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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Yuki Kudo -- Yasei Jidai (野生時代)


Is it possible to resist this cute cover with those sparkling eyes and childish smile? Probably not, and that’s why I didn’t hesitate and listened to what this girl, Yuki Kudo (工藤夕貴), had on her 80s catalogue. I’m still in the middle of the road (will listen to the second half tomorrow), but her debut single, “Yasei Jidai”, released in December 1984, already made a good impression on me.


A cute aidoru, indeed, but with a deeper voice than what the fluffy cover above might suggest. Also, the girl was still thirteen years old when this song was released. Very, very young for 80s aidoru’s standards.

About “Yasei Jidai”, it sounds like a proper Techno Kayo song from the early-to-mid 80s with this mixture of sci-fi synths and aidoru melodrama. Also, even though the cheap synths were reigning here, the producer found some space for strings in the arrangement, which was a nice touch.

Although not so common as the amount of mellow Seiko Matsuda-esque (松田聖子) songs out there, some aidoru singers recorded and released Techno Kayou tunes in the market. “Yasei Jidai”, for example, reminded me of Kyon Kyon’s (小泉今日子) “Meikyuu no Androla” (迷宮のアンドローラ), which was also released in 1984. You can hear it below.


Lyrics for "Yasei Jidai" were written by Akira Otsu (大津あきら), while music was composed by Takeshi Ike (いけたけし). As for the arrangement, Kei Wakakusa (若草恵) was the responsible. About the lovely cover at the beginning, it's from a compilation called “Yasei Jidai Humming Bird Years Complete Singles” (野生時代 ハミング・バード・イヤーズ・コンプリート・シングルス), which was released in February 2015.

11 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's quite the different aidoru tune here...something that sounded a bit closer to US R&B at the time. And it is quite the rare song as well since I hadn't heard about Yuki Kudo until the 90s when she was popping up in all kinds of commercials such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0L76i8SvPI

    The interesting thing is that she was a cousin of the late Minako Honda, and the resemblance between the two was quite uncanny. I would say that they looked more like sisters.

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    1. I didn't know Yuki-chan became a CM girl in the 90s. I know she's doing well on acting, but she quit music for real.

      Also, it was a pleasant surprise to learn about her relation with Minako Honda. Besides the look, both girls started their careers at the same time, and even their vocal tones were similar at the beginning.

      As I hinted in the article, I finished listening to her best of yesterday. It was an overall nice listening, but also the typical fare when it comes to 80s aidoru's songs. "Yasei Jidai" was the song that truly sticked with me.

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    2. Yeah, I had heard that she was in the aidoru business but didn't hear any of her music until you wrote the article yesterday. I saw her mostly on commercials of which there are a lot on YouTube but then I did see her on "Memoirs of a Geisha" about a decade ago.

      Delete
  2. A question about this picture of Yuki.

    https://66.media.tumblr.com/bf3399205effd57689f3b9343e583960/tumblr_n21kei9EQj1sm0fpko1_1280.jpg

    Yeah, she's cute. But more importantly, what computer is she advertising? It says H1, but google doesn't give any more useful info. Ah, found it. It's the Hitachi H1/H1E.

    https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=426

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Hi, Jim.

      Looks very portable if somewhat clunky looking. :) When I was on the JET Programme, I had to handle a SONY word processor called a Lupo if I were back at the Board of Education. It was quite the mammoth.

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  3. More about old computers. Here's a video of the Hitachi H1.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TraN1bl4wZA

    Here's a TV ad for the H2. The early shots looked like another Yuki (Saito), but the later shots less so.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tqBFH3qSYc

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    1. Man, those were the days with those tape cassettes. I uploaded the games Asteroid and Pac-Man by those onto my Vic 20.

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  4. Another old Japanese computer, the NEC PC 88. The point of interest is the adverts starting around 00:35, unless you want to learn about the specs and games.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8INFbp3rmE

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    1. The Vic 20 was my first computer and then several years would pass before I came across the Mac 2Si.

      Delete

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