Friday, October 28, 2016

Jun Togawa -- Zukei no Koi (図形の恋)


Back in August, I wrote about the opening and ending themes for the anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"(この美術部には問題がある!)with the latter being Sumire Uesaka's(上坂すみれ)"Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"(恋する図形...A Figure in Love), the quirky earworm hatched by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND.


I mentioned there that Uesaka was so much of a fan of singer-actress Jun Togawa(戸川純)that she adopted a variation of one of Togawa's song titles from the 1980s, "Zukei no Koi"(Figure Love)to become the co-title for her own tune. Then and there, I decided that I would eventually do a write-up on that Togawa tune.

One of the other reasons that I wanted to cover "Zukei no Koi" was that I had read about Togawa through nikala's article of the singer's "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and actually knew about her from reputation. She has had quite the avant-garde New Wave approach to music and has shown a good deal of weirdness when she has made those occasional appearances on variety shows. Plus, from time to time, when I've entered Tower Records in Shibuya, I came across an album of hers on which there's a cover of her barely wearing any clothing in some hay-filled barn. Go fig.

Anyways, as for "Zukei no Koi", I can understand why Uesaka has been a fan of Togawa since on listening to this particular song, there is a certain vocal resemblance between the two. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Uesaka has already performed covers of the song in concert. It first came out in November 1985 as a track on Togawa's 3rd solo album "Suki Suki Dai Suki"(好き好き大好き...Love You, Love You, Really Love You), and it's this cheery New Wave confession of love from the singer who is willing to bend herself into any sort of shape to satisfy the target of her adorations.


Thinking about some of the genre diversification in aidoru music that I've witnessed over the last few years, I think Togawa could have been called a New Wave aidoru with that chirpy voice of hers up against some of that technopop that had me thinking back to Blondie. Seeing her in performance above in the video, I think she would have been that introverted weird kid up in the back of the lecture hall not paying attention to the professor but doodling all sorts of creative stuff in her notebook. However, she didn't write or compose "Zukei no Koi". Instead that assignment went to Toshiro Izumi(泉水敏郎).


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