As Seen on TV: 6 Favorite Drama Songs of 2022 (So Far)
Talking about our favorite tie-up songs of 2022 as well as their respective associated TV drama series
This feature is part of This Side of Japan issue #58. You can return to the main newsletter here.
It’s hard to compete with a year in TV which its output supplied me with three songs that made it into my personal top 10 of 2021. But a memorable pairing of song and show wasn’t as easily found this year, either with the songs from my favorite shows not being much to write home about or the shows not living up to the quality of its tie-up singles. All that said, 2022 brought about some TV drama which its story convinced its songs had more depth than what appears from first listen, or in some cases, singles strong enough for it to live outside of its associated show.
Here are six of my favorite TV drama songs of 2022 so far. The full feature will also have a bonus list of my favorite shows of 2022 so far, with some titles I unfortunately couldn’t include in the main list due to them lacking a qualifying song.
“My First Love Is Crying” by Aimyon
…from Koi Nante Honki De Yatte Dousuruno? (Mondays, 10 p.m., April 18 - June 20; Fuji TV)
If Aimyon’s latest album, Falling into your eyes Record, was any indication, tie-ups for drama shows inspire sharper songs from the singer-songwriter in part because it provides her with a loose prompt to shape the lyrics around. For “My First Love Is Crying,” the rom-com Koi Nante Honki De Yatte Dousuruno? hands her the kind of premise she excels in: after prioritizing much of her twenties to her work life with an attitude to dating as a waste of time, 27-year-old Jun (Alice Hirose) falls in and out of her first serious relationship. And it’s the breakup and post phase of the experience that Aimyon ends up illustrating in spades: “If this night ends up stealing them away / maybe it will all be fine,” she sings after crying over what’s lost. She vividly writes an imagery of a conflicting memory slowly dissipating and the burdening weight relieved from her chest via a concise pop chorus.
I wish I can talk about the attached show with the same level of praise. Koi Maji introduces too many subplots within its three main couples than it can handle. It loses sight on what to do with its characters about halfway through the season, and it’s a mess watching the show try and figure out how to resolve the various main threads. I personally wish it went more in the direction of Aimyon’s song with her singing about how you got to lose something to know it ever was real in “My First Love Is Crying.” I’d rather take that home with me with the main trio left single but wiser from the relationships than the cobbled-together good ending where everyone is happily coupled.
“Lens” by Ikuta Lilas
…from Jizoku Kanou Na Koi Desuka? Chichi To Musume No Kekkon Koushinkyoku (Tuesdays, 10 p.m., April 19 - June 21; TBS)
While it’s common practice for a drama show to needle-drop its theme song to maximize the emotional heft of a climactic scene, the cue-up of “Lens” feels more necessary than usual to deliver gravitas for the rom-com series Jizoku Kanou Na Koi Desuka? Measured on its own, the pacing and scale of Ikuta Lilas’s track feels rather typical for a made-for-TV pop ballad, even with the YOASOBI vocalist’s high tones spiking in the chorus. But when the show inserts the song, the moment feels more weighty amid the casual, almost understated affairs between the central characters of Kyoka (Juri Ueno) and Seita (Kei Tanaka).
If Jizo Koi feels more subdued than the usual perky rom-com, I took it as a result of it dealing with love as it might unfold in your thirties. Decidedly, the arising conflicts are rather less sexy than the scripts written for characters of twenty-somethings: Kyoka goes from focusing on her work with the attitude that “dating is a waste of time” to contemplating taking on marriage as well as a role of a mother figure if she’s going to take it serious with single father Seita. But after being thrown into routine rom-com arcs built around women in their late 20s, I found the domestic realities in Jizo Koi refreshing.
“Sea of Light” by Yuga
…from Tsuma, Shougakusei Ni Naru (Fridays, 10 p.m., January 21 - March 25; TBS)
It took me almost halfway through Tsuma, Shougakusei Ni Naru to consider the effectiveness of Yuga’s “Sea of Light” as a needle drop for the plot is so out there in logic, it’s not easy to concentrate on anything else. I’ll try my best to give you a digestible synopsis: Father Keisuke Niijima (Shinichi Tsutsumi) and daughter Mai (Aju Makita) have been emotionally lifeless since losing wife and mother Takae (Yuriko Ishida) 10 years before the series takes place; but one day, a 10-year-old girl (Nono Maida) suddenly shows up in front of their house claiming to be Takae. The livelihood of the Niijima family begins to recover once they take her word, making up for the lost time. If this sounds head-scratching to you, Tsuma Shou acknowledges the premise is a bit out there, too, as it repeatedly pokes fun at itself: while Keisuke sees his long lost wife from his perspective, the rest of the show’s citizens look at Keisuke with a puzzled look as he seems unusually close to who appears from the outside looking in as a 10-year-old girl.
The family comedy begins to take an increasingly poignant turn when it becomes clear that the Niijimas must eventually bid farewell to Takae once again. She’s after all borrowing the body of the girl, Maika, who has a life and a family of her own; the Niijima’s gain comes at a cost with Maika’s mother Chika (Yoh Yoshida) losing the presence of her daughter. But the family also must come with the terms that they have to make peace with their late wife and mother in order to move forward in life. “Don’t go anywhere, float in this sea of love,” Yuga sings in the chorus of “Sea of Light” over a folk arrangement as warm and languid as the presence of her desired one, and her pleas latch onto more heavy turn of events as the show goes on.
“Kokoro To Iu Na No Fukakai” by Ado
…from Dr. White (Mondays, 10 p.m., January 17 - March 21; Fuji TV)
A lot of the intrigue but also the comedic relief of Dr. White hinges on the naivete of Byakuya (Minami Hamabe), who has superhuman knowledge on everything medical but knows nothing else. Her cluelessness about the concept of emotion in particular organizes the first third of the show, with her learning about love, sadness, grief and such through treating patients suffering from the most impossible of conditions. It also provides quite a literal interpretation of Ado’s song, “Kokoro To Iu Na No Fukakai,” or A Mystery Called the Heart. “How am I supposed to organize these feelings,” she cries out in the chorus. “How am I supposed to divide these thoughts?” Her signature sky-scraping vocals are a fitting vehicle for the inconsolable frustration felt from trying to define these nameless sensations by the books only to come up short.
“Chinokate” by Yorushika
…from Mahou No Rinobe (Mondays, 10 p.m., July 18 - September 19; Fuji TV)
Home renovation in Mahou No Rinobe is really a disguised form of family therapy as agents Koume (Haru) and Gennosuke (Shotaro Mamiya) weed through their clients’ problems in order to draw up a plan that everyone involved can leave happy with. “Go ahead and imagine your new life in this new home,” Koume asks as the closing line of every contract pitch, and during the end credits, the show rolls out the happily-ever-after outcomes of the clients in their renovated places, synced to Yorushika’s equally wholesome tune of “Chinokate.” “Oh, the sunset,” vocalist suis remarks as the music pauses before the chorus, where Koume is seen mouthing the line to Gennosuke as they catch the beautiful scenery after another job well done.
The home-renovation theme of its attached show explains the song’s furniture talk, a not-so-subtle metaphor on starting anew: “Let’s throw away the sofa, books, and the things we really didn’t need,” suis sings in the chorus that hit pretty literal after an hour spent with people who are stubborn to clean out the skeletons in their closets. And that includes Koume and Gennosuke. The former is too afraid to open up after being ostracized from her former employer; the latter struggles with self-confidence after his former wife left him and his son for his younger brother. It’s only appropriate, then, for the buddy comedy’s final end credits to follow the future outcomes of their two central characters after their own self-renovation.
“Hatsukoi No Akuma” by SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS
…from Hatsukoi No Akuma (Saturdays, 10 p.m., July 16 - September 24; Nippon TV)
Hatsukoi No Akuma can be more demanding than other dramas during its first act as it introduces some of the most esoteric personalities even by the standards of the show’s screenwriter, Yuji Sakamoto. But once their quirks and turns of phrase—“let’s break the veil of Maya!”—become familiar, the central four of this deeply wound mystery series reveal to be full of humor. The bouncy, suave title track by SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS helps lighten the proceedings, especially towards the latter half when the show starts rolling out the gruesome murder case that lie at its core. What begins with an odd pack of acquaintances solving mundane crimes as a hobby ends with one of the four ready to fatally stab a culprit in order to save the lives of the rest; “Hatsukoi No Akuma” paints it as a noble and, dare I say, cool final act of self-sacrifice.
Bonus: My favorite drama shows of 2022 so far:
Hatsukoi No Akuma
Mahou No Rinobe
Tsuma, Shougakusei Ni Naru
Jizoku Kanou Na Koi Desuka? Chichi To Musume No Kekkon Koushinkyoku
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