Junko Tokumaru -- Sei First Love（聖・ファーストラブ）/Azayaka Musume（あ・ざ・や・か娘）

 

Once again, we've come to one of those many 80s aidoru who had somewhat less than their fifteen minutes of fame but were still able to make a mark in the collective teenybopper discography.

I was able to find this video YouTuber kachouzu's channel for an aidoru whose time behind the mike lasted perhaps 18 months during 1983 and 1984. Junko Tokumaru（徳丸純子）of Oita Prefecture won a TDK Core audition contest out of 34,854 applicants in 1982 by singing Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）"Natsu no Heroine"（夏のヒロイン）and by the first day of spring in 1983, she released her debut single "Sei First Love" (Sacred First Love).

My first impression of "Sei First Love" is that it really hits me as the quintessential early 80s aidoru tune. There are Tokumaru's oh-so-slightly off-tune and very girlish vocals and the high-toned instruments conveying an arrangement of uncertainty and teenage puppy love. I can just see the poodle skirt and that 80s aidoru hairstyle now on that high school student within the lyrics as she sighs about the first boy she has feelings for.

As for the B-side at 3:06, "Azayaka Musume" (Bright Girl) has a bit of classical and 60s pop mixed into another quintessentially aidoru song about a lass enjoying the coming of spring as she skips down the lane. Tokumaru's vocals sound even more adorably amateurishly aidoru here. For both songs, it was Yu Aku（阿久悠）on lyrics, Yasuo Kosugi（小杉康夫）on the melody, and Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）taking care of the overall arrangement. Unfortunately, despite the big names behind the making of the aidoru's first single, "Sei First Love" only got as high as No. 115. She would release four more singles and two original albums up to the end of 1984, but out of them, the highest ranking would be for her 2nd single "PICA-PICA" which came in at No. 99.

Tokumaru also had her time as an actress right from the same time that she debuted as a singer and she contributed her services to commercials, too. In fact, I did find one which featured her and a famous American actor who apparently made his fame as a television detective, I hear.😊

Her acting career came to a close going into the 1990s and from then on, she became a model. After getting married, Tokumaru moved to Seattle in the 2010s.