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.
Well, we're just about halfway through the current anime season and that includes the gritty-as-sand but frilly-as-frills show "Akiba Meido Senso"（アキバ冥途戦争...Akiba Maid War）. The series has been following the pattern of a typical yakuza movie but instead of thugs, we have maids battling it out. At the same time, there has also been a goodly amount of fun music coming out of this as well. So far on the blog, it's been the homicidally hilarious "Junjou Maid Bukkoroshi Kiss"（純情メイドぶっころ主KISS）in the standout scene of Episode 1 and the ending theme "Meido no Komori Uta"（冥途の子守唄）which is in the same vein of the downtrodden-but-unbowed type of Mood Kayo of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Now, let's tackle the opening. First off, those opening credits with all of us entering the tough-and-bloody streets of Akihabara communicate to us in those one minute and forty-odd seconds about what the whole premise is right down to the combination of aprons and arms and of course, the power walk of the staff of the Tontokoton Maid Cafe（メイドカフェ とんとことん）which ought to bring a smile to the face of Quentin Tarentino.
As for that opening theme, it's "Maid Dai Kaiten"(Giant Maid Slalom) by the Tontokoton staff themselves. We have Reina Kondo（近藤玲奈）as the scared newbie Nagomi (although after Episode 6, there may be changes ahead for her), Rina Sato（佐藤利奈）as the hardened warrior Ranko, Minami Tanaka（田中美海）as the alternately sweet-and-snarky Yumechi, Tomoyo Kurosawa（黒沢ともよ）as the gyaru maid Shiipon, Jenya（ジェーニャ）as the Russian battle maid Zoya, and Ayahi Takagaki（高垣彩陽）as the scheming manager Yasuko Yaegashi. Words and music were provided by SHIBU and Getamono Land Keiei Senryaku Shitsu（ケダモノランド経営戦略室...Beast Land Administrative Strategies Office）, the latter of which produced the show.
One YouTube commenter pointed it out well that "Maid Dai Kaiten" is a hard techno piece that seems to have come out of the "Matrix" franchise, and the contrast between those dark beats and the typical Maid Cafe patter works well, both as something oddly kakkoii and tongue-in-cheek. However, the main chorus then launches into something major chord upbeat and aidoru-esque. Maybe that means there is hope around the corner for the Tontokoton maids. Regardless, there are a couple of music snippets that have also popped up; I hope that they get their due as full-fledged songs soon enough on the soundtrack.
I've been back in the anime-viewing game for about a decade thanks to my friend, and over that time, my impression of the seiyuu who get cast in the various TV shows and movies is that they have to be ready to take on characters of wildly varying vocal pitches: from cute babies to monstrous ogres and everyone in between.
Take for example, veteran seiyuu/singerRina Sato（佐藤利奈）who's been working for 20 years. I never got into the series "Toaru Kagaku no Railgun"（とある科学の超電磁砲）from more than a decade ago, but she played the main character, Mikoto Misaka（御坂美琴）who has a whole ton of power, speaks like any contemporary high school girl who's a bit of a tomboy, and loves cutesy things.
I think that my first time seeing Sato in action though was through the 2015 food-based anime "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）which I thoroughly loved, and as Machiko Ryo（町子リョウ）, she sounded completely different with a much more feminine timbre to her voice. Also, I did write about a couple of songs from the show, one of which was "Shiawase Graffiti"（しあわせグラフィティ）, an insert tune performed by Sato and her co-star Asuka Ohgame（大亀あすか）that reached meme levels of popularity.
Now, let's come back to 2022. All I can say is that Sato must have needed a lot of that Gollum juice to prevent her larynx from tuckering out after voicing Ranko Mannen（万年嵐子）from the currently playing anime, "Akiba Meido Senso"（アキバ冥途戦争...Akiba Maid War）. A week ago, she was featured pulling off one of the highlights of the anime season as she became a potent one-woman exfiltration team that would have had Josh Brolin's character in "Sicario" going "Hmmmm...". Although it was her fellow seiyuu Minami Tanaka（田中美海）singing "Junjou Maid Bukkoroshi Kiss"（純情メイドぶっころ主KISS）, it was Mannen going all Meiko Kaji（梶芽衣子）on the enemy maids.
This time though, Sato is behind the mike channeling the late Keiko Fuji（藤圭子）and her dusky tones as she sings the ending theme for "Akiba Meido Senso", "Meido no Komori Uta" (A Maid's Lullaby). Songwriter Takeshi Isozaki（磯崎健史）created this with a number of influences in mind. First of all, it starts off with a brass vibrato blast which brings back memories of the theme song from the classic 1973 yakuza film by Kinji Fukusaku（深作欣二）, "Jingi Naki Tatakai"（仁義なき戦い...Battles Without Honor and Humanity）: the theme has since become the fanfare to be played on any Japanese TV show whenever anything to do with Japanese gangsters gets featured. Then, while Sato goes into deep Fuji mode, Isozaki's melody mixes in Fuji's brand of down-in-the-dumps Mood Kayo with some Hollywood film noir gangster jazz that had me thinking of Michael Buble's rendition of "Feeling Good". Just like the depiction of Mannen's massacre in Episode 1, it looks like the songwriter went all out to come up with something faithful for this show of Akiba maids going into organized crime. Mind you, it'll be a few more weeks as of this writing before the theme songs for the show come out on sale.
A little over three weeks following my last Author's Picksarticle on traveling around the world, I decided to go for another one. This time, though, it's on the topic of food.
Obviously when one thinks about world travel, one also has to consider the cuisine in those far-flung places. However, in actual fact, my inspiration to create this article wasn't based on trips to those nations, but the NHK program titled "Sara Meshi"（サラメシ）. The show focuses on the working class in all sorts of industries and what they go for in terms of lunch with the title being an abbreviation of "salaryman's meal". It's hosted by veteran actor Kiichi Nakai（中井貴一）who narrates it as if he were trying to become an anime character. The lovely thing about "Sara Meshi" is that it doesn't only show the workers' bento but also presents some of those people's favourite eateries during the busy noon hour.
I think this has been a relatively recent segment to the show but at the end, "Sara Meshi" has also been focusing on the beloved restaurants and dishes for those famous folks who have departed this mortal coil. For example, one episode featured the late Hideki Saijo's（西城秀樹）favourite restaurant and his steak don.
Now, the impetus for me to write up this Foodie Kayo list was last night's episode in which folk singer-songwriter Kenji Endo（遠藤賢司）who had passed away in late 2017 was given his tribute through an eatery that he once frequented. His beloved dish there was curry rice, and not surprisingly, one of his big hits was "Curry Rice" from 1972 which sold around 100,000 records. The fiddle was played by Masahiro Takekawa（武川雅寛）, a member of the band Moonriders as Endo quietly intones his love for the dish.
Up to now, I've had various types of curry with rice or naan: Indian, Thai, Pakistani and Indonesian. However, in my early days, it was always about the Japanese style over the rice thanks to those S&B cubes or powder. It was spicy to be sure but not fiery.
COVID-19 has meant that access to those ramen restaurants here in Toronto has plummeted to zero for me since I don't live anywhere near one, although I still have my Cup Noodles and Sapporo Ichiban options. Until the restaurants are back up and running for dine-in service, I will be happy enough getting my aural version with the cool and funky Yano（矢野顕子）song.
"Fushigi na Peach Pie"（不思議なピーチパイ）is as young and adorable as Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）was back in those early days, and as the original article indicates, this was a song that was only performed by Mariya with Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）doing the songwriting duties here. I've had peach pie before and it's fine although a bit tart. But I still prefer my apple pie over anything else in that category.
Never thought that I would actually hear a song paying tribute to the classic yoshoku dish, but Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）pulled it off and had good buddy, comedian Masatoshi Hamada（浜田雅功）, pair up with him to perform this folksy number. I've had chicken rice on its own before but usually it is the majority component for the bigger dish of rice omelette when it's buried under a carpet of creamy beaten egg slid from a hot frying pan.
In the attempts to be perfectly transparent here, I don't think I ever dove into taiyaki all that much during my years in Japan. I mean, anko is splendid and all that, but I can't really say that it was a go-to sweet for me. But obviously, I was very much in the minority in the country, and Shimon's（子門真人）famous "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun"（およげ！たいやきくん）may still be the biggest selling single of all time. You might want to check the Guinness Book of World Records, though.
Man! Do I really have to choose? Just glad that the title wasn't "Pizza VS. Hamburger VS. Hot Dog VS. Ramen".Kirinji（キリンジ）apparently wanted to make this somewhat humorous track from their 2019"cherish" a walk into the gastronomic version of "The Twilight Zone" where someone like William Shatner or Jack Klugman has to make that impossible decision between comfort foods. Still, the musical path is a fun one to take.
6. Rina Sato & Asuka Ohgame -- Egao ni Naru (2015)
Had to throw in an anison since I believe that the anime industry has also been a frequent purveyor of foodie-ism over the years. And one such show that gave new meaning to the words foodie porn is "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸福グラフィティー）which I'll be wrapping up viewing for the umpteenth time later tonight. All of the performed songs are great concoctions, but I have an especial affinity for the ending theme "Egao ni Naru"（笑顔になる）because of its addressing of all of the scrumptious dishes in the lyrics and the sunny Bacharach-esque arrangement.
I know that I've left at least one other food-based tune out of the list and there are probably quite a lot of other such songs, but the above is my reflection. If any of you readers out there have your own choices, please let me know.
Ah, yes....the hire tonkatsu course at Hirata Bokujo. I had that at the Ginza branch of the tonkatsu franchise on the very last day of its operation before closing on a cool Saturday night in October during my trip back to Tokyo. Tender....really tender...pork wrapped in a crispy panko coating dipped into a zesty sauce and eaten with mouthfuls of hot rice and shredded cabbage. One of my wonderful culinary experiences in the country that I used to live in. But it wasn't just Hirata Bokujo alone. Basically, I never had a bad tonkatsu whether it was my neighbourhood eatery, Tonki, underneath the subway station or the fairly upscale place in Takashimaya Times Square across from Shinjuku Station.
Yes, waxing over a slab of tenderloin. Sorry...just can't help my foodie self here since I've been enjoying the Shaft-produced anime from the past winter season, "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）with all of its graphically-depicted enjoyment of the fine dishes in Japan. I've already profiled the opening and ending themes from the show, but I think it is this particular song, a mere excerpt of which was used in the background while the characters of Ryo and Kirin talked about the next episode and did their little jig, that has captivated the fans and YouTube viewers. It's been called the "Taberu" song, a worthy earworm, and with the picture of a dish in the background, a powerful catalyst to grab something to nosh on. It is the tune that has launched a thousand stomachs.
The official title is "Shiawase Graffiti". I could translate it as "Happy Graffiti", but considering the languid melody and the lyrics, perhaps describing it as "Contented Graffiti" may be a better option. In any case, voice actors Rina Sato & Asuka Ohgame（佐藤利奈・大亀あすか）sing the whole song as if it were a kayo kyoku from the past. Listening to it the first several times, I was trying to grab the specific genre for it: enka? folk? There was certainly a sepia-toned similarity to it...kinda like the ol' tamagokake gohan that we used to have when we were very little. And in fact, if the producers had decided on making an official music video for "Shiawase Graffiti" and they had asked me for advice, I would have had Ryo and Kirin perform it a la "Enka no Hanamichi"（演歌の花道）style....the girls standing on some gloriously rendered set of a traditional restaurant as they sing wistfully to the heavens.
But strangely enough, I hit upon the idea. Perhaps the song by Akina Shinkoda（新小田明奈）and Ran Kumagaya（熊谷蘭）was a tribute to that 80s singing duo, Aming（あみん）, especially when it came to their biggest hit, "Matsu wa"（待つわ）. There's certainly a resemblance when it comes to the slow lilt of the melody and the vocal harmonies....although there wasn't that bit of doo-wop that's in "Shiawase Graffiti".
As for Shinkoda's lyrics, "Shiawase Graffiti" doesn't really center on the food so much as it does on the story of Ryo and Kirin's friendship through the food. It's basically the overarching theme for each episode as the girls worry how the other is doing and how warm they feel in each other's company. The food and the friendship provide the warm and fuzzies here. There was one line which was pretty telling from the pilot episode in which they realized that food tastes better when it's shared. Although I'll still enjoy that hamburger or roast chicken sandwich if I'm by myself, I can understand the truth behind having a well-cooked meal with family and friends.
"Gohan no Renshu"(Meal Practice) is a cutesy tune that was used as the background song when the sponsors were announced. It's as light and fluffy as cotton candy as Sato and Ohgame sing about not sweating the particulars of cooking technique and just believing that the meal will come out all right, especially if cooking for loved ones. Listen if you can pick out the various dishes and cuisine-related onomatopoeia that pop up in the lyrics. I also have to admire the musicians' use of kitchen utensils here as well. The song was written by Yosuke Kakegawa（掛川陽介）and composed by drummer Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）.
Well, "Koufuku Graffiti" finished its run last month and I'm kinda hoping that the somewhat open-ended finale may mean a second season (the manga is apparently still continuing). Perhaps Ryo and Kirin may focus on non-Japanese fare such as doner kebab or spaghetti bolognese.
Ahhhh, yes...it's been a great thing watching the foodie foreplay that is "Koufuku Graffiti"（幸腹グラフィティ）before my anime buddy and I go out for dinner. It gets us into a good mindset. By the way, yesterday's dinner was Spicy Coconut Chicken Curry (very much YUM!).
And the theme songs have been fine for the ears as well. About a month ago, I featured the opening theme, "Shiawase ni Tsuite Watashi ga Shitteiru Itsutsu no Houhou"（幸せについて私が知っている5つの方法）by Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）. And here tonight, it's "Egao ni Naru" (You'll Smile) by the two seiyuu stars of the show, Rina Sato（佐藤利奈）and Asuka Ohgame（大亀あすか）as their characters Ryo and Kirin respectively. Written by Yuuki Matsuura（松浦勇気）and composed by Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, it's another sunny and smiley song that has that hint of 60s Bacharach and David. For those who can understand the Japanese lyrics, Ryo and Kirin adorably pepper the melody with various dishes and the onomatopoeia that accompany them. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the night owls who have been dedicated to "Koufuku Graffiti" (it's a late-night anime) rushed out of the apartment and headed for a 24-hour konbini for whatever's left on the bento shelves. My friend and I are most fortunate that we get to see this on Sunday afternoons.
And of course, I have to leave off with another adorable rendition of "Shiawase Graffiti"（しあわせグラフィティ...Happy Graffiti） with one of my favourite dishes. There is a full version but I'll leave that for next month.
