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.

Miho Morikawa -- Left Alone（レフト・アローン）

 

I have to say that although I've loved Miho Morikawa's（森川美穂）City Pop and pop/rock numbers in the last few years of the 1980s going into the 1990s, I've also been impressed by her early years as an aidoru in the mid-1980s. Not sure if it's a cosmetics things, but she even looks different when comparing those two times.

Case in point: one of the tracks on her July 1986 debut album "Takan Sedai"（多感世代...The Sentimental/Impressionable Generation） is "Left Alone". Written by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, it's quite the refined and sweeping song with the relatively galloping synths and percussion. But the urgency there is given some lightness thanks to those strings and Morikawa's bright vocals. It's interesting to hear her sing while she was focusing on those higher registers back then.

Miho Morikawa -- Standard（スタンダード）

 

To start off this Friday's Urban Contemporary regimen of songs on KKP, there was Yutaka Ishio's（石尾豊）"Onna ni Juku shite Kaettekina"（オンナに熟して帰ってきな）with its swinging champagne-and-caviar City Pop arrangement.

We've got another one along the same lines with Miho Morikawa's（森川美穂）"Standard" from her 4th original album "1/2 Contrast" released in June 1988. It's got a kinder if plainer title but it also possesses that smash-bang live-it-up and paint-the-town-red vibe with plenty of horns to lead listeners into the bright lights of Ginza (as pictured above) or Akasaka. Written by Junko Sato（佐藤純子）and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, "Standard" shares track space with the first song on the album "Splash Blue". Just imagine heading down into downtown Tokyo by car while this is playing on the stereo.

DIVA×DIVA -- Yahho（ヤッホー）/Issey Eguchi -- Kimi ga Iru kara（君がいるから）

 

Earlier this month, I put up articles for dynamic singer Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）, who has been featured on the blog since its beginnings in 2012, and Saori Saito（斉藤さおり）who got her first article on KKP back on December 4th this year. As I mentioned in the article for the latter singer, Saito did go through a couple of stage name changes so that by the year when the song in question for this particular article came about, she was then known as Akira Asakura（麻倉あきら）. 

From what I've heard from both Morikawa and Asakura back in the early 1990s, they were singers who liked to traverse along the borderline between pop and rock, and so I guess that it was kismet that they would both collaborate as a duo under the name DIVA X DIVA to create a rollicking theme song for the 2006 anime adaptation of the manga "Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Ken'ichi"（史上最強の弟子ケンイチ...Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple）.

I've never seen the anime myself but the premise is all about a much-bullied high school student getting his game going by striving to become the best of the best at fighting. And DIVA X DIVA's "Yahho", which was their one and only single, was actually the second opening theme for the show which was released in August 2007. Despite that year, "Yahho" sounds more reminiscent of an early 1990s pop/rock tune. Written and composed by Joe Rinoie（ジョー・リノイエ）, Morikawa and Saito seem to be having a great time singing out Rinoie's lyrics of tackling life and adventure head-on like a really triumphant sack of the opposing team's quarterback. Incidentally, the exclamation yahho has been translated at Jisho.org as yoo-hoo or howdy, but really I think that considering what the song is all about, perhaps it's best to translate it as "YEAAAAAH!". 

The first of four official ending themes for "Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Ken'ichi" was "Kimi ga Iru kara" (Thanks to You) as sung by Issey Eguchi（江口一声）who was an anison performer but is currently a hair stylist according to his Twitter account. Speaking of those early 90s, I also get some Being rock vibes while listening to this one. Rinoie and Hiromi Uchida（内田広海）wrote the lyrics while Rinoie also composed the music.

DIVA X DIVA provided their one other song as an accompaniment to "Yahho" in the form of their own cover of "Kimi ga Iru kara". It's somewhat softer and more poignant than the Eguchi original, and maybe there's even a bit of 80s pop balladry in the arrangement, too.

Miho Morikawa -- Today

 

It was only a few days ago that I wrote up an article on a Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）song titled "TODAY". Well, once again, I'm taking care of "Today" today but the completely different song is provided by pop singer-songwriter Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）.

This "Today" is the final track on Morikawa's 6th album "Vocalization" released in May 1990 and was written by the singer and composed by Chiho Kiyooka（清岡千穂）. Thanks to that saxophone, there is a bluesy downtown vibe that seems to describe a long walk of reflection by a fellow somewhere among the hard streets of Tokyo. Morikawa's rich but floating voice does help in keeping things hopeful, though. I love that guitar solo which reminds me of some of those 80s power ballads by bands such as TOTO.

"Vocalization" also has a couple of tracks that were used in the NHK anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water), "Blue Water" and "Yes! I Will". The article was actually my first for Morikawa on KKP.

Miho Morikawa -- Eien ga Owatta Asa（永遠が終わった朝）

 

The more that I go further down the road learning about Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）, the more I get interested in her songs. Since first learning about her via the 1990 anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water), for which she provided the opening and ending themes including the dynamic pop/rock "Blue Water", I've discovered that she had started out as a regular mid-80s aidoru with "Kyoshitsu"（教室）and then fairly quickly jumped onto the City Pop/J-R&B bandwagon going into the later part of that decade.

Well, I've been enjoying this really refined ballad from her November 1988 album "Ow-witch!" which sounds like an epithet that Bugs Bunny once threw out after he hit his head. "Eien ga Owatta Asa" (The Morning Eternity Ended) already has a great title but it also benefits from the light soul (maybe Quiet Storm?) provided by composer Julia and arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）. There's also some added class thanks to that soft jazzy piano.

Keiko Aso's（麻生圭子）lyrics relate the story of a woman who's gradually coming out of her funk from a relationship that is now in the past of her life. As one line puts it, no matter whether that fellow is in or our of her life, she's still there and she will be the pillar to support herself. I remember Morikawa going for some more of those lower-register vocals when she recorded "Blue Water", but with "Eien ga Owatta Asa", she aims for high and floaty. The song as a whole is a good reminder of how female vocalists and/or songwriters such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）were enjoying some richer and perhaps more velvety melodies in the late 80s and early 90s.

As for "Ow-witch!", it reached No. 12 on Oricon on CD and No. 16 on LP.

Miho Morikawa -- Real Mind

 

TGIF! For me, when it comes to singer Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）, until recently, all roads have led to her theme songs for the NHK anime "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water), so I've seen her as someone who loves her power pop, and my lone Morikawa album "Pop The Top!" (1991) as you see above in the thumbnail continues to show that.

The last Morikawa article I did was back in August 2020, and I was happy to hear that she also had gone for a downtown party phase in the late 1980s with songs like "Splash Blue" from her "1/2 Contrast" album released in June 1988. Well, she also explored some R&B as well through her later 10th single, "Real Mind" which came out in October that year.

Veteran lyricist Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）, who would also pen the opening theme for "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia", wrote "Real Mind" as this scathing telling of a relationship that has been abruptly stopped by the cad. Bad news obviously, but I can't complain about the funky music by the duo of Hitoshi Haba and Tsunehiro Izumi（羽場仁志・和泉常寛）; will never turn down the offer of a beefy bass and bang-and-crash horns. When I first heard the song, I was rather reminded of the output of another Miho...Nakayama（中山美穂）, to be precise.

"Real Mind" peaked at No. 32 on Oricon and it's been included on her November 1988 5th album "Ow-witch!" whose LP version went as high as No. 16 while the CD peaked at No. 12. That title is quite intriguing, though. It sounds like what Bugs Bunny said in reaction to getting his head banged on something.

Miho Morikawa -- Splash Blue

I knew that Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）started out as a mid-1980s aidoru before going into power pop although I'm not sure when the turning point was.

However, I'm pretty certain that the transition was complete by the launch of her 4th original album "1/2 Contrast" in June 1988. I've been listening to some of the album and it seems as if Morikawa partly opted for a party atmosphere in the tropics as a theme...kinda along the same lines of Akemi Ishii（石井明美）. Not a bad way to begin the purely pop phase.

The first track is "Splash Blue" and it sounds like Morikawa was enjoying a major cruise on the Love Boat. With a happily danceable (secretly anyways) Latin-tinged arrangement by Shingo Kobayashi（小林信吾）for Minoru Komorita's（小森田実）melody and Keiko Aso's（麻生圭子）lyrics, this is about as active a Resort Pop as I've ever heard, and Morikawa's vocals here are the ones that I was introduced to when I first heard the singer on her "Blue Water" in 1990. As for "1/2 Contrast", it peaked at No. 17 on Oricon.

Miho Morikawa -- Kyoshitsu（教室）

Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）isn't a singer that I have covered a lot but my impression had always been based on her "Blue Water", the theme for the NHK anime "Fushigi Umi no Nadia"（ふしぎの海のナディア）, and I think for that article, I compared her to power pop specialists such as Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）and Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）.

Little did I know that half a decade earlier, Morikawa had debuted as a typically high-voiced aidoru of the mid-1980s. But that was indeed the case with her first single "Kyoshitsu" (The Classroom) released in July 1985. Certainly from that music video above, I would never have recognized this lass as Morikawa of 1990 who looked more like a happy-go-lucky rock singer with long wavy tresses according to one album that I have of hers.

"Kyoshitsu", which was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Minoru Komorita（小森田実）, is one of those bittersweet tunes of parting-is-sweet-sorrow themes, as a high school girl, who for some mysterious reason can no longer attend the same school as the target of her affections, makes one final trip to his desk to plant a kiss there before leaving forever. Ah, seishun! It's a short-but-sweet number that probably didn't make Morikawa an overnight sensation but it didn't too badly on Oricon, placing in at No. 38.

Izumi Kato/Miho Morikawa -- September

Well, it is indeed September...never thought that we'd reach this point in the year so quickly, but I figure that is what middle age is all about.

I've been making this a personal tradition but since whenever September 1st rolls about, I always end up playing Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）classic "September", I decided to pay some tribute and look for some famous covers. Sure enough, I found a couple of them. One is by Izumi Kato（加藤いづみ）who gives a soft ballad version.

The other is basically Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）doing a straight-up karaoke cover against the original arrangement by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）.

And here is the original by Takeuchi. As for what the song has to do with former Fed director Ben Bernanke, you got me. For information on the song itself, you can check the original article.

Miho Morikawa -- Panic （パニック）

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/pop-the-top/1244650502

(excerpt only)

For the first time in a couple of decades, I decided to open up my lone Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）CD, "Pop the Top!" which was her 8th album from March 1991. Now, I bought this back in my Gunma days on the strength of the two theme songs she provided for the NHK anime, "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia". I liked the melody by Yoshimasa Inoue（井上ヨシマサ）and the spunk provided by Morikawa especially in "Blue Water".

I played the album...once. I don't remember the exact reasons why I only played it once but "not being particularly impressed" was probably the overarching factor. When I put the disc into the player earlier this afternoon, I gave the 48 minutes another chance. Each song had its own charms but listening to all of them together at one time soon had me reaching into the desk drawer where my stereo was perched and quickly skimming through the novelization of "Return of the Jedi" for the duration. That is also something that I hadn't done in decades.

Then I started searching whether any of the songs from the album ended up on YouTube or music163. A number of Morikawa's albums did show up on the latter site although "Pop the Top!" wasn't one of them, but I did find one of the tracks on the former. It was "Panic" which was written by the singer and composed by MOTHER'S RYTHM (that's how it was spelled in the liner notes). Listening to the song again, I realized that the song sounded great on its own, so I think what had me not liking the album all that much was just that there was too much of a sameness among the tracks; nothing really stood out.

For those folks like myself who listened to J-Pop back around that time in the 90s will pick up on the bouncy West Coast melodies and the synthesizers from that time. As I mentioned in the article for "Blue Water", I could pick out some Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）, Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）and even Ruriko Kuboh（久宝留理子）. And like those songstresses, Morikawa has some great pipes. As for the lyrics, the singer was relating about her shock (and perhaps envy and bitterness) on finding out that a former flame was tying the knot.

"Pop The Top!" reached as high at No.4 on Oricon. I may have to try a bit of reverse psychology with the album...perhaps listen to tracks such as "Panic" and "Because" separately, appreciate them and then try the album as a whole again. It wouldn't be the only album that I would try that with.

JTM's 80s Playlist - J-Dorama/Anime/Movie Edition

A big thanks go out to Nikala, Marcos V, Jari and especially J-Canuck for giving me the opportunity to participate and contribute to this awesome blog. I am grateful for all their tirelessness in writing their various detailed, informative and entertaining posts this year and eagerly look forward to reading their future posts in the coming 2014 year.

As we come to the close of 2013, it typically is a time for reflection and looking back on the recent year, however in keeping with the spirit of this blog and its focus on covering music from the past four decades of Japanese Kayokyoku and J-Pop, I wanted to share with readers my personal list of favorite songs from the best musical period ever - The 80s, particularly in the area of Anime, J-Dorama and Japanese Movies.

In subsequent weeks, Marcos V, J-Canuck and Nikala will also share their personal favorite 80s music lists and hopefully this combined effort will give everyone a fairly broad and comprehensive overview of the diverse spectrum of music that came out during that amazing decade. 

So without further ado, here is my 80s playlist....

Miho Morikawa -- Blue Water/Yes! I Will

During the latter half of my time in Gunma Prefecture, NHK had actually placed an anime right after the 7 O'Clock News on Friday nights. Called "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"（不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water), it was inspired by Jules Vernes' classic tale "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and struck me as being a mix of Hayao Miyazaki and Haruhiko Mikimoto (who illustrated the original "Macross"). I didn't get to see much of it since, some weeks after its premiere, I was basically recruited into teaching community centre classes. However, from what I do remember of it was the "Indiana Jones"-type adventurous tone of the show and the opening/ending themes. Both of them were sung by pop singer Miho Morikawa（森川美穂）.

"Blue Water" is a power pop piece, in line with what was going on in part of Japanese popular music at that time with female groups such as Princess Princess and Pink Sapphire and singers like Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）and Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）at the fore. I loved the bursts of energy that Morikawa brought to the song (lyricist: Etsuko Kisugi [来生えつこ]; composer: Yoshimasa Inoue[井上ヨシマサ]) along with the synths and the electric guitar solo.

The videos above show both the opening and ending themes as they were played in the actual program itself. "Blue Water" was a great musical introduction to the adventure that was to play out in each episode. It went as high as No. 17 on the Oricon weeklies.

This is the full version for the ending theme, "Yes! I Will", a mid-tempo song written and composed by Morikawa. Not quite as catchy as the opening theme but still pleasant to listen to. Both songs are available on the album, "The Secret of Blue Water -- Vocal Collection" released in 1991 by Toshiba EMI.