Yoko Oginome -- Mirai Koukai ~ Sailing （未来航海）

Whoa! Another oldie that I haven't heard in a while. I had actually been taking a listen to my old CD of Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, "Pop Groover" to re-acquaint my ears to some of the singer's early hits when I got delightfully detoured to her time as a pint-sized member of Milk...ended up writing an article about their 2nd single, in fact.

Well, I'm back on track and I'm unearthing her debut single as a solo aidoru, "Mirai Koukai" ([Future] Sailing). After her time with Milk came to an abrupt end, her other notable achievement was her seiyuu work as the title character in Fuji-TV's "Miyuki"（みゆき）during 1983. She still continued on the seiyuu track for a while afterwards, but as a newly-minted high school freshman in 1984, she also started her aidoru career with "Mirai Koukai".

Written by singer-lyricist Hiromi Kanda（神田ヒロミ）and composed by Yukiyoshi (or Yukinaga) Shimazu（島津行良）for release in April 1984, it was nice revisiting Yoko-chan before she transformed into the dancing heroine of Eurobeat. "Mirai Koukai" is interesting in that it has Oginome in conventional aidoru mode with a more high-pitched, less nasal singing voice although I think the song itself still stands out...maybe it's just the fact that it is Yoko Oginome, but I also like the urgency of the beat and the instrumental bridge.

"Mirai Koukai" peaked at No. 32 on Oricon and was included on her debut album, "Teens' Romance" which was released in September 1984.

A small video bonus above. Yoko's sister, actress Keiko Oginome（荻野目慶子）appeared on a periodic family-oriented karaoke special back in 1983, and introduced her family, including her kid sis before she hit the big time.