SEAMO feat. May'n -- Hadaka de Dotsukiai（裸でどつきあい）

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Well, I gather that it's perfect timing that on the annual Ocean Day holiday in Japan, I'm taking care of the ending theme of a popular anime that...nominally...has something to do with diving. Of course, I'm talking about "Grand Blue"（ぐらんぶる）which happily started its second season in the last few weeks.

Yep, I did catch Episode 2 last week which introduced Iori's scheming little sister, Shiori, and in that one episode, I got the impression of what the entire season might look like: lots of the usual deranged humour from Season 1 but with the addition of some more heartwarming moments.

A week ago, I featured the let's-hit-the-beach-running opening theme "Seishun Towa"（青春永遠）with the duet of Shonan no Kaze（湘南乃風）and Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. The ending theme is just as dynamic with another duet and it involves a couple of artists that I haven't featured here on the blog for about a decade. Rapper SEAMO was someone that I posted about in 2014 for his epic "Drive" twenty years ago and May'n was up here in 2016 for her contribution to the anime "Shuumatsu no Izetta"（終末のイゼッタ...Izetta The Last Witch）.

Well, they're here together to provide "Hadaka de Dotsukiai" (Naked Fellowship). Created by Naoki "SEAMO" Takada（高田尚輝）and Giz'Mo, and true to his "Drive", it's a mile-a-minute Latin rap extravaganza that describes the Peek-a-Boo philosophy of having fun: copious amounts of drinking and the opposite amount of clothing. Overall, the song reminds me some of the stuff that Maki Ohguro（大黒摩季）was singing a few decades back.

SEAMO -- Drive

I'm not a huge rap fan by any means, but then one day I was switching channels when I came across the local music video channel and smack dab found myself in the middle of SEAMO's "Drive" video. Naoki Takada（高田尚輝）, as he is known when filling out any official government documents, was rapping even faster than that yellow sports car in the video, so I decided to stay on the channel. And I got to see that primitive version of Gran Turismo with the fantastical image of a sports car whizzing away on a Japanese highway (knowing the usual congestion of traffic routes in the Tokyo area, any sports cars seen on the roads there are for show, not speed).

SEAMO was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1975, and started his music career in 2004 under the name of Sea-Mo Nator (a fusion of the word "shimoneta" （下ネタ）meaning "dirty joke" and Terminator). About a year after his debut, though, his contract was summarily cancelled. But when he joined his new company, Takada changed his nom de guerre into its current form. "Drive" was his 2nd single from July 2005 which peaked at No. 58 on Oricon. Not particularly auspicious for him, but he would be going onwards and upwards, so that a few years later, he would have his biggest hit with "Mother" which went as high as No. 5.