Michiko Kawai -- Watashi~Takan na Koro（わたし・多感な頃）

 

Back in the spring, I contributed an article for actress Michiko Kawai（河合美智子）under her enka singer Aurora Teruko（オーロラ輝子）persona because of a hit kayo she had in the mid-1990s, and I mentioned that she had once sung some pop stuff early in her career.

Well, the commercial is all too brief but Kawai had her film debut in 1983 with "Shonben Rider"（ションベン・ライダー）. There is unfortunately no Wikipedia entry about this movie involving junior high school kids who run into some yakuza but there is a French Wikipedia article (albeit really sparse) that has the title translated as "P. P. Rider" and I'd say that this would be accurate. If you understood that immediately, then you're in! Ahem. In any case, both the trailer above and J-Wiki state that the movie was a double feature alongside the anime "Urusei Yatsura: Only You"（うる星やつら オンリー・ユー）.

The movie release parlayed Kawai's debut with her first single "Watashi~Takan na Koro" (When I Was Impressionable) which was also the theme song for "Shonben Rider".  The single made itself known in January 1983, about a month before the movie's release.

Kawai played the role of Bruce, a tomboy who insisted that she wasn't a girl and always referred to herself as "boku", the informal masculine form of the first person rather than the female equivalent, "atashi". The cover of "Watashi~Takan na Koro" indeed has the teenage Kawai in some short-cropped hair but I think that she looks more pixyish than tomboyish.

The lush ballad style of the song instantly struck me as something that was created by the brother-sister songwriting duo of Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）, and sure enough, it was indeed the Kisugi siblings behind it with Katsu Hoshi（星勝）taking care of the arrangement. In fact, Hoshi was also behind the soundtrack for "Shonben Rider". Actually, the involvement of the Kisugis was interesting because the way that Kawai sounds and the sound of "Watashi~Takan na Koro" are similar to another more famous prior Kisugi creation for a young actress/singer with a similar look and singing style: Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）and her "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu" （セーラー服と機関銃）.