Akina Nakamori -- Yume Handan（夢判断）

 

When I was checking Twitter before noon today, I saw that City Pop maestro Van Paugam had posted up a letter from Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）to her fans. You can see that letter above this paragraph, and I will now attempt to translate it.

To all of the fans who have always supported me:

I'm terribly sorry for making you worry all this time. Although it's been baby steps, I've been recovering, so at this time, I'd like to write this letter.

This year, 2022, is my 40th anniversary since my debut, and in commemoration of that, I've been looking at doing something while facing my own health, but I can't say that I'm at the peak of health just yet. 

I think that it's going to take time, but I would like to take those steps forward, so I hope that you can somehow look out for me.

Additionally, in preparations to start again, I'd like to announce that I have established a new private office. Any new information will come from this new website: akinanakamoriofficial.com.

I apologize for this arbitrary notice and I hope that I can somehow ask for your support.

August 30, 2022

Akina Nakamori

Several weeks ago, fellow KKP co-administrator and fellow Akina fan Larry Chan were discussing on her health and her whereabouts. At this point, it seems that no one, even her family, may know where she is. But at least Larry and I and Van hope that wherever she is residing, she is indeed getting better and she will be leading a happier life going forward. 

Also, I'd like to thank Larry once more for providing the annual Akina article this time around back on her birthday on July 13th. I figured that perhaps a new fresh outlook was good when it came to any more insight regarding the singer and actress.

I didn't want to finish the article without leaving an Akina song and initially, I had been thinking about writing on the B-side for her very first single in May 1982 "Slow Motion"（スローモーション）, "Jouken Hansha"（条件反射）. Alas, I had already written about it. 

Well for Take 2, I opted for the B-side for her second single from July of that year, the rock-filled "Shojo A"（少女A）. That B-side is "Yume Handan" (Dream Decision) and it was created by lyricist Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）and composer Noboru Mimuro（三室のぼる）, the same duo behind "Jouken Hansha". Not surprisingly then, "Yume Handan" has that jangly and jagged arrangement (provided by Mitsuo Hagita/萩田光雄) that was provided to "Jouken Hansha" and that characterized some of Akina's early songs as rebellious teen aidoru rock.

My earliest information on Nakamori regarded the then 16 or 17-year-old blooming aidoru as the second coming of Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）from the 1970s. At the time, I was still new to the whole kayo kyoku thing so I wasn't quite sure what the insight was, but after years of listening to both singers in their prime decades and reading about their lives and careers, I finally realized that Nakamori, like Yamaguchi, was being seen as the misunderstood teen girl with an attitude who widened eyes and raised eyebrows by singing some fairly raunchy lyrics for a lass in a sailor-suit uniform. "Yume Handan" struck me that way as Nakazato's words describe a pretty hot-and-heavy tryst the night before that may have happened in reality or in a dream. The protagonist is still too woozy to decide for sure. We'll see if the aroma of brewing coffee is the trigger.

Yup, "Yume Handan" is another one of those rock n' roll tunes that I knew Akina for in her early years, but that jangly yet smooth electric guitar really stands out next to the singer's ardent vocals.