Urusei Yatsura Italian Intro
ⓘ This lostwave is classified as solved. | |
| Urusei Yatsura Italian Intro | |
 The characters of Urusei Yatsura. | |
| Year | 1984 |
|---|---|
| Status | Solved |
The Urusei Yatsura Italian Intro is a solved lostwave created for the Italian dub of anime Urusei Yatsura. The song was identfied as being created by Noam Kaniel, Ciro Dammicco, Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.
Origins[edit | edit source]
In 1984, the Italian Dub of Urusei Yatsura was broadcast by Telecapri. Instead of using the Japanese Intro or the song of the original theme in Italian, a new song was recorded for the program to promote the show. This would be the intro used for Urusei Yatsura up until 1990. No singers or songwriters were credited for the song or listed under SIAE, where most of the Italian copyright information for the show was registered. The intro song was likely only created for the TV show, as the ending uses the instrumental of the song, suggesting it was commissioned specifically.
Urusei Yatsura went on the become one of the most popular anime TV shows in Italy, with the first intro becoming semi-iconic. The fact that the version played in the show's opening suddenly fades out, led fans to wonder for decades if a full version of the song existed.
KBL Version[edit | edit source]
In the 2000s, a full 3 minute edit of the song was create with an additional keyboard solo and additional verses. It was revealed that the Youtuber KBL, who had posted this version, had edited it together themselves.
KBL created the KBL Forums for discussing cartoons and TV music, where a thread on the Urusei Yatsura theme was created. KBL tried to release their edit of the theme song commercially in the hopes it would be claimed by the creators, but this did not occur. KBL Forum users also began searching SIAE but only turned up covers of the intro.
During this period of the search, Telecapri was repeatedly contacted by members of the community. They refused to comment on the song and eventually Lawyers associated with the company claimed the song came prepackaged with the dub. Ricmon, the company that dubbed Urusei Yatsura had gone bust, but former employees involved with music suggested Monica Caudieri knew the artists behind the song. Unfortunately, she was unable to be contacted.
Hoax Leads[edit | edit source]
In the 2010s, Vincenzo Spampinato became a potential lead, as in an interview with SICLIAMEDIAWEB he cryptically implied that he was behind the song and would reveal the truth in 2012. Spampinato was contacted on Facebook and seemingly confirmed his involvement, only for the account posing as him to be exposed as a hoax.
A different version of the opening credits of Urusei Yatsura was found on Youtube, supposedly aired by Polish channel, Polonia 1. These credits contained the Italian intro song. However, Polish anime fans quickly debunked this lead, as the show never aired in Poland.
Facebook Search and First Artist Discovery[edit | edit source]
The search moved to Facebook in the 2010s, particularly Italian cartoon group FUMETTOSO.User Wally Rainbow suggested Noam Kaniel, the artist behind the Heathcliff theme and Italian Spider Woman theme, may have sung the intro. Kaniel had even collaborated with Saban and Levy before on theme songs, solidifying both leads further. Kaniel was reached out to in 2018 but with no response.
The Facebook group Il Mistero Della Sigla Di Lamù was created as a new hub for the search, where user Franco reached out to Kaniel once again. Eventually he received a response that was posted to the group in January 2020, where Kaniel confirmed that he was singing on the track but it was a duet and he couldn't remember who the other vocalist was.
Second Artist Discovery[edit | edit source]
On the 19th of February 2020, Justin Whang made a video about the search, laying out the story up to that point.
Sometime after this, Ciro Dammicco was raised as a possible second vocalist, as he had collaborated with Haim and Levy before on multiple occasions. Kaniel confirmed this to be the case. When asked about singing on the track in an interview, Dammicco said that they must have sung on it if Kaniel said so. Shuki Levy later was contacted via email, where he confirmed the track was a duet between Kaniel and Dammicco.