This is the single release for the 2004 Pokémon
film ending theme "L·O·V·E·L·Y ~Dream-Seeing LOVELY BOY~"
(aka Lovely: Yume Miru Lovely Boy) by Tommy february6. The song is paired with "I Only Want to Be With You", but mostly this disc is focused on the title song with two variants that round out the runtime to almost 22 minutes, which is fairly long for a single.
To jump right into the review, in terms of the title song, while it's nothing landmark worthy like Asuca Hayashi's "Small Things" for Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker (2003), it's a decent pop song that mixes both Japanese and English vocal work. While it's not what I would call memorable, Tommy february6 does have a very pleasant voice and the background music helps to carry the song as well. The other song on the disc is "I Only Want to Be With You", which is actually an all English song. While that might cause some people to shutter from experience of other artists dabbling in this area, Tommy february6 actually speaks flawless English here and the song is in many ways better than the title song. It's very upbeat, with a party casino style vibe, similar also to the Casino Night Zone music from Sonic 2, that makes it hard not to twist in your seat when you listen to it.
As for the other two tracks on the disc, they are variants for the title song. The first is an awful, awful version featuring Pikachu. There is almost four minutes of awkward dialogue before it starts, and then when it finally does it's just the title song with the occasional vocal work from Pikachu thrown in, which kind of offsets the original's tempo.
The last track on the disc is just the instrumental version of the theme, which doesn't work too well without the words but is a nice addition to the disc.
As an aside, it's worth taking about the artist herself as well, whose real name is Tomoko Kawase. She has created an almost brand around "playing" different artists, creating a pseudonym for whatever style she thinks is more successful in a similar fashion to how writers sometimes ghost write under a pseudonym for different genres. So while this song is done by Tommy february6, her more pop flavored character, she also has another character called Tommy heavenly6 that was also active during this time that focused more in a punk style. Her use of characters is so diverse, in fact, that Wikipedia even has two articles for the artist, one for Tommy february6 and a separate article for Tommy heavenly6.
Overall, this single would actually be stronger if not for the Pikachu version of the song as the other three tracks are enjoyable. As a side note, the actual packaging is interesting on this release. While some of these artists downplay their connections to the original film, such as Song of Origin / Nice Buddy that makes no reference to Pokémon at all, Tommy february6 embraces it, hugging a giant Pikachu on the cover, placing photos of her and the Pikachu on a tour bus (she seems to have been going for a England vibe as she is holding a Royal guard doll and the CD itself features the UK flag) and the booklet itself has her playing with a Pikachu doll as well. Perhaps it was part of being in character for the more sweet Tommy february6, but regardless nice to see a single not afraid to reference the film material.
Finally, like to thank Jessica Stan for sending this CD in for
review as well!
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