Edward James0 — A deep cut city pop song was something I considered as well, but I think would be too cliché coming from me. I really liked this one in particular, and I think Sammy as well would appreciate the vocal performance. I think this one is also a winner, but just beaten out in a field of absolutely fantastic submission.
fionmul0 — The very beginning had me like “am I being rickrolled”
I’d throw down at the club in Tokyo to this/do drunk Romaji karaoke of it
Joseph Harvey0 — Slightly more vintage J pop seems like the right vibe here vs. the more modern other submissioon
Claire0 — Important element of Sammycore: a funky beat. And for all his love of America we mustn’t neglect his deep appreciation for Japanese culture. Then again…are not the Japanese the cowboys of the east?
SamRobertsND0 — I really thought I was going to be the only Japanese submission this round, but Nature finds a way. I think this is Claire? Such acumen befits her, and indeed, I do like me some City Pop. Thanks to her, we got a family tree of Japanese pop in this playlist (both entries are downstream from the Kayōkyoku genre & Haruomi Hosono in particular, I think). As they did with baseball, the Japanese took readily to American jazz & funk, creating this cool sound that dominated their musicscape, especially in the early 80s. This is probably going to be one of the more unjust and hypocritical no votes, especially from others' perspective. I like this song and am impressed by how on the same wavelength you were as me, but in the big world of Jpop, I like the more Yellow Magic Orchestra evolutionary strand of my song much more (this is definitely Eddie’s strand tho), & other strong entries won out. Forgive the electoral slight here and know that you still nailed it in the main, senpai.