Akiho Sendo -- Denki Hebi Hime Sama（電気蛇姫様）

Marcos V. has been the go-to contributor thus far when it comes to 90s aidoru Akiho Sendo（千堂あきほ）including his article on "Glass no ECSTASY" (硝子のECSTASY). But today, I've decided to put my own Akiho article into the mix.

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Like Marcos pointed out in that article, most of my memories of singer/actress Sendo came through the Fuji-TV drama "Tokyo Love Story"（東京ラブストーリー）in 1991 in which she played the jaded Naoko Nagasaki（長崎尚子）. Her character was pretty darn serious for the most part when compared to the turbulent Rika Akana（赤名リカ）as played by perky Honami Suzuki（鈴木保奈美）.

However, any time that she appeared on variety shows and the like, she was the perky one. She had that 90s look of an out-on-the-town woman in Tokyo, and it was hard to see her in any state other than smiley and giggly. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage but there was one time on a show where she was wearing some pretty severe stilettos when she suddenly hit the floor like a finished Jenga game after which she was just a bubbly figure of embarrassed laughter. Then, there's the natsukashii commercial up above that I also remember.

Listening to the jingle in that commercial, I do realize that Sendo was never going to get anywhere near the vocal talents of singers such as Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）. Marcos has made that very clear, but hey again, we are talking about aidoru so ability was never going to be a predominant issue here.

Having said that, allow me to introduce one track from her second June 1991 album "Hot Box", "Denki Hebi Hime Sama" which translates as "Her Majesty, Princess Electric Snake". I had initially thought that the animal was actually an electric eel, but in Japanese, that would be a denki unagi（電気ウナギ）, so indeed this is a snake. Not sure what Chinfa Kan's（康珍化）lyrics are all about since I couldn't find them anywhere, but Kisaburo Suzuki's（鈴木キサブロー）melody is all about the Latin bump n' grind and dance club. With all of the hoopla of the Lambada at the time, there was a subset of J-Pop songs which embraced the energy in swinging those hips and bottoms.

Nope, Sendo wasn't a great chanteuse but as had been the case with many aidoru in those several years, the songwriters and arrangers could whip up some magic for her. I don't think "Denki Hebi Hime Sama" placed too great a demand on her to jump through the vocal equivalent of flaming hoops. Plus, there is always the nostalgic element about hearing these old songs again after over a quarter-century.