Mariko Nagai -- Manatsu no Eve（真夏のイヴ）

 

I might have to have a word with young Kayo about the appropriate clothing in an austere winter Japanese café...says the overly cautious father, J-Canuck.😨

Going on, one of the peculiarities of Japanese music is how for some reason, Christmas has been brought into the summer despite the home nation not located in the Southern Hemisphere. I guess it might be because Xmas in Japan has usually been seen as a second Valentine's Day holiday and of course, summer is a season that also benefits from lots of beach time romance, so putting them together is perhaps a natural consequence.

As an example, I bring you Mariko Nagai's（永井真理子）29th single from July 1997, "Manatsu no Eve" (Midsummer's Eve). It was used as the theme song for the 2nd "Tenchi Muyo!"（天地無用! 真夏のイヴ）movie of the same name (the official English title was "The Daughter of Darkness") in which the main character Tenchi finds out he's a father. Much hilarity ensues. Nagai was responsible for the lyrics while Masato Nakamura（中村正人）from Dreams Come True took care of music and arrangement. "Christmas Eve" and "illumination" do show up in Nagai's lyrics and the story is of enjoying each other as a couple in the hot summertime since at least one of them can't wait another five to six months before the Yuletide for the romancing to begin. 

Hearing Nagai's voice and those synths bring the nostalgia back as I used to hear her all the time while I was living in Gunma Prefecture. The song reached No. 38 on Oricon and it was also a track on Nagai's 10th album "You're..." from July 1998. That album managed to hit as high as No. 49 on the charts.