So I go on the net and find Love Is... again and download it and listen and laugh. Hey, it's stupid and catchy, what can I say. I've also improv-ed the piano accompaniment part to this song countless times (to the amusement usually of either J or C). And each time, the main refrain is really really really easy to make up on the spot. He does a third modulation (to the flat mediant) from refrain to versebut that's only tricky the first time if you forget think about it. The connection I never made, though, was why the refrain of Love Is... is so easy to play and make up on the spot: I've played countless variants of it before, and usually much more complex.

Yup, the harmonic bass to Ryuichi-san's famous refrain is the same as Pachelbel's Canon. It's not the most unique harmonic progression in the world: I-V-VI-iii-IV-I-IV-V. Lather, rinse, repeat. But it is one of the more famous one because of Pachelbel. If you don't believe me, just go sing Pachelbel on top of Love Is... or the other way around. It's a little bit weird with 3 against 4 (Love Is... is in triple and Pachelbel in duple) but you get the idea.

And anybody notice that some of the battle music in Mononoke Hime is based on the famous Shosti Fifth motive? (The one that starts the first movement with the alternating rising and falling minor sixths in the lower strings.) And while we're on the Japanese classical music connection: Battle Royale uses Auf dem Wasser zu Singen (Schubert song) rather well, no?