tohko -- It's all about us ～from the motion picture "BEAT"～

 

When I arrived in Japan at the end of 1994 to start my second stint there as a teacher, I think the Komuro Boom had been a year in. Even while I was still in Toronto, I had heard about the band trf and then when I made my way to Tokyo, it was the tidal wave of Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, Yuki Uchida（内田有紀）, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）, globe, dos, etc. It was a big few years in the middle of the decade for Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）and his gang as I saw them on the charts, music shows and videos, and opening credits for TV dramas. 

But a quarter of a century later, aside from Amuro, Uchida and perhaps Kaba-chan（KABA.ちゃん）from dos since she's been a tarento for many years, all of those folks of the Komuro Boom, including even Komuro himself, have rather disappeared from the limelight. Now, it's usually the case that from time to time, one of those people ends up in one of those "Whatever happened to this person?" segments on a variety program.

I think another one of the members from the Komuro Boom that has been largely out of my sight all these years is the singer tohko. Remembering her mostly for her debut single "Bad Luck On Love ~ Blues On Life ~", Tomoko Saito（斉藤朋子）has left me with the impression that she was a quieter version of Tomomi Kahala in terms of her music. Whereas with Kahala, there was that dance club and city feeling, tohko was more about that quiet park or seashore away from the urban jungle.

Her 4th single was "It's all about us ～from the motion picture "BEAT"～" released in September 1998 and it was also a track on her first album "Tohko"（籐子）from August. Komuro had more of a direct hand in the creation of the song being both lyricist and composer with Marc Panther (from globe) and Cozy Kubo（久保こーじ）assisting with lyrics and music respectively. It's definitely one of those songs that invites the listener to take a load off, relax on a bench and breathe deeply for a while. Kinda wished that it did better than its modest No. 49 ranking on Oricon.

Assuming that she had retired from the music industry long ago, tohko has actually been continuing her work there, releasing a 13th single, "Mugen no Chikara"（無限のチカラ...Infinite Strength） back in 2016 although any original album production finished up in 1999. Plus, according to her website, she has appeared on a recent NTV variety show and has given a performance in the last couple of weeks. Also in 2000 and 2001, she played the role of Cosette in the Japanese version of "Les Miserables".