Jashin Girls -- Ano Ko ni Dropkick（あの娘にドロップキック）

With some of the crazier anime this year coming out this season including "Grand Blue" （ぐらんぶる）and "Asobi Asobase"（あそびあそばせ）, one of the other shows that my friend and I caught this time around was "Jashin-chan Dropkick"（邪神ちゃんドロップキック...Dropkick on my Devil!）. It's an anime about a brazen serpent girl named Jashin who ends up living with a witch named Yurine in Tokyo with the laughs coming from how much mayhem the former wreaks on the neighbourhood and her friends(?) and how the latter brings her down to ground. I gather that this would be the anime equivalent of "The Odd Couple".

I also guess that if Eli Roth had ever thought about producing a moe anime, this would probably be the result. Actually, considering that title "Jashin-chan Dropkick" and the overall premise, I had assumed that there was a connection with an anime that we had seen early in 2017, "Gabriel Dropout"（ガヴリールドロップアウト）, with another not-so-nice otherworldly girl and her just-as-unusual friends. There is a certain similarity, I suppose, but really, I think my assumption was merely based on the fact that the opening theme for that show was "Gabriel Dropkick"（ガヴリールドロップキック）.

As for my feelings on "Jashin-chan Dropkick", I kinda see it as a fun but minor show in our summer anime sessions with "Grand Blue" and "Harukana Receive"（はるかなレシーブ）being the heavy hitters for us this season. Still, the theme songs have started to burrow themselves into my head. For example, there is the opener "Ano Ko ni Dropkick" (Dropkick That Girl) as performed by the Jashin Girls（邪神★ガールズ）, namely most of the cast: Aina Suzuki（鈴木愛奈...Jashin）, Nichika Ohmori（大森日雅...Yurine）, Miyu Kubota（久保田未夢...Medusa）, Yurie Kozakai（小坂井祐莉絵...Pekora）, Chiaki Omigawa（小見川千明...Minos）, Riko Sasaki（佐々木李子...Poporon）and Riho Iida（飯田里穂...Persephone II）. Of the seiyuu here, Iida already has a couple of entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" through Marcos' and Joana's articles.

In going with the wild and woolly antics of the main character, the song written and composed by Agasa.K is mostly a wacky techno rock number with that nostalgic feeling of trance although there are a couple of points where the cast suddenly goes into an aidoru-like melody of fluffiness. The entirety of "Ano Ko ni Dropkick" kinda has that overture feeling from a musical which also resembles that of the just-as-manic "Gabriel Dropkick".

Will do the ending sometime next month and there were a few insert songs as well.

Riho Iida in Portugal (Iberanime, 2018.05.26-27) + KISS! KISS! KISS!

Writing articles based on personal viewing experiences makes me feel like I'm a lucky girl who gets to see Japanese singers every week. I wish that was the case, but I don't have the time nor the money to follow that lifestyle.

Still, I try to grasp every chance, and I had the tickets for this event months before I decided on my other trip to UK. I am talking about Iberanime, the biggest anime and Japanese culture event in Portugal (the second biggest "geek" convention, after Comic-Con, which is more recent).

It is an event I attended when younger, in my first years of anime-loving, but stopped going as soon as it got too expensive for what it offered. Since then, other events started decreasing in size or disappearing, as this one got more relevant and started inviting some bigger guests. I went this year to see Riho Iida (飯田里穂).

Riho Iida (affectionately known as Rippi) is a former child actress who is now a voice actress and got her breakthrough through Love Live! (ラブライブ!), the anime and mobile game which popularized the "2D/seiyuu idol" concept. This means the characters are idols both in animation and in real life.

I actually got the ticket as soon as I found out one of the voice actresses of Love Live was going, since it's a media I enjoy, both anime, mobile game (which I don't play anymore, though) and, of course, the music. Most tunes are essentially typical idol anisongs but there are some gems. Rippi's character in particular is not one of my favorites but I like her, mostly because of her singing voice, which is very good, including during live performances.

During the two days of the event, I saw Iida three times. The first was at a meet and greet, where I got the signed DVD shown above. It was actually the first time I talked in Japanese to someone (besides that sole "otsukare" I got to say to Maison book girl), and all those years of anime and variety binge-watching paid off, lol. (I still want to attend a proper course, though.)

The other two times were two concerts. The first was a smaller, demo concert and the second was the full version. The setlists were mainly composed of her solo career repertoire, finishing with one Love Live song, different for each day. It was actually my first time listening to anything from her individual career, but I was pleasantly surprised. I got the feeling that her songs are all pretty catchy and nice to hear.

KISS! KISS! KISS! was the song that got stuck in my head because she sang it one time in each concert plus an encore. It is the main song from her first solo single, released in 2015, in the peak of the Love Live boom. Both lyrics, composition and arrangement are credited to Kenichi Maeyamada, better known as Hyadain (ヒャダイン). That basically explains why it's such a fun and catchy song, and everyone was singing along the chorus.

Rippi is a very sweet person and everyone welcomed her very warmly. In the audience, you could notoriously see Love Live cosplayers and dedicated fans carrying penlights. One person offered her a bouquet during the meet and greet. We don't have this kind of artists coming here that often, so I'm glad Iida seemed to enjoy her stay in Portugal as well.

As for the rest of the event, I found it pretty enjoyable, plus some of my favorite and cutest national cosplayers won a prize (let's aim for European gold), so all went well.

Riho Iida -- Hajimaritai Kanon (始まりたいカノン)

One of my recent frustations was not being able to see Riho Iida’s (飯田里穂) live performance in last July’s “Festival do Japão” (Japan’s Festival). It would be my first true aidoru experience, and, who knows, maybe I could take a picture with her. In the end, I couldn't attend the festival, which made me feel a little bit gloomy for a while.

Well, at least I can listen to the nice songs from her debut album, “rippi-rippi”, which was released in July 2015. One of them is “Hajimaritai Kanon”, the lead song.

My first contact with Riho was watching this music video, but I soon discovered she’s a famous seiyuu and sexy gravure aidoru, so it was kind of weird to see her so light and immaculate in the music video for “Hajimaritai Kanon”. However, as I’m not really in the anime niche, I’ll probably only listen to her as a cute aidoru, so it’s okay. Well, I’m a liar... I will also see some of her bikini shoots sometimes as well.

“Hajimaritai Kanon” is not revolutionary by any means, and is quite a plain pop song driven mostly by acoustic intruments, which is something I usually avoid when listening to 21th century aidoru music. However, there are some lovely and dreamy synths being used here and there through the song, and I especially like when their sound appears between the first chorus and the second verses.

As for the lovely Riho Iida, her vocals are cute, but not very high-pitched, so that’s a good reason for trying out her full album. Believe me, she’s not overly “saccharine” as one might expect. Songs like “Love Motion” and “Stargazer”, for example, are great options for newcomers.

Lyrics were written by Hata Aki (畑亜貴), while music was composed by Yasuo Sakai (酒井康男).

Source: Amazon.jp