Naoko Kawai -- Aishitemasu（愛してます）

Nope, this isn't an anison article but I just wanted to illustrate the oft-displayed scene in anime of love confessions. If there is one usual common thread among all of them, it's that the reactions are over the top (spit takes, steam spewing out of ears, the look of utter apocalypse).

That was rather the scene that I was thinking of when I first heard 80s star aidoru Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）3rd single "Aishitemasu" (I Love You) from December 1980. Although the lyrics by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）have placed the setting post-confession and mid-relationship, that feeling of ardor by the young lady is still burning out of control. Those first two lines say it all: "I love you so much that I can cry. I love you so much that all of the people that I've met before you have been erased from my mind". Well, I'm glad that the lad said yes.

I'm going to have to listen to the original recorded version from that BEST compilation of Naoko's that I have, but the arrangement of the song composed by Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）as heard on the music shows, has those hot and sharp horns along with the funky bass. This reminds me of some of the tunes that I heard from Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）early in her career in the mid-late 1970s. The music does enhance the passion that the girl may barely be concealing from her young beau.

"Aishitemasu" peaked at No. 14 on Oricon and finished 1981 as the 83rd-ranked single. It was also placed on Kawai's 2nd album "Twilight Dream"（トワイライト・ドリーム）which was released in May of that year.