Naoki Sato -- Resolution

 

"Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast" by poet William Congreve, 1697

I guess KKP icon Kayo Grace Kyoku did do a number on Japanese pop culture icon Godzilla, even getting the big guy to flash a peace sign. If only it had been as easy in the movie I saw earlier this afternoon.

Yup, my friends and I caught "Godzilla Minus One". It's been getting rave reviews and we've been hearing that there was a very emotional core in this latest of the long-running kaiju franchise which surprised the heck out of me. All these decades, I've been accustomed to the Big G trampling the heck out of Tokyo with a mixture of clumsiness and goofiness while battling some odd monster in B-movie trappings.

No such thing in this movie at all. And for that matter, there's no fantastical super-weapon or a couple of tiny princesses giving advice. In fact, I actually had to reach for my Kleenex near the end of the movie. Good golly...there is a beating heart under all that sci-fi. 

On the music (since this is a music blog, after all), my friends and I agreed that it was a thrill to hear the original Akira Ifukube（伊福部昭）theme from "Godzilla" (1954) during the final battle. But then there was another overarching song in the score by composer Naoki Sato（佐藤直紀）called "Resolution". When I heard it in the movie, those squealing strings which reminded me of the iconic score from "Psycho", I had thought it was meant as a warning that Godzilla was on the way. Now I realize that it was more of an exhortation for the protagonist to get out of his funk and get rid of the lizard and seeing it come to full orchestral epicness in the final part of the battle, it was glorious.

Sato actually already has representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". He's worked in the anime realm including the "Precure" franchise, providing the scores for the first five series. He also arranged the first opening theme song "DANZEN! Futari wa Precure" （DANZEN！ ふたりはプリキュア）for the first series "Futari wa Pretty Cure" (ふたりはプリキュア), and he came up with my favourite theme song for a henshin sequence for any of the characters in the nearly 20-year history of the franchise, Shiny Luminous. From a cute little magical girl with mammoth pigtails to a gigantic green dinosaur with atomic breath...yeah, that's entertainment!

Naoki Sato -- Shiny Luminous Henshin（シャイニールミナス変身）

 

There was a time during the biweekly Sunday routine with my anime buddy that I was catching up on TV Asahi's long-running "PreCure" franchise (2004 to the present day) since I basically began midway through it in 2011. However in the last few years, I've gotten weaned off it although the little kids and even their parents are still devoted to the magical girl teams. A number of the opening and ending themes for the individual series have rubbed off on me and so I've covered them including the opener for the very first entry "Futari wa Precure"（ふたりはプリキュア）, "DANZEN! Futari wa Precure" （DANZEN！ ふたりはプリキュア）by Mayumi Gojo（五條真由美）.

However, one musical sequence that I've never covered is the background music which accompanies the transformation sequences (for which the bad guys are more than willing to wait the two minutes it takes for the ladies to change; this is Japan, y'know). From what I remember, they've all been their fair share of orchestral analogues of good, excitement and hope but I never really got to the point where I felt like actually writing about them.

That ends tonight. The reason for that is that there has been music for one transformation sequence that has been stuck in my head for years because I think that it's so good, and strangely enough, the person involved isn't an official Cure. Yup, the person here is Hikari Kujo（九条ひかり）, aka Shiny Luminous（シャイニールミナス）, who was a major part of the overarching plot in the second season of Cure Black and Cure White's time on the air, "Futari wa Precure ~ Max Heart". 

Kujo may not have the most effervescent personality and Luminous is no fighter (she's all about defensive support), but when it comes to her transformation sequence, she might as well be the coolest and greatest queen of them all (well, technically, she is a fragment of one). Naoki Sato（佐藤直樹）, the composer who was in the charge of the Precure soundtracks between 2004 and 2009, can be thanked for coming up with "Shiny Luminous Henshin" (Transformation into Shiny Luminous), which is an epic piece fit for the entry of a classic Disney hero but also seems to incorporate a bit of 1970s disco with the strings and horns and even some country-western. 

I can imagine Cure Black on hearing "Shiny Luminous Henshin" whining "Hey, why can't I get a cool theme like that?! Arienai!". Them's the breaks, Nagisa. Anyways, this particular track can be found on the January 2006 soundtrack "Futari wa Precure ~ Max Heart Original Soundtrack Precure Sound Screw! MAX!!Spark!!". Luminous Shining Stream, indeed!

Mayumi Gojo -- DANZEN! Futari wa Precure（DANZEN！ ふたりはプリキュア）

Winter remains most definitely with us...and it should, because there is still a little more than a couple of weeks left before March 21st. It has been freezing cold but at least we've been blessed over the past number of days with copious amounts of sun.

Forgive me while I sidetrack a tad on this midweek article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". A little over 5 years ago, "Doctor Who" fans were going ga-ga as the 50th anniversary episode "The Day of the Doctor" was presented. The show delivered on all TARDIS engines but then came the final number of minutes which launched a volley of WHAM scenes which most likely had Whovians squeeing like crazy, gasping for air and even shedding copious amounts of tears. Of course, the biggie was the "ALL THIRTEEN!" scene.

I kinda wonder if there were some Whovians on the production staff for the "Precure" show that had finished its run in early February, "Hugtto Precure"（HUGっと！プリキュア）. The reason I say this is that though I haven't been covering the franchise along the same lines as my anime buddy has, I found out through YouTube in the last couple of days that some of those folks on Toei may have pulled a few ideas out of the "Day of the Doctor" playbook and catapulted some truly squee-worthy moments in the entire history of the franchise. Case in point: one of the later climactic episodes had ALL FIFTY-FIVE Precures from the past 15 years of magical girl goodness explode out like bullets for a Battle Royale that fans would have expected in one of those All-Star movies. I'm sure that both parents and kids jumped all over that sofa in front of the telly when that happened.

To add that layer of scrumptious icing to this cake, the battle was accompanied by the opening theme song to the very first entry in the franchise. From what I've read on "TV Tropes", "Hugtto Precure" has now become the series to beat in terms of popularity.

Ahhh...that very first theme song. Reminded that I wrote about the very catchy "You Make Me Happy!", the first ending theme for "Fresh Precure!"（フレッシュプリキュア!）back in 2016 and then inspired by Joana's article on "PaPePiPu☆Romantic" (パぺピプ☆ロマンチック), the ending theme from "Hugtto Precure" in the last several days, I've decided to add to the Precure file.

My observation for the ending and opening themes of the Precure shows has been that, generally speaking, the ending themes have been the likelier earworms. I really can hardly remember the opening themes for each of the entries, except for one. Ironically, that very first opening song, "DANZEN! Futari wa Precure" (Definitely! We Are Precure) has been the one that I can play in my head from beginning to end without losing a beat (there is perhaps one other opener for which I can only remember the intro, and that is it).

As sung by Mayumi Gojo（五條真由美）, I think "DANZEN!" has been able to adhere to my brain like cheese curds to French Fries and gravy in a good poutine because, unlike the other openers which have stayed resolutely super cheerful and positive, there is that sense of impish "What's gonna happen now?" mystery in the first part of each verse, punctuated by that low rumbling and racing piano. Of course, there is also the combination of banging synth that seems to have been kidnapped from the 1980s and Gojo going "Purikyuaa, purikyuaa, purikyuaa..." that has just stuck to my memories. I think it's been that springboard of uncertainty in the music in the first part that makes the inevitable music of hope and heroism sound even more epic and a clarion call for all of the Precures to come to the rescue.

"DANZEN!" was written by Kumiko Aoki（青木久美子）and composed by Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）. Will always cherish those Big Damn Heroes moments.