Megumi Shiina -- THE WIND

 

Happy Sunday! I've read and have been told by others that watching a golf telecast is about as interesting as watching paint dry and eventually peel. Oh, I don't know...I've actually found watching events such as The Players quite soothing and things can get quite intense as we approach the 18th hole with several participants up near the top of the leaderboard. Moreover, as I remember back during the worst of the pandemic, golf was perhaps the first major sport to return to active duty although spectators were not yet allowed to show up. I, for one, was very grateful for the return of some normalcy.

Anyways, I was having a conversation with Rocket Brown from "Come Along Radio" yesterday, and he told me about this Japanese program called "Pro Golfer Reiko"（プロゴルファー祈子）from 1987 that was on Fuji-TV's Wednesday night lineup for about six months. It's basically a mixture of sports drama and tokusatsu shenanigans turned into a form of golf-fu starring Ai Yasunaga（安永亜衣）as Reiko Kamishima（神島祈子）, a female golfer with the meanest 5 Iron in existence. As crazy as the premise may sound, if a manga and television adaptation can make yo-yo-carrying high school students work, then why not a battle-hardened golfer with flaming balls?

The theme song is "THE WIND" by pop singer Megumi Shiina（椎名恵）. Released as her 7th single in October 1987, it was written by Shiina and composed by Takeshi Ike（池毅）as a slightly melancholy contemporary pop number. In a way, it has that 80s sound of a lonely warrior coming into town to help people and then promptly leaving...like the wind. 

Do not mess with Reiko...she will shank you!