Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Ai Iijima -- Dear Joshi Kousei (Dear 女子高生)

From Yahoo News

The first time I'd ever encountered the late adult video actress-turned-TV personality, author and activist Ai Iijima(飯島愛)was through a strange source. She was part of a punchline in the late-night Friday program "Tamori Club" whose "Soramimi Hour" segment presented so-called misheard and hilarious Japanese phrases from otherwise normal lyrics of Western pop and rock songs. 

Then, from her career in adult videos in the early 1990s, Iijima started becoming known through a late-night TV show called "Gilgamesh Night" and other programs. One thing that gained her further fame was wearing a G-string or thong on some of those shows. But then over the next decade, she began appearing on more mainstream programming including quiz shows and panel discussions, and the impression is that she didn't hold back on her opinions on anything. She became such a regular household word on television that many ended up not being aware that she'd been once in the porn industry.

Being in Japan at the time, I hadn't been aware that Iijima had decided to retire from show business in early 2007, but I remembered watching the shocking breaking news of her sudden death at the age of 36 in December 2008. I learned that she'd been having some health issues which spurred on her decision to leave the geinokai and the official cause of her death was pneumonia.

A commenter asked me about Iijima (so I put up this article) a few days ago, and although I hadn't known about any of her short discography, I wasn't surprised that she did cut a few songs since the unwritten rule about being in Japanese show business had once been that if one reaches a certain level of fame, then that person has to record some songs...singing talent (or lack of it) be damned.

"Dear Joshi Kousei" (Dear Female High School Students) was the last of five singles that she released in the early-to-mid 1990s. Coming out in October 1994, the lyrics by Iijima herself and Yuuhei Mizuno(水野有平)have her doing a pretty nice performance of asking those errant high school kids not to steal her boyfriend while he's working part-time at a nightclub. Mizuno was also responsible for the music which is some slick 90s City Pop (with a bit of disco here and a bit of Doobie Bros there). The arrangement reminds me of Kanako Wada's(和田加奈子)late 1980s song "Tanjoubi wa Minus Ichi" (誕生日はマイナス1)

All in all, I think Iijima is taking the news of any romantic malfeasance remarkably well. By the way, the lass actually isn't the first hardcore porn actress to appear in the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Have a look here.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, the original T-back queen! I was a fan of her back in the day, I always enjoyed whenever she showed up on tv and you're right, she would speak whatever was on her mind. I also knew about her brief music career, she had a song that was used as a CM, very catchy. I like this song too.

    Ah, "Gilgamesh Night." There's certain programs from the 80-90's that probably won't be revived today in Japan, lol. Same goes for "Super Jockey" that Iijima used to frequent. Can't believe that used to air on Sunday afternoons. What a time.

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    1. Yep, those late-night programs such as "11 PM", "Tonight" and "Gilgamesh Night" were something else. Used to remember "Super Jockey" hosted by Beat Takeshi on Sundays at around 1 on NTV.

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  2. I was the one who recommended her, thank you so much for the write-up! Hope you'll do another entry on her in the future!

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  3. I imagine those high school kids had their fingers crossed behind their back when they agreed, LOL!

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