Dazzling actress and singer Mao Daichi（大地真央）is someone that I first saw through a TV commercial. I can't remember what she was hawking but my eyes were just on her as she was all glammed up in some trendy outfit and cosmetics doing a little soft-shoe and singing a little ditty for the product. She cut quite the figure. But I wouldn't find out until later that until 1985, Daichi had been a top star with the famous all-women Takarazuka Revue playing male roles in everything from "A Tale of Two Cities" to "Guys and Dolls".
Daichi, who was born as Mayumi Tada（多田真裕美）, had her time with the Takarazuka between 1973 and 1985, but even during that time, she had been releasing singles on her own. Her 9th single is "Next Door" released in August 1985, just a smattering of days before she and other top star Hitomi Kuroki（黒木瞳）left the troupe for good.
Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）, a singer-songwriter known for his mellow songs, "Next Door" is the quintessential AOR ballad with those silky strings and melancholy piano. From Akimoto's lyrics, I got the sense that although it could be perceived as a story of a woman finally moving on from a relationship and into her own world for the first time, it may have also truly been the song to commemorate her departure from the Takarazuka, especially when I see the lyric about her not having to rely on a man anymore which I kinda saw as Daichi's declaration that she would no longer be portraying those male characters on stage. She was really stepping from one world into another via that next door.
This commercial featuring Daichi isn't that first ad that I'd ever seen of her but dang, I'd be quivering in absolute terror if I had to answer to her character for some sort of malfeasance. Incidentally, Noelle Tham was the first writer on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to feature the singer with her article on "Kaze no Requiem" (風のレクイエム).
