Yuko Mizutani -- Jitensha（自転車）

 

It was only a little under a month ago that anime fans and especially those of "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん） received word that singer and seiyuu Tarako had suddenly passed away. The voice of the title character was so distinctive and recognizable that after her final taped episode had been shown a few weeks ago, I've been left wondering who could replace Tarako although the search is on.

When I heard about Tarako's untimely passing, I was also reminded of the sad death in 2016 of seiyuu and singer Yuko Mizutani（水谷優子）who had played the first version of Sakiko Sakura（さくらさきこ）, Maruko's elder sister with the major crush on 70s heartthrob Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）. A few years ago, I even posted an article on one of her own songs, "Drive Planet", from her 1994 album "Vibit".

This time, I'm posting on another one of Mizutani's songs, "Jitensha" (Bicycle), which was on her 2000 album "Purring". Written by Keiko Miura（三浦恵子）and composed by Kaoru Okubo（大久保薫）, it's as breezy and bouncy as a bike coasting down a hill by the ocean. The arrangement almost but not quite takes things into a Flipper's Guitar type of Shibuya-kei. Forgive me my fantastical mind, but I could see young Sakiko growing up to record this song a couple of decades following the anime's time period of the 1970s...with Hideki's assistance.