Well, it's been quite the thing for those old Japanese pop culture buffs like me over the past couple of days. Yesterday, I found out that former 90s teen terror Tomoe Shinohara（篠原ともえ）, who has been living a more refined life as a fashion designer in the past several years (can't believe that she's now 41!), designed that huge blue dress for enka singer Kaori Mizumori's（水森かおり）grand performance at the 71st Kohaku Utagassen yesterday. Then, just this morning, she was doing a voiceover with an actor for an NHK tour of a famous temple in Wakayama Prefecture.
(from 1:12)
Of course, for those who were living in Japan in the 1990s, Shinohara was a true force of nature with an overabundance of personality. She could terrify even the most hardened of celebrities including sharp-tongued singer-songwriter Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）.
About five years ago, I contributed the first Tomoe article with her "Kurukuru Miracle" （クルクル ミラクル）, and it was one of only two singles that I remember from the lass although she apparently released about 17 to 18 singles. The other single which comes to mind is "Ultra Relax", and like "Kurukuru Miracle", this 4th single from March 1997 was created by Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）from techno unit Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）.
Typically Takkyu technopop tempest (always adore alliterating) with a soupcon of country hoedown, "Ultra Relax" is a most ironically titled song and very fitting for the then-zany to-the-max Shinohara. It was also used as the second opening theme for the 1996-1998 anime "Kodomo no Omocha"（こどものおもちゃ...A Child's Toy）.
I also found this remix version of "Ultra Relax". The song turned out to be Shinohara's biggest hit by peaking at No. 25 on Oricon, selling a little over 120,000 copies. "Ultra Relax" is also on a re-released version of her October 1996 debut album "Supermodel"（スーパーモデル）as a bonus track. Another piece of trivia from the J-Wiki article reveals that either the anime or the song itself got played on French television which then attracted enough attention so that it was a hit in the dance clubs of Europe.
One last thing is that during the usual pre-show for the Kohaku, there was one segment of the making of that oceanic dress for Mizumori with the tarento doing the reporting being YouTuber Fuwa-chan（フワちゃん）who seems to be the second coming of Shinohara in terms of enthusiasm and dress, although slightly more toned down. Fuwa-chan actually encountered the current Shinohara at her studio, and I can imagine the latter going "OMG! I was once just like her, wasn't I?".
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