Mariko Shiga -- Freesia no Shonen（フリージアの少年）

Discovered this one some time ago, and I find it to be a really relaxing and polished pop tune which was actually treated as an aidoru song for Mariko Shiga（志賀真理子）. Her first official single "Freesia no Shonen" (Freesia Boy) came out in February 1986, and for those (like me initially) who don't know what a freesia is, you can take a look through the Wikipedia link.

It starts off oh-so-aidoru-innocently but then Shiga comes in with the rest of the beautiful melody, and here I am thinking that this is a cut above the usual aidoru tune. Shiga herself does come across with that aidoru voice but there's nothing cutely off-tune; she actually sounds quite refined, and she's surrounded by lovely music provided by Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. As soon as I saw Etsu's name in the credits, I figured that the singer and her listeners would be in good hands and ears. Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）was the lyricist.

"Freesia no Shonen" was the ending theme for the 1986 anime "Mahou no Aidoru Pastel Yumi"（魔法のアイドルパステルユーミ...Pastel Yumi, The Magic Idol）for which Shiga played the main character of Yumi Hanazono. She also provided the opening theme song "Kin no Ribbon de Rock Shite"（金のリボンでRockして...Rock with A Golden Ribbon）. In total, she released four singles and a previous single in April 1985 under the Victor label which wasn't considered official for some reason. There was also one album released in June that year titled "mariko".

It looks like "Mahou no Aidoru Pastel Yumi" was Shiga's only foray into the anime industry but she also acted in a number of dramas as well as appear on radio and a couple of variety shows. Tragically, though, she would die in an auto accident in Arizona on November 23rd 1989, just shy of her 20th birthday.