I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Earlier this morning, I accompanied my father down to the hospital. Nothing serious; only his semi-annual eye check and everything was copacetic. Plus, I had some really good pizza in the hospital food court after the examination. I'll have to try a few more slices next time.
I was considering what to start today's batch of kayo kyoku with and I figured that with the hospital visit, I would start looking up some of the theme songs for the numerous hospital shows that have been on Japanese TV over the many decades. Basically, the medical drama over there, as it is over here in Canada and the US, is an absolute staple of scripted works on the telly.
To be honest, I've never followed Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）discography or filmography all that intently during the past few decades. She started out as this rather tall and willowy innocent in her early years and then in the last several years, she has morphed into suffer-no-fools-gladly roles that show off her steely will and power as folks like police squad leaders.
However, in between those two phases, there was that middle phase where Mizuki landed her franchise role as a goofy and clumsy young lady trying to become the best nurse as one could be. And thus came her Izumi Asakura（朝倉いずみ）who made an impression upon me as the live-action version of Usagi Tsukino, aka Sailor Moon. "Nurse no O-shigoto"（ナースのお仕事...The Duties of a Nurse） was a Fuji-TV series that lasted four regular seasons and a few specials here and there up to 2014.
But Season 1 began in 1996 and so the first theme song for "Nurse no O-shigoto" was "Promise to Promise" as sung by Mizuki herself as her 12th single, released in July that year. Written and composed by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）with Takahiro Maeda（前田たかひろ）helping out on lyrics, this was a pretty calming and button-down song about sticking with things no matter how tough they get, and Mizuki the singer therefore contrasts with Mizuki-as-Asakura. Asakura might be spilling tongue dispensers all over the ward but there is still a little bit of that calm blue ocean of Mizuki to right the ship. To be honest, the first time I heard this song was when one of the other cast members sang it during the blooper reel of the show. "Promise to Promise" scored a No. 17 ranking on Oricon and sold about 150,000 copies.
Never quite imagined singer-actress Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）as being part of the City Pop crowd. However, I found her song in a 1990s City Pop compilation the other day, and I was lucky enough to find a YouTube video which had it on its own.
"Pitter Patter" is the penultimate track on Mizuki's 4th album"Cute" from July 1995. I'm not sure whether I would categorize it as a City Pop tune per se but it does have that nice rhythm of 1970s rubbery soul. That is thanks to lyricist and composer Royal Mirror Ball, otherwise known as Hokkaido songwriter and producer Hiroshi Matsui（松井寛）. I do like his addition of that rich piano playing in there.
The expression "pitter patter" usually has me thinking of toddlers and babies making their way about on the floor, but in this case, "Pitter Patter" is all about a cynical man who no longer thinks of himself as one of the good guys in romance until a chance meeting with one lady changes things 180 degrees. Perhaps the title is hinting at an eventual future of a bigger family.
Well, as I've always said, never forget about those B-sides...or coupling songs when it comes to the CD single. It's been close to eleven years since I first posted Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）dreamy May 1991 debut single "Densetsu no Shojo"（伝説の少女）as created by singer-songwriter Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. Yup, I bought that one used for a grand total of 357 yen.
The coupling song for "Densetsu no Shojo" was "Kagami no Naka no Utopia" (Utopia in the Mirror) as also created by Ozaki and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）. It's an interesting song in that it starts out sounding like something that should have been inserted in a Studio Ghibli soundtrack but then the chorus goes into a more contemporary pop mode. I think I can understand why it didn't achieve its own A-side status but the contrast between the two aspects keeps things interesting.
Ozaki recorded a cover of "Kagami no Naka no Utopia" for her March 1992 3rd album of self-covers titled "Points-3". Her version keeps the contemporary pop arrangement throughout the song and even throws in a bit of rock under Motohiro Tomita's（富田素弘）aegis.
Well, I gather that this is a first for the Toronto area. We've gotten our third snowstorm in nine days, and this one last night piled about half the season's total of snow accumulation in one fell swoop. There was even a very brief power outage in my neighbourhood so I was actually adjusting clocks at about 1 am this morning.
Getting outside this morning, I was greeted by lovely scenery of snow and ice on trees although a few of them ended up collapsing under the weight of that precipitation which blocked at least a couple of sidewalks that I usually walk upon. The trip to get the daily newspaper was far more arduous than usual, taking several times longer due to the foot-deep snow, unplowed sidewalks and tree blockage. I've got quite a few muscle aches in my neck and legs as I'm typing.
Anyways to the matter at hand, and so it's time for the weekly Gosanke（御三家）or Sannin Musume（三人娘）report. I'm just about done with the source of those singing trios at "idol.ne.jp" and it didn't contain this rather unusually named trio. I actually found this on J-Wiki under their own Sannin Musume article. Considering that I've covered other trios with names that reflected corporate sponsors, I'd initially thought that these three ladies were being named after the famous international conglomerate producing adhesives, health and safety products and the like.
Such wasn't the case at all. Popular thespians and singers Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）, Rie Miyazawa（宮沢りえ）and Riho Makise（牧瀬里穂）were joined together as 3M simply because their family names all being with the letter "M". But it's a cute and slightly mirthful name considering the connection with 3M the company. Mind you, I don't know if all of them have actually been on the stage in front of the camera at the same time (for that matter, I don't know whether any of them have ever advertised for the actual 3M). I was rather surprised to learn that Mizuki has been in show business since 1980 or 1981 since as a four-year-old, she got into her first commercial. I, and perhaps most of the world, got to know about her for the first time a decade later when she appeared as this willowy teenage model on television before breaking into acting and singing. I'm basically going with the year 1991 for Labels because both she and Makise released their debut singles then while Miyazawa had her first single come out in 1989.
Scott put up his latest "Holly Jolly X'masu"podcast in the past few days and the theme for this new episode is on summer-themed Christmas J-Pop. Hope you can give it a try. It did spark some wonder from me since I've observed that Japanese singers and songwriters do have that predilection of improbably connecting the hot season with the Yuletide, one famous example being KUWATA BAND's"Merry X'mas in Summer" from 1986.
But I have heard of other similarly themed tunes, and Scott has been kind enough to provide his list. I've wondered why this whole thing came about although knowing for a long time that Japanese pop culture can be very whimsical. To be frank, I can only theorize that the common denominator is love and romance. Summer via that setting of the beach has been a popular one for flirtations and affairs; meanwhile, the Yuletide in Japan has been treated as a second Valentine's Day. Musically speaking, it could be a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in that the naturally upbeat music of summer can be meshed with the often-but-not-always upbeat feeling of a J-Xmas without all of those jingle bells.
The first song on Scott's podcast was quite the pleasant surprise. It was Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）"Kotoshi Ichiban Kaze no Tsuyoi Gogo"(The Windiest Afternoon of the Year) which served as the singer/actress' 5th single from May 1993. There is nothing Xmas-y about the title and of course the release date was more than 7 months away from December 25th. Yet, it has that happy-go-lucky melody and arrangement by Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）respectively which could befit a summer beach and a winter ski slope (love the chorus and percussion, by the way). Incidentally, Yuming（ユーミン）was going under her songwriter's pseudonym of Karuho Kureta（呉田軽穂）which is about the latest that I've observed her using it since I had been accustomed to her using it in the early 1980s for the teenybopper singers back then like Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）.
Another thing that takes away the usual image of pine trees, sleighs and mistletoe is the music video itself. "Kotoshi Ichiban Kaze no Tsuyoi Gogo" begins with two minutes of young Arisa traipsing around what looks like subtropical Okinawa before the music finally chimes in. Knowing her all these years in her roles as either a long-running goofball nurse or a tough-as-nails detective, it's nicely refreshing once more seeing her back then as that lanky teenager. Despite the southern travelogue, Yuming's lyrics profess of a young lady pining for a fellow during the beach summer and dreaming ahead to a potentially romantic Christmas.
I also have to note that Mizuki sounds really great behind the mike which is saying something since I had been so unimpressed with her performance of her previous single "Too Shy Shy Boy!" on television all those years ago. It's about as fresh-faced a delivery that I've heard from any aidoru of the 1990s. The song is so positive and bubbly that I figured that it probably had to have been used for some TV ad. Sure enough, it was...Kirin's Chasse soda (which had "Too Shy Shy Boy!" as a campaign song as well). The song hit No. 8 on Oricon.
In
Arisa Mizuki’s (観月ありさ) debut album, “ARISA” (December 1991), I think she
went into a full cute aidoru look and sound, with singles like “Densetsu no Shoujo” (伝説の少女) and “Eden no Machi” (エデンの都市) giving a nice
idea of what I’m saying here. As for “ARISA II
SHAKE YOUR BODY FOR ME”, which was released in October 1992, the girl aimed for
a more edgy output, with the hit “TOO SHY SHY BOY!” serving as a prime example
of the new and fresh sound she was pursuing.
While half of “ARISA II SHAKE YOUR BODY FOR ME” was
composed by Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) when he was experimenting with house music,
including a busy extended house remix of “TOO SHY SHY BOY!”, some of the other
songs by different composers are also great, as they give the album some
variety in sound, while also maintaining its overall dance and upbeat mood.
“WILD-ERS”, for example, was composed by Anri (杏里) and it really shows, since I can’t help but think of
Miho Nakayama’s (中山美穂) marvelous
“VIRGIN EYES” or even her own “BOOGIE WOOGIE MAINLAND” when it starts playing.
The funky groove and horn arrangement are just irresistible, and I always find
funny how the background vocalists sound like the ones in Mariah Carey’s
“Emotions”. In the end, Komuro’s sound may be a good treat for any pop lover,
but Anri’s “WILD-ERS” offers a breath of fresh air in the middle of his house
party.
“ARISA II SHAKE YOUR BODY FOR ME” reached #6 on the
Oricon charts. Lyrics for “WILD-ERS” were written by Yumi Yoshimoto (吉元由美), while music was composed by Anri. As for the
arrangement, Yasuharu Ogura (小倉泰治) was the responsible.
When it comes to Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）singles, the one song that I will always remember and cherish is her 1991 debut, "Densetsu no Shojo"（伝説の少女）which was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）. It was simply a finely crafted pop song for me with those luscious strings attached. I first found out about the song through a commercial that Mizuki had also appeared in touting the taste of Kirin's soda Chasse.
It looks like Mizuki was back on the Chasse file again the following year although this time, her song was markedly different although also created by a pretty famous songwriter.
I remember first hearing her 4th single"Too Shy Shy Boy!" from May 1992 when Mizuki showed up on some music program and then I grimaced quite noticeably. No, I wasn't all that impressed with her performance but as an English teacher, I was surprisingly sanguine about letting the weirdness in that title go. Maybe I was glugging down a glass of Chasse.
Years later, I actually gave it another go, this time with the actual recorded version and it came across better since by that point, I had become accustomed to the synth-y Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）sound, and indeed it was him behind words and music. "Too Shy Shy Boy!" was released just before Komuro had his heyday in the mid-1990s with all of his hit songs for acts like Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）and globe. According to an October 1993 article in the magazine "FM STATION" via the J-Wiki article on the song, Mizuki herself had admitted that she was having some initial problems getting a handle on how to sing it so the songwriter came over to the studio and guided her on keyboards. Through an in-house magazine at Sony, Komuro stated that if he had created "Too Shy Shy Boy!" during his TM Network's days in the late 1980s, this would have been one of their tunes.
Hmmm...OK. Not sure if this had been the performance that had initially turned me off of Komuro-led Mizuki but I think he could have let go of a lot of those vocal effects. In any case, "Too Shy Shy Boy!" peaked at No. 4 on Oricon and ended up as the No. 54 single of the year. This would become Mizuki's biggest hit, selling around 360,000 copies, and was included as a remix version on her 2nd album"Shake Your Body For Me" from October that year. It hit No. 6 on the album charts.
It seems recently that actress Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）has been playing some tough-as-nails roles in various TV dramas such as elite detectives. Plus I barely remember her in her first role as an innocent teenager caught up in some very dark forces in a Thursday night Fuji-TV drama back in my final year on the JET Programme, if I'm not mistaken. However, if there has been a franchise character for Mizuki, it would be Izumi Asakura（朝倉いずみ）, the slightly dotty and happy-go-lucky nurse in the seasons of "Nurse no O-Shigoto"（ナースのお仕事...A Nurse's Work）, also televised on Fuji-TV.
Never caught onto the series myself but with all those commercials, even I got the impression that Mizuki was playing some sort of Sailor Moon type.
For each of the seasons of "Nurse no O-Shigoto", Mizuki supplied the theme song, and for "Nurse no O-Shigoto 2", her contribution was "Days", a down-home pop tune written and composed by Mitsuru Igarashi（五十嵐充）from the band Every Little Thing. As I mentioned for my last article on Mizuki, she certainly developed her singing skills by the end of the 1990s. It's quite heartwarming and has me thinking about my own days working and living in Japan at that time.
Released as Mizuki's 14th single in November 1997, "Days" reached No. 14 on the Oricon weeklies and made it onto her second BEST collection, "FIORE II" which came out in December of that year. That album peaked at No. 69.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed Arisa Mizuki's（観月ありさ）debut single"Densetsu no Shojo"（伝説の少女）to the point that I shucked out the yen to get the CD single, after listening to a few of her other songs on TV shows such as "Music Station", frankly, my impression was that her first song was a fluke and that she really couldn't sing all that well. This would explain why there aren't too many entries for Mizuki thus far.
Well, when I was writing about singer-songwriter Chika Ueda's（上田知華）unique "Hurricane" a couple of weeks ago, I also discovered this Mizuki song that had been both written and composed by Ueda. For me, Ueda has had a good track record in crafting very pleasant pop songs for other singers, so I decided to give it a go.
Indeed, the Ueda reputation isn't only still intact with me but I was happily surprised to find out that Mizuki recorded "In The Rain" quite well. I do realize that there is a difference between the actual recording for an album and a live performance on a TV show, but still, it was nice to hear Mizuki not sounding off-tune or me visualizing eighth notes with bandages. The song is mellow and groovy and rather classy, and the singer even sounds like she was really trying to emulate Ueda herself. Those 90s synths really set the mood.
"In The Rain" was a track on her 2nd BEST compilation, "Fiore II", which was released in December 1997. It got as high as No. 69 on Oricon.
Seeing Marcos V's article on what he has been listening to in the early part of 2017 and reading about singer/actress Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）, I remarked that after her impressive debut with "Densetsu no Shojo"（伝説の少女）, I had listened to one of her later singles, "Too Shy Shy Boy!" and came to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't be picking up any more CD singles by her.
As an aside before the main event, I wanted to mention that I believe I had seen one of her commercials just before she debuted as a singer around the turn of the decade. It wasn't the one above but I think it was for Shiseido in which a teenaged Mizuki basically stared/glared at the camera for the entire time without mentioning a word. My impression was "Ohhhhhkay....I am going to take a step back...no sudden moves...". Rather intense look, she had.
Anyways, getting back onto topic, I listened to Marcos' Arisa entry on that article, "Kimi ga Suki Dakara"（君が好きだから）, and actually found it quite nice. The Yuming (ユーミン) touch helped. So, I felt that perhaps with the passage of time along with the accompanying nostalgia, it was time to give the singer's discography another look-see.
Therefore, I chose her 2nd single right after "Densetsu no Shojo", "Eden no Toshi" (City of Eden), from August 1991. Surprisingly, it's a nice and light cheery tune. It probably won't ever get into the Top 10 of my own favourite songs but it's pleasant enough.
Written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）, part of the reason that I went off to purchase "Densetsu no Shojo" was that Mizuki seemed to channel its songwriter's delivery. With "Eden no Toshi", she seemed to channel that ability even more for the composer of the song, Kaori Okui（奥居香）, namely the lead vocalist for the band Princess Princess (プリンセス・プリンセス). The band itself could have easily covered this song at one of their own gigs and it would have sounded right at home. Shun Taguchi（田口俊）took care of the lyrics.
Selling 180,000 copies, "Eden no Toshi" soared all the way to No. 5 on the charts and even sneaked onto the Top 100 of 1991, ending up at No. 91. The song is also in her debut album, "ARISA" from December 1991 which peaked at No. 8.
Hello,
folks. Out of nowhere, I decided to write about some of the songs I discovered
recently. There’s no particular theme or order in this list, so it’s nothing
more than a collection of random J-Pop songs, old or new, that I’ve been
listening to in the past couple of months.
CHAGE and ASKA -- Boku wa Kono Me de Uso wo Tsuku (僕はこの瞳で嘘をつく)
First,
a hit from famous duo CHAGE and ASKA: “Boku wa Kono Me de Uso wo Tsuku”, which
was released back in November 1991. Even though I’m not a fan of the duo
(sorry, Noelle), I couldn’t resist ASKA’s powerful vocals coupled with this
funky rock arrangement. Also, I can see how the duo became a hit in the
Japanese early 90s landscape, when artistry was becoming more valued rather
than all the overproduced aidoru of the 80s. I still prefer the glossy 80s, but
this particular song by CHAGE and ASKA caught me off guard. It’s really good!
Fairies
-- BLING BLING MY LOVE
Generally
speaking, I don’t really care for Avex’s groups, with the exception of TOKYO
GIRLS’ STYLE (東京女子流), but Fairies’ (フェアリーズ)
“BLING BLING MY LOVE”, from September 2014, is a super catchy and modern dance
tune that makes me want to sing and dance (THAT CHORUS IS AMAZING!!!). Other
than that, I’m aware it shares some similarities with Ke$ha’s hit “Tik Tok”,
but both songs are fine… and I’d rather listen to Fairies than Ke$ha because
I’m a J-Pop supporter (funny thing is that I saw Ke$ha live at Rock in Rio
2011, because Jamiroquai was going to enter the stage right after her show. I
remember how my friends were not very receptive towards her songs, so I ended
up dancing and jumping with some 13, 14 years old girls who were next to me. I
was 21 years old back then, by the way).
Seiko
Matsuda -- Seychelles no Yuuhi (セイシェルの夕陽)
Seiko
Matsuda’s (松田聖子) 80s singles are hyper famous aidoru-popclassics, but some of
her album cuts are great as well. That’s basically why I decided to dive
through her enormous discography a little bit to discover some gems… and “Utopia’s”
(ユートピア)
“Seychelles no Yuuhi” is one song that could have been a single alongside
“Komugi Iro no Mermaid” (小麦色のマーメイド), for example. In an interesting
side note, Seiko-chan stated “Seychelles no Yuuhi” is a song she truly loves
from the “Utopia” album (which, by the way, was released in June 1983), and
that’s why she includes it in several concerts. As for the song itself, I could
listen to it in a relaxed beach coast (I can even imagine some water sounds
mixed in the arrangement). It’s that sort of Japanese 80s song that makes the
listener feel this way.
Fuyumi
Sakamoto -- Asia no Kaizoku (アジアの海賊)
Released
in January 2009, this song is truly at home in Fuyumi Sakamoto’s (坂本冬美)
discography. It reminds me of the risks she took trying to mix enka with other
music genres when her “magnum opus” hit “Yozakura Oshichi” (夜桜お七) was
released back in 1994. In fact, even though nothing could come out as
epic-sounding as the aforementioned hit, I think “Asia no Kaizoku” is strong
enough to cause a good impression. The hook is simple and very straightforward,
but the gorgeous Japanese-styled arrangement and Sakamoto’s vocal delivery are
enough to make me pay attention.
Monari
Wakita -- Boy Friend
From
enka straight to cheesy synthpop that could have come out of PWL in the late
80s: that’s the essence of this list. Ex-Especia member Monari Wakita (脇田もなり)
debuted with a safe City Pop song last year, but now it’s time for some sugary
pop with “Boy Friend”, which was aptly released back in February 2017. In the
end, aside from the over-the-top 80s synths and simple structure, there’s a
very bright chorus and an even brighter Monari Wakita acting extremely cute and
adorable while trying to make every life form on Earth forget that the video is
as cheap as possible. It works for me, so it's fine!
PASSPO
-- PlayGround
PASSPO☆ is an aidoru
group focused in recording pop-rock songs while maintaining a strange flight
attendant gimmick. I’m not a fan of their music, aside from a couple of singles
released back in 2012, but new promotional song “PlayGround”, which was
released in February 2017, is a very good piece of funk-rock that doesn’t make
me ashamed of headbanging a little bit while on the bus. As for the video, the
zombie theme is warned out these days, so I don’t know why they’ve chosen to do
it, but the music makes up for all the crappy acting.
Yumeko Kitaoka -- Mou Ichido Aetara (もういちど逢えたら)
And
here we are with “Mou Ichido Aetara”, a very tender song from the late 80s in
the voice of Yumeko Kitaoka (北岡夢子). That’s another song that makes me feel nostalgic…
probably because it sounds a little bit sad, especially in the chorus. Released
in June 1989, it also represents a period when aidoru music’s popularity was
decling. So, at the time, mostly strong names were able to sell, and new aidoru
had a hard time maintaining a career. It’s a pity, since “Mou ichido Aetara” is
a pretty solid forgotten gem.
Yuki Maeda -- Tokyo Kirigirisu (東京きりぎりす)
Just like Sanae Jonouchi (城之内早苗) back in the Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ) days, and even Misaki Iwasa (岩佐美咲) in AKB48’s recent boom, Yuki Maeda (前田有紀) was one of Hello! Project’s
solo enka singers during the agency’s heydays (First Generation member Yuko
Nakazawa [中澤裕子] was
H!P’s prime enka singer, but I like Yuki Maeda more). A talented and beautiful young
woman in the early 00s, she initially recorded light enka songs, which I
appreciate a lot since I’m not the biggest fan of the more over the top vocals
in enka. Released in July 2003, the catchy “Tokyo Kirigirisu”, for example,
just shows how restrained her music was back then, even if the melody and arrangement
are evocative of Showa Era pop music. Instead of going deep in the enka style
after some years in the industry, maybe she could have established herself as a
mature ballad singer. Unfortunately, she probably decided to stick with her initial
plans and success never arrived.
Golbies (from TPD) -- JUST LIKE MAGIC (ジャスト・ライク・マジック)
Ok,
“JUST LIKE MAGIC” is that type of straightforward, repetitive and mechanic
Eurobeat song that was being mass-produced during the late 80s/early 90s in
Japan, but I like the epic main synth hook, the raw aidoru vocals, and also the
catchy chorus (which is a must in Eurobeat songs, since they don’t have much to
offer anyway). It was released in May 1990 by Golbies (ゴルビーズ), a
subunit from the aidoru group Tokyo Performance Doll (東京パフォーマンスドール).
Apparently, Ryoko Shinohara (篠原涼子) was a member of this subunit during her stay in TPD.
Arisa Mizuki -- Kimi ga Suki Dakara (君が好きだから)
To finish, we have “Kimi ga Suki Dakara”, a song composed by songstress
Yumi Matsutoya (松任谷由実) for
early 90s aidoru Arisa Mizuki (観月ありさ),
which was released as a single back in August 1993. Even though it wasn’t a big
hit like “Densetsu no Shoujo” (伝説の少女),
“TOO SHY SHY BOY” or “Happy wake up!”, and is often overshadowed by them, this
song offers some simple yet beautiful piano hook right from the beginning. Other
than that, I agree it’s a grower, and maybe not an instant favorite, but
there’s a melancholy in the song that makes me want to listen to it several
times.
Another one of those songs that I got drawn to through a commercial....namely this one:
About 20 years ago, I came across this TV ad for a Kirin drink called Chasse, featuring a teenager who was about to loom large in the geinokai, Arisa Mizuki（観月ありさ）. She had already appeared in one other commercial with this striking look, and she had a small supporting role as the younger sister in a pretty dark psychological horror drama (yep, it ain't all frothy romantic-comedies on Japanese TV....mostly but not all). But there was this commercial, and then the song attached to it.
I only heard a few seconds of the song, but I just enjoyed the strings and the breezy feel of it. I was eventually able to track it down in the CD shops as a single titled "Densetsu no Shojo"(Legendary Girl), sung by Mizuki herself. The J-Wiki writeup for this song rather marveled at the fact that at the turn of the decade during the Band Boom (and the Winter of Aidoru-dom[their words]), this lone 14-year-old girl was able to hit it out of the ball park with 220,000 discs sold and a peak ranking of No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies with her debut single. Legendary girl, indeed. And the song also managed to rank No. 61 in the yearly rankings for 1991 after its May debut.
Mizuki may have been one of the few prime aidoru during the early 90s, but I don't consider "Densetsu no Shojo"to be an aidoru tune. It just sounds so lush. And perhaps that may be due to the singer-songwriter behind it, Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）.
Ozaki was apparently inspired by another hit and debut single for another young singer, the 1978 song "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら....While Listening to Olivia) for Anri（杏里）, when she wrote and composed "Densetsu no Shojo". But I think there were some other people in the mix as well. The backup vocals sing out famous lyrics from songs by Carly Simon, The Supremes, Paul Young and Stevie Wonder for some reason.
A year after Mizuki's hit, Ozaki did a cover of the song for her album of covers, "Points-3", released in March 1992. Her version has more of an R&B vibe along the lines of Lou Rawls in the arrangement as compared to the slightly more AOR/standards feel that the Mizuki version has. I enjoy both and couldn't choose which one is better.
As for Mizuki, I last saw her as a tough-as-nails genius lone wolf police inspector in a 2012 drama serial "Answer". Boy, has time flown!
