Fumiya Fujii -- Another Orion

When it comes to Fumiya Fujii's（藤井フミヤ）solo work away from his 80s band Checkers, the one song that will always come to mind is his 1993 hit "True Love". As I mentioned in that article, that's one love song that probably birthed a ton of lovelorn serenaders with guitars. Though I don't remember too much from past broadcasts of the Kohaku Utagassen after the early 1980s, I do recollect very well Fujii's performance of "True Love" on the NHK Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve since it was one of the highlights of that program.

A few years later, Fujii came up with another ballad that really pulled at the heartstrings. In August 1996, he released his 10th single, "Another Orion", which like "True Love", was another theme song for a drama surrounding a group of young people, "Garasu no Kakera tachi"（硝子のかけらたち...:Pieces of Glass）on TBS. And also like "True Love", I ended up purchasing the CD single of "Another Orion". Incidentally, this time, the drama actually starred Fujii.

From listening to "Another Orion", it's indeed a heart-tugger with a more melancholy yet dreamy melody which was actually composed by someone other than Fujii this time (although Fujii did provide the lyrics), Naoki Masumoto（増本直樹）. Still, Fujii's lyrics are serenade-worthy pearls of love to that special someone, and it could make a romantic couple look up at the night sky for the constellation of Orion.

"Another Orion" was Fujii's first No. 1 single since "True Love" which ended up becoming the 22nd-ranked single for 1996. It is also present on his 3rd solo album "Tears" from September of that year; that album hit No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 60th-ranked album for 1998. To finally end the comparison between the two ballads, "Another Orion" was also performed on the 1996 Kohaku Utagassen.