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.
Here's hoping that your weekend has gone off to a good start. My whole family was out for shopping at the local J-Town earlier today where I pulled the trigger and bought bottles of Peach Calpis and Kirin Milk Tea so we're laden down with the sugar. I had a good tall glass of the former and suffered a bit of a sugar crash.
But there's nothing like a really sparkly and catchy song to get back on track. It's been quite a few years since I've had seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）on the byline. Only recently did I discover the title track from her August 2018 4th studio album"No Future Vacances" and it's quite the banger. It feels like Neo-City Pop with some disco and shiny and gleaming synthpop. And listening to that arrangement made me wonder who was behind the words and music.
There was something especially Especia about it. And whaddaya know? Uesaka was behind the lyrics but the composer/arranger was Toshin Resonant（東新レゾナント）, aka Schtein & Longer, the same fellow behind all those Especia songs. I also found out that songwriter's real name is Yuki Yokoyama. "No Future Vacances" feels like hitting an Ibiza disco floor with one foot in the past and one foot in the future.
I've also noticed that the album "No Future Vacances" contains "Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形）, a song that had the influence of another group of technopop wizards, TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND.
Well, it's been thirteen years since I first saw the anime "Girls und Panzer" at my anime buddy's house, and perhaps only a few days following the beginning of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". When I saw that first scene of high school girls cheerfully get into a tank as if they were getting picked by Mom in a Corolla, I just went "Ohhhhkay...yep, this is an anime, isn't it?".
However, that first series involving Ōarai Girls High School and their plucky sensha-do club with that "little train that could" attitude started to charm me with its cast that probably involved every major female seiyuu on active duty in 2012, the love and meticulousness paid toward every tank, and the music which seemed to pay homage to every 1960s Hollywood movie about World War II and military marches around the world. Several years later, I even did a short pilgrimage to the very real city of Ōarai to check out any "Girls und Panzer" paraphernalia.
Over the years, a couple of us have paid our own tribute to the music from the anime. Marcos V. was the first one with his article on "Katyusha" which was given its due during that first series thanks to Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）and Hisako Kanemoto（金元寿子）. I think a lot of us were caught off-guard when the ladies sang this proud Russian folk song in the original language, and the way it all went down, I believe some of us may have wanted to show off our Russian selves in the same way that Ensign Chekov from "Star Trek"loved to have his mother nation take ownership of every invention ever conceived.
Well then...since we've got the ball rolling, let's get into more of the soundtrack for that first series. I covered "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!"（戦車道行進曲!パンツァーフォー!）, the proud march that fans of the anime will remember perhaps more than the original opening and closing themes. Shiro Hamaguchi（浜口史郎）was behind that one and the overall soundtrack, and as I stated above, he does love his military marches which include "The British Grenadiers", the traditional song for British military units which has been around since the 17th century. However, in "Girls und Panzer", I often seem to hear it whenever one of the characters wanted to go into exposition on something, such as one of the tanks.
Speaking of marches, another familiar one is the "U.S. Field Artillery March" which hails all the way back to 1917 when John Philip Sousa (who already has one entry on KKP) wrote it. Strangely enough, I first heard "U.S. Field Artillery March" on another animated classic when Fred and his family sang it on "The Flintstones" back in the 1960s.
From what I've read, all of the American marches belonged naturally enough to anything to do with the rival tank team from Saunders University High School based in Nagasaki. And in a soundtrack filled with military marches and variations on "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!", this track did stand out. "M4 Sherman Chuusensha A GO! GO!"（M4シャーマン中戦車 A GO！GO！...M4 Sherman Medium Tank A Go Go!）is a good ol' rock n' roll blast straight from "Happy Days" with twangy guitar. It's short at only a little over a minute in length but it's left quite the impression with me.
I've had my own copy of the two-disc soundtrack for years now which I listen to now and then for some relaxation and energizing at the same time. All of the high-octane tracks and military marches are great, but my memories have often been filled with the last three tracks on Disc 1 which are softer but no less proud takes on "Senshado Koshinkyoku! Panzer Vor!". "Kinou no Teki wa Kyou no Tomo desu!"（昨日の敵は今日の友です！...Yesterday's Enemy is Today's Friend!） is the third-last track and though I can't remember when it was played in the anime, it's always struck me as rather heartwarming and elegiac as if the girls were remembering all those they lost in battle (although we know that no one has yet to die or even get seriously injured).
The last track is "Senshado Anthem desu!"（戦車道アンセムです！...This is The Senshado Anthem!）which once again takes off on the overall theme for the Ōarai girls' team and has that satisfying "Well, we pulled it off everyone!" feeling with lots of hearty backslapping, hugs and handshaking. I also couldn't help but notice how similar in tone it is to the final orchestral piece in the "Backdraft" soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. But unlike "Kinou no Teki wa Kyou no Tomo desu!", I know exactly when "Senshado Anthem desu!" was used and it was used for one of the most adorable scenes in the entire franchise.
I heard from my buddy that the franchise has yet to wrap up. At this rate, the fans' grandkids will be rooting for "Girls und Panzer" by the time it finally ends.
Conversing with my anime buddy weekly, I've been aware that he has not only been enjoying the second season of "Kobayashi-san no Maid Dragon"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン）but there's been another series catching his eye.
Titled "Kageki Shojo!!"（かげきしょうじょ!!...Opera Girls!!）, the original manga is all about a fictionalized version of the famed Takarazuka Revue Company, the all-female musical acting troupe known for their very elaborate performances. I actually put up an article earlier this month on what has become the troupe's trademark song. As for the anime adaptation that began almost a couple of months ago, it's all about the laughter, tears, trials and tribulations for the girls going through the exclusive academy to train and educate them into becoming top stars on the stage.
Frankly speaking, I've yet to see an episode (it may be a tad too melodramatic for me) but my anime buddy did cotton me onto the ending theme. As soon as I saw that ending credit sequence, I knew that it was just screaming Takarazuka at me. The ending song itself is "Hoshi no Tabibito"(Star Traveler) which is performed by a couple of the seiyuu cast, Sayaka Senbogi（千本木彩花）and Yumiri Hanamori（花守ゆみり）. Both voice thespians are familiar to me from other shows, especially with Hanamori since she has portrayed the long-suffering but immensely resourceful Ai Hayasaka from "Kaguya-sama: Love is War".
In the past, I have heard of the same anime ending theme being performed by different members of the cast in a particular show for different episodes, but I think that this might be the first time that I've ever heard of an ending theme of the same composition being performed under different lyrics, a different title and by different members of the seiyuu cast for each episode. And indeed, this has been the case for "Kageki Shojo!!".
For this particular ending, Riko Sasaki（佐々木李子）and Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）tackle the theme under the title "Shinayaka na Mirai"（シナヤカナミライ...An Elegant Future）. Apparently, the ending for Episode 8 features yet another version with another change in title and lyrics and seiyuu. In all cases, I can also hear the Takarazuka-ness of it all through the nimble and dramatic melody by Tsuneyoshi Saito（斉藤恒芳）, and he was also responsible for the different sets of lyrics.
The usual talk around the quarter-century-long "Mission: Impossible" movie franchise has revolved around what incredible stunt set piece will Tom Cruise hatch up to top the last incredible stunt set piece from the previous movie. Because he pulled off a HALO jump and then proceeded to perform bumper cars with two helicopters in "Fallout" last time, I gather that he may just decide to learn to become an astronaut and have a fistfight on the exterior of the International Space Station itself for the next entry.
Still as amazing and action-packed as the last few movies have been, I still have a very soft spot for the original TV series from the 1960s to the 1970s with Steven Hill and Peter Graves playing the first two IMF leaders. In fact, I even have the DVDs of the first few years when Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were helping out. Watching the old episodes is still pretty fun for the most part and despite all of the fake nations and linguistic expressions concocted by creator Bruce Geller (the Gellerisms), the whole thing about "Mission: Impossible" back then was mainly the Cold War battle waged between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in those years.
All that preamble I have given you because I wanted to introduce seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"SPY", a track from her January 2020 album"Neo Propaganda". I'd written about one other song on the album, "Neo Tokyo Shouka"（ネオ東京唱歌）, a fascinating hybrid of early 20th-century kayo and Soviet-era march. This time, though, "SPY" is an urgent and intrepid technopop-rock tune along with Uesaka's light and slightly whispery vocals about a couple of intelligence operatives from the East and West trying to top one another. There's something that feels kinda 80s about it, and in fact, I can pick up on some New Order vibes. Kenji Ohtsuki（大槻ケンヂ）and NARASAKI were behind words and music respectively.
Returning to Tom Cruise'smagnum opus franchise, there are two more movies at least coming down the pipeline. If the ISS may be one setting in the 7th movie, then I can only imagine what would top that in the 8th entry. Time travel?
I'd heard of the expression Russian Roulette a number of times as a kid but never actually knew what it meant until that famous scene from "The Deer Hunter" starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. The scene didn't exactly sit well with me since up to then roulette had always been about that fun spinning game in Las Vegas (or as my high school history teacher used to say: Lost Wages).
Many years later, I found out that the concept behind Russian Roulette also lent itself to many a humorous scene in anime (and it has occurred in real life, usually at year-end parties). Not that cute girls put guns to their heads but they would have a game in which there were some cream puffs that they had to ingest with only one of them containing something atypical and gross such as spicy mustard. That was indeed the case in one episode of "Gabriel Dropout".
Even more recently, the concept came to the fore with balloons in the second season of "Kaguya-sama".
I never expected that there would ever be a kayo with an actual title of "R-R-R-Russian Roulette", but indeed there was and it was written, composed and performed by Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）. For the past several entries, the articles have been mainly focusing on her purely City Pop material in the 1980s going into the 1990s such as "Friday Night", but I remember that the first song that I had ever heard by her was "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne"（君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね）, the zany tropical fruit boogie-woogie tune.
Arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, Nakahara's"R-R-R-Russian Roulette" was Nakahara's 9th single from July 1985, and it was the opening theme for the television anime "Dirty Pair"（ダーティペア）. With a high-octane vibe bringing in elements of City Pop and rock (and some dance remix tropes), it's raucous and sexy and perfect as the song for the show of two troublemaking trouble consultants. In all likelihood, for anyone within 100 metres radius of the Dirty Pair, it was pretty much playing Russian Roulette with their lives.
I figured that "R-R-R-Russian Roulette" would be ripe for covering some day, and sure enough, it got its opportunity thanks to TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND with the inspired help of quirky seiyuu/singer Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）who is famous for her studies of Russia/USSR culture. The Technoboys and Uesaka turn the song into a delectable synthpop treat which made its way onto the former's November 2017 single"Magical Circle", although it didn't have any direct connection with the updated anime "Mahoujin Guruguru"（魔法陣グルグル...Magical Circle Guruguru）.
For another "Dirty Pair"anison sung by a City Pop legend, try out Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Safari Eyes".
Early in the last decade, my anime buddy was getting me back into his genre of choice once more after many years, and so along with the plethora of shows, I slowly learned the names of the various seiyuu that popped up here and there among the anime. It wasn't particularly easy but gradually the database in my head was able to agglomerate who the veterans and the up-and-comers were.
One of the first seiyuu that I got to learn about was Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）. It was pretty much inevitable since she not only plays characters, she's also quite a character herself. Uesaka is also a tarento and singer who seems to react quite negatively to being complimented (especially when it comes to all things cute) but is otherwise a very bubbly personality. And of course, she has a love for all things Russian, including tanks. It's no wonder that she got that role in "Girls und Panzer", which was one of the first anime franchises that I've gotten to enjoy, giving her rendition of "Katyusha". Also, it seems when it comes to music videos for her songs, the visuals can be just as arresting as her tunes are catchy.
And such is also the case with one of the tracks from her most recent album "Neo Propaganda" which came out in January 2020. This may actually be the first article detailing a 2020 song that doesn't have a connection with an anime; ironic, since I've known Uesaka mostly for her anime work.
The track here is "Neo Tokyo Shouka"(Song of Neo Tokyo) which wouldn't surprise me at all if Uesaka herself had come up with the idea for not only the song but also for the video. Written and composed by Ryohei Shima（志磨 遼平）, I swear that "Neo Tokyo Shouka" is the near-perfect hybrid of Taisho/Early Showa Erakayo (and perhaps even some Yuming?) and a march from either the Soviet Union or a Warsaw Pact nation, with the singer herself going off into that high and nasal quality that was a part of any ancient 78" record of kayo. As for the lyrics, it does sound like an exhortation from the younger Reiwa generation to rise up and stick up for their Tokyo against the ossified older Showa and Heisei generations.
Plus, the video goes full throttle into the concept as a musical plays out in front of our eyes with Uesaka portraying the three roles of handsome and idealistic student, beautiful and idealistic ingenue, and deity (?) Big Mother Maria. It's like watching an alt-universe Tokyo done up as Fritz Lang's Metropolis with the CG proletariat rising up like a ferocious army engulfing two of the main characters. But hey, any tragedy is nullified with the curtain call at the end. Couldn't ask for anything more Sumiresque! As for "Neo Propaganda", it rose up to No. 12 on the album charts.
Whatever you do, do not say nice things to her face!😁
Frankly speaking, when it comes to literature, I was never all that high-minded. I did my assignments in high school and university and read my Shakespeare and then my fair share of Soseki Natsume（夏目漱石）, Yasunari Kawabata（川端康成）and Yukio Mishima（三島由紀夫）but never really got into them. I barely even remember my Banana Yoshimoto（吉本ばなな）. It was all comic books and "Star Trek" novels for me (mind you, I've been enjoying William Gibson's"Neuromancer" over the past little while), and I just donated a whole bunch of the latter to the local library a couple of weeks ago.
Perhaps then I can relate to Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）song "Bungou de GO!"(Go with the Literary Masters!) or at least the feelings of the heroine she depicts there. This cutesy techno-ditty was a part of her 7th single, "Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形）from August 2016 which became the ending theme for one of my favourite anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！）.
With a voice that sounds rather Betty Boop or perhaps even the character she portrays in the anime, the bubbly Collette, she talks about how sleepy she gets when she reads "War & Peace" and how dark she thinks "Crime & Punishment" is when she attempts to plow through that classic. All the while, Uesaka seems to want to have authors like Tolstoy and Natsume and Ogai and Dostoevsky have at it with each other, although considering the music, I think instead of having them duel with pistols out on a lawn, she would prefer the novelists crack each other over the skull with colourful balloons in a maid cafe.
The single itself reached No. 17 on Oricon and "Bungou de GO!" is also included in Uesaka's 3rd album"No Future Vacance"（ノーフューチャーバカンス）which came out at the same time as the single. I have to say that it's all very cute and moe, but I especially enjoy the theremin instrumental bridge near the end. Words and music were provided by Machio Machikado（街角マチオ）of The Puh（ザ・ぷー）.
I shouldn't be writing this at this time. The reason is that I should have been enjoying the first session of the biweekly anime routine with my friend today. However with the wickedly cold conditions (though it is very sunny out there) outside and the fact that I would have been exposed to the elements for a total of one hour was enough for me to tell my friend last night that I would have to cancel until things warm up some more next week. Yup, I know I'm a Canadian but at my age and burgeoning elderly irritability, -18 degrees Celsius with 70 km/h gusts will no longer do for me.
So in place of the anime viewing, I am putting up an anime article via the "Hoozuki no Reitetsu"（鬼灯の冷徹...Hozuki's Coolheadedness）series. This would be the ending theme for the 2018 portion of the second season, "Jigoku de Hotcake" (Hotcakes in Hell) as sung by Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）, who has a minor role in the show. As a Canadian (who is no longer as impervious to cold as he once was), I was already sold from the title alone since I will take anything hotcake-y on a Sunday with plenty of butter and maple syrup.
Knowing that Uesaka had also sung the more sedate "Riverside Lovers" from the 2017 portion of Season 2, I was taken aback when I first saw the ending credits for 2018 with all of that CG and then Uesaka's high-energy "Jigoku de Hotcake". I'm not quite sure whether the arrangement and composition by Chell Watanabe（渡部チェル）was meant to be some sort of tribute to 90s synthpop, but if there were a disco in Hozuki's region of Hell, then I could imagine this being played.
(cover by ko rumi)
The lyrics were provided by Nagae/Hisae Kuwabara（桑原永江）. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a full take of "Jigoku de Hotcake" online, but the song is so full of power as it is, I can settle for the TV version for now.
Ahhh...yes. The inimitable seiyuu Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）. Loves the former Soviet Union, gets easily creeped out by overly gooey compliments to her, and has some of the more extreme reactions that I've seen and heard from any celebrity on either side of the Pacific. Plus she's popped up on a lot of anime that my buddy has introduced to me over the years such as "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!"（中二病でも恋がしたい!...Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions）, but she's also been quite entertaining all by herself.
One day, I was rather curious about how she started out. Now, she did have her performance in the ending theme for Season 1 of the aforementioned "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!" during its time in 2012, but her debut single as a solo performer came in April 2013 with "Nanatsu no Umi yori Kimi no Umi" (Your Sea More Than The Seven Seas).
Seeing a few of her music videos, she definitely has her own style but I think she really made a splash for the official video for this first single of hers. I recently watched some YouTube videos of Soviet-era television, and yes, perhaps the intro got some inspiration from that medium. And then the song launches into a carnival-like atmosphere of craziness that pulls in circus music, heavy metal and maybe even ska. Not sure whether the people around her had already figured her out but "Nanatsu" and the video certainly come across as pure Sumipe earworm.
Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed by Satoru Kousaki（神前暁）,"Nanatsu" was also the opening theme song for the anime "Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san"（波打際のむろみさん...Muromi of the Shore）which had a year-long run between 2013 and 2014. Uesaka herself also had a role in there as a buddy mermaid with a love of booze.
I finally got through the first cour of the second season of "Hoozuki no Reitetsu"（鬼灯の冷徹...Hozuki's Coolheadedness） from late 2017 about the motley crew of folks toiling down in Hell as a monastic corporation of sorts. Earlier this year, I had written about the opening theme for that first cour "Dai! Jigo Jigo Bushi"（大！地獄地獄節）and mentioned that the show hadn't quite grabbed me. Well, part of it was that without the subtitles, it's a tad difficult for me to understand some of the more esoteric parts. Plus, I have to admit that the humour is far more droll than the craziness that I've come across in this summer's bunch of anime such as "Grand Blue" and "Gokudolls".
Still, by the time I got to the end of the first cour at Episode 13 where even the devils and other staffers enjoy a good year-end party, there was a certain level of comfort achieved in watching these characters interact like a nice sitcom family. Question marks will still flutter over my head at some of the discussions but I can still roll with the show. My anime buddy was kind enough to give me the second cour so I will start on that fairly soon.
It took me a while but the ending theme for that first cour of the second season has finally grown on me as well. I guess with the increase in comfort for the show, "Riverside Lovers ~ Naraku no Koi"(Love in Hell), there was a direct relationship with my affinity for this ballad which is quite different in tone from the down-home country-style of "Dai! Jigo Jigo Bushi".
There's almost a healing music vibe with Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）Kyoto-esque love song, completed with the familiar techno beats from the good folks at TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND. Perhaps this may be a trip to Hell, but it's certainly downright calming and relaxing going down the river.
We're well into the Summer 2018 season of anime, and so far, the one really catchy anison has been the opener for "Back Street Girls ~ Gokudols". To be honest, I may never ever take that yakuza horn fanfare all that seriously anymore after listening to that theme.
So, I've gone back into the time vaults of anison by only a few years and come across the multitude of songs from the "Show By Rock!!"anime. The second season may have ended with an unfortunate thud but I'm still kinda hoping that there may be a third go for Cyan and the band. In any case, since I have had the ending theme from the first season up on the blog for about a year, it's time to get that opening theme and therefore the very first song that I heard from the good-gal band Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）up here, too.
"Seishun wa Non-Stop!" (Youth is Non-Stop!) was indeed the greeting song for the show in 2015 and has Eri Inagawa（稲川英里）as Cyan leading the all-star seiyuu grouping of Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）, Sumire Uesaka（佐倉綾音）and Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）in a fun and bouncy number that still has me thinking Princess Princess and Lindberg at the same time....as filtered through Disney.
Fictionally written and composed by Cyan, everything was actually created by RegaSound. If I had to pick between the opener and closer for Season 1, I would probably still go with "Have a nice MUSIC!!" but "Seishun wa Non-Stop!" still makes for a nice welcome into Midi City.
Met up with my anime buddy for the first time in quite a while. He was quite happy with the souvenirs. To be honest, though, I haven't been as enthused about this current group of anime that he has shown me with the exception of the continuing hilarity of "Mahojin Guruguru"（魔法陣グルグル）and the fascinating "Konohana Kitan"（このはな綺譚）.
However, during the anison hour segment of my day, I got to hear an old song from the initial season of "Show By Rock!!". "Ryuusei Dreamline" (Comet Dreamline) was a tune by Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）that I heard now and then. My buddy reminded me that it was the song that got Cyan and the band to the top.
"Ryuusei Dreamline" was written and composed by the musical group RegaSound and I'm sure the song is placed on one of the many CDs that the show has spawned since that first season in 2015. Not sure if there will be a third season since the end of the second season was underwhelming but I know that some franchises have a sophomore jinx so perhaps another "Show By Rock!!" can be brought back. If so, a ton of more soundtrack-and-song CDs are on the way.
I suggested this one to my anime buddy but he politely declined the comedy "Aho Girl"（アホガール...Idiot Girl） since in my speculation, he thinks it's just too aho. Ironically, two of the seiyuu here are Aoi Yūki（悠木碧）and Yoko Hikasa（日笠陽子）who are playing two of the heroic kickass warriors right now in the latest of the "Symphogear" franchise which my buddy and I are indeed seeing. However, in another universe, Yūki and Hikasa are playing completely opposite types here: the former playing the Aho Girl herself, twin-tailed Yoshiko Hanabatake, and Hikasa playing her borderline psychotic gold-digging mother, Yoshie.
This is completely out of left field, but if Peter and Meg Griffin from "Family Guy" ever took in a Japanese exchange student into their Quahog, Rhode Island home, Yoshiko would be the perfect candidate. Much international hilarity would ensue. I would be slightly worried about how their neighbour Quagmire would "welcome" the Aho Girl, but then again she has that singular ability to wrap anyone around her pinkie, in spite/because of her density.
For all of the zaniness that takes place in an average episode of "Aho Girl", it would make sense for the theme songs to be just as zany. So, allow me to introduce them both here. The opening theme is "Zenryoku☆Summer!" (Full Power☆Summer!) is probably a musical equivalent to Yoshiko's bats-in-her-belfry mind. A little bit of Tito Puente Latin jazz here, some "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" there, even some enka thrown in for good measure, and general crazy circus everywhere.
The song was written and composed and performed by the band angela consisting of atsuko and KATSU, a duo that has been around since 1993 although their first single didn't come out until 2003. "Zenryoku☆Summer!" is their 26th single from July 2017. The song managed to peak at No. 29 on Oricon, and vocalist atsuko gets my respect for her vocal gymnastics including her warp speed delivery at the beginning and her enka tribute in a couple of parts.
The ending theme is a bit more straight-line but just as exciting. In fact, it kinda harkens back to the old disco days, and with that male chorus in there, "Odore! Kyūkyoku Tetsugaku" (Dance! Extreme Philosophies) had me thinking of an old Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）number. In fact, I also remembered "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli at the same time.
Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）, who also has a role in "Aho Girl" as the supposedly no-nonsense Public Morals Chairwoman (despite the scary title, she is a student), takes on this one. From what I've heard of some of her other songs performed live, she does love the male fan participation so this one is right up her alley. There is no dedicated ending credits sequence at the end of each episode so it's hard to hear the song while the insanity is progressing....just means further incentive to buy the song.
"Odore! Kyūkyoku Tetsugaku" is Uesaka's 8th single also released at about the same time as the opening theme. It was able to get as high as No. 12 on Oricon. The band Gesshoku Kaigi（月蝕會議）wrote and composed the song with Uesaka also writing the lyrics.
I'd say that both theme songs are almost as catchy as my favourite anison of the year so far, the delectable "Aozora no Rhapsody"（青空のラプソディ）by fhana. Strangely enough, these will be among my favourite themes from a show that I will probably won't catch in its first run. YouTube will have to do for now until I get the DVDs.
Considering all the music that has been pumped out of the two seasons of the game-turned-anime "Show By Rock!!". the actual category for the show here on the blog has been extremely sparse. Mind you, I did say in the first article for the show that not all of the songs became earworms for me, at least. However, there have been a few which have managed to hang on over the months although Season 2 ended its run (in somewhat disappointing fashion...sophomore jinx?) almost a year ago.
I always knew if I were to start up the "Show By Rock!!" category for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I would have to include at least one or two of the songs by main heroine band Plasmagica（プラズマジカ）, especially since the first article was for a band, Dolly Dolci（ドーリィドルチ）, that wasn't featured too often during the series but had such a killer song on YouTube. So it's wonderful that the ending theme for the first season in 2015, "Have a nice MUSIC!!" is such an earworm.
Taking things out of the Midi City universe for a few lines, Plasmagica has got quite the celeb seiyuu lineup. Although Eri Inagawa（稲川英里）as Cyan is still new to me, she's backed up by veterans Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）as slightly tsundere Retoree the bassist, Sumire Uesaka（佐倉綾音）as guitar-wielding ChuChu, and Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）as drummer Moa. Going back in-universe, Retoree and Moa came up with the super-cheerful song but in the real world, it was lyricist Aiko Takase（高瀬愛虹）and composer no_my behind the tune.
The entire song is fine but it's that line "GO GO LUCKY Have a nice MUSIC!!" followed by some appealing Shibuya-kei strings in the first verse that have permanently hooked into my cerebellum. Have a cup of coffee in the morning while listening to this, and Mondays won't seem to be too blue heading to work or school. I'm fairly confident that my anime buddy may have taken this advice to heart.
I've got no idea how "Have a nice MUSIC!!" did on the charts but considering a number of the other various anison climbing onto Oricon, something as catchy as this must have made some progress.
It's been several months since one of my favourite anime from the Summer 2016 season, "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru!" (この美術部には問題がある!), finished its run, and being a fan of the comedic slice-of-life sub-genre, the show managed to fulfill a promise that any televised project wants to achieve...leave the audience wanting more. I've read that the original manga is still plowing ahead but I don't know whether there will be a second season. However, that ending scene in the final episode was good enough for me.
Of course with this blog, I've brought in the anime for the purpose of introducing anison earworms and near-earworms, and what also helped "Konobi" was the really catchy themes of Nana Mizuki's（水樹奈々）"STARTING NOW!" and Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形）. And of course, I already wrote about those two tunes as the series was wrapping up.
However, I neglected to talk about a cute little tune adorably sung by Ari Ozawa's（小澤亜李）main character of Mizuki Usami（宇佐美みずき）during a brief montage scene in the penultimate episode which involved prepping for the annual Culture Day festival at the school. I later found out that the song was titled "Kokoro Palette" (Heart Palette).
Then "Kokoro Palette" came out in its full rousing glory as the ending theme for that final episode with the four main female seiyuu, Ozawa, Mizuki, Uesaka and Nao Toyama（東山奈央）bringing the group effort. I was finally able to get my own copy of "Konobi" and enjoyed my second round; listening to the song once more made me realize that this was a pleasant and worthy song to talk about.
But the final trigger was when I was reading the "TV Tropes" entry on the show and I discovered this kernel of knowledge in the YMMV section. Apparently, the song wasn't a product of the anime and was actually a campaign song for the manga by Imigimuru (いみぎむる) a number of years before. I couldn't be sure of the actual year that "Kokoro Palette" was recorded but considering that the original manga came out in 2012 and the YouTube video above was uploaded in 2013, I think 2013 is a fairly safe bet.
The original recording artist was a Vocaloid by the name of GUMI with "Kokoro Palette" written and composed by musician 40mP. It was a hard choice but ultimately I went with this original version as my favourite due to that hint of Shibuya-kei in there. Plus, that video above with the manga characters being drawn in as the song is playing struck me as a true labour of love. I wouldn't have been surprised if the author got slightly misty-eyed watching it.
And perhaps some of the fans of "Konobi" even before the anime must have gotten a thrill at hearing the song performed in the show, thinking that it should have been used as either the opening or closing theme.
Looking above at one particular scene from Summer 2016anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！...This Art Club Has a Problem!）, I do remember some of those weird vending machine drinks. Yup, I recall drinking banana au lait and peach nectar especially the latter during the scorching hot months in Tokyo (I've got no idea how the athletes are gonna cope in 2020...hope they have a lot of spare change). There was also this one drink called MAX COFFEE which supposedly was only sold east of Tokyo (not quite true...I have seen a few examples in the west end of the megalopolis) that I was greatly addicted to even more than Coke. It was basically coffee-flavoured liquid sugar that I just gulped down with my Chip Star...and so you must wonder how I actually survived past 2010. However, I must digress.
"Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru" is one of the shows that my anime buddy and I have been watching for the past several weeks and it's been fun. Strangely enough, it's another Ari Ozawa（小澤亜李）-headed show featuring her as a high-strung high school student in love with a romantically oblivious schoolmate who is a talented artist while she is supported by at least one other high-powered seiyuu. If I had seen the script treatment before watching the show, I would have thought that a sequel to "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん）was finally on the air. To be fair, though, the target of Ozawa's character's love this time is not a hulking fellow with a basso profundo voice but someone who looks a lot more twerpy.
Another similarity between "Bijutsu-bu" and "Nozaki-kun" is that both programs have earworm-y opening and ending themes.
First up is the opening "STARTING NOW!" with that high-powered seiyuu, Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）, showing that she hasn't left her anison world behind. I'm not usually a huge rock anison fan but there is something about this one including the part where Mizuki uses the vocoder to yell out the title that really sticks in my eardrums along with the usual wax (my apologies if you were eating something when you read that just now).
Man, is she the youngest-looking 36-year-old (as of this writing) or what? In any case, "STARTING NOW!" was released in July 2016 with Mizuki coming up with the lyrics while Takuya Fujita（藤田卓也）composed the tune. Perhaps it has already peaked, but at this point it has gotten to No. 3 on Oricon. The above video is just a 2-minute short version but there is the longer take on the song via TV below. By the way, Mizuki plays the shy rookie teacher, Tachibana-sensei who supervises the art club in question.
Over the past few years, I've learned that whenever I hear a bunch of YMO-era syn-drums on an anison, it has got to be the TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND behind it. Ever since hearing that earworm the size of an anaconda by them, "Witch Activity"（ウィッチ☆アクティビティ）, which ended each episode of "Witchcraft Works"（ウィッチクラフトワークス）a couple of years ago, I've been wondering if the Technoboys could come up with something that could top that.
Well, maybe I have with the ending theme for "Bijutsu-bu". This is "Koi suru Zukei"(A Figure in Love) sung by the Russian-speaking seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）. Those pulses, bleeps and synthesized percussion are back to create something that I like even more than "STARTING NOW!" I couldn't find the actual ending credits for the show with the song, but that's OK considering the music video is far more mesmerizing. As Uesaka has put up, it's encouraged to watch it on a smartphone for the best effect. However, I have never owned one of those contraptions and don't plan on getting one any time soon but even watching it on conventional YouTube is fun enough for me.
I wonder if those three guys who seem to be paying tribute to the British fellows from the old Art of Noise videos are the actual Technoboys. "Koi suru Zukei" is Uesaka's 7th single released just a couple of weeks ago on August 3rd. As for some trivia from J-Wiki, the title was simply just going to be "cubic futurismo" but since Uesaka is such a big fan of singer Jun Togawa（戸川純）, she was able to add on the Japanese title which is a twist on one of Togawa's songs from the 1980s, "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋...Figure Love）. Uesaka also has a role in the show as the perky blonde buddy Collette who seems to be Dekomori from "Chuunibyo demo Koi ga shitai"（中二病でも恋がしたい）without the weaponized twin tails.
Now I can only wonder what would happen if I guzzled down a bottle of MAX COFFEE while listening to a TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND-created tune. The last thing I would probably hear is "Death officially listed at...."
Finally, I got to watch "X-Men: Apocalypse" last night some 3 weeks after its premiere (I think you folks in Japan will have to wait another couple of months before it hits your shores). Considering the mediocre reviews, the lack of buzz behind the movie, and my talk with JTM last weekend, my expectations had been brought lower than The Blob's centre of gravity, so I was actually quite happy with the finished product. Nope, it's not quite up there with Marvel's big superhero grand prize fight "Civil War" but it's also no "X-Men: The Last Stand" either. And once again, Evan Peters' Quicksilver stole the show again. I am actually hoping that that scene gets onto YouTube fairly soon.
Speaking of superhero movies, I have got quite the cast listing up there in the title line this time, don't I? Well, following up on my article for Pay money To my Pain's"Respect for the deadman", the opening theme for "Nobunagun"（ノブナガン）, here is the ending theme for that same 2014 anime. I'm now approaching the end of that entertaining show about mutants of another kind although it seems as if there won't be any large franchise coming out of this manga adaptation, unfortunately.
Unlike the thrashy rock of "Respect for the deadman", the ending theme of "Chiisana Hoshi" (A Little Star) is all cute technopop starring a large chunk of the cast from "Nobunagun". And the song is divided into two versions with "Chiisana Hoshi ver.α" first hitting the ending credits with seiyuu Shiori Muto（武藤志織）as the main character Sio Ogura, Yū Asakawa（浅川悠）as French kiss-crazy Isaac Newton and Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）as moe (and now perhaps cyclopean) Galileo behind the mike.
Then, there is "Chiisana Hoshi ver.β" with Muto again but this time, she's joined by Chiwa Saito（斉藤千和）as good-but-not-nice Geronimo, Mutsumi Tamura（田村睦心）as just-as-good-but-just-as-not-nice Cyx and Ayumu Murase（村瀬歩）as fellow hero and frequent doormat Gaudi. This was the version that finally got my ear when it was first introduced at the end of episode 6. For some reason, it sounds fuller and so the Beta version is the one I actually prefer.
With lyrics by Rie Otsuka（大塚利恵）and music by Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）, "Chiisana Hoshi" shares something with the opener of "Respect for the deadman" in that it has unexpectedly got my ear although I wouldn't say it has leveled up to an earworm. But there is a lot about "Nobunagun" that was unexpected in a happy way.
In any case, I'm looking forward to "Suicide Squad" and "Doctor Strange".
Ever have these memories from your younger and more foolish days that you just want excised from your cranium forever? Ever cringe at those "What the heck was I thinking of?!" acts from your adolescence? Yuta Togashi and Shinka Nibutani share your pain. For me, it wasn't just Eighth-Grader Syndrome...the condition was pretty much my entire educational history until university.
I've just been going through the first season of "Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!"（中二病でも恋がしたい!...Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions）from 2012 up to the episode where things got pretty darn serious all of a sudden with viewers finding out about Yuta's to-be girlfriend, kooky Rikka Takanashi's reason behind her syndrome. Up until then, things had been hilarious as the two other main characters of Yuta and Shinka tried to exorcise memories of their past embarrassing acts with mixed results.
One of the things I've enjoyed about "Chūnibyō " is the opening theme song by ZAQ, "Sparkling Daydream". Words, music and singing were all done by her, and it is a thoroughly soaring piece meshed well with the opening credits, especially with the left and right sides of the screen alternately flashing (not sure if that had been inspired by the fact that Rikka has that eyepatch). I just hope there have been no YouTubers uploading a loop of the credits with viewers watching them in a darkened room. Although "Sparkling Daydream" provides fine and fun background to the characters horsing around (Sanae Dekomori and her weaponized ponytails for example), I think the soaring aspect of the song can also be applied to the freedom in the characters' delusions whether through flight or power.
"Sparkling Daydream" was released in October 2012 as ZAQ's debut single (I've already written about her 2nd single) and broke through the Oricon Top 10 to reach No. 8. It is also a part of her 2014 album, "Noisy LAB." which also hit the No. 8 mark.
ZAQ was also responsible for words and music to the ending theme for the first season of "Chūnibyō ", "Inside Identity". However, instead of her singing it, she left it to the four main female seiyuu of the series as the show-specific unit Black Raison d'etre. The song has also gotten a lot of airplay on my hard drive just for the rock arrangement and the cute voices doing that near-rap. Once again, it worked well with the ending credits which kinda come off as one of those 80s music videos featuring dream states.
Just to inform you of those seiyuu, they are Maaya Uchida（内田真礼）, Chinatsu Akasaki（赤﨑千夏）, Azumi Asakura（浅倉杏美）and Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）.
"Inside Identity" peaked at No. 12 on the Oricon weeklies after its release in November 2012. Tap into that inner Dark Flame Master while you listen to it...and make sure no one sees you.
I bought this gorgeous Soviet souvenir in the Ukraine booth in a traditional marketplace, called Feira da Providência, held in Rio de Janeiro last week.
Recently, I’ve been listening to some Russian Folk songs and Eurodisco gems from the 80s with Russia and/or former Soviet Union as their main themes. I was very surprised to come across so many Gorbatchov-era inspired synthpop songs, thanks to Perestroika and Glasnost.
In Japan’s case, we now have Sumire Uesaka (上坂すみれ), a young seiyuu that happens to be a Soviet Union enthusiast, who sometimes embraces Russian themes in her songs. I thought about introducing one of her Russian inspired songs today, but, in the end, I decided to work on her rendition of the classic “Katyusha”, a famous Russian anthem during World War II (or the “Great Patriotic War” in Russia).
“Katyusha” is a song I like a lot since I discovered it many years ago. It was composed in 1938 by MatveiI Blanter (Матве́й Бла́нтер), with lyrics written by Mikhail Isakovsky (Михаи́л Исако́вский). Also, although created in Soviet Union, it’s not a song full of political propaganda, so, instead, we get a patriotic song about a girl in love with a soldier who is fighting for Mother Russia in the war. It’s ironic how the song was written in 1938, a couple of years before the Soviet Union entered the war. You can listen to the version recorded by the great Red Army Choir below.
Back to Sumire Uesaka, I only discovered she recorded “Katyusha” after J-Canuck's comment on my post about her Eurobeat single "Kitare! Aakatsuni no Doushi". It was a very pleasant surprise as, like I said earlier, "Katyusha" is one of my favourite Russian songs.
Katyusha was recorded by Sumire Uesaka and Hisako Kanemoto (金元寿子) in 2012 for the “Girls und Panzer” (ガールズ&パンツァー) anime, which portrayed a world where fighting in tanks was somewhat a hobby, similar to other sports. I didn’t watch the anime yet (I’m planning to), but, apparently, Sumire and Hisako were the girls commanding Soviet tanks, and that’s why, in a scene, they appeared singing “Katyusha”. Singing in Russian was not a problem for Sumire, as she studies Russian language, but I wonder how hard it must have been for Hisako.
A funny thing about this anime rendition of "Katyusha" is that, due to copyright issues, it couldn’t be aired in the American version. Instead, the same scene aired with another Russian song in the background, “Korobeiniki” (Коробейники), which is widely known for being “The Tetris Song” (even I played this version of Tetris a lot during my childhood, although mine was probably from a cloned video-game).Don’t get me wrong, “Korobeiniki” is also a great song, but it was not very suitable for the scene. Here’s a video comparing the original Japanese version with the American one.
Finally, this anime version of "Katyusha" can be found in “GIRLS und PANZER Original Soundtrack” album, which was released in December 2012.
One of my favorite acts of the year is probably the Soviet Union enthusiast seiyuu-aidoru-model Sumire Uesaka (上坂すみれ). Although she debuted back in the first half of 2013, it’s in 2014 that her most notabe songs are being released. First, in January, she released her debut album “Kakumei Teki Broadway Shugisha Doumei” (革命的ブロードウェイ主義者同盟). The album, a colorful extravaganza full of aggressive electronic sounds, quirky aidoru songs and a couple of experiments with Russian melodies, was quicky followed by an awesome single, “Parallax View” (パララックス・ビュー), in March. But different from everything that was presented in Sumire's debut album, “Parallax View” can be best described as an edgy punk-rock song with Eastern elements and anime-ish shoutings. The result was pure gold, even if I'm very far from being a punk-rock fan.
If that wasn’t enough for now, Sumire came back in July with “Kitare! Akatsuki no Doushi” an Eurobeat banger that borrows inspiration from the late 90s/early 00s incarnation of the Eurobeat sound. Although tame (an Eurobeat song is not among the most creative ideas in Japan today) if compared to the outrageous “Parallax View”, “Kitare! Akatsuki no Doushi” is as excinting as every Eurobeat song must be. Apparenty, the original inspiration was Wink’s 1995 single "JIVE INTO THE NIGHT", but the ending result was something similar to Initial D’s Eurobeat songs (source here).
Other than that, what really called my attention was the big fusion of the Eurobeat sound with Communist aesthetics both in the song’s title and the video. Roughly translated as “Come! Comrades of the Dawn”, the song made me remember how the old Italo Disco sound (Eurobeat’s original form) was popular during the last years of the Soviet Union, to the extent of some Italo records being produced in the Soviet Union for real. One nice example is the obscure “Moscow Nights” by the Bazykina Twins (you can listen to it here). In the end, I really don’t know if Sumire’s team or even herself were aware of this fact, but it’s funny to see an Eurobeat song paying homage to the extinct Communist regime since both things were part of the Russian reality back in the 80s.
Lyrics for “Kitare! Akatsuki no Doushi” were written by Neko Oikawa (及川眠子), while music and arrangement were done by Keiichi Okabe (岡部啓一).
