Anime Music Video Compilations: “Kimagure Orange Road Music Version: Their Love Repertoire”

Publisher: Toho Video
Format: Beta, VHS and Laserdisc, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue
Length: 34 minutes
Original Release Date: 10 September 1988
Animation Exclusive to this Release: No
Other Sources (Japanese unless noted): Kimagure Orange Road The OVA DVD Box (2007), Kimagure Orange Road OVA Series 1 (Rental DVD, 2007)
Currently Availability (as of writing): Out of Print

In my last instalment in this series, I made the observation that very few of these anime music video compilations ever get a commercial English language home video release. This video was next on my list to review when US video distributor Discotek Media announced they were re-releasing the “Kimagure Orange Road” TV series, OVAs and first movie in a standard definition blu-ray release. The most surprising aspect of the yet to solicited release is that this music video compilation is to be included in it. Regardless, I decided to review this anime music video compilation as I think the earliest the Discotek set will be released is a few months into 2019, perhaps we'll have to wait a little longer than that. Before we get to the actual music videos, a rundown on the story of the anime;

The Kasuga family have been forced for a seventh time to move to a new neighbourhood. 15 year old teenage son Kyosuke, his two twin sisters, Manami and Kurumi, and their father Takashi, have a problem; they are a family of espers. They call their esper gift “the power”. While they try their hardest to keep the power under wraps and away from the eyes of the general public, at her last school, Kurumi used her power to enable her to run a 100 metre sprint in three seconds. This of course led the family to move once more, away from the attention of the school and neighbours. After moving in to their new house, Kyosuke explores his new neighbourhood. He climbs up a set of steps near a local park counting each one as he goes. At the top he sees what at first glance seems to be a flying saucer, but is in fact a red straw hat flying through the air. Kyosuke jumps up to catch it and ends up putting it on his head in the process. He looks up to discover the owner of the hat; Madoka Ayukawa.

Kyosuke and Madoka strike up a conversion about how many steps there are leading up to the park. After a brief and playful argument, where Madoka says there is 100 and Kyosuke swears there is 99, Kyosuke compromises and says there is 99 and a half. This amuses Madoka. She leaves telling him to keep the hat as it looks good on him. He tries to ask her name by she just smiles and walks off. The next day at his first day at school, Kyosuke is befriended by two girl crazy classmates, Seiji Komatsu and Kazuya Hatta. He realises that Madoka goes to his school and asks Seiji and Komatsu about her. They tell him that she is a delinquent and it’s best to avoid her. However he is already smitten by her. After school Kyosuke witnesses Madoka defending her best friend, Hikaru Hiyama, from a group of bikers who are mad at Hikaru for dumping their leader. Even though Madoka is much smaller in stature, she beats the living daylights out of all of them. Shocked and impressed, Kyosuke goes to talk to her, but she claims they have never met. She pulls out a cigarette to smoke but Kyosuke uses his power to destroy the tip of it. He berates her for smoking to which she replies by slapping him.

However the next day when they meet in the hall, Madoka is again playful and friendly with him. In gym class Kyosuke is highly impressed by Madoka’s routine on the balance beam. Kyosuke decides he wants to impress her as well by using his power to make a slam dunk during the boys’ basketball game, but eventually decides against using the power. After school, sitting alone in the gym mulling over things and regretting not impressing Madoka, he casually throws the ball towards the hoop and uses his power to make it go through. Unbeknownst to him, Hikaru has been hiding in the equipment storage room having a cigarette, has seen his basketball skills and is quite impressed. Later Kyosuke bumps into her at a disco while looking for Kurumi who has snuck out of the house. Hikaru asks him out on a date which puts him off guard and he find himself saying yes. On the day of the date however he runs into Madoka and the pair spends the day in the park and later in a café. There he finally remembers his date with Hikaru and blurts it out, which makes Madoka furious. Kyosuke realises he has made both girls angry with him. Over a short period of time both girls make up with him. A love triangle soon forms with Madoka and Kyosuke developing obvious crushes for each other, Hikaru having the hots for Kyosuke, Madoka being unable to hurt her friend Hikaru’s feelings to tell her to back off, Kyosuke developing an interest in Hikaru and being indecisive and unable to choose between the girls. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the videos;

“Night of Summer Side” performed by Masanori Ikeda
There’s not much to say about his one. This opening video is basically a list of credits of all the songs that appear. Little snippets of the other videos appear as the credits are listed. Unlike most of the other songs in this compilation, the version presented here is the cut down opening theme “TV size” version, which runs about a minute and half. As most fans of “Kimagure Orange Road” know, this song was the first opening theme of the TV series. It was first released as a single in May 1987.

“Summer Mirage (Natsu no Mirage)” performed by Kanako Wada

The first proper music video in this collection. In keeping with the summer theme of the song, naturally most of the footage culled from the TV series is summery in nature. The opening scenes of the video are taken from Kyosuke’s dream sequence for the start of the second episode. The video soon turns into a montage, first featuring Madoka,  then turning its attention to Kyosuke. In between there are plenty of beach shots edited in from various episodes. Most of the footage seems to be culled from the first few episodes. The song used for the video was the first closing theme to the TV series and was first released as a single in May 1987.

“Orange Mystery” performed by Hideyuki Nagashima

The summer and beach themes continue on to the third video. In particular episode 18, “Madoka's Challenge! Big Monday!!”, in which several shots of Madoka surfing have been used, and episode 19, “The Couple’s Experience - Forbidden Island of Love!”, which mostly uses various shots of Kyosuke and Madoka goofing around and having fun on an uninhabited island. As per many of the videos in this collection, Kyosuke and Madoka’s rocky relationship takes centre stage. This song was used in the series as the second opening theme and was first issued as a single in September 1987.

“Dangerous Triangle (Kiken na Triangle)” performed by Masanori Ikeda

As per the title of this song, this video focuses on the love triangle between Hikaru, Kyosuke and Madoka. Appropriately it begins where all the trouble started; in the disco in the third episode, titled “Mood Swings - Rowing First Date”. The first few shots show the other disco patrons then we focus on our favourite trio; Hikaru, Kyosuke and Madoka. However in the TV series, this song was actually used as an insert song to episode 11, “Don't Ring the Wedding Bell!!!”. It seems a bit odd the producers of the compilation didn’t use footage from that episode for this video. This song first appeared as a B-side to the “Night of Summer Side” single in May 1987.

“Sad Heart is Burning (Kanashii Heart wo Moeteiru)” performed by Kanako Wada

This video mostly focuses on Madoka. It initially begins with Madoka playing her saxophone by herself. Footage from several episodes is used showing her playing the instrument. We then swap over to other footage of her from random episodes (the footage isn’t really heavily weighted from any particular episode), with Madoka mostly looking forlorn and despondent. Yes, it’s all very cheerful stuff. This video is the first to introduce several slightly cheesy video effects which will become more prominent as the videos progress. The editors here have used several “film strips” and “photograph” effects laid over various scenes at random points. This song was used as the second closing TV series theme and first released as a single in September 1987.

“Like a Salvia Flower (Salvia no Hana no you ni)” performed by Kanako Wada

This song was used as an insert song in episode 22, “An Adult Relationship? Madoka Secretly Returns Home in the Morning!”. In fact the video directly edits in the sequence it was used in; being sung by a character called Yukari (who makes a second appearance towards the end of the series as well) with Madoka playing in her band as a guitarist. In the episode's plot Madoka has also written the song. While the bulk of the video uses footage from this episode, there is also clips of Madoka as a mermaid from episode 19, “The Couple’s Experience - Forbidden Island of Love!”, and summery footage culled from episodes 14 and 17. The song used in the video appeared as a B-side to the “Sad Heart is Burning” single in September 1987.

“Inside This Heart One More Time (Kono Mune ni One More Time)” performed by Hideyuki Nagashima

Episode 16, “Well, Do You Believe or Not? Madoka Saw a UFO!”, forms the entire basis of this music video. The main plot of the TV episode has Madoka and Kyosuke seeing and taking a photo of a flying saucer, then discovering it was a prank played by his twin sisters. However the video mostly focuses on one of the best sequences in the TV series, where Kyosuke uses his power to race a motor bike around a mountain pass in order to stop Madoka joining a motorcycle gang. Yes I know, some of the stories in this TV series can be really daft. But it is a really lovable series all the same. The song used here was originally released as a B-side to “Dangerous Triangle” in September 1987.

“Again” performed by Minako Fujishiro

I haven’t mentioned this before, but several of the videos have new spoken word intros or outros by Madoka or Kyosuke which are mostly about love. Several title cards also appear at random points before certain videos. Before this song a title card stating “Intermission” appears, which is probably a sign saying you should skip it. The editors here go full on with the cheap video effects, culling random bits of episodes and making a mess of things really. Both the song used in the video and series itself deserve better. The video concludes with some summery footage, thankfully unenhanced by video effects the audience was previously subjected to. “Again” was a B-side to the “Turn Around My Darling (Furimuite My Darling)” single which was released in September 1987.

“Breaking Heart” performed by Yuiko Tsubokura

This video also has a music/band motif, initially using scenes from the second opening animation with the bulk of the video being sourced from episode 43, “Broken-Hearted Hikaru! Chase me to Winter Beach”. That episode is one of the most interesting in the series. While the story revolves around Kyosuke playing drums in a band for a battle of the bands competition and his guilt around his belief he may have slept with another woman when he got drunk, the main highlight of the episode is how avant garde the storyboarding is. It really seems out of place amongst the other episodes in the series. Oddly this song was actually an insert song used in episode 13. “Breaking Heart” first appeared on the “Kimagure Orange Road Sound Color 2” album which was released in October 1987.

“Genina” performed by Kanako Wada

Most of the footage here is taken from the final episode of the TV series; “Caught the Love! And The End”. Along with the penultimate episode, “Sad Farewell. Search for Madoka's First Love”, both form a time traveling adventure story where Kyosuke imagines what it would be like if he hadn’t caught Madoka’s red straw hat that day. Somehow his grandfather sends him back in time from the present day of 1988 to 1982 where he meets younger versions of his friends including Madoka. He ends up spending time with her and ends up buying her famous red straw hat. However most the footage in the video concentrates on the older Madoka and Kyosuke. The song used in the video was released in May 1987 as a B-side to the “Summer Mirage” single.

“Actress in the Mirror (Kagami no Naka no Actress)” performed by Meiko Nakahara

This song is rather upbeat considering that it’s about a guy who broke a girl’s heart. Like many of the videos in this compilation, this one focuses on the relationship between Madoka and Kyosuke (I could never understand what he ever saw in Hikaru). Like many of the videos in this compilation, the footage is culled from a wide variety of episodes. There also isn’t really a unifying theme to the video at all, unless you call randomly strung together shots of Madoka and Kyosuke a theme. I guess to a degree it could be, but that’s the theme for the entire compilation. The song used for the video was originally released as a single in January 1988 and was used as the third opening theme for the TV series.

“Dance in the Memories” performed by Meiko Nakahara
Like the first video I this compilation, this one is a just a closer with credits. It does feature some still scenes from the TV series as “photographs” on a black background. “Dance in the Memories” was used as the TV series’ third closing theme. It was first issued as a B-side to the “Actress in the Mirror” single in January 1988.

I’m pretty sure this was the first music video compilation I ever saw. I originally got the compilation on the end of a VHS fansub I acquired back in the late 1990’s. Years later I acquired it again on laserdisc. The original versions released in 1988 (Beta and VHS tapes and the laserdisc) contained a lyric sheet. Personally I think the compilation is a little average. Like a lot of anime music video compilations, it feels like an afterthought; just something to further fleece the fans via a “new” video release. The music however can’t be faulted. Most of the songs contained on this release are pretty damn good, especially the opening and closing themes. I even bought one of the latter compilations of the vocal tracks from the series (which of course included all the opening and closing themes), which is a rarity for me. I was never much a fan of anime music or J-Pop as a rule.

Since the original 1988 release, the compilation has only been reissued once; as an extras on the three disc “Kimagure Orange Road” The OVA DVD Box back in 2007 by Toho in Japan, which of course is out of print. As a result currently it’s a little hard to come by. That three disc set costs ¥17,000 to over ¥30,000 in the second hand market. The box set was also released as three separate discs, which Toho pressed up for rental video shops. I saw a bundle of all three discs on Rakuten selling for ¥3,000 which is a lot cheaper. Original VHS tapes go for around ¥1,500. But it doesn’t really matter as Discotek will be releasing the compilation as part of their blu-ray release of the OVA series sometime in 2019, making it widely available for the first time since 2007.