Shizuka Kudo -- Doukoku（慟哭）

 

For the first time in a while, I got to see late 80s/early 90s aidoru star Shizuka Kudo（工藤静香）on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）last Tuesday at the Tokyo International Forum (where this year's Kohaku Utagassen will be held). As such, the show did a quick retrospective on her career before she performed a tune that I hadn't heard in years.

The song was "Doukoku" (Wailing), Kudo's 18th single from February 1993 and it was given lyrics by Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, two people who have contributed to the singer's discography in the past. And listening to it again after so many years, I realized that "Doukoku" fits with the image of Kudo as a brassy young woman who won't put up with any nonsense from anyone. In this case, the target of her wrath is a fellow who she's fallen for but he won't pick up on any clues, something that sounds like a typical trope in a rom-com anime. In any case, she's been wailing all night in frustration.

I read on the Wikipedia article for "Doukoku" (with the original source being an Asahi Shimbun article) that initially Kudo had difficulty in reading the kanji for the title. Just out of what I know about Nakajima, she probably was the one who came up with "Doukoku" since I've seen her as an artist who can come up with some pretty arcane language and ideas. Also, in the same paragraph, Kudo suggested that the melody be something more upbeat to counterbalance the sad lyrics which reflects what a lot of kayo tended to do years before: cheerful melody and melancholy words.

"Doukoku" was the theme song for a Fuji-TV drama, "Ano Hi ni Kaeritai"（あの日に帰りたい）which has no connection with one of Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）classics. It starred both Kudo and fellow 1980s aidoru Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）as two sisters vying for the same guy, and I remember it since I saw the blooper reel for the series years ago on video tape. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of it on YouTube.

The song hit No. 1 and stayed in the top 5 for three weeks. According to Wikipedia, "Doukoku" broke the million-seller barrier and became Kudo's most successful single. It would end up as the 19th-ranked single for 1993 with Kudo performing it at that year's Kohaku Utagassen.

Going back to the statement about the whole story behind "Doukoku" reminding me of anime, the one show I've seen that struck me as being one of the closest to what the woman in the lyrics is going through is "Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun" right from Episode 1.