Mami Ayukawa -- Kaze no No Reply （風のノー・リプライ）

A cloth to wipe my glasses since
after all only Mazinger Z can accomplish this.

When it comes to 1980s anime, I have to say that the only show that I saw with any dedication was "Macross", and that was basically because of its American adaptation "Robotech". Aside from that one, it was simply seeing snatches of this anime and hearing things about that anime.

So, yes, even I did hear about this show called "Juusenki L-Gaim"（重戦機エルガイム...Heavy Metal L-Gaim）which was another in a long series of mecha-based anime but never saw an episode.

But then in the last few days, I heard this wonderful 1980s tune that just happened to be the second opening theme song for "L-Gaim". On hearing "Kaze no No Reply" (No Reply From The Wind), my impression was that this was quite a cheery urban contemporary piece for a show about battling robots.

And this was the debut of one Mami Ayukawa（鮎川麻弥）from Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. That still for the video above (which has since been taken down) may have Ayukawa looking like a typical aidoru but, truth be told, she was already about 22 years old when "Kaze no No Reply" was released in July 1984. The song may start out its first few bars sounding as if it were an American AOR song on helium but then when Ayukawa starts singing, it settles down nicely into a soaring anison with those beloved strings and snazzy horns. It just seems to go on like a piece of gum that doesn't lose its flavour. In addition, it doesn't hurt that Ayukawa's voice is more than game with Kyohei Tsutsumi's（筒美京平）music and Masao Urino's（売野雅勇）lyrics. I especially love it when she shoots out "No Reply".

This song has me comparing Ayukawa to fellow singers such as Anri（杏里）and Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）who were no slouches themselves when it came to 80s anison. "Kaze no No Reply" peaked at No. 17 on Oricon. She would release 12 more singles going mostly into the early 1990s although her most recent release came out in 2007.