Jun Miho -- After Rain Afternoon

 

Well, it is an afternoon and we did have some rain earlier this morning so I gather that the song title would fit under the circumstances.

Jun Miho（美保純）is a name that I've heard every so often and I have probably seen her on commercials and perhaps television game shows since she is listed as a TV personality. However, I don't know much about her acting career although she's had a famous long-time role on the tube as a lawyer for several years. 

What I also didn't know was that she had started out as a model and made her debut in the soft porn industry around 1981 in her very early twenties (although according to the J-Wiki article, her manager at the time fudged a bit and shaved a few years off her age to add to the titillation factor). However, going further into the decade, she was able to take on more mainstream roles such as a recurring one in the "Tora-san" movie series.

Her early commercials showed off her sex appeal but as you can see in the video above, Miho also had some comical ads notably with Trident gum as a semi-tsuppari who could bring even a huge burly teenage thug to heel. Probably what sold her as high school punk was the lower and slightly raspy timbre of her voice.

Miho also put out a few records: five singles and two albums according to J-Wiki. The latter album was "Private Theater"（プライベート・シアター）from 1983 from which I have this one track titled "After Rain Afternoon". Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Makoto Saito（斎藤誠）, it's got this summery City Pop beat overlaid with some light jazz. I like it although the singer doesn't exactly have the smoothest chops; I don't mind the lowness of her voice, though.