Credits

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, August 29, 2018

Marcos V.'s short selection of 80s B-rated female aidoru singers



One of my new hobbies is Japanese literature, with a very special focus on Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫) – who quickly became my favorite writer ever, right next to Marquis de Sade –, Kafu Nagai (永井荷風) and, right now, Ryu Murakami (村上龍) – also known in the West as “the other Murakami”. From the latter, I’m reading a collection of short stories called “Tokyo Decadence” (2016), and the first two parts of the book, comprised of seven short stories selected from “Run, Takahashi!” and “Topaz”, were published during Japan's bubble years (1986 and 1988, respectively). So, with the word decadence in mind, Murakami introduces a lot of intriguing characters and plots, such as in the lovely and very interesting story about a truck driver who discovers a new life as a host in a gay bar after passing through a divorce and losing his job, or the creepy story about a young man with mental disorder who ends up killing almost everyone in a family (man and two kids), with the exception of the woman, after stalking this same woman for a while, and some stories revolving around call girls specialized in sadomasochism. Yes, the content can be a bit crude (like in the call girls’ stories), and sometimes creepy (the young man with mental disorder who ends up becoming a killer), but that’s why I became interested in Ryu Murakami in the first place.

Since these stories were written by Murakami during the bubble years, and they seem to take place in that time frame, I like to read them thinking about my favorite Japanese cultural phenomenon from the 80s, aka female aidoru singers, which can also be related to the era's overall decandent feeling. And with that in mind, I decided to talk about five songs, recorded by not-so-famous aidoru singers, ranging from the late 80s to the early 90s – well, I'm aware that's not a new topic coming from me, but whatever.


Starting off, here’s “Black Velvet” (ブラック・ベルベット), one of my favorite songs recorded by sexy aidoru Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩). Originally released in 1988 as a song from her second album, “Mizu no Naka no Chiisana Taiyou” (水の中の小さな太陽), it became one of her concert staples, and I’m not complaining, since I love its funky synthpop sound that was so common during the first Eurobeat era. And really, when I think about decadence, Aya Sugimoto always pops on my mind... but I do like her a lot, which can be kind of surprising. About the video, I have three or four different live performances of “Black Velvet” stored, but Aya is particularly bouncy in this one. Vocals are always bad, so that doesn’t matter.


Risa Tachibana (立花理佐) is another aidoru who I like a lot. At first, I thought about writing about her most unique song, the over the top “Risa no Yousei Densetsu” (リサの妖精伝説), but I couldn’t resist posting the ridiculously catchy “Do You Do You?” here (I keep singing the “do you do you remember me?” part on and on). Like Aya Sugimoto’s “Black Velvet”, and also the following songs in this list, the late 80s/early 90s Eurobeat sound is predominant here, even though the song is quite rooted in a traditional pop style. It was released as a single in 1989.


Kind of similar in sound to “Do You Do You?”, here’s Miwa Kawagoe (川越美和) with her second single, “Tenshi to Yu-Waku” (天使とYu-Waku), which was also released in 1989. I particularly like the wild cascade of synths in the background during some sections of the song. Besides that very particular detail in the arrangement, it’s a generic lost tune from its time. Well, no song in this list is very memorable, but that’s the fun of listening to B-rated aidoru singers in the first place.


In general, I dislike a lot of 80s aidoru’s debut songs, basically because they all sound similar to each other, but also very tame, especially if compared to the aidoru’s following outputs. That’s not the case with Eri Aikawa’s (相川恵里) “Junai Countdown” (純愛カウントダウン), my favorite of her singles, which, unlike a traditional aidoru debut song, is not a mid-tempo ballad, nor a pure ‘fifteen years old girl’ type of song. Released in the 1988, it makes sense that the arrangement is quite heavy on the horns, synths and bouncy bass line. Besides appearing in her first album “Kiiroi Kirin” (黄色い麒麟), it was later remixed for her second album, “O.TO.NA”, turning into an even more explosive song.


To finish the post, here’s “See Through” (シースルー) by Akiho Sendo (千堂あきほ), which happens to be the lone child of the 90s in this list, being released as a single in 1991. This one also features a heavy – and melodic – synth sound, but this time with a little rock twist, so common during the beginning of the 90s. It still sounds like an 80s tune, but with a pretty nice edge. In my opinion, it’s one of Akiho Sendo’s best songs (the other being “Glass no ECSTASY” [硝子のECSTASY]).

5 comments:

  1. Hello, Marcos! Good to hear from you and I hope your birthday celebrations went well.

    I had been lamenting the fact that there hasn't been too much in the way of Eurobeat recently on the blog when your article brought in a whole bunch of the natsukashii stuff.:) So many thanks on that.

    Yeah, the second-string aidoru aren't exactly memorable but the arrangements did bring in that feeling of nostalgia. I used to see a whole parade of them coming into the nighttime variety shows to do their 2-minute performances all the time. They just show up between sketches, do their thing, and leave and I immediately forget their names.

    Out of the five singers mentioned here, I think Risa Tachibana's "Do You Do You" is the one I like the best, and I recall seeing her featured in some of the old Myojo magazines that I've held onto all these years.

    As for your introductory paragraph on literature, Murakami and Mishima were required reading in my major. I ended up reading the latter's "Sound of Waves" in my third year, and it's probably Mishima's mildest novel since it really has to do with a budding young romance in a small village by the ocean. If you have a chance to see it, watch the biographical film "Mishima" which I believe is still officially banned from being shown in Japan. It brings to brilliant life some of the scenes from his novels.

    For some of the weird stuff, there is Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen". Plus "Nantonaku, Crystal" written by novelist Yasuo Tanaka (and governor of Nagano Prefecture from 2000-2006) became a bit of a sensation when it came out in the early 1980s since it dealt with some of the pop cultural trends and slang of the time, although I think it has been seen recently as being rather shallow and overrated, but then again, these are pop cultural trends we're talking about here.

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  2. Hi, J-Canuck.

    I had a small get together with a couple of friends and their respective girlfriends here at home, and it was the best birthday I had in a long time.

    When I think about the late 80s, the early Eurobeat sound is what comes on my mind. And it was, indeed, a very popular music genre among famous artists, but also the second rate aidoru. About this very particular selection I've written about, Risa Tachibana's "Do You Do You?" and Aya Sugimoto's "Black Velvet" are my main choices. Sometimes these artists and songs are so lost in time that even on YouTube we are not able to properly find them.

    About the literature subject, I agree that Mishima's "Sound of Waves" is truly his most 'normal' book, with a rather simple plot. Even so, it's so well written that I was able to appreciate it. His descriptions of the small village were so great that I was able to imagine it very well.

    I particularly enjoy Mishima's "Sea of Fertility" tetralogy (Vol.3, "Temple of Dawn", being my favorite), "Thirst For Love" and "Forbidden Colors". They're very ambitious, with some obvious over the top ideas, but that's what I like about them. Thankfully, some never translated novels are going to be released very soon in the US, later this year and next year.
    Even here in Brazil, they're also translating a novel never available in English before, "Inochi Urimasu", which is amazing.

    As for the movie, I've bought a Brazilian DVD edition a couple of months ago, and I've watched it many times already. It's not a simple movie, and works better for people who at least have a little knowledge of the author and his works (I'vev tried watching it with one of my aunts, with virtually no success, but she's more into the early 90s Chinese movies I watch with her), but it features some beautiful sceneries. Yet, what bothers me the most about the movie is that "Kyoko's House", one of the books featured, wasn't translated in any language (apparently, it was a flop in Japan and no one got interested in translating it at the time).

    I've read Banana Yoshimoto's "Tsugumi" a while ago, but still have to buy "Kitchen" (her most famous book, if I'm not mistaken). About the latter, I'm thinking about buying the US edition, since the old Brazilian one was translated from the Italian (sorry for the pun, but I don't want to be lost in so many translations). As for the other one, I've heard about it, but I'm afraid it was not translated in the West, unfortunately.

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    1. It's good that you were able to catch "Mishima" the movie. Perhaps you may catch it on YouTube and it's definitely more NSFW, but there is a short movie with I believe was directed by the author called "Patriotism". He also stars in it as a soldier who has one last night of passion with his wife before killing himself the next day. It's pretty graphic considering the times and it was shown to our first-year East Asian History class back in university. There were quite a lot of shocked faces in the classroom that day, that's for sure. :)

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    2. Oh, I'm aware of that movie, but will probably not watch now. I've already read "Patriotism" in a compilation of Mishima's short stories, and I remember how graphic it is. This short story of his is a very famous, and really beautifully written, one (even the most bloody stuff), but movie-wise, it's probably too much for me. I don't mind reading gore (Marquis de Sade is full of it, and I'm alright with this kind of horrible stuff), but I'm quite weak to movies. Mind you, I don't like to watch risible terror movies, like "Child's Play", for example.

      "Patriotism" is, perhaps, Mishima's most graphic work. One of the protagonists in "Wild Horse" also commits seppuku, but the description, although still poetic, is not as detailed as in "Patriotism". Also, I remember Mishima hints at a very violent murder in "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea", and even quickly describes one in "Thirst For Love", but that's probably it.

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    3. Hi, Marcos.

      I'm not much for horror, especially the torture porn stuff that was big a decade ago. Mishima's "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea" was remade into a British 1976 film starring Sarah Miles and Kris Kristofferson, and yep, one of the main characters gets vivisected by a very troubled boy. I hadn't known about Mishima's connection when I first saw scenes from the film, but now that I know, I'm not all that surprised.

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