Marico -- Anata no Umi ni Naritai（あなたの海になりたい）

 

Happy Monday to everyone. Looks like we here in Canada are in that relative lull between Thanksgiving and Halloween, so perhaps it's time to finish up on the leftover turkey and pumpkin pie.

But to start off this week of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we will not start with Monday, but Tuesday. As in "Kayo Suspense Gekijo"（火曜サスペンス劇場.... The Tuesday Night Suspense Movie) on NTV. Of course, we gotta have that appropriately suspenseful explosion of brass in the beginning followed by the "Mission: Impossible"-like flash-forward of scenes. There's gotta be a knife involved and some key scene on top of a cliff somewhere. I'm just surprised that in the history of the mystery series, a movement protesting discrimination against cliffs never surfaced. 

One other trope for "Kayo Suspense Gekijo" has been the ending credits ballad which has usually been of the soothing and wistful brand. The pattern was instigated by Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）supremely successful "Madonna Tachi no Lullaby" (聖母たちのララバイ）which was the first ending theme from the fall of 1981, and Iwasaki would provide four more similarly poignant ballads in succession to end each episode up to the end of 1987.

The 1991-1992 edition of the "Kayo Suspense Gekijo" ending theme was provided by singer Marico（真璃子）. My last article on her was back at the end of 2020 where I wrote about her contribution to Xmas, the City Pop "24th.Dec.20:45", and for today's article, this is her contribution to a long-running mystery series. "Anata no Umi ni Naritai" (I Want to be Your Ocean) was also her 16th single released in November 1991. Written and composed by Iwao Yamaguchi（山口岩男）with arrangement by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, the song follows the same pattern of wistful balladry. Marico's vocals are appropriately hushed and slightly faint to reflect the bittersweet conclusion of those episodes.

Reviewing most of the Marico songs that I've put onto the blog including "Nijuu-ni Shoku no Heart"（22色のハート）which was a track on her debut album "Marico" from September 1986 when she had been known as a mid-1980s aidoru, I realize that she may be one of the more underrated pop singers that I've come across. If there's an album still in existence somewhere online, I'd like to see if I can get it. Also, to finish up the "Kayo Suspense Gekijo" line, Marico's "Anata no Umi ni Naritai" replaced Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Kokuhaku"（告白）as the ending theme.