Miki Asakura -- Misty Twilight （ミスティ・トワイライト）

The name of this singer has been one that I've often seen as I flicked through "Japanese City Pop" over the years. The one album of hers that was listed in that bible was "Hip City" (as shown below), and I couldn't quite figure out whether Miki Asakura（麻倉未稀）was a bidanshi guy or a girl judging from that cover photo. Well, the above photo helped clear things up.

Something that I hadn't realized was that Asakura was responsible for the Japanese cover versions of a couple of American 80s pop movie themes, "What A Feeling" from "Flashdance" and "Holding Out For A Hero" from "Footloose". I have heard those versions before but never identified the voice behind them, although Asakura's take on Bonnie Tyler's hit (the latter song) was appropriately husky.

I will get to at least one of them in the near future but I wanted to start with her debut, "Misty Twilight" which came out in August 1981. The song was written by Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and composed by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. Ohno was also the fellow behind the famous theme song for "Lupin The Third", and with this song, he further shows his good way around a Latin/jazz melody. And Asakura back at the beginning seemed to have been channeling a bit more Junko Yagami（八神純子）in her vocals. Perhaps there was even some resemblance to that brand of Fashion Pop exemplified by chanteuse Asami Kado（門あさみ）at the time.

Not sure how "Misty Twilight" fared but it is included in Asakura's debut album, "Sexy Elegance".

The song was also used in a commercial for apparel company, Onward Kashiyama. You can make your own conclusions (or snarky remarks) about the ad.

Yuzo Kayama -- Dreamer 〜Yume ni Mukou ka te Ima〜 (Dreamer 〜夢に向かって いま〜)

I'm glad to say that out of the many good songs that has been brought to me by good old Kayo Concert - that show really makes me look forward to Tuesdays - one of the most memorable has got to be "Dreamer ~Yume ni Mukou ka te Ima~" from the Wakadaisho. If I'm not wrong, I came across this song during the my third view of that show in July and it did not disappoint. Dang, was I stoked when the veteran singer-actor brought out his bright red electric guitar when it was time to promote his newest single, released on 11th April 2014, 2 days before his birthday. I mean, how often do you get to see a 77 year-old man playing an electric guitar?! Sure he was just leisurely strumming on the instrument, but my point still stands.

"Dreamer" was written by Goro Matsui (松井五郎) and composed by Yuzo Kayama (加山雄三) himself under his pen name Kosaku Dan (弾厚作). It's highest position on the Oricon weeklies was 79th, which is not bad.

The highlight for this song for me is its music with easy pace, not too fast or loud. As I've mentioned, there is electric guitar in the mix, but it blended in well with the acoustic guitar without screaming out for attention. Coupled with Kayama's odd but likable husky voice, it makes for a good song to play while on a road trip. Clear blue skies up above, empty road up ahead as you drive past the scenic beaches with the wind in your hair. Best place I can think of now would be Monterey Bay in California. That place has got some scenic roads by the Pacific, I can tell you that!

Not the red guitar, but still cool.

amazon.co.jp

MANNA -- Yellow Magic Carnival

This is a follow-up to nikala's article on Tin Pan Alley's "Yellow Magic Carnival" from 1975. I managed to find a cover of the song via MANNA on YouTube. Considering how obscure she is, it was great that I could find at least three videos of her singing her version of Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）original.

For MANNA, this was her debut single from March 1979. Unlike the faintly old-fashioned tropical original from Tin Pan Alley, her version has been arranged to sound a bit more disco against the singer's coquettish vocals. It's still rather fun to hear the old-fashioned disco version (with just a hint of Doobie Bros.) as well. It was also the lead track on her debut album, "Chabako Trick", also from 1979.

Kazumasa Oda -- Ichi Kyu Hachi Go (1985)

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/%E3%83%A9%E3%83%96-%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AF%E7%AA%81%E7%84%B6%E3%81%AB/id1100978002?i=1100978326
(excerpt only)

It's been a good long time since I put up a Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）song, and so I'm going to go with this one that I left out of my two articles on his first BEST album, "Oh! Yeah!" which came out in 1991. 

I remember nikala mentioning "1985" as being one of her favourites, and it does have a power all its own. Originally from his debut album, "K.ODA" (December 1986), this was also his first single which came out the month before. During his days with his old band, Off Course, a lot of their big hits had to do with the bittersweet loss of love portrayed against some lovely and soft folk-pop melodies. That same style of lyric is here with "1985" but Oda's melody here is completely different. 

It starts off with an eerie synthesizer which strikes me as if the camera were flying through the night and entering the window of a tenant somewhere in the big city. But then suddenly an electric guitar just explodes through the air in a sudden burst of violence...perhaps the young man inside has just had a huge flare of frustrated temper with things thrown. I'm painting a rather melodramatic scene here for this Oda ode but his lyrics are describing the feelings of a particularly haunted man despairing over the loss of his love which probably occurred some time ago. I can almost hear that Poe raven crying "Never more" as the song is playing.

The song was a modest success, getting as high as No. 15 on Oricon. It was also used for a Dai-Ichi Life Insurance commercial...couldn't find the video on YouTube but that was likely one intense song for such a product.

Natsuko Godai -- Hitori Zake （ひとり酒）

I've seen enka singer Natsuko Godai（伍代夏子）numerous times over the years on shows like NHK's "Kayo Concert", and I saw her today on the national broadcaster's regular half-hour documentary in which a famed singer heads over to one of the small communities in the quake-stricken Tohoku area to provide a concert for the citizens over there. The Tokyo-born singer trilled a final song which sounded quite familiar to me for some reason. It was "Hitori Zake" (Drinking for One), and the reason that it rang a musical deja vu was that it was the song that she had performed at last week's Kohaku Utagassen.

Godai was born as Terumi Nakagawa（中川輝美）in 1961, and she had actually debuted in 1982 under the stage name of Hiromi Hoshi（星ひろみ）which was switched to Yuuki Kagawa（加川有希）a few years later before changing for a very brief period to her real name and then settling on her current name in 1987 with her official debut of "Modori Gawa"（戻り川...The Returning River）. "Hitori Zake" was her 7th single released in January 1994, and was composed by Hideo Mizumori（水森英夫）and written by Takashi Taka（たかたかし）.

Despite the cheerful visage that Godai beams out at the audience and the happy uptempo nature, it seems that the lyrics express a lonely woman pouring herself the drinks at the local watering hole while remembering happier times with that significant other. It's not just the male customers who are crying into their sake.

(karaoke version)

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find the stats about how well "Hitori Zake" did on Oricon, but I know that it didn't place on the Top 100 for 1994. However, Godai herself has appeared on the Kohaku a total of 21 times including one stint lasting from 1990 to 2001, and then from 2006 to 2014. She has also performed "Hitori Zake" three times on the New Year's Eve special including her appearance last year.

Incidentally, her husband happens to be actor/singer Ryotaro Sugi（杉良太郎）.

Seiko Matsuda -- Hadashi no Kisetsu （裸足の季節）

It was all down to the dimples....

More on that later. When it came to my listening of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）discography, I've always treated "Aoi Sangousho"（青い珊瑚礁）, which was her 2nd single, as the beginning. It was after all the breakthrough song for her when it came out in July 1980, and it was also one of the first songs that I ever heard by her via "Sounds of Japan" on the radio.

However, as I just said, "Aoi Sangousho" was the second single. Therefore, there was the debut single, "Hadashi no Kisetsu" (Barefoot Season) that had come out about three months before in April. It is a song that I have heard before by Seiko but hadn't realized until just a few years ago that it was Single No. 1 for The Eternal Aidoru.

Yoshiko Miura and Yuuichiro Oda（三浦徳子・小田裕一郎）were responsible for creating both singles. "Aoi Sangousho" always struck me as that summery soaring (thanks to the violins and the release date) song, and "Hadashi no Kisetsu" also had a similar freshness to it, but it also seemed more girl-next-door with the flute giving the strings even more softness. Just listening to the full song again gave me that nostalgic aidoru giddiness from my high school days.

"Hadashi no Kisetsu" went all the way up to No. 11 on Oricon and would end up as the 50th-ranked single for 1980.  It was also a track on Matsuda's debut album, "Squall" which came out in August of that year, hitting the No. 2 spot.

Ah, I did mention "dimples" at the top, didn't I? Well, there's a story to that. Seiko-chan had auditioned to appear in a commercial for a Shiseido product known as Ekubo Face-Cleansing Foam. "Ekubo" is defined as dimples and during the audition, the teenaged future superstar tried to smile and couldn't show any....dimples, that is. The staff just said "NEXT...." and perhaps Seiko left dejected. However, though she couldn't be the face of the commercial, it was decided that she would be the singing voice, and was told to be able to sing the jingle that would represent the product. Recording was to take place at the end of February 1980 which didn't leave a lot of time, so things apparently went at flank speed with the clothes that Seiko was to wear on the jacket cover found in nearby Shinjuku and the photography for the jacket itself taking all of 10 minutes. When the recording was being done, Seiko found herself surrounded by a number of folks including representatives from Shiseido which got so overwhelming for the lass that she started crying up a storm. Ahhh....the pressures of potential fame.

In any case, a young high school graduate (and future actress and tarento) who had just come up to Tokyo at the time by the name of Yukiko Yamada（山田由紀子）was scouted and became the face of that face-cleansing foam commercial....I did check the above video, and yep, she had the dimples. But it was Seiko's song playing there, although at the time, a lot of people mistook Yamada for the singer. In addition, at a campaign event for Ekubo, both Yamada and Matsuda appeared for an autograph session with the former getting the lion's share of the signature seekers. 

Well, as they say, from such humble beginnings...

Still, it would've been interesting what would have happened if Matsuda had actually been able to show those dimples.

Much obliged, J-Wiki.

Juri Kimura, Haruka Yoshimura & Haruka Chisuga -- Animetic Love Letter

Today, January 5th 2014, is the first designated Dread Day for this year. It is, after all, the day that everyone gets back into the usual routine after the Holidays...namely getting back to work. And here in Toronto, following a balmy Holiday season, the temperatures have plummeted down to a high of -7 degrees Celsius, and therefore all those rain-slicked sidewalks from yesterday (it was actually +7 yesterday) have become impromptu skating rinks. Nothing like meteorologically-induced reality to wake the commuters up.

Anyways, speaking of work, one of my favourite anime from 2014 has been a dramedy of sorts titled "Shirobako". Literally meaning, "white box", the anime industry term refers to the final product of a produced episode via a VHS tape placed in a white case for preview by the animation company staff. But as it is here, it's the story of five former female high school animation club members, three of whom now work for the fictional Musashino Animation, a bit of a cute tweak at the real-life Kyoto Animation.

(cover version)

I figure since there have been movies about the movie industry (The Artist) and television shows about the television industry (30 Rock), there probably has to have been an anime about the anime industry, so I was surprised that something like "Shirobako" hadn't been made sooner (although my anime buddy told me yesterday that there had actually been such a program although on a much fluffier level). But I digress. After watching the first round of "Shirobako" (it will be continuing for a second round from next week apparently), I rather thought that this was something that Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) would have produced if he had been an anime otaku: there are tons of characters (the first few episodes even had to provide captions identifying them and their job titles) all going through the various trials and tribulations of pushing through the final episode of an anime, punctuated by a number of walk-and-talk cellphone scenes.

Life in the anime industry is probably even tougher than portrayed in this series, but at least we have been privy to a bit of the life there. "Shirobako", by the way, has been produced by P.A. Works, the same company behind another anime whose ending theme I've also enjoyed.

And yep, the ending theme here is one I do enjoy. Sung by seiyuu Juri Kimura（木村珠莉）, Haruka Yoshimura（佳村はるか）and Haruka Chisuga（千菅春香）, who portray three of the five young women (Aoi, Ema and Shizuka) from that high school club, "Animetic Love Letter" is this catchy uptempo tune with that hint of City Pop (especially the punchy synths at the beginning) that has become the earworm of the moment. And watching the two mascots of the main character dance around while the song is playing, I can consider the ending credits as arguably one of the cuter anime moments I've come across over the past year.

http://www.nhaccuatui.com/bai-hat/animetic-love-letter-shirobako-ending-juri-kimura-ft-haruka-yoshimura-ft-haruka-chisuga.5Dnv4sv1QnFo.html

Halko Momoi（桃井はるこ）wrote and created "Animetic Love Letter" alongside the opening theme of "Colorful Box" by Yoko Ishida（石田燿子）. Apparently, for the second round of the show, there will be new opening and ending themes which is a bit of a pity but understandable.