Shizuka Kudo -- Kindan no Telepathy （禁断のテレパシー）

Being just a casual fan of Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）, I didn't know the title for this song nor where it stood in her discography. However, I did remember it for the opening words: a breathless repetition of "Tell me why", and then some pretty intense synth string activity. I would never have pegged it as Kudo's actual debut song; it just seemed a little too muscular for a launch tune for an aidoru. I thought it was something that happened much later in her solo career, and that Kudo started that career off with the usual sweet little ditty.

But then again, Kudo would later take on that image of a kickass aidoru with the huge mounds of hair, stark makeup and the bright dresses, so perhaps "Kindan no Telepathy"(Forbidden Telepathy) was prescient or the people behind her career were. Strangely enough, though, the cover of the single showed a rather different visage of a girl in shorter, darker hair and with a bit more baby fat in those cheeks. The lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, about a woman who's trying to recover from a sudden breakup, should probably hint at some sort of love ballad, but Tsugutoshi Goto's（後藤次利） dramatic melody keeps the words closer to a suspense-thriller (almost kinda like the editing genius on YouTube who manipulated scenes from Tom Hanks' romantic dramedy "Sleepless In Seattle" into a trailer for a dangerous stalker going after Hanks).

"Kindan no Telepathy" was released in August 1987, and reached the top spot on Oricon. It would become the 59th-ranked song of the year, selling 145,000 copies. It was also a track on Kudo's first album, "Mysterious" which was released in January 1988 and peaked at No. 3. It eventually became the 40th-ranked album of that year.