TOMOO -- LUCKY

 

Although it didn't have quite the distinct flavour of life within an inner city shopping mall in Tokyo, I enjoyed my time shopping and eating in my neighbourhood of Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）, which is basically a suburb for Tokyo in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. Metro Center Minami-Gyotoku is the mall right under the subway station and whenever I didn't really want to cook, I ate out at the local Subway, Tonki tonkatsu eatery and the patisserie across the corridor. In the pre-digital camera age, I also used to drop my film off at a camera shop there, and of course, there was the supermarket at the eastern end of Metro Center.

Back around ten days ago, I posted an article about the opening theme song for the current anime "City The Animation", "Hello" by singer-songwriter Furui Riho. I noted that there was something rather 70s and nostalgic about the song. Well, I get the same vibes for the song adorning the closing credits (nice Claymation, by the way). This is "LUCKY" by singer-songwriter TOMOO who I've also written about starting with her August 2021 single "Ginger". In that article, I also noted that she had some Motown influences, and so, I think she was quite ideal to take care of the ending for "City The Animation".

Written and composed by TOMOO, her July 2025 "LUCKY" has that feeling of music from a few decades ago, thanks to that electric piano, the horns and the overall arrangement. What seals the deal is the music video which has the singer enjoying a stroll (and a final mass choreography) in the type of peaceful and friendly neighbourhood that I enjoyed living in for seventeen years. Indeed, I was lucky.

TOMOO -- Yoake no Kimi e（夜明けの君へ）

 

It was about a couple of years ago in the spring of 2022 when I posted about singer-songwriter TOMOO's "Ginger" and noted that her presence and music reminded me a bit of fellow chanteuse aiko from a couple of decades back. Well, since then, I'm happy to say that she's gained her own J-Wiki profile and a lot more singles. She now has seven singles from her indies period between 2019 and 2022 and eight major singles up to last month. TOMOO also has three mini-albums and a full album "TWO MOON" from last year.

The piano pop is still there but this time, it's in the form of something more sweeping and inspiring (and less aiko) via her 5th major single "Yoake no Kimi e" (To You, At Dawn). Released in June 2023, it was used as the theme song for the live-action movie version of the original coming-of-age manga "Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia"（君は放課後インソムニア...Insomniacs After School） which came out in the same month. I thought that there was also something rather AOR in there, too, but maybe that was because the sailing scenes in the official music video above reminded me of Christopher Cross' "Sailing". 😀

Ironically, the Spring 2023 anime version of "Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia" actually had aiko providing the opening theme song.

TOMOO -- Ginger

 

Our family cat, Mako, has been in feline heaven for over a decade now but my path and Mako's crossed whenever I came home to visit. Let's say that we tolerated each other at best, but to be fair, the cat at least didn't go haywire on the furniture or the dishes.

Apparently, that may not have been the case with TOMOO's kitty. To go off on a slight tangent, TOMOO is a Tokyo singer-songwriter who made her debut in the mid-2010s and has released five singles and three mini-albums up to late 2021. There is no J-Wiki file on her but her website mentions that she began piano at the age of 6 and started learning chords from her father before providing melodies to lyrics of songs that she had yet to hear. Entering junior high school, she entered the drama club and got into writing her own tunes. After making it to the finals of Yamaha's The 6th Music Revolution while in high school, she would attend university and then start her music career in earnest.

Her 5th download single from August 2021 is "Ginger" which talks about a fellow's adorably aggravating cat; quite refreshing to hear those lyrics...just like real ginger. My observations on the piano pop song and the performance is that TOMOO's voice is pretty distinct in its lower tones, and it seems as if for "Ginger" at least, there are influences from Latin and Motown. Plus, the whole aura surrounding her reminds me of singer-songwriter aiko.