YURiKA -- MIND CONDUCTOR

Happy Monday! Well, after an unusual absence of about a month, our food-and-anime routine was back on top yesterday, and just in time, too, since anime's Spring 2017 is about to end. That also sadly means that "Little Witch Academia"（リトルウィッチアカデミア）is finishing its run. In fact, I think the final episode aired yesterday (though I probably won't see it for another couple of weeks).

Going on for two continuous seasons left a lot of time for character and story progression although I think it was more on the latter end. So, in contrast to some of the "I Love Lucy" dealings among the original triumvirate of Akko, Lotte and Sucy in the first 12 episodes, things got more serious in the 2nd half with Akko being pulled in opposite directions by the good-but-flawed Chariot and the bad-but-perhaps-redeemable Croix. It's been fun and I'm hoping that perhaps another season may be coaxed out of Trigger in the near future.

Again, there haven't been any immediate earworms for me among the four anison that have come from "Little Witch Academia", and that includes the first ending theme "Hoshi wo Tadoreba"（星を辿れば）by Yuiko Ohara（大原ゆい子）. But like that one, the second opening theme has begun some slow inroads into my head.

YURiKA's "MIND CONDUCTOR" , which was released as her 2nd single in May 2017, is your typically galloping pop-rock piece meant to get everyone's blood coursing a bit faster at the events to come. The opening credits certainly have the characters getting ready for battle in comparison to those from the first half of the series. Looking at the translation for eNu's lyrics on Lyrical Nonsense, it might be the song to wake folks up on a Monday. The music was provided by R・O・N. In a way, YURiKA sounds like how Akko would have sounded if she had been holding a mike instead of the Shiny Rod. And Akko's seiyuu, Megumi Han（潘めぐみ）, is no slouch in the singing department, either.

The Saitama Prefecture-born YURiKA has loved singing from a very early age according to her J-Wiki bio. In fact, she used to sing her favourite Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, Aya Matsuura（松浦亜弥）and Ayumi Hamasaki（浜崎あゆみ）songs daily in the middle of a rice paddy as a kid. She got into anison due to particular phrases she liked in those anime themes and as a high school senior, she won some accolades after appearing in the Animax Anison Grand Prix for the first time.

The first opening theme for "Little Witch Academia", "Shiny Ray" was YURiKA's debut single from February 2017, and apparently she even had a very small role in Episode 13 of the show as one of the students at the Luna Nova Academy.

Takako Okamura -- Yume wo Akiramenaide （夢をあきらめないで）

Well, I just saw the penultimate episode of this season of "Doctor Who" (yes, I am a well-rounded geek, literally and figuratively), and though, I've found some of Steven Moffatt's episodes lacking, "World Enough and Time" definitely ramped up the suspense and horror and reminders of the old days. Those annoying trailers negated any delightful surprises but knowing Moffatt, he will sneak in some more wham shots and lines before the Twelfth Doctor takes his final bow this Xmas.

Anyways, I should finish off Saturday night with my other geeky love...Japanese popular music. Furthermore, it should be something light and peaceful to counteract all that sci-fi doom and gloom. And I've got just the singer and song.

The wonderful thing about singer-songwriter Takako Okamura（岡村孝子）is that I can never ever imagine her going into death metal or neo-punk. She will always provide material that is as light and puffy and happy as a PreCure fairy. I actually saw her for the first time in a very long time on last week's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）as she performed the song of this article in a hall in Aichi Prefecture, her home province. The lass looked downright nervous when she sang "Yume wo Akiramenaide" (Don't Give Up Your Dreams) but I found that quite adorable, actually.

This was Okamura's 5th single from February 1987. I haven't gone too deep into her works but I just knew that "Yume wo Akiramenaide" would be quite the tonic for a rainy day. Her high quivery vocals and those often-angelic keyboards certainly speak truth to power for the title as she sounds like a girlfriend gently encouraging her boyfriend to go farther. However her lyrics actually have the now ex-girlfriend wishing her former beau well and to continue going for his dreams as the two go off on their separate paths. So, it's definitely a pretty song but methinks that it probably wouldn't be played at a wedding reception in Tokyo.

"Yume wo Akiramenaide" only reached as high as No. 50 on Oricon but in the years since, it has become one of Okamura's signature songs. It was also placed on her 3rd album "liberté" released in July 1987 which peaked at No. 5.

Come to think of it, perhaps this song would be quite appropriate for the remaining episodes of this season of "Doctor Who" and Peter Capaldi's Doctor.

Shigeru Amachi -- Showa no Blues （昭和のブルース）

When it comes to cop TV nowadays, most of the various series consist of the police procedural teams such as "NCIS" and the now-departed "CSI" franchise. Back when I was a kid growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, though, a lot of those shows were productions starring rebellious lone-wolf detectives with "name" titles such as "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones", "Columbo", "McCloud" and "Banacek". Mind you, Leroy Jethro Gibbs of "NCIS" probably could earn his own show on his supremely crusty personality if he were ever to leave the agency and go solo.

During that same time period, though, there were the Japanese cop shows, and my impression of them has always been of the elite team at the Tokyo police department with the wise commander at headquarters, the field boss and a whole bunch of junior tecs willing to whip out the guns and run for lots and lots of kilometres. I will have to talk with JTM about this since the old shows are more his forte.

However, I have found out that there was at least one show back in the 1970s which dealt with one ippiki ohkami (lone wolf) who looked so hard-boiled that even Dirty Harry would have taken a step back if he were to meet him in a dark alley. The show was titled "Hijo no License"（非情のライセンス...Extraordinary License）, no connection to the song performed by the late Yoko Nogiwa（野際陽子）that I had written about recently, and the star was singer-actor Shigeru Amachi（天知茂）as Detective Aida, hero to the defenseless...bane to the police chief. The guy struck me as a particularly seen-it-all, done-it-all Japanese Michael Caine doing his version of Peter Gunn.

Amachi also sang the ending theme "Showa no Blues" (The Showa Blues) which didn't directly reference the Showa Era but just his character's probable philosophy toward life that involved struggling, pushing and slogging through the years toward the inevitability of death that awaits us all. I gather that Detective Aida wasn't exactly the life of the party at the year-end celebrations.

But I gotta say that "Showa no Blues" seems perfect for the character. The music by Masaru Sato（佐藤勝）is languid and oh-so-shibui, and matches Detective Aida's measured strolls through the lonely byways of the city. This is a guy who doesn't need to go anywhere fast since there is nothing novel for him to catch and there is no place where the bad guy can hide from him. His eyes alone could probably take down the perp. Meanwhile, Michio Yamagami's（山上路夫）lyrics repeat Aida's cynical view toward life even at the cost of happiness with the lady who loves him.

I can also say that this is the type of song that Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）would probably raise his glass of whiskey on the rocks to. Perhaps Amachi and the Tough Guy even met up for drinks at some hole-in-the-wall in shitamachi.

The link below will take you to another rendition of the song but with scenes from "Hijo no License".

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15151647#_=_

Top 10 Albums for 2011

1.  Arashi                                   Beautiful World
2.  AKB48                                 Koko ni Ita Koto
3.  EXILE                                  Negai no Tou
4.  Lady Gaga                            Born This Way
5.  Shojo Jidai                            GIRLS' GENERATION
6.  Namie Amuro                       Checkmate!
7.  KARA                                   Super Girl
8.  Keisuke Kuwata                    MUSICMAN
9.  SMAP                                   SMAP AID
10.  Ikimonogakari                    Ikimonobakari: Members Best Selection

Top 10 Singles for 2011

1.  AKB48                                Flying Get
2.  AKB48                                Everyday, Katyusha
3.  AKB48                                Kaze ga Fuiteiru
4.  AKB48                                Ue kara Mariko
5.  AKB48                                Sakura no Ki ni Narou
6.  Arashi                                  Lotus
7.  Arashi                                  Meikyuu Love Song
8.  Kaoru to Tomoki                 Maru Maru Mori Mori!
     Tama ni Mukku
9.  SKE48                                 Pareo wa Emerald
10. Kis-My-Ft2                        Everybody Go

hi-posi -- Shintai to Uta dake no Kankei （身体と歌だけの関係）

Early in the lifetime of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I wrote about the quirky "Jenny wa Gokigen Naname"（ジェニーはご機嫌ななめ）originally performed by the band Juicy Fruits and then covered by a number of artists, notably a duo called hi-posi（ハイポジ）. In the article, I also mentioned that my first encounter with hi-posi was through this slightly avant-garde video that I saw one night on TV. Vocalist Miho Moribayashi（もりばやしみほ）definitely made an impression on me...looks and voice.

Well, I didn't know the title of the song back then but I finally found the video on YouTube. The title is "Shintai to Uta dake no Kankei" (A Relationship of Just Body and Song) which was their 2nd single from 1995. And yep, all that out-of-focus fuzziness, sometimes herky-jerky camera work and closeups of Moribayashi's face are back to enhance that dreamy nature of the song and its video. I think hi-posi must have represented the cool beatnik corner of Shibuya-kei especially with the singer's whispery voice. Her feathery vocals remind me of the voice of CHARA if that singer had decided to adorn herself in the atmosphere of beads and lava lamps.

Moribayashi (partnered with guitarist Kenji Kondo/近藤研二) came up with both words and music for "Shintai to Uta dake no Kankei" as she sensually encourages the listener to develop that relationship between body and music together. The lyrics are pretty vague but I think they pretty much come down to "making beautiful music together". No complaints here. A mini-album and a full album with the same title as the single were released in 1994 and 1995 respectively with the band's own translation of the title, "BODY meets SING".

Suchmos -- STAY TUNE

Here I was lamenting about how current J-Pop didn't have the old soulful groove tunes of the late 1990s and early 2000s when I encountered this band called Suchmos through a browsing of YouTube last night.

I decided to try out this one song of theirs which had come out in January 2016, "STAY TUNE", and suddenly the good vibes came back. Memories of Misia, bird, Sing Like Talking and Jamiroquai came flooding back into my head and Suchmos provided me with a goodly dose of endorphins. This is some fine groovin' for a Friday night!

According to the Wikipedia bio of Suchmos, the group started up officially in 2013 and consists of six fellows who have known each other since grade school. And in the J-Wiki article on Suchmos, vocalist YONCE followed in his older sister's footsteps by taking up ballet at the tender age of 3 and listening/dancing to her favourite singers who were the aforementioned Misia, TLC and other R&B acts.

Suchmos covers a number of genres: rock, hip-hop, soul and jazz according to Wiki and J-Wiki but after giving a few more of their songs a shot, I think they are quite comfy in that third genre. Certainly I hope they stay comfy there, too. Apparently, the origin of the name Suchmos was derived from jazz legend's Louis Armstrong's nickname Satchmo.

YONCE, bassist HSU and the rest of the band took care of words and music for "STAY TUNE" which got as high as No. 10 on the Billboard Hot Japan 100. It also went Gold as the song was also included on Suchmos' 2nd EP, "LOVE&VICE" which peaked at No. 15 on Oricon after its release in January 2016. The song was also on the band's 2nd album "THE KIDS" which was released a day earlier.

Gonna have to keep my eye on these guys!

The music video was partially filmed on the 33rd floor of this
building in Roppongi Hills, the Mori Tower.