Warabe -- Moshi mo Ashita ga （もしも明日が）

Provided that the above doesn't get taken down (it has but still have the original song), I have to say that this is probably one of the more quietly surreal videos that I have ever imported into this blog. After all, what is more intriguing after 3 a.m. (and I'm pretty sure this is 3 in the morning since I can't recall seeing any Japanese network put up a music video at 3 in the afternoon) than having a bleary-eyed night owl watching a video of a balloon flying up a Shinjuku skyscraper followed by a bird's-eye view of the Tokyo neighbourhood while one of the cutest songs known in kayo kyoku history is playing? I hope that the above stays up for a good long time since I would have to change the narrative completely here if it gets taken down.

November 4th 2019: Well, the Shinjuku video did get taken down but you can look at the really cute video in its place above.

In any case, the above video here is perhaps more appropriate and cuter for Warabe's（わらべ） "Moshi mo Ashita ga" (If Tomorrow) although the song is a shorter version. Exactly a year after the variety-show aidoru trio hit the pop charts with "Medaka no Kyoudai"（めだかの兄妹）, their most successful single came out in December 1983. And it wasn't just Warabe's most successful single; it was 1984's most successful single, selling just under 1 million records! On the Oricon weeklies, it stayed at No. 1 for about a month.

The same fellows who created "Medaka no Kyoudai" also made "Moshi mo Ashita ga", Toyohisa Araki and Takashi Miki（荒木とよひさ・三木たかし）. The lyrics come off sounding like a 3-minute version of "He loves me, he loves me not...." with Atsumi Kurasawa and Mami Takahashi（倉沢敦美・高橋真美） singing of various next-day scenarios for a lovesick girl and that guy. And the melody is perfectly kid-friendly like its predecessor from a year earlier with a touch of Dixieland. The background chorus consisted of other members from that variety show I mentioned in the previous paragraph, "Kin-chan no Doko Made Yaru no?"（欽ちゃんのどこまでやるの）, including one pint-sized actor/comedian who has become a household name in afternoon TV, Kazuki Kosakai（小堺一樹）.

Now, there is one name missing here from the roster. Last year, there was also the eldest of the "sisters", Tomoko Takabe（高部知子）. Unfortunately, early in 1983, between "Medaka" and "Moshi", there was a rather large scandal involving the then-15-year-old in photographs of her saucily holding a cigarette while supposedly nude in bed with a futon covering her. Well, lots of stuff hit the fan ultimately resulting in her getting expelled from Horikoshi High School (the Tokyo high school for the teen celebs), Warabe and the program. However, she did return to show business 15 years later.