Kaho Shimada -- Rosey/Manga-tique Romance（マンガチック・ロマンス）

 

Having a passing interest in architecture especially for buildings that have that futuristic tinge, I was quite elated to get this shot of Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Shinjuku. I never had any particular need to enter the above ground floors but I did access the basement ones where a bookstore resides. Access was possible through the covered passage leading from Shinjuku Station's West Exit to the hotel-and-skyscraper area.

Anyways, I want to introduce a new person into "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Her name is Kaho Shimada（島田歌穂）and she's a singer and a musical theatre actress. I can't quite remember whether she's appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）since its beginnings several years ago but I remember that she used to appear fairly often on the show's predecessor "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）on NHK with her golden tones.

As an example, I can offer her "Rosey" from her 2nd album "Distractions" which was released in February 1990. Written and composed by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）, it's a pretty stylish pop love ballad about realizing too late that a love has now gotten away. It's a sad song to be sure but the arrangement and Shimada's rich and resonant vocals can bring fans back for repeat listenings. Many singles and albums of hers have come out between 1981 and 2019. Shimada's most famous role on stage is that of Eponine in the Tokyo production of "Les Misérables".

Born Kaho Shima（島歌穂）in 1963 in Tokyo, the future entertainer grew up in the midst of a musical family. Her father, Takaho Shimada（島田敬穂）, was a musician who trained one of the Anison Kings, Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）, while her mother, Reiko Tsukubane（筑波嶺玲子）, was a jazz singer who emerged from the famed Takarazuka Troupe. Teenaged Kaho had a recurring role in a tokusatsu comedy series "Ganbare!! Robocon"（がんばれ!!ロボコン...Do Your Best!! Robocon） through the mid-1970s and then made her debut as an aidoru in April 1981 with her first single "Manga-tique Romance", a 70s funk/disco-sounding tune written by Fumiko Okada（岡田有希子）and composed/arranged by Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）.

Perhaps one reason that I haven't seen Shimada recently on an NHK program (she did appear on the Kohaku Utagassen in 1988 and 1989) is that she may be very busy as an assistant professor of drama at the Osaka University of Arts.

Aya Uchida -- Roman tic-tac

 

Happy Monday! Although in my case, I'm thinking more along the lines of Relieved Monday. The bathroom tap odyssey has finally come to a satisfactory ending with not only the faucet being repaired but also an erratic toilet pump replaced. Knock on wood, leakage is now a thing of the past for the next few years at least, and we've got a steady plumbing company to help us out in the future.😁

Anyways, let's not linger on bathroom plumbing anymore. I don't know very much about seiyuu and singer Aya Uchida（内田彩）although she has popped up in minor roles in the anime that I've seen (and has had major roles in ones that I haven't). But I did find this catchy ditty by her that doesn't seem to be attached to any particular anime and was released as a track on her 5th and latest album titled "Music" from November 2023.

Given the intriguing title of "Roman tic-tac", this was written by Kano Tono（東乃カノ）and composed by Kyoichi Miyazaki（宮崎京一）with YOMA, and perhaps the slightly funky arrangement can have it fall under the Neo-City Pop banner but I'm just as happy with it being a frenetic pop song. Tono's lyrics sound a bit cryptic but basically there seems to be a fresh love affair being encouraged here.

Uchida hails from Gunma Prefecture and as a young child, she was big into anime such as "Sailor Moon" and "My Neighbour Totoro" to the extent that she even wanted to be those main characters. From high school, she entered a seiyuu training academy with her debut in an anime happening in 2008 when she was in her early twenties.

Naoya Matsuoka -- Knock wo Shinakatta Santa Claus（ノックをしなかったサンタクロース）

 

Well, I guess today being a Sunday, it will be a cocktail-related instrumental day for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". My previous article was Nash Music Library's "Cocktail From Japan" and for this one, we go back to the wistful and sophisticated stylings of Seizo Watase's（わたせせいぞう）"Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）given animated life in the 1980s.

Today's "Heart Cocktail" entry is titled "Knock wo Shinakatta Santa Claus" (The Santa Claus Who Didn't Knock) and it's about a fellow on the borderline between melancholy and pragmatic. He's had one final drink at Jesse's Bar during the Yuletide a week after having a major fight with his girlfriend who hasn't been seen since. The guy heads to his cold apartment (no central heating in Japan), probably even colder without his girlfriend and thinking that's the end of a beautiful relationship before hitting the hay in his clothes. He then has a dream involving a flying car and a Miffy-like rabbit behind the steering wheel (what was in that egg cocktail?!) before waking up and finding his girlfriend puttering away in the kitchen. Cold War resolved.

Of course, it wouldn't be a "Heart Cocktail" episode without the accompanying stylish soundtrack and sure enough, the late musician Naoya Matsuoka（松岡直也）comes up with the song, also titled "Knock wo Shinakatta Santa Claus". It's a classy slice of mellow Latin jazz that lightens the so-be-it moroseness of the protagonist's story of love lost and surprisingly regained. The song is the penultimate track on "Heart Cocktail Vol. 1" from 1986. I have a feeling that the entire album can be used as dinner music anytime during the year.

Nash Music Library -- Cocktail From Japan

From Good Free Photos

 

Considering yesterday's slight flood in the bathroom that I noted in yesterday's Casiopea's article, things are quite a bit more chill in the household today. But man, I could have used a cocktail...or three or four...to assuage my stress. Speaking of which, you can take a gander at the above video featuring the winner of the 2019 Suntory Cocktail Award. To be honest, I'd like to taste Asuka Hijiya's Shunmu cocktail as well.

I'd been wondering what the first released-in-2024 song on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" would be and as it turns out, it's this one. "Cocktail From Japan" is a track from good ol' Nash Music Library's January 12th album "Stylish Japan 2". Short and sweet, perhaps like the Shunmu, I wouldn't say that it is a perfect melding of traditional instrumental and technopop; it's more of an amiable give-and-take between those two genres with the synths pumping away on one side while the koto and shakuhachi are playing on the other. So, if I were to think of a cocktail analogy here, maybe it would be a layered drink like a B-52.

Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of drinking a B-52 though I've seen it made and imbibed by friends. It took a while to get a response from them afterwards, though. Perhaps if I downed one, I would be sleeping it off in the corner for the rest of the day.🍸 Incidentally, as of this writing, "Cocktail From Japan" is only the second song that I've blessed with the Traditional Instrumental label. You can also check out the first one, Michio Miyagi's（宮城道雄）"Haru no Umi"（春の海）.

Susan -- Ah! Soka

 

Neither having watched a lot of the animated or CG representative programming for the "Star Wars" franchise over the past few decades nor caught "Ahsoka" on Disney+ (aside from what I've glimpsed through YouTube) since I'm not subscribed to the service, I've only had glimpses of the Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano. 

From what I know of the character, she was Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner until he had that drastic change of faith but apparently the lady has been able to hold her own for a while...at the very least, to be able to get her own TV show. Remembering how George Lucas loved to lift aspects of Japanese culture to adapt into his beloved "Star Wars", I had naively assumed that he got the name for Ahsoka from the common expression "Ah, soka"（あ、そうか。）meaning "Oh, is that so?". As it turns out, Lucas adapted the name from that of the ancient Indian emperor Ashoka.

Today's preamble ramble was brought to you by singer Susan and her tune "Ah! Soka". I'd introduced the lass back in early December last year because of her "My Love" which was the final track on her 2nd album "The Girl Can't Help It" in 1981. "Ah! Soka" was actually the B-side to her July 1981 single "Do You Believe in Magic?"  (a Susan album with the same title was released in 1980).

Written by Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, both fellows from the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra, "Ah! Soka" is a bit more languid if also a little more playful through the singer than "My Love". It's got the techno in there for sure but the synths also share space and time and energy with some twangy guitars. Ah, yeah...those early 1980s! 

Casiopea -- Smile Again

 

Well, it's been quite a day and I don't mean that in a good way unfortunately. I managed to tear off the cold water tap in my bathroom and after we tried to do something that perhaps we shouldn't have done, we potentially could have worsened the situation. There is a reason that there are professionals called plumbers.🔧 And we have called one in though he won't be here until Monday.

Not exactly then in a great mood and after getting a whole lot wetter and more frustrated, the stress levels are elevated. I've tried therefore to find something soothing and appropriate for the situation. Strangely enough, I have found "Smile Again" by fusion band Casiopea. The first track from the group's October 1981 album "Cross Point", it's got some nice jump and positivity with the guitar leading the way, thanks to the melody composed by guitarist and founding bandmate Issei Noro（野呂一生）.

Deep cleansing breaths, now. 🧘 The concert performance of "Smile Again" takes place below at about 4:35.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Happy End -- Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame no Hi（12月の雨の日）

 

Number: 041

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer: Eiichi Ohtaki

Arranger: Happy End

From Happy End's 1970 album "Happy End"

"Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame no Hi" (A Rainy Day in December) is a signature song by Happy End（はっぴいえんど）bringing together for the first time Takashi Matsumoto's（松本隆）lyrics of his impressions of a rainy day in Roppongi and Eiichi Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）melody. It basically means that this song is the first step for City Pop. The words "wind" and "city" have already popped up within the lyrics. The season of the "wind rising" called pop music has arrived in Tokyo.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Hi, J-Canuck here. Unlike the last Yutaka Kimura Speaks and Happy End article of "Kaze wo Atsumete"（風をあつめて）that I put up last August, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame no Hi" is a song that I hadn't actually covered on my own. I have to say that it is an impressively atmospheric tune about a person doing some people watching after a rain. Although there is no mention of Roppongi in Matsumoto's lyrics, I can imagine that person may be hanging out in the famed Almond Café at the southwest corner of the main intersection in the area.

I found Kimura's observation that this particular song represents the baby steps for City Pop which would get popularized several years into the 1970s. There's more of a folk rock arrangement than the usual thumping bass and smooth groove in the City Pop that we know and love, but again going back to Matsumoto's lyrics, "Juu-ni-gatsu no Ame no Hi" does speak to life and living in the city, namely Tokyo, back in the day. As for readers who may not understand the last two sentences of Kimura's feelings above, the two words of "wind" (kaze) and "city" (machi) that appear in the lyrics seem to have become the legendary words for the band since they would also be used for their 2nd album in 1971, "Kazemachi Roman"（風街ろまん...Wind City Romance）. In that album, there is that overarching concept of the winds of change blowing through the city...the city where the Happy End members grew up as they witnessed these changes. Kimura's final sentence lifts one lyric directly from the song to make his point that Japanese music itself was undergoing massive changes.