TO-Y: Full 1987 OVA & (Nearly) Full OST Listen

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WHAT-IS: "To-y is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Kamijo. It was serialized by Shogakukan in the shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1985 to 1987, with the chapters collected in ten tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of GASP, an underground punk rock band, and their attempt to get a recording contract and attain stardom. To-y was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) in 1987." (Wiki).

Featured below instead is the full (55 minuter) anime film (Found on YouTube), complete with English subtitles...!



"The story follows To-y Fujii (藤井冬威), lead singer of GASP, and his attempts not to sell out during his rise through the recording industry. The story also follows To-y's growing relationship with Niya Yamada (山田二矢), as the two find comfort in one another while they are shunned by mainstream society."




I first came across the manga in secondary school (thru another friend who collected it, and let me have a look), with them printed in a digest format, availabile I think at Kinokuniya, in Japanese language and with no translated (reprinted) text. But I was enthralled by the artwork, back in the days when I had dreamt to be a "comicbook artist", but whose art heroes were names like "George Perez', whose hyper-detailed artwork captivated me. The artwork by Atsushi Kamijo seen in the panels, instead exuded simplicity, minimalist and graphical shadowing and shapes - the complete opposite of what I loved, but soon grew to adore - which led me to embrace comicbooks like MISTER X (from Vortex), which opened my mind up beyond the superhero-comics of the Big Two into the indepandant publishers, which influenced me to this day.

Back to TO-Y (トーイ) - when I discovered the existence of the OVA, but never actually had a chance to watch it, until years later, ironically not before I purchased the CD album of the OST (purchased at a basement-shop in Liang Court which focused on "anime")! One of the marvels that came with the anime (which frankly was killbuzz to my expectations based on the manga visuals), was the MUSIC - which was on my mind again a few days back, hence the existence of THIS blogpost, gathering most of the songs, which I'd immediately recognise when I had tracked them down on YouTube (My (Incomplete) Playlist).

The selection featured a splendid line-up of indie-electronic, acoustic synth fueled city-pop rockabilly soundscape which reminded me of my school life or rather the "magical" aspect of it, when I was enthralled in music and comicbook art.



Featured below is a songlist based on information from www.cjas.org, thankfully a archived record in English, and something getting exceedingly rare, ironically in a Age of Enhanced Information, where a whole lot of the "past" gets forgotten.

SONG LIST for "トーイ　TO-Y" (as played in the anime)



ABOVE TRACK: "Lemon no Yuuki", performed by PSY-S[saiz]
(Produced by Toru Okada & PSY-S)
SCENE: GASP plays at the Shinjuku Loft. This is the opening song.



ABOVE TRACK: "Mona Park", performed by GONTITI (Produced by GONTITI)
SCENE: The members of GASP hang out at a park after the Loft gig.



ABOVE TRACK: "Uptown Traffic", performed by Kenji Suzuki (Produced by Kenji Suzuki)
SCENE: Yoji records at the studio.


ABOVE TRACK: "Bruce", performed by Hajime Mizoguchi (Produced by Hajime Mizoguchi)
SCENE: Sonoko (Hiderow) records at the studio.



ABOVE TRACK: "Dream Soup", performed by AMOR (Produced by Another PSY-S)
SCENE: Hiderow comes home, finds To-Y and Niya.



ABOVE TRACK: "SANSO", performed by QUJILA (Produced by QUJILA)
SCENE: To-Y and Niya hang out at Hiderow's apartment.



ABOVE TRACK: "Teenage: Edit Version", performed by PSY-S[saiz]
SCENE: The members of GASP practice music.

TRACK #8. Lemon no Yuuki theme
SCENE: To-Y and Niya look at Kato's letter.

TRACK #9. Bruce/Hajime Mizoguchi (Produced by Hajime Mizoguchi)
SCENE: To-Y, Hiderow, and Niya eat watermelon and see Yoji on television.

TRACK #10. Radio music and news
SCENE: Yoji is riding his motorcycle.



ABOVE TRACK: "Silent Song", performed by PSY-S and Barbee Boys (and Nokko!)
SCENE: To-Y and Niya at the Obon festival.



ABOVE TRACK: "Tokei Jikake no Setsuna", performed by ZELDA
(Produced by ZELDA & Masahide Sakuma)
SCENE: It is a dark and stormy night.



ABOVE TRACK: "Short Sunzen", performed by Barbee Boys
(Produced by Barbee Boys & Akiyoshi Nishioka)
SCENE: Yoji confronts To-Y at a pool hall.



ABOVE TRACK: "Arashi no Ato", performed by The Street Sliders
(Produced by The Street Sliders & Ikuro Meguro)
SCENE: Isami gets mad at To-Y.

TRACK #15. Kaze no Nakade/Seishiro Kusunose (Produced by Another PSY-S)
SCENE: Niya and To-Y go for a walk in the park.

TRACK #16. Uptown Traffic/Lemon no Yuuki: Special Remix Edit Version/PSY-S[saiz]
SCENE: The concerts begin.



ABOVE TRACK: "Cubic Lovers", performed by PSY-S[saiz]
(Produced by Toru Okada and PSY-S)
SCENE: To-Y and Niya walk as the closing credits scroll.

(This post first featured on TUNESTALKSG)

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