Miki Imai -- Hitomi ga Hohoemu kara (瞳がほほえむから）

I was watching a docudrama one night on the life of The God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）. Not surprisingly, he was lionized on screen with the proverbial final scene of him in a hospital bed as he reflected on his life. Then this wonderful song came on as Tezuka's famous creations appeared on the screen, and I thought the producers really pulled out all the stops to have this throat-lumping tune finish this biography.

As it turned out, though, "Hitomi ga Hohoemu kara"(Because Your Eyes Smile) was the ending theme for the Wednesday Night Drama on Nippon Television (NTV). I wouldn't find about Miki Imai（今井美樹） for some months yet, but she was indeed the singer behind this ballad. I knew that I would have to find the song somehow. And it was indeed providential when I bought her first Best Album, "Ivory"(1989) and discovered the song at the end of the album. "Hitomi"was created by composer/singer Chika Ueda（上田知華）and lyricist Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）.

Even watching Miki Imai in the original music video gets me nostalgic since she had all that long frizzy hair back then. I believe the style was called "sauvage". In any case, the single itself got as high as No. 9 on the Oricon charts. It never came out on an original album, so "Ivory" was the first chance to hear it.