Favorite J-Drama Theme Songs: Oyabaka Seishun Hakusho's “Koshi Kondo” by Yuzu

 After being asked by a friend to recommend hime some of my favorite dramas to watch, I suggested the wonderfully fun and zany “Oyabaka Seishun Hakusho”, sadly after only ONE episode he dropped it, citing what he felt was "weak writing, unlikeable characters and general silliness", LOL! Well, I guess for each his own, but for those of us who love Muro Tsuyoshi’s zany brand of humor (most notable in dramas like “Yuusha Yoshihiko Maou to Shiro”, "Super Salaryman Saenai-shi", and even to a lesser extent “Hakozume”), Oyabaka is a real gem!

As a general rule when I introduce a drama to someone I will re-watch the show along with them so I will be refreshed on details and high points to talk about, and even though he dropped out on it, I continued re-watching the entire 7 episode series, and it was just as much good FUN as I remembered!

It was Oyabaka that first introduced me to both Mei Nagano and Mio Imada and it was interesting to revisit this drama now that I know and love them so much, seeing them all interacting in this near-slapstick comedy! But the thing I had forgotten MOST about this drama was its wonderful theme song “Koshi Kondo” (Business and Pleasure) by duo YUZU. 

Playing over the sweet and fun images of the principle cast running around, joking and laughing while screenshots of the episode played, this was an AWESOME ending song, one that really summed up the warm, chummy camaraderie that they all had with each other, and the song’s  70’s tinged tune always struck a nostalgic nerve that tugged on my heartstrings!

  I’m from the generation who know that a good theme song is easily 20% of what makes a drama GREAT, and I have to admit that the way each episode ended with the same heartwarming end song made the series all that much better!

After watching the whole thing, I had to hear more and found a great live performance Yuzu did of the song to a cheering crowd, and I was cheering right along with them!

As some of you may recall, I had made a post featuring some of my all-time favorite J-drama theme songs and though there were a ton from the 90’s, there was a distinct lack of later and more-recent shows. This is primarily due to most post-2000’s shows not having ending credits proper but just having the credits roll under the screen as the song plays while the show is still going on, but I do feel there is a general phasing out of long theme song segments as a whole, not only in J-dramas but TV shows in general...So it was really refreshing to realize that with Oyabaka there are STILL those endings that can really stir up the feelings and memories for me!

posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com