Yasuko Kuwata -- Hisoyaka na Hanran（ひそやかな反乱）

 

It's been a day of tiny good fortune. I thought I'd won simply a Free Play at one of the semi-weekly lotteries only to find out that I was up on the higher level of winning a whopping $3. Then, my regular sandwich-making lady was kind enough to give me a free Mountain Dew with my biweekly run there for lunch. Now, if I could only get a whopping good fortune.

Regardless, when I first heard this song by 80s aidoru Yasuko Kuwata（桑田靖子）, I figured from the snarling electric guitar and the melody rumbling like a Yamaha engine, it must have been another collaboration by composer Hiroaki Serizawa（芹澤廣明）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. After all, they were also responsible for the even more famous "Shojo A"（少女A）by Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, another case of 80s aidoru rock. Sure enough, not only were both Serizawa and Hagita behind "Hisoyaka na Hanran" (Secret Rebellion), but the same lyricist for "Shojo A", Masao Urino（売野雅勇）, was also taking care of the words for this particular tune.

Released in November 1984 as Kuwata's 7th single, Urino's lyrics talk of a teenage rebel girl who's struggling with her feelings for a guy while trying to maintain that tough outer shell in front of everyone else. Basically, the punk feels that it's all or nothing with the potential romance. If she fails to hit the target, then she won't ever fall in love again. Yeah, well, good luck with that.

"Hisoyaka na Hanran" managed to make it as high as No. 66 which is Kuwata's 2nd-highest tally on Oricon. I would think that the song would have also made for a good fit for the aforementioned Akina Nakamori but by the end of 1984, I think Nakamori had already gone beyond her initial persona as misunderstood high school punk to become a pop superstar.