Yuki Saito -- Sotsugyo (卒業）

Ah, Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）,the aidoru with the large brown-cow eyes. Whenever she appeared on a music ranking show and gave those eyes with that little pout, I had this overwhelming urge to ask if she needed help in anything. And yet this was the same sailor suit uniform-wearing, yoyo-armed high school warrior who could take down the worst of the worst in "Sukeban Deka"（スケバン刑事...Delinquent Girl Detective).

After getting her first taste of show business via an instant ramen commercial in late 1984, the Kanagawa-ken native debuted with "Sotsugyo"(Graduation) in February 1985, written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. She had that wonderfully clear high voice when she sang the song  that can start those memory engrams sparking back to those halcyon days in high school. "Sotsugyo" was released in February 1985 and peaked at No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies. For the year, it ranked at No. 34. It was also a track on her debut album, "Axia", released in June of the same year, which peaked at No. 3.

1985 seemed to be the nexus for all songs titled "Sotsugyo". Atsumi Kurasawa（倉沢淳美） and Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）had same-titled songs during that year. And fellow aidoru, Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）, also released her own "Sotsugyo"(already profiled) in the same February as Saito's "Sotsugyo". According to the writeup for the latter song on J-Wiki, at one time, both Saito and Kikuchi were on the same music program with the same song but at two different locations outside of the studio. The host asked the two of them, "With songs of the same title, do you see each other as rivals?" Kikuchi laughingly replied that she didn't, but Saito answered with a serious face, "I do." I guess the word for that situation was: AWK-WARD! Not sure if that had been her audition for "Sukeban Deka".