Forgotten Japanese Singers – The Neutral

It’s been a while since I did one of these features. It turns out most anime songs don’t make much of an impression on me in the long run. I forget them pretty quickly, which means I don’t remember a lot of anisong singers/bands either. And the ones I do remember are often still active on the Japanese music scene and hardly “forgotten” at all. There might be a correlation between memorability and longevity when it comes to success in music, but I can’t prove it.

Still I dug deep into my archives and found something at last, hence today’s update… Or so I thought! It turns out this band is still active too! I’m happy for them, but how I am going to write my blog feature at this rate? Sorry The Neutral, today you’re going to have to pretend to be forgotten so I can “remember” you!

Today’s artist: The Neutral (ザニュートラル)

Notable anime song(s): Nichiyoubi no Taiyou (日曜日の太陽) from Narutaru

Biography: The Neutral is a Japanese pop band from Hyogo Prefecture. They were founded in 1998 (official website) with a current lineup of Shigeru on vocals, Kiyomasa on guitar and Homerun Yotani on bass. Until 2016 they were a 4-man group with Beat Daisuke on drums.

The original members all met as high schoolers, so they still have that “buddies teasing each other” air about them. Their profile page is just them making fun of each other from start to finish, interspersed with a bit of band history. I like it when bands have personality and don’t take themselves too seriously, it’s so funny.

Anyway, The Neutral made their major debut with “Chance wa Soko da!” under the Dream music label and released 4 albums before moving to their own label in 2012. They released their Best Of album, “The Neutral Best” in October 2013. One of the songs on it, “Kazoku no Jikan” made it to #2 on the charts, their highest ranking to date. According to the wired CAN system, whatever that is anyway. They’re still in the music business today and had a performance on October 22nd at a Rocktown festival in Osaka. They also released their 11th single “7170” in September 2017 so they’re doing pretty well.

I encountered The Neutral when I watched Narutaru and heard the opening song, Nichiyoubi no Taiyou. It has a light, cheerful reggae feel to it that isn’t common in Japanese music, much less in anime theme songs, so it stuck in my memory immediately. I liked reggae a lot, back then. The contrast between the poppy sounds and the mournful lyrics also synched up well with the cartoon graphics + unhappy events shown in Narutaru’s opening sequence. Not to mention the infamous disconnect between the early parts of the show and the later, darker episodes. It was a good choice of theme. Watching the anime once was enough for me, but I still listen to Nichiyoubi no Taiyou very often.

Other songs by The Neutral

Based on songs I found uploaded to Youtube. Let’s try a couple and see if it’s time to add The Neutral to my regular playlist.

Kimi ni Todoke (君に届け) – It’s a nice song, easy listening. Catchy and happy like Nichiyoubi no Taiyou. More impressive was how much fun the singers seemed to be having on the stage. Attending one of their lives would be a lot of fun. The audience seems to be full of surprisingly harmonious young ladies though… Maybe it’s not a live but a music video?

Kazoku no Jikan (かぞくのじかん) – Too sappy and sentimental for my liking. Mommy this, Daddy that, I don’t like those kinds of songs. Musically it’s a bit boring too.

Tatakai no Uta – Something to do with Aura Battler Dunbine? Its rather noisy.  It sounds like something Arashi or Hikari Genji or some other boy band would sing while running around the stage. Not sure if like.

Pan to Pistol (パンとピストル)- Amusing music video and lively song. Pan! Pan! Pan pan pan! It grows on you the longer you listen to it. I like it.

If you like Nichiyoubi no Taiyou, The Neutral’s songs are all in the same vein so I think you’ll like the others as well. The Neutral is pretty good.

Ayumi Hamasaki

Known as the Empress of J-Pop in certain circles, Ayumi Hamasaki is almost certainly the most successful female j-pop artist to date. She’s been outsold on an album-by-album basis, but in terms of consistent success there’s nobody that can hold a candle to her right now. She was actually the first artist in Japan to have an album debut at number-one for 11 consecutive years!

It’s a mystery really. She can’t sing that well, in fact her voice is kinda bad. She can’t dance that well. In spite of lots of plastic surgery, she’s not that pretty. She doesn’t look very friendly or down to earth, in fact I’ve heard rumors of her being a bit of a diva. So why is she so successful? Search me. I’m not a fan, though I respect her accomplishments.

Born in 1978, Hamasaki spent several months running around Shibuya doing goodness knows what before being discovered in a nightclub by famous producer Max Matsuura, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In spite of her massive success, she does nothing for me personally. I have no Hamasaki songs in either my album or mp3 collection. Nevertheless there are two songs she has that I kinda liked, Seasons and Dearest, which was used as the ending song for Inuyasha (where most western fans first found out about her). Apart from those…meh. Next!

Off Course

 

Known in Japanese as オフコース, Off Course was a Japanese “folk” band active between 1969 and 1989 when they split up so lead singer Kazumasa Oda could pursue a solo career. Although they termed themslves a “folk” band, the majority of their songs could be classified as pop, with an emphasis on smooth, soulful ballads powered by Oda’s silky, unforgettable voice.

Band Members
Kazumasa Oda (小田和正) – Lead vocals, keyboard
Yasuhiro Suzuki (鈴木康博) – Guitar
Shimizu Hitoshi (清水 仁) – Bass, vocals, chorus
Ooma Jirou (大間 ジロー) – Drums
Matsuo Kazuhiko (松尾 一彦) – Guitar, harmonica, vocals, chorus

History
Oda and Suzuki met as classmates in high school. Together with Shinushi Michio they formed a group that went on to win several local singing competitions. They made their record debut in 1970 with “Gunshuu no Naka de (Inside the Crowd)” but met little initial success. Shinushi left the band in 1971, and in 1976 they added Matsuo, Hitoshi and Ooma to the band. In 1979, 10 years after they started, Off Course finally got its first big hit in the form of “Sayonara (Goodbye).” They maintained a huge level of popularity with a long string of mega-hits until they disbanded in 1989. Although fans have repeatedly called for reunion, Oda in particular has made it clear that the band is finished.

Off Course was famous for their western-sounding pop ballads, simple love-focused lyrics and smoothly-blended harmonic choruses. Even today their songs continue to be covered contemporary artists and sung throughout Japan.

How I discovered Off Course
Purely by chance back in 2005 when I was looking for Japanese learning materials, I downloaded an album of old Japanese “natsumero” (nostalgic melodies) off Youtube. I didn’t listen to it then, though, just stashed it away for later. Fast forward to 2008 and I was bored one day. Loaded up those files on my mp3 player and was completely blown away. The album had songs by other great J-bands like RC Succession and Tulips, who I’ll write about eventually, but Off Course was definitely the star of the show. One listen of YES-YES-YES and I was putty in their hands. The sound! The lyrics! Since then I’ve acquired about half of their songs (illegally, but I’m working on better ways) and I still think YES-YES-YES is their masterpiece, so I’ll be uploading it soon for you to check out.

Key songs
Nemurenu Yoru
Aki no Kehai
Ai wo Tomenaide
Sayonara
Yes-No
Kotoba ni Dekinai
YES-YES-YES
Kimi ga, Uso wo, Tsuita