in Love) sung by the Russian-speaking seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）. Those pulses, bleeps and synthesized percussion are back to create something that I like even more than "STARTING NOW!" I couldn't find the actual ending credits for the show with the song, but that's OK considering the music video is far more mesmerizing. As Uesaka has put up, it's encouraged to watch it on a smartphone for the best effect. However, I have never owned one of those contraptions and don't plan on getting one any time soon but even watching it on conventional YouTube is fun enough for me.

I wonder if those three guys who seem to be paying tribute to the British fellows from the old Art of Noise videos are the actual Technoboys. "Koi suru Zukei" is Uesaka's 7th single released just a couple of weeks ago on August 3rd. As for some trivia from J-Wiki, the title was simply just going to be "cubic futurismo" but since Uesaka is such a big fan of singer Jun Togawa（戸川純）, she was able to add on the Japanese title which is a twist on one of Togawa's songs from the 1980s, "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋...Figure Love）. Uesaka also has a role in the show as the perky blonde buddy Collette who seems to be Dekomori from "Chuunibyo demo Koi ga shitai"（中二病でも恋がしたい）without the weaponized twin tails.

Now I can only wonder what would happen if I guzzled down a bottle of MAX COFFEE while listening to a TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND-created tune. The last thing I would probably hear is "Death officially listed at...."

Nana Mizuki -- Tsugazakura （つがざくら）

At the time I was first watching the anime "Senki Zessho Symphogear"（戦姫絶唱シンフォギア...Superb Song of the Valkyries: Symphogear）, I was finally getting to hear the pipes of Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）as this force of nature in anison as her character of Tsubasa Kazunari（風鳴 翼）slew the bad amoeba of NOISE like a knife through butter. Then in one episode, Nana/Tsubasa surprised a couple of her buddies in the karaoke box and me when she went into full vibrato mode with an old-fashioned enka tune of love and vengeance. That's when my friend told me that Mizuki had trained to become an enka chanteuse way back in her teens.

I'm not sure how many enka singles Nana Mizuki, under her real name of Nana Kondo（近藤奈々）, had released but this one did come out on ancient cassette tape called "Tsugazakura" which refers to a plant related to the cranberry and blueberry; the scientific name is Phyllodoce nipponica Makino (just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?).

"Tsugazakura" came out in 1993 when Mizuki was all of 13 years of age. That's right...thirteen. She was barely a teen when she first sounded like an enka veteran. Good golly...makes me wonder what would have happened if she had decided to stick to the traditional path. Hiroaki Takahashi（高橋弘明）wrote and composed the song that sounds as if it had been arranged on one keyboard.

And here is Mizuki singing another enka classic "Amagi Goe"（天城越え）which was originally performed by the amazing Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）. Mizuki would probably be one of the relatively few singers who could appear on both NHK's "Kayo Concert" and TV Asahi's "Music Station" unironically.

Ah...a lot of fun off-tune times were had here!

Nana Mizuki -- Synchrogazer

As Marcos V. and I were discussing briefly the other day, I think it was time to put up a Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）article. The Queen of Anison neglected up to now? Sacrilege! Must repent! Although I cannot say that I am anywhere near an expert on this enka-trained veteran seiyuu/anison singer, Mizuki has made her voice very clear in my pop culture bubble over the past few years since coming back to Toronto. And aside from her career in the anime industry behind the mike, she's popped up on shows such as an NHK animal documentary series that broadcasts weekly on TV Japan and there was that string of appearances on the Kohaku Utagassen that I think was finally broken last year in 2015.

But in the anime field, I've known Mizuki for basically one character thanks to those viewings supplied by my buddy. And that would be the "Symphogear"（戦姫絶唱シンフォギア）franchise which revved up in 2012. Not only has she played the kickass character of Tsubasa Kazanari (風鳴 翼...singer and soldier) in the show about battling with over-the-top music-activated weaponry, but she supplied the theme songs. So why not go with the very first opening theme of "Synchrogazer", her 26th single from January 2012?

"Synchrogazer" is the template for me when it comes to current Mizuki songs whether it be for any of the "Symphogear" shows or her appearances on the Kohaku. Epic rocking techno (trance?) accompanying warp-speed often-operatic vocals. She could probably trounce the enemy NOISE just on that one song alone. As for the above video, I believe that is for "Madoka Magica", but hey, it works for me, too.

Anyways, Mizuki wrote the lyrics while Noriyasu Agematsu（上松範康）provided the melody for the song that got as high as No. 2 on Oricon. "Synchrogazer" was also a track on her 9th album from December 2012, "Rockbound Neighbours" that also peaked at No.2 and became the 42nd-ranked album for 2013.

Akina Nakamori -- Second Love （セカンド・ラブ）

I think I've been pretty good these past 4 years about covering the Japanese pop songs I've enjoyed over the past 35 years. However, considering the large number of tunes that have managed to get onto the blog since early 2012, I am bound to make a few rare omissions. Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Second Love" is one of them.

Covering so many of her songs, I had assumed that "Second Love" was already up somewhere on the blog perhaps not as its own article but in the very first of the BEST articles that I concocted a couple of years ago. After taking a look at that one, I came to the discovery that I laid an egg. Well, as they say, when you get an egg, you can make a small omelet.

What makes my omission rather shocking to me at least is that "Second Love" was a song that I heard tons of times at Kuri, my old karaoke haunt in downtown Toronto during my university days. I would say that I heard the karaoke version of it more than I did the original version by Akina herself. Hearing this absolutely adorable and sappy love ballad created by Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（ 来生えつこ・来生たかお）with the singer pulling out the high tones in her voice, I had assumed for the longest time that this was her 2nd single following the just-as-cute "Slow Motion" (スローモーション）from 1982. But as it turned out, it was her 3rd single, between the tough chick tunes of "Shojo A"（少女Ａ）and "Ni-bun no Ichi no Shinwa"（1/2の神話）. Apparently for the early part of her career, she was going AC-DC with her vocals.

As I mentioned in one of my early articles for Akina, I started listening to her when she had already attained superstar status so it was all about the funky and snazzy music accompanying her husky vocals by that point in the mid-80s. So it was with some surprise to finally hear the original version of "Second Love" when she still sounded truly like an early 80s aidoru. There was quite the "Awww" factor when I heard it.

"Second Love" was released in November 1982. It hit No. 1 on Oricon; in fact, it had an extended stay at the top spot a couple of times from November to December, and then in 1983 for a few weeks in January for a total of 6 weeks. That long stay helped it to attain the No. 8 ranking for 1983. It also earned a Grand Prize for Takao Kisugi at the Japan Composers' Awards in that same year. Furthermore, Kisugi did his own classy cover.

Another omission...cannot believe there is yet to be any Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）article on the blog. Will have to rectify that sometime soon but in the meantime, here is her cover of "Second Love".