Serani Poji -- Smiley wo Sagashite（スマイリーを探して）

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The final Tuesday of the month and it's possible or probable that folks are already getting weary of the work week. I hear you and will try to alleviate the situation here as best as I can.

Commenter Brian Mitchell once professed his love for the whimsical in Japanese pop songs. They can often be on anything under the sun whether it be a beloved bowl of steaming ramen or a bear that can't stand medical checkups. I'd go along with that.

And we have another lovely prime example here thanks to Serani Poji（セラニポージ）and her "Smiley wo Sagashite" (Finding Smiley or Where's Smiley?) from her 2002 album "one-room survival" which shares space with "Pipo Pipo"（ぴぽぴぽ）, the basis of my second article on the whispery singer-songwriter all the way back in 2018. Compared to the French pop/Shibuya-kei of "Pipo Pipo", Poji's delivery is less breathy and the arrangement takes things into a more Bacharach direction as the singer gives out her story of trying to find her imaginary smiley face friend although it seems like she's enjoying the search just as much as her re-discovery. It's a happy-go-lucky upbeat tune that could put a bit more of a skip into any commuter's step to and from work.

Serani Poji -- Yoru no Kissaten（夜の喫茶店）

 

I don't know of many cafés that were open late into the night during my time in the Tokyo area. Often was the case when some of those coffee shops made the transition past 5 or 6 pm into full-fledged bars.

For those anime fans, one good example is Rabbit House from the oh-so-moe franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）with the girls' hangout and part-time workplace which is folksy café by day and moody bar at night. The only place that I've been to in Japan that is like that is the Café de Crie chain although I'm sure that there are likely mom-and-pop shops that have that double role. Another place that I frequented in Ichigaya, Tokyo was the Museum Tea Room (unfortunately, closed down now) but that always stayed a tea room into the evenings. Mind you, the waitresses all dressed up like maids, years before the maid café became a huge pop cultural thing in Akihabara (and no, I didn't go all moe there).

This is just the thing to introduce pop unit Serani Poji's（セラニポージ）"Yoru no Kissaten" (Night Café). A track from their June 2004 album "Ochamekan"（オチャメカン）, it's got that shaki-shaki Latin feeling infused into some light Shibuya-kei, and perhaps there's even a hint of the City Pop of the 1970s thanks to one particular keyboard. "Yoru no Kissaten" may sound a little too fast-paced for the evening soundtrack within a coffeehouse, but it does come across as perfectly fine during a hot cuppa in the afternoon. I do miss those places from time to time because it's been quite a few years since I've been in one.

Serani Poji -- Octopus Daughter

On realizing that it had been a few years since I wrote up articles on musical acts Citrobal and Easycome after which I did a catchup on both of them, I also discovered that it has been over three years since I last put up anything by the eclectic group Serani Poji（セラニポージ）. The combination of Yukichi（ゆきち）, Yumi Higashino（東野佑美）, and Tomoko Sasaki（ササキトモコ）was responsible for some appealingly quirky music in the R&B and Shibuya-kei genres through songs like "Boku no Mashu"（僕のマシュ…）and "Pipo Pipo"（ぴぽぴぽ）.

"Boku no Mashu" was a song for a Sega Dreamcast game called "Roommania #203" that was released in 1999, and Serani Poji's debut album, "manamoon" (まなもぉん), which had come out a few months earlier, was also deemed the soundtrack for the game. Therefore, I gather that another track from "manamoon" was also in "Roommania #203".

"Octopus Daughter" is a Serani Poji song whose lyrics introduce an actual octopus girl in a side show who is neither antagonistic nor sullen as I would imagine such characters to be. She's actually the happiest lass who probably exercises her ultra-hugging power with her eight tentacles. Never having played "Roommania #203", I don't know whether she's an actual character in the game, but in any case, the song is lovely with the mixture of the soul-funk from "Boku no Mashu" and the Shibuya-kei from "Pipo Pipo". It has that sunny early 70s feeling with a romantic French accordion somewhere in the middle, and as with the other songs that I've mentioned by the band, "Octopus Daughter" isn't some throwaway musical cue on a game soundtrack. It's a fully fleshed-out song of note.

I know that the manga wasn't introduced for several years following "manamoon" but I can't help but feel that "Octopus Daughter" reminds me of "Shinryaku! Ika Musume" (侵略!イカ娘...Squid Girl). Yes, I'm fully cognizant that an octopus and a squid are different; some of my best friends dishes were octopus and squid.

Serani Poji -- Pipo Pipo（ぴぽぴぽ）

Just 18 months ago, I encountered the wonderful perky but cool wonders of Serani Poji（セラニポージ）thanks to some game music they provided back in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast. Somehow those whispery vocals and the running R&B melody fit each other hand-in-glove.

Last night, I was reminded of the unit again when I discovered another really catchy tune by them called "Pipo Pipo". It was placed onto Serani Poji's 2nd album from November 2002, "one-room survival". This time, the melody canvas isn't R&B but the other aspect of Japanese urban contemporary, Shibuya-kei. In a way, the vocals fit even more with "Pipo Pipo" because they remind me of the breathy voice of Kahimi Karie（カヒミ・カリィ）.

In any case, "Pipo Pipo" is becoming a darn earworm now. I did mention in that first article that there were three folks involved in Serani Poji: Yukichi（ゆきち）, Yumi Higashino（東野佑美）, and Tomoko Sasaki（ササキトモコ）. Well, as it turns out, Yukichi completed the first album with Sasaki, "manamoon" before he left, and then Higashino came in for "one-room survival" and a third album before she left. Currently, it is just Sasaki minding the store with the latest album having come out back in 2010.

Serani Poji -- Boku no Mashu （僕のマシュ…）

Just last night, I was talking about how the technopop or New Wave genre in Japan was quite a bit deeper than I had thought all those decades ago through the song "Myun Myun" (ミュンミュン) by Chakra (チャクラ). And of course, all throughout this blog's existence, I've been remarking about how many hidden delights have revealed themselves from City Pop.

Well, now I can add R&B to the list and from an unusual source...a Sega Dreamcast game that was first sold in 2000. Called "Roommania #203", it was some sort of simulation game which involved trying to get some young fellow to do stuff in a room; I was never a big fan of video games so the concept for this game hasn't exactly floored me but I found out about this one song that is in the game that has.

It's called "Boku no Mashu" (My Love, Marshmallow) by a music unit called Serani Poji (セラニポージ) that was brought together for the purposes of the game. Man, it's got that old-style R&B beat that I love and miss and it came out on the group's debut album "manamoon" (まなもぉん) which was released a few months before the game in October 1999. Some of the other songs on the album sound pretty good as well although they are in different genres. The album also acts as the official soundtrack for "Roommania #203".

The more laid-back Gentle Whisper version of the song is also pretty darn easy on the ears. Pretty darn good timing as well since the J-R&B boom during the turn of the century was in full swing. Wish the pendulum would swing back once more. I realize the vocalist here has a whispery and cutesy voice but I can't help but feel if PSY-S had gone more into a soulful direction, this could have been one of their tunes.

Serani Poji consists of three members: Yukichi (ゆきち) from the pop group CECIL, actress/singer Yumi Higashino（東野佑美）, and Tomoko Sasaki（ササキトモコ）who was responsible for the music behind the game. A few more releases by the unit came out before it decided to go into "hibernation" as it described its status in 2004. However, the group woke up once more to release a new album in 2010 titled "Merry Go Round Jailhouse".

And here is a sample of the game as provided in English, although I'm more interested in the soundtrack.