Mia Masuda -- Fuwa Fuwa（ふ・わ・ふ・わ）

 

I haven't been to this place in quite a while but Fuwa Fuwa is our local establishment for Japanese-style pancakes. To be honest, during my time in Japan, I hadn't been aware that my old stomping grounds were famous for fluffy souffle pancakes. Sure, I used some of that pancake mix from Morinaga in Ichikawa, but I never got anything nearly as airy as the pancakes they make at Fuwa Fuwa.

But I digress. Another object that has been given the name is one of aidoru Mia Masuda's（増田未亜）songs. "Fuwa Fuwa" (Fluffy) is a track on her August 1989 debut album "Pure", and Masuda certainly sounds quite fluffy here; heck, the first word in Machiko Ryu's（竜真知子）lyrics is marshmallow. One can't get fluffier than that.

Ken Sato（佐藤健）, Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）husband and composer of many of her City Pop songs, was responsible for the melody. It was truly made for an aidoru but with an extra level of class thanks to those strings and a general arrangement of pop music that sounds as if it had been meant for someone like Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）or Miki Imai（今井美樹）. So, perhaps the vocals and the overall atmosphere were the fluffier parts of "Fuwa Fuwa".

Mia Masuda -- Mou Ichido（もう一度）

 

Last weekend, we were watching a variety show via Jme and it was focusing on the Little Korea of Tokyo, the Shin-Okubo area north of Shinjuku on the Yamanote Line. I've been there a few times myself, of course, to have good ol' hearty yakiniku but I had no idea that it's become quite a popular area for sweets. There were the Korean confections but it seems as if some of the establishments in Shin-Okubo have become quite enamored with some really tall parfaits. This also reminded me of the above photo that I've supplied. A couple of my friends went to Japan many years ago and perhaps this had been shot in Nara where they got a full load of tall parfaits.

Anyways, I have to say that's quite a fetching photo of aidoru Mia Masuda（増田未亜）on her 4th and final album "Boys & Girls" from April 1991. I would think that she's going out on some date back in the 1950s in the guy's Ford Thunderbird. One of the tracks from "Boys & Girls" is "Mou Ichido" (Once More) which is a pleasant mid-tempo tune created by composer Kanji Ishikawa（石川Kanji）and lyricist Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）. 

There's actually nothing 50s or doo-wop at all in the arrangement for "Mou Ichido". It's just a contemporary aidoru song by Masuda with the usual 1990s keyboard instrumentation, but hey, we can still imagine Masuda and her beau sharing a malted or a tall parfait at the local diner.

Mia Masuda -- Happiness Monogatari（ハピネス物語）

www.goodfreephotos.com

 

My first two articles on not-as-well-known aidoru Mia Masuda（増田未亜）centered around her 5th single from May 1990 with "Dengekiteki Romance"（電撃的ロマンス）as the A-side and the B-side being "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki"（雨の日三日月）. At this point, I think I prefer the B-side.

Well, maybe even "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki" has been eclipsed by Masuda's previous single "Happiness Monogatari" (Happiness Story) which had been released a few months earlier in February. There's something especially calming and nostalgic with her delivery here, almost sounding like some of those aidoru tunes in the mid or late 1980s with aidoru such as Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）and Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）was responsible for the lyrics while Shuuji Otsuka（大塚修司）took care of the huggable melody which includes those shimmering strings. Maybe it's even reminiscent of Fashion Music...a mix, perhaps which could be labeled Fashion Aidoru or Baroque Aidoru.

Mia Masuda -- Dengekiteki Romance（電撃的ロマンス）

 

Back in September, I wrote about a late 80s/early 90s aidoru that I hadn't heard about by the name of Mia Masuda（増田未亜）, and the article was on a B-side titled "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki"（雨の日三日月）which had a fairly refined sound that kinda straddled between aidoru and general pop.

Well, maybe I ought to say coupling song instead of B-side since by the time that this single came out, it was all about the CD instead of the old 45". In any case, Masuda's 5th single holding "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki" was "Dengekiteki Romance" (Electrifying Romance) from May 1990. Yeah, I think this sounds more like a turn-of-the-decade aidoru tune with that battery of synths perking up the upbeat number.

Lyricist Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composer Masayuki Kuzuguchi（葛口雅行）were behind this as Masuda sang chirpily about being this racy young lady in a very tight T-shirt trying to get as much romancing in during the hot months of summer. I gather that Yaho's lyrics would be enough for mothers to warn their daughters not to follow the message too intensely. Still, Masuda's vocals were pretty strong even in a live setting.

Mia Masuda -- Ame no Hi no Mikazuki（雨の日三日月）

 

Looks like I may be following a theme today. For my last article with Sanae Yokota（横田早苗）, I was introducing a singer for the first time onto the blog for one of her B-sides. Well, it's happening again.

I'd never heard of Mia Masuda（増田未亜）before, but this Osaka-raised lady has been described on J-Wiki as a former aidoru and an actress. In fact, I'd say that her B-side (or at this particular time of release, I should actually say "coupling song"), "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki" (Crescent Moon on a Rainy Day) for her May 1990 5th single "Dengekiteki Romance"（電撃的ロマンス...Electrifying Romance） certainly sounds less aidoru and more of a classier brand of pop. Perhaps by that point, Masuda was making a transition into general pop.

Regardless, I like "Ame no Hi no Mikazuki" for the melody which was provided by the late Chika Ueda（上田知華）with Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）as the lyricist. The high resonant vocals by Masuda and the lighter keyboard hints at that aidoru past but the rhythm section plus the synth-harmonica solo graft some sophistication into the arrangement.

Masuda actually started out as an actress from 1987 before she got behind the recording mike a couple of years later. In total, she released 9 singles between 1989 and 1991 with 4 albums during that time before a BEST compilation "Hot Sweet Memory" in 1992. A mini album did come out in 1990 with a second BEST album being released in 2011. Although the singing portion of her career came to an end in the early 90s, she kept on acting in TV and radio dramas up to 2010.