The Nostalgia Series - Old drama theme songs: "Sora mo toberu hazu" by Spitz

"Hakusen Nagashi" was a drama which meant a lot to me in various ways. When the drama series was first shown in 1996, I wasn't able to watch it then since it was not so easy to watch Japanese dramas on local TV or online especially if the cast aren't big names. In fact, despite Nagase Tomoya being the lead of this drama, the attention was more on Sakai Miki and Kashiwabara Takashi who were known for their roles in the movie "Love Letter". It was not only until a few years later when I managed to find the VCDs of this drama. I still remember how happy I was at that time about this unexpected find.

What also made this drama memorable was the timing when I watched it. Just like the leads in the drama, I was about the same age as them and fresh out of secondary school without a clear indication of what I wanted to do in future. As such, it was easy to identify with the problems and troubles which the characters had and it felt as if I was seeing myself through their stories.

Over the years, there have been a number of SPs which follow the growing-up process of the lead characters. It hasn't been a smooth-sailing process in finding these SPs to watch but each time I managed to do so, it was very gratifying to catch up with the leads on the latest developments in their lives.. By the time the entire series ended, I did feel quite sad about it because I had been following the story for almost 10 years. Some of the saddest things I remembered from the story were Wataru (Nagase Tomoya) getting married to another woman as well as he and Sonoko (Sakai Miki) not being able to stay together at the end even though his wife had passed away. Despite it not being an all-ends-well outcome for every character, I felt that it was a realistic reflection of how life is.

After doing some research on the theme song "Sora mo toberu hazu" by Spitz, it was surprising to note that the song was originally meant to be the theme for another drama but the deal fell through somehow at the end. The song was then released as a single in 1994 but only achieved a Oricon ranking of No.28. However, when this song was used two years later for "Hakusen Nagashi", it was re-released and became Spitz's first Oricon No.1 single. Goes to show how powerful a tie-up with a popular drama can do for a song's CD sales. Nonetheless, if the song isn't good enough, the drama wouldn't have helped in any way. Come to think of it, if you look at the lyrics, it coincides with the theme of the drama in an uncanny way. Perhaps it was fated to be the theme song for "Hakusen Nagashi" after all. Coincidentally, this song was also the first I came like from Spitz which led me to discover more of their music.

If you are keen to hear this song, please visit here.