Ushirogami Hikaretai -- Anata wo Shiritai (あなたを知りたい)

As commenter Matthew Cole, J-Canuck and me (Marcos V.) were discussing Shizuka Kudo’s (工藤静香) noteworthy eyebrows in a past post, I decided to write something about a song that featured our beloved Shizuka and two other members of the super aidoru group Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ), the cute Akiko Ikuina (生稲晃子) and Makiko Saito (斉藤満喜子). Together, they were called Ushirogami Hikaretai (うしろ髪ひかれ隊), an unit that was created to sing anime related theme songs and was alive for only one year and two months (May 1987 - July 1988). In this short period of time, they released five singles, two studio albums and one live album. They surely worked a lot.

Our today’s song is “Anata wo Shiritai”, Ushirogami Hikaretai’s second single, which was released in August 1987. The song is a typical 80s synthpop song with a pulsating bass line, lots of synths and a very catchy chorus (I’m singing it nonstop inside of my head). The arrangement is very similar to a bunch of Shizuka Kudo’s 80s singles, and that’s because Tsugutoshi Goto (後藤次利) was the man responsible for both Ushirogami Hikaretai's and Shizuka Kudo's arrangement (while a member of Ushirogami Hikaretai, Shizuka was also starting her successful solo efforts with songs like the edgy “Kindan no Telepathy” [禁断のテレパシー] and “FU-JI-TSU”, for example). Based on that similar sound, Ushirogami Hikaretai’s songs are a treat for any fan of Shizuka Kudo’s early solo career.

Finally, the video is also great for aidoru fans. There’s not much action or a plot, but the girls are there, and we don’t need anything else to grab our attention. Well, nothing but raw 80s synths, and that is offered in abundance by “Anata wo Shiritai”.

“Anata wo Shiritai” reached #2 on the Oricon charts, selling 196,000 copies. The song was used as one of the many opening themes for the anime "High School! Kimengumi" (ハイスクール!奇面組). Lyrics were written by Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康), while music and arrangement were done by Tsugutoshi Goto.