Mamoru Miyano -- Boku wa Hero（ぼくはヒーロー）

 

Yes, indeed. Just wrote about one legendary seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, and I'm now going onto another seiyuu who's probably headed the same way (much of it under his own admission). I am talking about the one and only Mamoru Miyano（宮野真守）.

Of course, for all those "Zombieland Saga" fans, both Mitsuishi and Miyano were working together on that project with the latter being the half-wise, half-insane Kotaro Tatsumi, the wild but enigmatic manager of Franchouchou.

I can't say that I have seen Miyano's work comprehensively although he's been in show business since 1990, but I have seen plenty of him on YouTube at those anime live events, and I find him to be one of the funniest celebrities out there. His gangly hilarity reminds me of Jim Carrey, and the fact that his microphone arbitrarily went to a certain angle above gave him incredible fodder to bring the house down including his fellow voice actors. He's got some pretty mad improvisation skills.

What I've also heard and read is that Miyano is well experienced as a musical actor and an anison singer, and it was one night when I was watching NHK's "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）series that he came up to sing "Boku wa Hero" (I'm a Hero). Unfortunately, the original video from the show with a kid pretending to be a cape-garbed superhero can't be found on YouTube, but at least I could find the recording of the song. It's got that hypercaffeinated marching beat and Miyano's trademark over-the-top delivery. Tomomi Narimoto（成本智美）and Keiichi Kondo（近藤圭一）were responsible for words and music respectively for "Boku wa Hero" which got its time on "Minna no Uta" during February and March 2019.

Kotono Mitsuishi -- Nigedasu kedo Dakishimete（逃げだすけど抱きしめて）

 

Had a slight medical issue last week...or probably it's more realistic to say that I went through a medical question. Last Monday, I had the runniest of runny noses followed by a few days of coughing. Well, considering the circumstances that we all currently live in, despite the fact that I am double-vaccinated, I went to get a COVID test anyways at the local hospital yesterday. Happily enough, this morning I found out that the results were negative and things are hunky-dory.

As for that famous nose swab test, it was the first time for me to undergo that, and to be honest, I've had wasabi nasal explosions that were far more painful.

On that reassuring note, you've heard this lady cry out those immortal words in anime decades ago.

And more recently, you've heard her gloriously growl out a cheer in the only way that her character, the legendary Tae Yamada, could do. Freddie Mercury was probably smiling in approval wherever he is now.

Now, without making this sound like an ancient K-Tel LP commercial, I bring you legendary seiyuu Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）singing some of that old-timey New Jack Swing (!) through her March 1993 debut album "Mo' Merry". Case in point is the track "Nigedasu kedo Dakishimete" (Gonna Run But Hug Me).

Ah, well...I'm not sure if she was going for overly innocently aidoru kittenish or an older version of Usagi Tsukino, but her delivery is fairly wobbly. Not that I was ever planning to go even partial Gordon Ramsay on her, but on reading one excerpt in her J-Wiki biography which stated that her first time in the recording booth was a traumatic experience (although things apparently improved markedly later on), I'm willing to chalk this one up to one of those things. Still, the music by Takeo Suzuki（鈴木武生）is nice especially with the saxophone with Aki Mana（真名杏樹）providing the lyrics.

And hey, she is Sailor Moon and Tae Yamada after all. Legendary!

Yoko Oda -- Tokimeki Wining（ときめきWining）

 

I was just writing about dining in a classy restaurant in my last article for Jiro Sugita's（杉田二郎）"Umi"（海）, and here we may actually have the singer doing it, too.

This is "Tokimeki Wining" (Giddy Wining), a track from Yoko Oda's（小田陽子）1982 debut album "New York 1961", and I gather that unlike me in the milieu of Sugita's "Umi", Oda's protagonist is either tipsy or nervous about her evening with that potential special someone at that classy restaurant. Not quite sure how the date went either since the song is pretty short at just 3 1/2 minutes.

Folk singer Akiyoshi Imanari（いまなりあきよし）wrote and composed "Tokimeki Wining" for Oda, and he did the same for another track from "New York 1961", "New York 1961 Fuyu"（ニューヨーク 1961 冬）which was more of the old-fashioned jazz ballad. With "Tokimeki Wining", though, Imanari brings together some of that down-home City Pop which evokes moodily-lit Tokyo hotel-top bars and restaurants circa 1980s, but he still manages to mix in some of that Mancini magic into the arrangements.

Jiro Sugita -- Umi（海）

 

I think I'll have that chocolate fondue now, please...😋

Sorry, but whenever I hear this song "Umi" (Ocean) by Jiro Sugita（杉田二郎）, I simply feel as if I'm at a bayside resort restaurant in Japan enjoying the night view. This is one heck of a B-side for the Kyoto-born singer-songwriter; to explain, "Umi" was the flip side of the vinyl "Magdalena"（マグダレーナ）which was his 22nd single released in May 1985. 

Written by Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by either Sugita himself or Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博） depending on whether you will go with J-Wiki or Kashi-Get, this is a cool evening breeze of a Resort Pop song made even richer (yep, I'm still thinking chocolate fondue here) with that trumpet behind the singer (still marveling from Guy Barker's solo on Masami Tsuchiya's（土屋昌巳）song last night). Bossa nova will always get me right here💓 and Sugita's crooning vocals here almost make me forget about his 70s folk roots.

Although I'm being the foodie here, Kitayama's lyrics have Sugita feeling a lot more lovelorn as the sea seems to beckon to him like a lost lover. I can just imagine the number of sighs that must have emanated from him.

Naoko Kawai -- Home Again, Alone Again

 

Man, I know that Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）was one of the premier aidoru of the early 1980s but she also did have that desire to try some of the more refined champagne stuff in terms of music. I'm talking about a couple of albums that she released: "Daydream Coast" in August 1984 and "9 1/2" in December 1985. Regrettably, I have yet to purchase the former album but I got a very nice tasting through Kawai's duet with the David Foster on one track "Live Inside Your Love".

Now, I'm having a major gulp of another track on "Daydream Coast", "Home Again, Alone Again", which I gather from the title is a most bittersweet tune of being a solitary being once more. However, the arrangement is so lush and creamy like a chocolate éclair that it just reminds me of the AOR/soft rock that I used to listen to in the late 1970s/early 1980s on that pink SONY radio on the dining room table.

Synthesizer programmer/guitarist Erich Bulling and percussionist Ralph Johnson were behind the creation of "Home Again, Alone Again" as they were involved in the overall recording of the album with keyboardist Randy Kerber handling the arrangement. Prolific lyricist Masao Urino（売野政男）provided the Japanese words to the song. 

Just marveling about how smooth and refined the song sounds, as I did for "Live Inside Your Love", I've left the aidoru tag off this time for Kawai. Although I have used that tag and the one for J-AOR or City Pop for some other singers, "Home Again, Alone Again" is a tune that I can only describe as a dreamy West Coast ballad that could easily be placed on an American AOR compilation. There was frankly no way that this particular track or the whole album could come out otherwise considering the folks who were involved here if you take a look at the Tower Records site selling "Daydream Coast".

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Ride on Time (The All-Different Demo Version)/Masahiko Kondo -- One More Time

 

There is another...

Yes, Master Yoda was indeed right. Rocket Brown was also indeed right. There is another.

The very first Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）article that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" back in February 2012 was dedicated to the single version of "Ride on Time" released in May 1980. It was early days in the blog, but I didn't really go too deep into the melodic joy and wonder for this song unfortunately. Since then of course, I have found this to be one of Tats' truly wonderful masterpieces in a discography filled with splendid songs. Oh, that voice, those soulful horns and that feeling of taking off on a wonderful journey. It has indeed been an epic City Pop story and perhaps it's no wonder that the song was used years later for that Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）drama "Good Luck". Just like how I see TOKIO's "Ambitious Japan" as the musical ambassador to all Bullet Trains, I think that Yamashita's "Ride on Time" is the ambassador to all airplanes heading for tropical climes.

https://soundcloud.com/lokithechocobo/ride-on-time-special-demo-vers-tatsuro-yamashita

A few weeks ago, though, my fellow City Pop comrade-in-arms, Rocket Brown from "Come Along Radio", dropped a bombshell on me by stating that there was a demo version of "Ride on Time" that had a totally different arrangement and lyrics by Master Tats. It apparently first saw the light of day for the public when it was introduced through one of the LPs on the humongous Yamashita treasure trove "THE RCA/AIR YEARS LP BOX 1976-1982" released in February 2002. And this different "Ride on Time" is Track 5 on Disc 9's Side A.

According to the J-Wiki article on this super-duper box for his fans, when Yamashita was requested to create a song for a commercial which would become "Ride on Time", it was the custom for presentation purposes to come up with two different takes on the song for the client . The singer-songwriter grumblingly obliged, muttering something to the effect of "Pretty meaningless work, if you ask me...". Well, he still came up with the goods with the forgotten twin being this demo version.

When I first heard this those few weeks ago, my jaw dropped. It WAS a totally different song but still an amazing City Pop piece. "Ride on Time" the all-different version was less the dreamy brilliance of getting on board a jetliner and more of a hop into the convertible for a funky fun Friday night out on the town painted by Eizin Suzuki whose work you see on the cover for "THE RCA/AIR YEARS LP BOX 1976-1982". I think that is also Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）on backing vocals and much love for the bass solo.

The client, Maxell Tapes, of course, went with the one that we've all known and loved for years but the all-different version wasn't completely thrown into suspended animation until that 2002 revelation. It was used as the basis for a B-side for 80s aidoru Masahiko Kondo's（近藤真彦）"Eien ni Himitsu sa"（永遠に秘密さ...Forever a Secret） single from September 1984. Titled this time as "One More Time", that basic melody was given some tweaks and made for a pretty dynamic coupling tune for Matchy. Naturally, Yamashita received his composition and arrangement credit alongside Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）but the lyrics this time were provided by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）.

I always love it when an interesting story comes out of one song.

The Molice -- Ms. PANIC

 

Almost a year ago, I put up an article about this Buffalo, New York-based Japanese rock band called The Molice. Well, the fact that there was a Japanese rock band just across Lake Ontario in Buffalo was enough to grab my attention but then when I listened to their "Hello, Hello", I received all these memories from The Go-Gos and Heart.

Well, I guess this will begin a tradition whenever I write up an article about The Molice, but as I did for "Hello, Hello", I can start off here by talking about another beloved Buffalo WKBW Channel 7 show that my brother and I used to watch as kids on early morning TV. This would be "Rocketship 7" which lasted in its initial run between 1962 and 1978. It was hosted by weatherman Dave Thomas, and he is the first of three Dave Thomas' I got to know on television before Second City's veteran comedian Dave Thomas and the founder of Wendy's hamburgers Dave Thomas. His son, David Boreanaz, has gone on to even bigger fame as a television actor on "Bones", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "SEAL Team".

It was always nice to wake up to the epic theme song for "Rocketship 7" and then catch Dave bantering with his buddies on board, Biff Beeper, Promo the Robot (who could actually disco in the later years) and the Sweetleys.

Anyways, back to the band at hand. From their debut album "Doctor Ray" (2008) is "Ms. PANIC" which starts off with a catchy and clanging drum-and-guitar riff before we get sultry vocalist Rinko who, despite all of the groovy raucousness around her, is not in any panic mode at all. She's completely in control, and this time, I hear some sexy Blondie and even some Ramones emanating from the song.

The official music video for "Ms. PANIC" enhances things with this monochrome avant-garde intro consisting of a really thin slice of Kobe beef (maybe) and a drain getting doused in dark liquid. Then, it looks like the band is really getting down in an old-style washroom (no dirty thoughts, please). I think that this would have made for an ideal entry on an episode of "City Limits", my favourite late-night show for the unusual music videos, although I would have had to turn down the volume considerably.

From what I've read on their website log, The Molice are still in Japan. But hopefully when things really do recover for everyone on Earth, they will make their way back to Buffalo to perform again in their home away from home. Up until then, may they stay safe and healthy and The Molice.