Yoko Ishino -- Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~（KISSまで待てない ）

 

Earlier this year, people in Japan and from what I've heard from my anime buddy, people in Taiwan were also stunned and saddened to hear of the untimely death of longtime comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）due to COVID-19. I was also absolutely shocked to find out because he as both a solo entertainer and as a member of the comedy troupe The Drifters had been a regular presence via TV and our VCR literally for decades. 

One of the many variety shows that he had appeared on was "Shimura Ken-san no Daijoubuda"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's All Right）, a Monday night program on Fuji-TV which ran from 1987 to 1993 at 8 pm, about a year before the music program "HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP" with Osaka comedy duo Downtown began its long run. I had the opportunity to catch it when I was living in Gunma Prefecture, and there were a number of comedic segments interspersed with musical numbers often featuring new and veteran aidoru. One of those segments involved Shimura as a grumpy and harried husband of a very fluttery wife played by actress/comedienne Yoko Ishino（いしのようこ）, the younger sister of 1970s aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Basically, it seemed to come off like a Japanese version of a Burns and Allen skit.

Ishino was one of the regular members on "Daijoubuda" and the chemistry between her and Shimura seemed so good that fans were wondering whether they were really indeed an item. According to J-Wiki, they even shared the same birthday of February 20th. It was a riddle that even I had thought about but apparently not, since after "Daijoubuda" ended its run in 1993, that was it in terms of their time together. In fact, according to a Japanese sports newspaper, Ishino got married a little over a year ago.

Ishino also followed in her sister Mako's footsteps and started her show business career as an aidoru in the mid-1980s, premiering with singers such as Minako Honda（本田美奈子）, Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）, Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）and Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）. She debuted with "Teddy Boy Blues"（テディーボーイ・ブルース）in 1985 and her 7th and final single was released in June 1989, "Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~" (Can't Wait for the Kiss).

Now, the reason that I did the search for Ishino's material was that I'd realized that it was a very long time that I covered a Eurobeat tune, and when I looked up a list of J-Eurobeat tunes, I saw Yukari Morikawa's（森川由加里）"SHOW ME" of course, but then I additionally found "Kiss made Matenai" by Ishino.

To be honest, her comedic chops were probably better honed than her singing ones, but the song surrounding her isn't too bad since it is actually a cover of a single by Italian Eurobeat singer Elena Ferretti, better known as Sophie (among many, many aliases) also released in 1989 as "My World". The Japanese version of the song was translated by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）while the original melody was provided by Stefano Comazzi, Giuliano Crivellente and Federico Di Bonaventura.