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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.

Friday, July 15, 2016

CHAKA -- Ashita e no Melody (明日へのメロディー)


Well, after seeing the DVD box set of this "Card Captor Sakura"(カードキャプターさくら)anime on my friend's shelf all these years, I finally got to see some evidence of this well-regarded franchise. Mind you, I was already intrigued through its theme songs including the truly groovy "Groovy!" by Kohmi Hirose(広瀬香美).

A couple of weeks ago, my friend played the 2nd movie titled "Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card" from 2000 which meant I was starting this franchise right from the wrong end of things since I believe that this is the last film or TV series representing Cardcaptor Sakura to date. It actually wasn't too difficult to follow although I think viewing the series would have helped me with the mythos to a certain extent.

Anyways, I guess in continuing the tradition of keeping some cool urban contemporary theme songs for Sakura, the movie ended with a truly glorious ending theme to accompany the scene that I bet all of the fans had pined for when it came to the relationship between Sakura and Syaoran. But the singer behind "Ashita e no Melody"(Melody to Tomorrow) wasn't Hirose but another songstress with plenty of soul in her voice, CHAKA from PSY-S.


I've long been a fan of PSY-S so to hear CHAKA give her grand best to this ending theme was no surprise; the only surprise was discovering this was only her 4th single as a solo artist. With lyrics by the singer and music by Shiro Sagisu(鷺巣詩郎), "Ashita e no Melody" has that mix of disco and fantasy (just think of Sailor Moon and Ariel hitting Studio 54 in New York City in the late 1970s) with that beat plus that wild harp. Not surprisingly, Sagisu has arranged remixes for material by J-R&B diva Misia, another singer with a grand voice. If the franchise ever decided for a reboot, then Misia would be a spiffy choice to provide a theme song.


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