Ikimonogakari -- Koi suru Otome（コイスルオトメ）

 

Well, indeed, it is April 1st and though it is April's Fools Day here, in Japan, it takes on a bigger meaning since it is also the first day of a new fiscal year with all sorts of staff transfers and new recruits beginning their adult corporate lives. That also goes for the television industry including NHK and the weekly music program "Uta Con"（うたコン）. 

Let's see...tonight's episode had a new co-host although her face hasn't been placed onto the website as of yet, frequent guest group Junretsu（純烈）is now down to a trio and a new nostalgic segment has been added to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the network. But the main theme of the show was a mixture of the veterans and a fresh spring, so we heard "Seishun Jidai"（青春時代）, "Sakura"（さくら）, "Mizuiro no Ame" (みずいろの雨）, "Nagasaki wa Kyou mo Ame Datta" （長崎は今日も雨だった）and "La-La-Sunshine".

At the same time, I got to hear the band Ikimonogakari（いきものがかり）perform one of their very early hits, their 3rd single "Koi suru Otome" (A Girl in Love) from October 2006. A pure and innocent love ballad created by band guitarist Yoshiki Mizuno（水野良樹）, "Uta Con" couldn't have asked for a more appropriate song on their episode of new beginnings and spring love. 

However, according to the J-Wiki article for the song, when it was first created, Mizuno had so effectively written the lyrics in such a feminine way that it was hard to believe that it had even been written by a man, and even vocalist Kiyoe Yoshioka（吉岡聖恵）admitted that she herself couldn't fathom ever singing it. Furthermore, despite it earning a No. 15 ranking on the Oricon weeklies and Platinum status, "Koi Suru Otome" ended up as Ikimonogakari's lowest-selling single (so imagine how much more successful their really big hits have been). The single is also included on the band's first major album "Sakura Saku Machi Monogatari" (桜咲く街物語...The Story of Town Where Cherry Blossoms Bloom) and it was used as the ending theme for the NTV variety series "Love Katsu"（恋愛部活）.