Petit Rabbit's -- Tenkuu Cafeteria（天空カフェテリア）/Chimame Tai -- Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!（なかよし！○！なかよし！）

 

My anime buddy and I were talking the other night and he marveled at the fact that 5 years have gone by since the second season of that show of moe and coffee and rabbits had ended its run. Yes, indeed. I am talking about the franchise "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）. At one point, I thought that everything was all done with Cocoa, Chino and the rest of the characters but a couple of specials in the intervening years kept hope alive, and sure enough, last year, it was announced that a Season 3 called "Bloom" would be heading out the gates in October...which it has.

I've been able to see the first two episodes of "Bloom" via YouTube and not through the auspices of my friend's giant TV screen this time around, but that's cool. The show has been fine and what better series to keep spirits nice and light like a well-made croissant during these times? It looks like the Japanese equivalent of Colmar, France is still going through summer, and I've gotten to see the girls and Tippy handle a flea market and the adventures of Lapin.

Of course, we gotta think about the themes and although the actual release of the singles will probably be some weeks down the line, at least, we can have a listen through the credits. The opening theme is "Tenkuu Cafeteria" (Heaven Cafeteria) by Petits Rabbit's (i.e. the main five seiyuu as listed at the bottom) as usual. Written by Aki Hata（畑亜貴）and composed/arranged by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, the same duo behind Season 1's "Daydream Café" and Season 2's "No Poi!"（ノーポイッ!）, "Tenkuu Cafeteria" has the bounciness of the former and the tempo of the latter to basically create the melodic equivalent of...well, a rabbit.

In terms of the ending credits, Season 1 had that spinning wheel and the adorable and sedate "Poppin' Jump"（ぽっぴんジャンプ）to accompany it. Then Season 2 had viewers go into diabetic shock in terms of the visuals and the ending song "Tokimeki Poporon" （ときめきポポロン♪）, and the FBI in the United States was probably wondering why their offices got inundated with phone calls.

Well, this time around, the ending credits and song have their cuteness but quite a bit more toned down compared to Season 2. Going mostly with an "Alice in Wonderland" motif, Chimame Tai（チマメ隊）consisting of seiyuu Inori Minase（水瀬いのり）, Sora Tokui（徳井青空）and Rie Murakami（村川梨衣）sing, as they did for the above two enders, and go a bit jazzier with "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" (Buddies! Circle! Buddies!). Although I like both the new opening and ending themes, I am even more curious about how the full version of "Nakayoshi! Maru! Nakayoshi!" will sound since I would like to hear the jazz band get even more into the riff during the instrumental bridge. Hata was again providing the lyrics while Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）took care of music and arrangement. It's nice and catchy and this time, I don't think the FBI will need to hire more operators.

(cover version)

Chimame Tai -- Tokimeki Poporon （ときめきポポロン♪）

NORMAL BLOGGING HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED FOR THIS EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT!! OVER THIS PAST WEEKEND, THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTS OF SUDDEN AND POTENTIALLY FATAL SACCHARINE OVERLOAD ON YOUTUBE. VIEWERS ARE REQUESTED TO REMAIN CALM AND AVOID REPEATED EXPOSURE TO THE ABOVE VIDEO. FURTHER DETAILS WILL BE REPORTED AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE. WE NOW RETURN TO YOUR NORMAL BLOGGING...

Yup, when the opportunity presents itself, I do like to lay it on rather thick. A certain part of YouTube probably did implode from sugar shock over the past few days when the 2nd series of the anime "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?" （ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）premiered. To be specific, the culprit is the ending theme by the three voice actors who make up Chimame Tai（チマメ隊）, "Tokimeki Poporon" (Palpitating Poporon). I've got no idea what "poporon" is, by the way.

"Earworm" doesn't even begin to explain this musical invasion of the isles of Langerhans (Google it).  Written by the same duo, Uran and Tomotaka Ohsumi（うらん・大隅知宇）, who had come up with the special ending theme for the finale of Season 1 of the show, "Nichijo Decoration"（日常デコレーション）, I had thought that the normal ending theme "Poppin' Jump"（ぽっぴんジャンプ）was moe than enough, but then I saw the upload of the ending credits for Season 2. And now Chimame Tai has added one of the cutest examples of ending animated dancing that I've ever seen. To paraphrase TV Tropes, the sweetness has been weaponized to the level of getting the CDC's attention.

And I have yet to see a single second of the season premiere although that will be coming this weekend when I meet up with my anime buddy. Plus, the actual full version won't be released probably for at least several weeks...unless the GochiUsa fans in Japan start banging on the doors of animation studios White Fox and Kinema Citrus with pitchforks and torches in hand.

To finish off, the crazy thing for me is that the refrain sounds somewhat like "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen. Maybe someday, some enterprising uploader will create a merging of the two songs.

Petits Rabbit’s -- Nichijo Decoration （日常デコレーション）

Well, in commemoration of the return of the bunch from "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか?...Is The Order A Rabbit?）for their 2nd season tomorrow morning Toronto time, I've decided to put up "Nichijo Decoration" (Everyday Decoration). This was the goodbye (or see you again soon, as it turned out) song that was at the end of the final episode of the first season of the anime which went from April to June 2014 last year.

Sung by the entire main cast in the form of Petits Rabbit's, "Nichijo Decoration" is not quite as hoppy as the opening theme, "Daydream Cafe", but it's still plenty sweet...as in "Would you like some coffee with your sugar?" sweet. This would be the type of song that would get the often insecure and dour character of Sharo flying all over the place. Written by Uran（うらん）and composed by Tomotaka Ohsumi（大隅知宇）, it was a nice way to finish things off for the next several months before "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??" (now with added question mark).

As much as this song, "Daydream Cafe" and the official ending theme of "Poppin' Jump" were some of my earworms for 2014, the entire anime has become an eyeworm of sorts since I've gone through the series about 3 or 4 times already and enjoyed specific funny scenes a number of times more. So I will be waiting with some anticipation the next time I head over to my anime buddy's home in about 10 days.