Momoko Kikuchi -- Natsuiro Kataomoi（夏色片思い）

Well, this has already been one interesting Saturday. Unseasonably cold and when I went out to grab the newspaper this morning, there were even snowflakes wafting down. I don't think I've seen snow in May since my elementary school years. Plus, the number of daily new infections on the provincial level has dropped down to 346 which is the lowest that we've seen in a month (knock on wood). Moreover, Toronto has slowly and carefully continued to open up the economy with those garden shops and hardware stores back open for in-store business, and even the sidewalk retail outlets will be allowed to open up on Monday. Considering that some other areas such as Seoul and Washington State have suffered a second series of infection spikes once they began relaxing restrictions, I'm going to figuratively hold my breath for the next few days and hope (but not predict) that things are truly getting better.

I wrote about the adorable Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）starring as the kind but suffer-no-fools-gladly mother of one of the main characters in the currently running NHK morning serial drama "Yell"（エール）. She's not the only teenage 80s singer in the cast, though. Former aidoru Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）is playing the other mother, Masa Koyama, parent of budding genius songwriter Yuuichi.

But since this is a music blog after all, let's head back with Momoko-chan to her singing days. Specifically, there's her 8th single "Natsuiro Kataomoi" released in August 1986. I did hear it before because of that refrain "Un, deux, trois..." but it's been a long while so I didn't quite remember the rest of the tine. However, when I saw the songwriters behind "Natsuiro Kataomoi" (Summer Colour One-Sided Love), lyricist Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）and composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, I figured that I was in for something very pleasant and relaxing. I wasn't wrong.

Especially with Kikuchi's coquettish vocals, "Natsuiro Kataomoi" is light and airy like cherry blossom petals. I don't think it's quite in AOR or City Pop territory this time around but the arrangement has me thinking about Kikuchi's lovelorn high school student spending as much time in the downtown café as she does in a countryside counterpart, thanks to that keyboard work.

The song hit No. 1 on Oricon and it ended 1986 as the 33rd-ranked single. It also did double duty as the theme song for a TBS drama special "Sasurai"（放浪）and as a commercial jingle for a Hitachi VCR.