ZAQ -- Please,Take on me♡

It was a bit like meeting old friends during the biweekly anime session this time around yesterday. Not that I met anyone other than my anime buddy, but what I did see was "Chuunibyo demo Koi ga Shitai! ~ Take on me"（中二病でも恋がしたい! ~ Take on me）, an anime film that had come out earlier this year in Japan. I watched the two original series some years ago, and even then, it was a couple of years after their original broadcast.

The show wasn't a total gag anime or a serious epic adventure but it did have elements of both and a certain sense of adolescent poignancy. Plus, the story seemed to grow beyond the initial premise of the boy Yuta trying to forget his past of eighth-grade delusional fantasy and the girl Rikka sploshing around happily in her present of eight-grade delusional fantasy with friends consisting of enablers and deprogrammers.

On first hearing the title for this movie, I couldn't help but think of an old 1980s pop tune but watching the movie, I realized that this was the finale for the anime franchise which must have gotten a lot of hankies out for the fans at the movie theatre. It was a good end all told with a long-awaited scene finally happening. Plus "Take on me" had that nice cross-country caper as well as Cary and Eva Marie...er, I mean, Yuta and Rikka traveling to places like Tokyo and Sapporo (nice seeing JR Sapporo Station again) with Moe and Curly...er, I mean, Nibutani and Dekomori hot on their trail.

Another "old friend" that I got to hear, actually, was singer-songwriter ZAQ. I haven't heard from her for some time, so it was nice to see her come back to help out with the theme songs in "Take on me". Her most recent single is "Journey" from January 2018 which includes all of the songs from the movie including this one, "Please, Take on me♡" which is my favourite.

ZAQ indeed wrote and composed "Please,Take on me♡", but with the voice modulation and contemporary technopop in there, I was reminded to a certain extent of the Perfume trio. It's nice and catchy and the song was inserted during that montage where Yuta and Rikka were having fun in the nation's capital. Incidentally, there was a clever bit of store naming in that scene when one of the most famous low-priced chains, Don Quixote, was actually dubbed La Mancha in the movie. However, I'm very sure that some actual restaurant or store or something in Japan has that very name. I would also not be surprised if the logo involved a tipping windmill.

In any case, ZAQ's 16th single made it up to No. 34 on Oricon.

Sanae Fuku & Manami Numakura -- LoSe±CoNtRoL

Not quite an earworm but still fun enough to bury down into my meninges, I've also gotten somewhat into the ending theme for "Koukaku no Pandora: Ghost Urn"（紅殻のパンドラ -GHOST URN-）along with the opening theme which I wrote about a month ago, "hopeness" by ZAQ. The singer-songwriter also took care of the lyrics for "LoSe±CoNtRoL" with TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND handling the music. After hearing a couple of more of the band's anison creations, I've got the feeling that they really enjoy beating those syn-drums. The two starring seiyuu of the series Sanae Fuku（福沙奈恵）and Manami Numakura（沼倉愛美）perform the duet.

From what I could understand from ZAQ's lyrics, "LoSe±CoNtRoL" is all about the relationship between bubbly Nene and not-so-effervescent Clarion. The former has got some fairly deep feelings for the latter but reciprocation isn't too easy. Perhaps it's not so much "can't compute" on Clarion's side as it is "won't compute". In any case, the percolating technopop along with the technobabbly exchange between the two makes for a cute example of robot love.

No, it's not BUER but Pon de Lion
the mascot for Mister Donut.

ZAQ -- hopeness

Could you imagine "The Matrix" as a comedy? I mean, I know that there were the lines such as "I know Kung Fu" and "The other left" but basically The Movie of 1999 was one great sci-fi/film noir/thriller. I read somewhere that the Wachowski siblings based some part of the movie on the moody anime "Ghost In The Shell", and, yep, I could believe that "The Matrix" character Trinity played by Carrie-Anne Moss had some resemblance to the anime's protagonist Major Kusanagi especially the way Trinity was portrayed in one key scene in the sequel "The Matrix Reloaded".

Well, when I first laid my eyes on "Koukaku no Pandora: Ghost Urn"（紅殻のパンドラ...Pandora in the Crimson Shell）and was told by my anime buddy that this was based on an early story by "Ghost In The Shell" author Masamune Shirow（士郎正宗）whose ideas would then be used in his masterpiece, I was kinda like "Really...?" Heck, the main character looks like she belonged somewhere in the PreCure franchise while her partner/robotic pet should be working in a tsundere Maid Cafe. But apparently it is indeed true right down to the fact that the eccentric buxom inventor in the show, Uzal, is played by seiyuu Atsuko Tanaka（田中敦子）who had starred as the aforementioned Major Kusanagi.

As is the case with all of the anime I get to watch, there are no subtitles for me so "Koukaku no Pandora" has given me some issues about my overall understanding but although I've read that opinions have been very polarized about the series, I've been OK with it. It's been a very long time since I caught "Ghost In The Shell" and a light sense of humour is more my thing anyways. Plus, the last few episodes have been quite interesting especially.

The opening theme "hopeness" is frankly not my favourite tune by singer-songwriter ZAQ. That status still goes to her "Alteration" for "Sasami-san@Ganbaranai", but there is something about her vocals that reminds me of the boomer voice belonging to Kohmi Hirose（広瀬香美）and that "pah pah pah" chorus which pops up in the early part of the song that still kinda draws me to it. I just imagine Hirose going the route of Nana Mizuki（水樹奈々）, and in a way, ZAQ's renditions kinda add to the anticipated excitement about the 30 minutes to come.

"hopeness" was released earlier this month as ZAQ's 10th single and managed to get as high as No. 39.

ZAQ -- Sparkling Daydream/Black Raison d'etre -- Inside Identity

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.

ZAQ -- Alteration/Kana Asumi -- Shintouatsu Symphony （浸透圧シンフォニー）

Well, I've been quite grateful for my current translation gig handling things like travel articles. For one thing, I'm getting paid for my efforts and I'm also learning vocabulary on places such as onsen towns and the myriad shrines and temples. The unexpected benefit has to do with that latter tourist site in Japan. You see, over the past few months, I've been watching the 2013 anime "Sasami-san@Ganbaranai"（ささみさん@がんばらない...Ms. Sasami@Unmotivated） in which the plot and characters involve a lot of terms having to do with Japanese mythology such as the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and The Three Sacred Treasures of Japan. In fact, you might say that Amaterasu and those treasures are the characters. A lot of that stuff going in "Sasami-san" would have been over my head if it hadn't been for those shrine/temple articles. I had only just translated an article about a certain shrine which dealt with The Cave of Heaven, and a couple of days later, the cave got a mention in an episode of the show. Kismet or what? Anyways, the show's gotten a lot deeper and somewhat more complex compared to the debut episode which seemed to be about a sassy hikikomori ensconced in a rather nice house with an overly devoted brother with a sister complex.

But right from the beginning, I was drawn to the opening theme by singer-songwriter ZAQ, "Alteration". I have seen the singer-songwriter's name in the credits for other anime but "Alteration" has been the one by her that has finally grabbed me due to its blastoff right from the opening notes and melody which strikes me as reminiscent of a dance tune from the parapara days. Plus some of those key shifts certainly kept my ears on their toes.

"Alteration" was released as ZAQ's 2nd single from January 2013 and it peaked at No. 25 on Oricon. It is also a track on her lone album so far, "NOISY Lab." from April 2014 which got as high as No. 8 on the charts.

The other interesting thing about the show is the running gag that is the innocent ending credits. Instead of the technopop excitement of "Alteration", "Shintoutatsu Symphony" (Osmotic Pressure Symphony) is a cute aidoru-esque ending theme which for 11 of the 12 episodes, seiyuu Kana Asumi（阿澄佳奈）in character as Sasami-san refused to perform correctly for various reasons, often handing over the mike to one or more of the Yagami Sisters, her guardians, with varying results. I'm still in the middle of watching the series but I have heard that Sasami-san finally gets her act together at the end of the finale and provides the proper rendition. Lyricist and composer Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）must have sighed relief. I certainly did and will be looking forward to the decent version.