Mariya Takeuchi, the singer most famous worldwide for “Plastic Love”, has a new single out.
Of course, this is video game related, as the single is the lead theme for an upcoming Pokemon TV show. Debuting on Netflix on December 28, 2023, Pokemon Concierge is a surprising little project for the blockbuster franchise.
This will be a small four episode series, with stop motion animation from Japanese stop motion studio dwarf studios. As the title suggests, the show is set in a Pokemon Resort, and this is possibly inspired by the Resort Area in the 2008 Nintendo DS title Pokemon Platinum Version.
While Nintendo and Netflix have been mum on details, that’s probably because there isn’t a lot to it. This might even be a slice of life anime, in the same vein as K-On!, or for a more recent example, My Dress-up Darling.
The lead character Haru, voiced by Rena Nonen in Japanese and Karen Fukuhara in English, is a concierge who works to make the Pokemon and the trainers who go to the resort to relax happy. Other characters in the show, all ostensibly human, are named Alisa, Tyler, and Watanabe.
As shared by AniPlaylist on Twitter, Mariya Takeuchi’s theme, Have A Good Time Here, has released one week in advance. You can check the song out on YouTube below.
And what is there to say about Takeuchi? She looks lovely at 68. Takeuchi is of course best known worldwide for her 1986 single Plastic Love becoming a surprise viral hit at 2017. This viral sensation was credited with the modern day revival of city pop, but Takeuchi is more than a cult hit.
Having started her career in 1978, Mariya Takeuchi is one of best-selling artists in her native Japan. She has had a steady stream of singles in the country for five decades, but it goes even further than that.
Takeuchi is married to Tatsuro Yamashita, a legendary city pop musician in his own right. But she has also had decades long success as a songwriter, for herself and other musicians. And of course, she wrote her Pokemon Concierge theme herself. Notably, it must be said that this is really in the Latin music genre instead of city pop, but you can’t say it’s not catchy.
For a year filled with some of the greatest strings of video game releases the industry has ever seen, it’s amusing and also elating that one of those final relevant releases will actually be a song. But this superstar collaboration between Mariya Takeuchi and Pokemon for Netflix simply cannot be denied.
