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.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Ami Suzuki -- Don't need to say good bye



Recently, I’ve been listening to some Ami Suzuki (鈴木亜美) songs that I used to play constantly some years ago. Besides the great “alonein my room”, which I already covered here on the blog, and some songs produced by Yasutaka Nakata (中田ヤスタカ) that I am still going to talk about eventually, two special songs from her aidoru years are always among my choices. Those are the ballads “OUR DAYS” and our today’s featured song, “Don’t need to say good bye”.

Released in January 2000, “Don’t need to say good bye” was Ami Suzuki’s tenth single. Like I said before, it’s a ballad, and, although I’m not among the most die-hard ballad fans, especially if they coming from Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉), “Don’t need to say good bye” is a very strong song with all the english catchphrases and the pleasant melody.

Ami Suzuki, as I said in the “alone in my room” post, was not a great singer during her aidoru days (she improved a lot with time), but the background singers, which included Komuro himself (as always), helped a lot and gave the song a must needed "oomph" during the choruses. Based on that, we can really tell that Komuro, knowing Ami-chan was a very weak vocalist, couldn’t expect her to handle an emotional piece like this on her own without causing a disaster.

In 2011, Ami Suzuki re-recorded “Don’t need to say good bye” and other old hits from her career and released them in a compilation called “Ami Selection”. Listening to the new version, it’s clear how her vocal skills progressed, but I still prefer the original version with her raw aidoru vocals. Listen to the new version below.


The single reached #5 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics were written by Ami Suzuki, Mitsuko Komuro (小室みつ子) and Tetsuya Komuro, while music and arrangement were done by Tetsuya Komuro.

Source: generasia.com

Yufu Terashima -- Campanula no Yuutsu (カンパニュラの憂鬱) / Neko ni Naritai! (猫になりたい!)


Yufu Terashima (寺嶋ゆふ) is an aidoru singer that was part of now-defunct “anti-aidoru” and subversive aidoru group BiS (short for “Brand New Idol Society”). Yeah, that’s it... an aidoru group with an anti-aidoru gimmick. She graduated from the group in 2013 and in the beginning of 2014 she started a solo career as a cute aidoru that is the exact opposite of her trashy BiS days.

“Campanula no Yuutsu”, the summer single released in August 2014, is a jazzy and breezy Latin song that fuses a rich arrangement (in my opinion, something a lot of Latin J-Pop songs lacks) with Yufu’s warm and delicate vocals. In fact, the song is so nice that reminds me of “Copacabana” (1978), an old and classic hit by Barry Manilow. I can’t really tell for sure, but it seems like composer and arranger rionos was inspired by Manilow’s Latin/Disco arrangement when creating “Campanula no Yuutsu”.



Although “Campanula no Yuutsu” comes chronologically first, my initial contact with Yufu Terashima was, in fact, with her third single, “Neko ni Naritai!”, which was released in december 2014. The title track, as the association with a cat induces, is a cute and fantasy-like aidoru pop tune with some 80s synthpop twists. On the top of it, the single also featured a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”... a true guilty pleasure with the synth-happy arrangement and Yufu’s terrible english.

Lyrics for “Campanula no Yuutsu” were written by Yufu herself, while music and arrangement were done by rionos. As for “Neko ni Naritai!” lyrics were written by Jane Sue (ジェーン・スー), while music and arrangement were also done by rionos.

"Campanula no Yuutsu" (left) and "Neko ni Naritai" (right)

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Asami Kobayashi -- Kanashimi no Spy (哀しみのスパイ)




It's a bit scary sometimes how my imagination works. Case in point: a little over a year ago, I put up an article featuring Asami Kobayashi's(小林麻美)most famous song, her cover version of Gazebo's "I Love Chopin" titled in Japanese as "Ame no Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe"(雨音はショパンの調べ). In the article, I mentioned that whenever I listen to the song, I imagined the waifish Kobayashi lying languidly on some chaise lounge in a huge house while slowly smoking a cigarette.

The above video (sorry but that video has been taken down) was just posted a few months ago. It isn't a chaise lounge and I don't see that cigarette but Kobayashi still reflects that idea I had about her...and the house looks pretty darn big. By the way, the song being featured is her follow-up single after "Ame no Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe", "Kanashimi no Spy" (A Sad Spy). Released as her 9th single in August 1984, the video has short versions of the song with the first one having a cinematic arrangement. It was too bad that it was only an excerpt since I thought it was pretty well done especially with Kobayashi lying around like a femme fatale from some old Cold War suspense flick.

The latter version was the actual song itself, and it has quite the backing on it. Yumi Matsutoya(松任谷由実, after providing the Japanese lyrics for that Gazebo single, wrote the words for "Kanashimi no Spy" while Koji Tamaki(玉置浩二)provided the music which has a mix of genres in there. There's some rock guitar and even some Taeko Ohnuki-ish technopop (and it still retains that suspenseful piano intro) although when it comes down to it, it's a Japanese 80s pop song. Once again, Kobayashi has that fragile vocal style (with Tamaki backing her up) which had me thinking that if this had been a movie, she really would have been the femme fatale hopelessly in love with the spy or even the doomed spy herself. It certainly looked like the latter according to the end of the video when she got surrounded by all those police officers. The scene rather reminded me of the end of a spy flick as directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Shunsuke Kikuchi -- Theme from G-MEN★75


This morning, one of the movie channels was doing another James Bond marathon so the movie that I managed to catch was "You Only Live Twice", the 1967 entry in the franchise which had 007 encountering the usual supervillains, women and intrigue in Japan. Sean Connery got to meet a pretty laidback chief of the Japanese Secret Service, Tiger Tanaka, played by the late Tetsuro Tanba(丹波哲郎). Indeed it was Tanba but his voice was dubbed by actor Robert Rietti, according to Wikipedia.


Tanba passed away in 2006 at the age of 84. But I saw him fairly often on Japanese TV in previous years as one of the older tarento on variety shows. As the elder statesman, he wasn't quite running around or snarking off at the speed of his fellow younger guests but, if memory serves me correctly, he had that reputation of being that slightly naughty old man with the eye for the ladies.

Also when I hear the name of Tetsuro Tanba, some form of heroic music starts flowing into the brain. Specifically speaking, I'm thinking of the theme song for the 1970s Toei series "G-MEN★75" (1975-1982). Along with "Taiyo ni Hoero!"(太陽にほえろ!)and "Seibu Keisatsu"(西部警察...Police: Western Division), "G-MEN★75" was another Japan-based police procedural  from my memories. There was the usual team of intrepid and sober-sided crime-busting professionals, although the head of this special investigative unit, Superintendant Kuroki (Tanba), had quite the flair for fashion.




Continuing on with the comparison between police shows, whereas the iconic theme of "Taiyo ni Hoero!" had that urban funk groove going on with the sax in the lead, the theme song by composer Shunsuke Kikuchi(菊池俊輔)for "G-MEN★75" seemed to have a connection with the songs for the usual samurai historical drama. After the fanfare of the horns at the beginning, the strings come in a way which says to me that this is "investigative" music as Kuroki and his squad get down to work. The main melody could also describe any lone wolf warrior from the Edo Era, and a lot of those dramas' theme tunes took on that spaghetti western tone with those crisp trumpets slowly tooting the arrival of the hero in a yukata instead of the poncho and hat. But of course in the 1975 era of these G-Men, it's all suits and jeans and leather jackets. And they still look like warriors strolling down that runway.

As for Kikuchi, he's done pretty much everything when it comes to music for TV and movies, He's composed music and themes for jidaigeki, tokusatsu, anime and other dramatic works. In fact, he's the fellow who created the joyful theme for "Doraemon"(ドラえもん). Considering from what I read on him on the English Wikipedia, he must be the equivalent to John Williams judging from the quote to describe him: "...people began to say that 'if Kikuchi Shunsuke is in charge of the music, the show will be a hit.'" High praise indeed.

Ryotaro Sugi -- Ore wa Mondainainosuke (俺は問題無ノ介)


Ryotaro Sugi (杉良太郎)... I only knew him as some famous, aged gentleman with a pleasant face who is married to one of the Enka beauties Natsuko Godai (伍代夏子) (the age gap came as an amusing surprise). Some research and the viewing of this week's "Kayo Concert" later, I found out that besides being a veteran actor and philanthropist, the guy also released quite a number of music singles here and there, with "Sukima kaze" (すきま風)  from 1976 being his most successful one. During today's episode, Sugi-Sama sang that very song as top batter. While it sounded alright with his deep rumble, I didn't particularly like it - probably on of those songs that grow on you the more you listen to it. And to end off the show, he got to sing his newest single, "Ore wa Mondainainosuke", that was officially released a couple months earlier on 21st January 2015. Now this one I found a lot more listenable with its funky beat and had Sugi bobbing up and down to it in a smoky blue-grey kimono and hakama... though he was still rather stiff, but what a way to end the show.


Anyway, "Ore wa Mondainainosuke" was used as the theme song to the actor-singer's latest drama "Ishi Mondainainosuke" (医師 問題無ノ介). This period drama, with some laughs added into it, is about Mondainainosuke, a sword-fighting, kindhearted doctor, played by Sugi (His first lead role in 14 years), and his escapades. His catchphrase is... "Mondainai!" (問題なーい!), which is like saying "No problem!". Other than the theme song, Sugi-Sama had also done the planning and its screenplay. Wow. But I suppose he wanted to go all out to commemorate 50 years of being in the world of entertainment. He debuted in 1965, wanting to become a singer at first, but without much success. So he turned to TV and film, where he finally made a break.


(karaoke cover)

"Ore wa Mondainainosuke" was written by Sugi (Oh, this too, huh?) and composed by Tetsuya Gen (弦哲也). It peaked at 136th position on the charts.

www.teichiku.co.jp

Just an after thought: Sugi-Sama has quite the nice smile, kinda cute too... I just mean the smile... I think. I hope.

Shogo Hamada -- Ai no Kakehiki (愛のかけひき)




My knowledge of rocker Shogo Hamada(浜田省吾)is limited to what nikala and I have contributed to the blog. However, I recently became aware of one of his very early singles as a solo performer (he started his career as the drummer for short-lived rock band Aido「愛奴」in the early 1970s). "Ai no Kakehiki" (Haggling Over Love), which was written and composed by Hamada, is a breezy feel-good-sounding song with some great guitar although the lyrics have a frustrated guy venting about what his ex-girlfriend had really wanted from him.

Released in October 1976, Hamada sounded like a reedy-voiced teenager although he was already close to being 24 when his 2nd single came out. He could've been busking near one of the major Tokyo stations with this one and I'm sure he would have drawn a fair-sized crowd. It's just a nice song to listen to, and according to the J-Wiki article on "Ai no Kakehiki", he based the lyrics on his own time at Kanagawa University. The single was also a track on his 2nd album, "Love Train" which was released in May 1977.


The first version of the song I heard, though, was his own cover version on his September 1991 album "Edge of the Knife", his 3rd disc of covers. And to be honest, this is the one that still gets me happy. Hamada's voice is back to his familiar depth and there's a lusher arrangement although the essence of the original version is still there. In fact, when I first heard this version, I thought this was the original from the mid-70s.

There was a whole lot more love for "Ai no Kakehiki" and the rest of the songs on "Edge of the Knife" as it hit No. 1 and then quickly became the 15th-ranked album for 1991. It also sold close to 800,000 copies.

Hanae -- Kamisama no Kamisama (神様の神様)



About a couple of years ago in late 2012, I saw an anime with the title of "Kamisama Hajimemashita"(神様はじめました...Kamisama Kiss)which was adapted from the manga about a high school student, Nanami Momozono(桃園奈々生), who ends up as the land god for a shrine and as a partner of sorts with the former god's familiar, Tomoe(巴衛). Because of the spiritual hocus-pocus and the according language, it was somewhat difficult for me to follow but I enjoyed it because of the bickering give-and-take between Nanami and Tomoe. To bring in a couple of old American sitcoms, I was reminded of "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Moonlighting". I also ended up featuring the opening and ending themes, "Kamisama Hajimemashita" and "Kamisama Onegai"(神様お願い), both by Hanae(ハナエ).



Well, cue forward to January 2015. It doesn't happen too often but if the anime became popular and there was enough material in the source manga, a 2nd season does happen. And it did for "Kamisama Hajimemashita". So my anime buddy and I have been watching this new season for the past several weeks. The bickering has continued (despite that kiss between the two main characters at the end of Season 1) but the scope has expanded so that the couple with the help of new friends and old has been spending more time in the fantasy world.

In a way, I had been hoping that the new opening theme to Season 2 would be the old opening theme from Season 1, but that would be even rarer than a Season 2 happening, period. However, it is Hanae doing both opening and ending themes with the former being "Kamisama no Kamisama" (God of a God). For the first half of this new season, I wasn't quite sure about this new opening theme since it was very different in tone from the somewhat Japaneseque AOR beat of the original opener. But I can say now that it has grown on me. In fact, after another all-day session with my friend yesterday which included another couple of episodes from the show, the flittery flutes of "Kamisama no Kamisama" and Hanae's "...spinning around the world..." lyric kept playing over and over in my head last night as I tried to get some shuteye.

There's more of a traveling pace to "Kamisama no Kamisama" which befits the overall feeling of Season 2 although the melody still retains that Japaneseque flavour. And the opening credits which focused far more on Nanami's plight in Season 1 seem to have opened up to include Tomoe and the rest of the characters having a bit more fun, including a dance scene.

Another common point is that Shuichi Mabe(真部脩一who had taken care of the writing and composition for the Season 1 opening theme was behind this song for Season 2.  For Hanae, this was her 7th single from January 2015 and it got as high as No. 25. The interesting thing I found out about Mabe was that he is the bassist for the band Sotaisei Riron(相対性理論...Theory of Relativity), the same unit that has another whispery-voiced singer as the lead vocalist, Etsuko Yakushimaru(やくしまるえつこ), who has also provided anison.

So, the take-away here is that we're all happy with our songs. However, I was surprised and delighted to hear the seiyuu for Nanami, Suzuko Mimori(三森すずこ), sing "Kamisama Hajimemashita" during a montage scene for one episode.