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.
Showing posts with label Tomo-chan is a Girl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tomo-chan is a Girl. Show all posts
Well, I'm halfway through watching "Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko!"（トモちゃんは女の子!...Tomo-chan is a Girl!）and it's been very enjoyable. I figure that since I've gotten a couple of other articles up associated with the show regarding the opening theme and some hilarious karaoke involving the lead character, I may as well give the show its own Label. There is at least one more song that I can include in addition to the one that I have here.
In comparison with the rock n' roll of Maharajan's（マハラージャン）opener "Kurae! Telepathy"（くらえ！テレパシー）, the ending "yurukuru*love" is a cute pop number at an even-steven tempo performed by three of the main characters: Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）as the tomboy Tomo, Rina Hidaka（日高里菜）as the stoic and scheming Misuzu, and Sally Amaki（天城サリー）as the ditzy-and-clever Carol. Masaru Yokoyama（横山克）composed the song with Natsumi Tadano（只野菜摘）providing the lyrics which basically summarizes the premise of the show. I have to say that Tomo's vocals sure have improved since her time at the karaoke box.
For some reason, I couldn't find any full version of "yurukuru*love" online whether it be due to copyright oversight or perhaps the song is only meant to be a minute or so long. But I did find a techno remix by 174UDSI.
Last night, when I wrote about the venerable children's song "Te no Hira wo Taiyou ni"（手のひらを太陽に）from 1962, I first sent a shoutout to an even older kids' tune that the character of Tomo from "Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko!"（トモちゃんは女の子！...Tomo-chan is a Girl!）sang at karaoke, much to the mirth of the guy she loves and to her utter embarrassment. Yep, I do feel her pain.
Now, "Donguri Korokoro"(An Acorn Rolled Down) is a children's song that is apparently now part of the public domain so I gather that to mean that no one really has ownership (for you legal eagles, if I've made an error here, please correct me). I'm only using seiyuu Rie Takahashi's（高橋李依）name here because her character Tomo's awesome depiction of the song is so different from the many songs her other popular character Takagi-san did in "Karakai Jouzu na Takagi-san"（からかい上手の高木さん...Skilled Teaser Takagi-san） that I just had to give her the mike, so to speak.
The century-old "Donguri Korokoro" was released in either 1921 or 1922 (for argument's sake, I'll go with the latter year), and it was written by novelist and Japanese literature expert Nagayoshi Aoki（青木存義）and composed by educator Tadashi Yanada（梁田貞）. Soon after the end of World War II, the song was placed into school music textbooks. This tale of errant acorns and loaches was a song that I also often heard here and there over the decades.
I might as well kill two birds (or a cat) with one stone here and also include Tomo-chan's take on another classic "Neko Funjatta" (I Stepped on a Cat). This time, though, I'm not talking about a made-in-Japan kids' song but one whose origins are German and is a song that has been known worldwide, since its probable creation in 1890 by Ferdinand Alfred Gustav Loh according to LS Piano Music. The original title is "Flohwalzer" (The Flea Waltz) although it isn't a waltz, and in Japanese, there are no fleas...just an unlucky cat with back/tail issues. Once again, I used to hear this all the time by folks in band class and other venues when someone just wanted to play around on the 88 keys.
According to J-Wiki, the Japanese version of "Flohwalzer" under the title of "Neko Funjatta" was used in NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）TV vignette series with lyrics by Hiroo Sakata（阪田寛夫）. However in 1954, Toshio Oka（丘灯至夫）placed his own lyrics onto Loh's original music. Going over to English Wikipedia, the song has different titles depending on the nation such as "La Chocolatera" in Spain and "Szamárinduló" (Donkey March) in Hungary.
Personally, I will be looking forward to any more contributions by the Queen of Children's Songs.
Anime's Winter 2023 season has been in business for a couple of weeks now, and so far, one show that has gotten my attention is the adaptation of the 2015-2019manga "Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko!"（トモちゃんは女の子！...Tomo-chan is a Girl!）. Methinks that there is a bit of a "Taming of the Shrew" in this one and just from the animation style, I believe that there is even some of "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun） goofiness (where IS that 2nd season?!).
One other reason that I'm keyed into "Tomo-chan" is the cast consisting of Rie Takahashi（高橋李依）playing the tomboyish title character (she just played another round of the far different Takagi-san last year), Kaito Ishikawa（石川界人）as her bestie/potential beau, Jun (I remember him from "Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru?"（ダンベル何キロ持てる?...How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?）as the supremely friendly gym staffer), and Rina Hidaka（日高里菜）as the two other characters' troublemaking other friend, Misuzu (I remember her from "Komi-san wa, Komyu-sho desu."（古見さんは、コミュ症です。...Komi Can't Communicate） last year as the psychotically hilarious Ren.
Just last night, I wrote up the first article for singer-songwriter Maharajan（マハラージャン）and from the strength of last year's "Kimi no Ha Burashi"（君の歯ブラシ）, when I heard that he was also responsible for the opening theme of "Tomo-chan", I knew that I had to give it a listen. No regrets here! His "Kurae! Telepathy" is another gee-whiz-banger of a pop-rock tune that reminded me of Masayoshi Oishi's（オーイシマサヨシ）"Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai"（君じゃなきゃダメみたい）from the aforementioned "Nozaki-kun" in that it encapsulates the fun and chaos to be unleashed in each episode. Maharajan's vocals in the chorus even sound fairly similar to those of Sakanaction（サカナクション）.
"Kurae! Telepathy" has been translated as "Come on! Telepathy" but frankly, I think it has an even stronger vehemence to it such as "Fxxk you, Telepathy", and that could describe Tomo-chan's frustration at how dense and/or reticent Jun is. Even plain telling him in Episode 1 that she loved him bounced off his face like a propelled cake sprinkle.
Although the single for "Kurae! Telepathy" won't be out until February 15th according to the site for "Tomo-chan", it looks like the full version of the song is already available online.
