At the midway point of its first season, Mezon Ikkoku's television ratings were not very high, so the production team felt that a new theme song was in order. For Episode 24, the songs "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Get Down" by the Irish artist Raymond "Gilbert" O'Sullivan, replaced "Kanashimi Yo Konnichiwa" and "Cin-e-ma" as the opening and closing themes. "Alone Again (Naturally") was the number one pop song in the US for 6 weeks in 1972 (The song was also used again in Episode 27, during the scene when Kyoko mistakes Godai's silhouette for that of her late husband). After the episode aired, there was a disagreement between the production team and the creators of the show, which resulted in the themes being switched back.