My main memory of actress Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）is her role in the Fuji-TV drama of the early 1990s, "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで...Just the Way You Are) which was somewhat of a variant of the Hollywood flick "Beaches" with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. She had that attraction of the sweet and innocent woman in a tall and willowy form (although she's actually two inches shorter than me). Interestingly enough, I also saw her in another remake of an even more famous movie: "Roman Holiday" (via TBS) with some major tweaks to the characters although I could see Yasuda as an Audrey Hepburn type.
I wouldn't find out until some years later that Yasuda had been the singer of the theme song for one of Studio Ghibli's most famous movies "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" (風の谷のナウシカ). It's an adorable song as Yasuda's debut single although her label as an aidoru helped in accepting the fact that she was never a strong singer as nikala pointed out in the article for the song.
"Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" was indeed the lead track for Yasuda's debut album "Yasuda Narumi" which was released in April 1984, and looking at the songwriting information for the album, it looks like a mixture of Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra members was helping out. For example, lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）provided the words for one track "Sabishii Yasashisa" (Lonely Kindness) which was composed by the late Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）of YMO (he also produced the album).
I've noticed that on Yasuda's J-Wiki profile that she's been identified as an actress and a narrator but not as a singer. I promise that this will be the last time that I mention the observation that her vocal prowess left much to be desired back then, but there were a few times while listening to "Sabishii Yasashisa" that I had to cringe, even while knowing and liking my aidoru singers from the 1980s. For this techno-aidoru tune, it would have been interesting if Takahashi had actually covered it on his own since the song seems to fit his style. As it is though, I do like the arrangement by Takahashi.
Yasuda's debut album peaked at No. 53 on Oricon.
I feel that Yukihiro Takahashi's songs in her album is too strong for her, like the instrumentation is too heavy and it overpowers Narumi's (already) weak voice. In my opinion Haruomi Hosono's quirky songs fits her better. I love "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa", and her 4th single "Gin Iro no Harmonica" by Hosono is good too. But my favorite single of Narumi is her 2nd single, Masaaki Ohmura penned "Tropical Mystery".
ReplyDeleteHello there. A few of us have remarked about how a lot of the 80s aidoru have often been well supported by their songwriters and arrangers despite the weakness in their vocals. Yeah, I'd have to say that Yasuda was probably overwhelmed by some of those songwriters including Takahashi.
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