KagenamiQ ([info]jttr) wrote,
@ 2006-09-20 23:14:00
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Current mood: tired

A Song for Isaac
Hey, all- Very sorry for the long silence. Work has been ugly. Starting today, some improvements have been made that with luck will keep my workdays to 12 hours on Mondays and 10 hours the rest of the week--'way better than the 14-hour days I've been logging 'way too often the past couple months. Was able to split after a 10 1/2-hour day today, so there's actually hope!

This isn't Saiyuuki-related (that'll be next time; was able to shoot some photos when Gekidan Himawari performed the stage play two weeks ago), but...got word today that seiyuu Kazuyuki Sogabe passed away on Sunday night from esophagus cancer. He was 58. You might know him as the voice of Bancoran in Patalliro!. I think of him as the voice of Akira Yamamoto (one of my first anime crushes, *blush*) in film Saraba Uchuu Senkan Yamato and TV series Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2. He also provided the voice for the titular panty-man of Hariken Polymar, and Rei Ginsei in the first Vampire Hunter D, and mouthy Ippei Mine in Voltes V, and Kyoushirou Yuuzuki (always far more fun to think of as the "Elton John Samurai") of Daimos, and on and on.

But his work in the J9 trilogy of series is what will stay with a great many fans. In 1981 Brygar jump-started fledgling studio Kokusai Eigasha, bringing a rock sound and bad-ass attitude that anime hadn't seen in a robot series before. Sogabe provided the voice of leader Isaac Godunov (the late Kaneto Shiozawa costarred as team ace Blaster Kid), and it wasn't long before Isaac had fans all around the world. Sogabe returned as Shutekken in second J9 series Baxingar and as I.C. Blues in the trilogy-concluding Sasuraigar--but they didn't have the same impact as Brygar...and in fact, some four years after Brygar, Kokusai Eigasha was gone.

Now Kazuyuki Sogabe is gone too--but maybe, before his passing, with luck someone relayed to him what happened when 300 people gathered three weeks ago for the 24-Hour Nonstop 1,000-Anime Song Medley in Shinjuku. A Brygar tribute presented not only the series' opening theme (complete with opening narrator Hidekatsu Shibata there to perform his piece in person), but also the ending sequence from the series' final episode, with some calls of "Kakko-ii!" ringing from the audience when Isaac appeared. The song "Abayo Fly Bye" played during the sequence, with the lyrics thoughtfully supered by the event staff so that people could sing along--and what an awesome, en masse belting-out it was!

The world of 1981 is a quarter-century gone now. But Isaac never fails to prompt some of my favorite memories, and I'm grateful to Sogabe-san for his part in powering them.

For fellow Isaac and Brygar fans...here's "Abayo Fly Bye" (music by Masayuki Yamamoto, lyrics by Yu Yamamoto, performed by Yukio Yamagata), and a singable, sorta-loosely-English version I started fooling with during potty breaks at the 24-Hour Nonstop Anime Song event. ;^)

Thanks for indulging maudlin me. Hope to be back (and more back to normal ;^) ) soon!

ABAYO FLY BYE

OH YEAH! OH YEAH!
OH YEAH! FLY BYE
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO
FLY BYE
Blindingly bright / dazzling light, / intense and glaring--
And we'll never turn and look away
FLY BYE
Staring so hard / into that / beyond that's bursting--
Can't help this / intensity
FLY BYE
It's the only way to go / with the one-way ticket / of a life lived all ablaze
OH YEAH! OH YEAH!
Round and round / round and round / round and round / revolves the / galaxy
(Round and round / round and round / life goes too)
Is something, / is something / out in the / galaxy, / calling to us?
Bright beyond--
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO
FLY BYE
GET GET GET FLY BYE
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO FLY BYE

OH YEAH! OH YEAH!
OH YEAH! FLY BYE
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO
FLY BYE
Blindingly bright / dazzling light, / intense and glaring--
And that's all there is to say
FLY BYE
Keeping sharp watch / into the / vastness before us
Can't help this / intensity
FLY BYE
It's the only way to go / with the one-way ticket / of a life lived at full boil
OH YEAH! OH YEAH!
In the bright / shining bright / shining bright / shining bright / galaxy
(Round and round, round and round, life goes too)
Is something, / is something / out in the / galaxy, / expecting us?
Bright beyond--
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO
FLY BYE
GET GET GET FLY BYE
ABAYO ABAYO ABAYO FLY BYE

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[info]rgbrobbie
2006-09-20 07:33 pm UTC (link)
I did not know there was ANOTHER PERSON IN THE WORLD who remembered Brygar! That was my very first (non-American-company-acquired-re-edited-and-ripped-to-shreds-for-local-consumption) anime fandom, so it will always hold an incredibly dear place in my heart. Knowing NO JAPANESE WHATSOEVER, I spent hours trying to puzzle out what was going on in the anime, and matching kanji to my pitiful dictionaries in order to "read" articles in Japanese publications.

Not too long ago I found my Brygar poster, purchased in Tokyo in 1986, and vowed I'd take it out of the tube and frame it properly for display. And I know I still have my Brygar (and Baxingar and Sasuraigar) Roman Albums somewhere. Oh, and the soundtracks. "J9, J9, nasake muyo...."

My eyes are stinging with sadness at the loss of the voice of my beloved Kamisori Isaac. Thank you for memorializing Isaac's seiyuu so lovingly.

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[info]yukie1013
2006-09-20 08:16 pm UTC (link)
*HUGS YO*

I'm gald things're getting better and that you liked my picture ♥

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[info]avalonjones
2006-09-22 01:12 am UTC (link)
Isaac was my second-ever anime crush (after Desslar).

Isaac was the reason I took the bus an hour away from the NorWesCon hotel back in 1983 so I could find an ATM (back in the days before there was an ATM every 24 feet) so I could get cash to buy the BRYGAR roman album at the only dealer at the con who was selling anime stuff, and then took the bus an hour back. And the guy running that booth? He and I are still friends.

At the first Winter Comiket I ever attended, I remember being SOOO happy to actually find a circle (one of three) doing BRYGAR books! The young lady who was staffing the booth was an Isaac fan too, and in fact was wearing a really awesome Isaac costume, complete with correct haircut and deep-blue contact lenses! We asked if we could take her photo, and she said we could but I had to get in the photo too. In the photo, she's got one arm around my shoulder and is holding my hand in a courtly fashion, and I've got my head on her shoulder, and she's trying really, really hard not to crack up laughing at the goofy-ass, gangly gaijin broad in the shabby clothes who just happens to be an Isaac fan too.

Thanks for writing this.

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