Miho Morikawa -- Positive

 

Singer-songwriter Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）is someone that I've been slowly piecing together in terms of her discography. The first time I got to know her was when she provided the snazzy and upbeat opening and ending themes for the 1990 NHK anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water). But then, I later discovered that she had started her career as an aidoru from the mid-1980s after which she apparently took an express lane to more urban contemporary heights with brassier results.

A couple of days ago, a commenter asked me about her 15th single from November 1991, "Positive". To be honest, I'd never heard it before so I decided to give it a try, and true to its title, it sure is positive. Well, that would be an understatement; it's the brassy 1990s form of City Pop that I also enjoy thanks to composer Tsukasa Nishi（西司）and arranger Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, and it would make for part of the soundtrack for a nice drive through West Shinjuku although the Bubble Era had already been collapsing by that point.

Just to keep on the positive note, "Positive" is a prime example of making a negative into a positive. The lyricist, Junko Sato（佐藤純子）, had been down in the dumps after an end of a relationship so she poured her feelings into the lyrics when she was given the offer to write this one. And a few years ago, tarento and singer Shoko Nakagawa（中川翔子）even tearfully admitted in an interview (according to Morikawa's website) that "Positive" had helped pull her out of some major doldrums at the time. Just imagine how many other listeners this song could have helped.

And yet, the primary raison d'etre for "Positive" was as one of the many ending themes for the 1989 anime "Ranma ½ Nettōhen" (らんま ⁠1/2⁠熱闘編). Never saw the series myself but from what I've read so far, this particular incarnation seems to have been a Take Two of the show after an aborted first attempt. "Positive" managed to peak at No. 59 on Oricon, and it was also included in Morikawa's 2nd BEST compilation, "Voices", which was released in December 1992 and got a No. 11 ranking.