GOODWARP -- Sweet Darwin

Back in November last year, I wrote up an article about the opening theme song for slice-of-life anime "Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari" (うどんの国の金色毛鞠), aka "Poco's Udon World", WEAVER's "S.O.S." I had yet to write anything about the ending theme but that was partially because I hadn't seen the last two episodes of the series from Fall 2016 and that was due to my buddy heading over to Japan during the Holidays.

However, I did catch those last two episodes this week and I'm kinda glad that I didn't see especially the finale over at my friend's place since frankly having two guys tear up watching an anime is still a bit weird for me. Yup, Episode 12 was that heartwarming and heartbreaking but not totally surprising, and from what I read on the YouTube comments, it looks like a lot of folks felt the same way.

I also read that "Poco's Udon World" didn't exactly launch any ratings up into the stratosphere and that's a bit disappointing although again not altogether surprising. Being a gentle slice-of-life show probably wouldn't have grabbed the action fans and the show had the slight misfortune of coming on right after a pretty similar series in the summer titled "Amaama to Inazuma"（甘々と稲妻）in terms of overall tone. Heck, it even had the same seiyuu, Yuuichi Nakamura（中村悠一）, in the lead male role.

But for those who did watch the antics of Poco and Souta from beginning to end like myself, I think they were satisfied for the most part with this mix of "Field of Dreams", Japanese folklore and a travelogue of Kagawa Prefecture. That finale, though...wow...and that was televised on Xmas Day, too.

I think that soothing ending theme by GOODWARP, "Sweet Darwin" hit harder than usual after all of the stuff that had occurred in Episode 12. To be honest, when I first heard it in Episode 1, I had thought that it was WEAVER again but it was indeed a different band here. The song was part of the band's 3rd single released in November 2016 and was created by vocalist Takuya Yoshizaki（吉崎拓也）.

GOODWARP is a rock band formed in 2011 with four members: the aforementioned Yoshizaki, guitarist Tomoo Fujita（藤田朋生）, bassist Hisashi Hagiwara（萩原尚史）and drummer Yuuji Ariyasu（有安祐二）. According to the J-Wiki profile, all four of them have their own distinct musical influences ranging from The Beatles to X Japan to YMO. As for the shortened version of the official music video here, you can also get a partial demonstration of how to make udon noodles

.
You can see the ending credits featuring "Sweet Darwin" at a little past 19:10 in the above video.

WEAVER -- S.O.S.

Over the past year, I've detected a pattern when it has come to my anime buddy's choices for our biweekly routine. As much as he has enjoyed putting on the sci-fi/adventure epics, he seems to have also opted for at least one mellow down-to-earth show per season based somewhere in the countryside regions of Japan. Back in the spring, it was the serene "Flying Witch" (ふらいんぐうぃっち) out in Aomori Prefecture. Then in the summer, we got to watch the Shizuoka-based "Amanchu!" (あまんちゅ!) which was all about friendship and scuba diving, and then there was "Amaama to Inazuma"（甘々と稲妻）which was actually based in Tokyo but the narrative was nothing more than a single dad ensuring his rambunctiously adorable daughter gets the good stuff to eat.

This season, it looks like the relaxation anime has been "Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari"（うどんの国の金色毛鞠）which literally translates as "The Golden Furball of Udon Country" but has the slightly easier-on-the-ears title of "Poco's Udon World" according to Wikipedia. This time, the peaceful setting is the prefecture of Kagawa on the island of Shikoku which is famed for one of the symbolic Japanese dishes of sanuki udon. At first glance, I had thought that it would be about the main character of Sota re-discovering the wholesome goodness of udon and other home cooked meals in his hometown after years in convenient Tokyo. However, so far it's been a mix of fantasy and reality with the lad adopting a spirit named Poco who seems to switch between little boy and little tanuki; in the meantime, Sota also has to figure out what to do with his life now that his udon-making father has passed on. I gotta say that as much as the glorious scenes of the small city of Hirosaki in the aforementioned "Flying Witch" has had me thinking about visiting the real place someday, the just-as-lovely scenes of Kagawa from "Poco's Udon World" now has me wondering about Shikoku as well.

Even before the story started, I was struck by that theme song by WEAVER. The 3-person band which has been around since 2004 with their first CD single coming out in 2010 has been labeled a piano rock group. But as soon as I heard that synthesizer crashing, I immediately reminisced about the 1980s. Titled "S.O.S.", it has elements of funk and technopop flying about within its pop sound which was composed by leader and vocalist Yuji Sugimoto（杉本雄治）.

The lyrics were written by drummer Toru Kawabe（河邉徹）with Sugimoto singing about trying to save that special someone from being consumed by the quicksand of society and life. I'd probably say Sota is going through a bit of that existential life crisis at the moment so the song does fit. And that bright and digital melody does help in setting that hopeful mood, although I think an enka tune would be more fitting with that bowl of udon.

"S.O.S." was released in October 2016 as WEAVER's 7th single which has peaked at No. 26 on the charts. Just so that I don't leave anyone out, the other member of the band is Shota Okuno（奥野翔太）who is the bassist and another composer.