My obituary of Toyo’o Ashida, a crusader for animators’ rights and the legendary show-runner on the old Fist of the North Star TV series, is now up on the Manga UK blog.
Tag Archives: Fist of the North Star
(Bring My Love) Right Back to Me
Because the song translations I did for Pioneer were for the music division, not the anime division, they covered theme songs from other companies, too. That is the only possible explanation for Pioneer’s decision to hire me to work in 1997 on lyrics for the mad hair-metal theme to Fist of the North Star “Ai o Torimodose”. I did the best I could… and you thought Schoolgirl Milky Crisis was weird.
—
Shock of love! When heaven sent you it was just the start
Shock of love! Stopped me in my tracks, now you’ve got my heart
Burning fever binds me waiting for my love to find me
But now I’m giving it my all
None can stop my anger, I just point my little finger and down
They all fall
Shock of love! Just one look at you, heartbeat’s getting fast
Shock of love! Me and you as one, and it’s gonna last
Now my heart is burning with the madness they call yearning
To find the place where you’re hiding
I can’t live without you, fight the cruel thoughts that doubt you, I’ll do
Anything
Now you’re far away, a quest to save our love, and I’m here waiting for you
Tomorrow’s gone, until you bring the key
Never can forget your pretty smiling face, for I know your heart is true
Bring my love right back to me*
Shock of love! Shining light upon the shadows in my mind
Shock of love! Just the thought of you, and my thoughts unwind
When we’re back together, promise it will be forever and then
Take me in your arms
I will hold you to me and nobody’s gonna free me again
From your charms
repeat *
Tough Boy
Just when you thought it was safe, I dig up another of my song translations from the Pioneer anime CDs. This one is the theme from the second series of Fist of the North Star, for which i set myself the intellectual exercise of keeping all the Engrish lyrics in exactly the same place in my translation as they occurred in the original. “Tough Boy”, for so this song is called, is an interesting exercise. Even to the Japanese, it must have seemed impossibly dated — I was hired to translate it in 1997, with a chorus that lionised the fact that its singer was “living in the eighties.” Good luck with that!
From the looks of this, it seems that I couldn’t be bothered to make the lyrics to this one actually rhyme. Perhaps I knew I was on a hiding to nothing.
Welcome to this crazy time
On the run and deep in trouble, your life’s on the line
You’re such a tough boy…
She never met a boy that made her feel so bad
I got a feeling that a man like you could drive her crazy
You, tough boy…
Here we are, at the end of the century
Our time is now, out on the streets, our generation’s taking over
Keep you burning, till the race is run
Got to be more to your life than all this scum and crime and dirty fighting
No boy no cry, cast your fears aside
There’s a bright tomorrow waiting, wait until you see the rising sun
We are living, living in the eighties
We still fight, fighting in the eighties
Looks as if you’ve had your share of battle scars
It’s gonna take more than a few hard knocks to break your spirit
Such a tough boy…
Everywhere she turns she gotta feel so sad
I got feeling that’s there more to you than causing trouble
Tough boy…
Here we are, in the eternal rockland
Our fists are raised, it’s time for us to make a stand and take it over
Keep you burning, till the race is run
Gotta fight the madness of illusion, till our hopes and dreams are all our own
No boy no cry, keep on keeping on
Turn and face the wind and take its strength so you can be a hurricane
We are living, living in the eighties
We still fight, fighting in the eighties
We are living, living in the eighties
We still fight, fighting in the eighties
You’ll notice, perhaps, that my pronouns are all over the place here — a sign of my indecision over whether the singer was male or female, and hence whether the titular tough boy was first- or third-person. Such switches in addressee are a bad idea. I’m pretty sure, for example, that such vagueness in the lyrics of “How Does She Know” in Enchanted cost the song its Oscar. But there won’t be any Oscars for “Tough Boy”, either, not till hell freezes over. These days, I would be able to YouTube the original song and get a look at the band… or Wiki them to work it out, but those options weren’t available 13 years ago. At least, they weren’t to me.