Saori Saitoh -- Aoi Blizzard（蒼いブリザード）

 

Well, I could have used this song to talk about the ugly winter storm that we had a couple of days ago, but I used that preamble ramble in yesterday's "Higurashiyama"（日暮山）by Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）. However, we do have another blizzard coming up tomorrow night going into Saturday. This one...hopefully...will be a little "cleaner" with just fluffy white snow coming down.

And sure enough, the song here is "Aoi Blizzard" (Blue Blizzard) by rock singer Saori Saitoh（斉藤さおり）as a track from her September 1986 debut album "Kiss me, Good bye". I'm not sure whether I would imagine furious snowstorms when I listen to this one but there's a good chance that I would enjoy this from a car stereo as the automobile is bombing down the lonesome highway. Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）provided the lyrics for "Aoi Blizzard" and Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）provided the tasty licks on this melody. 

This is actually the earliest that I've gone in Saitoh's discography. I first started her KKP file with her 1991 "Yokogao"（横顔）back in December 2021, and I've provided some background information there so feel free to take a gander.

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.

Saori Saito -- Yokogao（横顔）

 

One observation of Japanese song titles that I've made is that there are quite a lot of songs named "Yokogao" (Profile) as in the side shot of the face. Checking the JASRAC database, there are a little over 80 songs registered under that title including Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）jazzy standard tune (although it's entirely possible that some of those are cover versions). I'm not sure why that is the case...perhaps there is something to be said in Japanese culture and history about the side of a face. However, the photo above is not a perfect yokogao shot of the Great Buddha in Kamakura, but it's the best that I could do for now.

(36:26)

When I set up the parameters to create this article, I was surprised to find that Saori Saito's（斉藤さおり）name was already listed in Labels, but then I found out that KKP contributor Oliver Ebisuno92 had mentioned her in his article "Time is up, Mr Juggler: The Music of Shuto Kousoku Trial Movies". I gather that all those racing movies were a good match with Saito since according to her J-Wiki profile, she has been dallying in the rock genre since early in her career.

From her 8th album in 1991, "Love' Less" (no idea why the apostrophe is in there), there is indeed "Yokogao", written and composed by bassist and singer Norio Sakai（坂井紀雄）. With that percolating percussion and rhythm in there, I got some Santana vibes. I also enjoy Saito's vocals although I think her "Yokogao" shifts more toward the pop/rock dividing line, but then again, that electric guitar starts pumping away near the end.

Saito hails from Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture and during her mid-teens in 1984, she competed in a contest sponsored by a girls' fashion magazine getting as far as the semi-finals while going up against other girls such as popular aidoru Noriko Matsumoto（松本典子）. In the singing section of the contest, she performed Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）"Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne" （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね）and battled against the singer with the boomer voice Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）!

A couple of years later, she did a series of live concerts teamed up with a duo known as Heartbreakers（ハートブレイカーズ）who would later split off to become BaBe. After several albums and singles, Saito decided to go from her real name to a stage name Akira Asakura（麻倉晶）as of 1993 to spark a new launch in her career. Twelve years after that, she tweaked the name so that her given name was written out in hiragana（麻倉あきら）rather than kanji.

Ah, just an internal observation, but with this entry, we've hit the largest number of articles in a year at 973.

Time is up, Mr Juggler: The Music of Shuto Kousoku Trial Movies

Our race is about to begin!

Die-hard fans of Initial D will probably make an unwavering statement that Eurobeat was the music that defined the genre of racing flicks. Undoubtedly, this anime series created an aesthetic milestone with its skillful usage of Dave Rodgers, Mega NRG Man, The Delta Queens, and many other artists; however, Eurobeat does not bear the palm of the first music used to pump up JDM battles.

My introduction to Shuto Kousoku Trial movies happened by complete accident. One day, while browsing through City Pop songs on YouTube, I stumbled upon a fan music video in which Meiko Nakahara’s (中原 めいこ) "Scorpion" song (スコーピオン), from her album Lotos no Kajitsu (ロートスの果実－LOTOS－) was coupled together with unbeknown to me clips of awesome racing scenes

After doing a little search on the net, I found out that the clips in question were taken from the Shuto Kousoku Trial series. These six movies made between 1988 and 1996 have quite a production history: The first film was made at the height of the street racing era in Japan and the popularity of Mid Night Club. Although it was intended for a theatrical release, it was ultimately banned by the authorities due to alleged promotion of illegal racing. Nevertheless the movie was so successful on home video that Toei Company Ltd. together with Nikkatsu Studio commissioned straight-to-video sequels to be made. Interestingly, they brought in for the follow-ups the Drift King himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya, whose presence ensured the lack of pro-illegal racing message. Basically, Shuto Kousoku Trial flicks may have been produced on a tight budget and in 4:3 aspect ratio, but they are still greatly entertaining because of the faithful depiction of the circuit racing culture (without any CGI) sprinkled with J-Pop music.

The first motion picture presents a basic premise which subsequent sequels recycle: a young, up-and-coming racer tries to overcome his shortcomings and set the time-run record on the Shuto Expressway. The main protagonist of the 1988 movie tries to break the records in his modified Nissan Skyline R-30. Interestingly, a lot of incidental rock-like music accompanies the race sequences, but in two scenes, the viewers can hear Maiko Konishi’s (小西麻衣子) "Mr Juggler"  song (released originally on EP of the same name). The tune itself may not be widely popular, but it certainly has that distinct City Pop feel. Thanks to Shuto Kousoku Trial, I always associate this song with Skyline R-30, the diecast model of which is proudly parked on my shelf.

The second Shuto movie took the emphasis on music to another level by giving the singer Saori Saitoh (沙織斉藤)  a cameo role as well as incorporating her stage performance of super dynamic "All Eyes" (目がすべて) song into the race battle. She also provided another song "Naga-denwa no ballad" (長電話のバラード) for drama scenes. Both tracks are available on the artist’s album <Lady> from 1989.

Shuto Kousoku Trial 3 (1991), in contrast to the previous film, utilised a bit slower tunes, performed this time by MAHARA. "Crying All Night" definitely has this classy, early 90s feeling and it wonderfully complements the image of the beautiful Reiko Takashima behind the wheel, whereas "True Love" is certainly a great choice for a more sensual mood, underlining the dilemmas of the main characters.

The fourth entry in the series, albeit well done, features only one song: "Body to Body" by Crystal Wars (クリスタル ウォーズ) band, which is actually a cover of the original song by Tomoko Aran (亜蘭知子) from 1983. Personally, I like both versions, but Crystal Wars’ take is ideal to enhance the excitement of JDM cruising, mainly due to the use of electric guitar and the vocals of Rumiko Inoue.

Shuto Kousoku Trial 5: The Final Battle (1993) also resorted to using just one song (aided by incidental music generated by synthesizers). This time, the band GENDA X BENDA provided the catchy "Time is Up" song, which surprisingly can be heard only in a scene where the main hero gears up for racing and during the end credits. Because of its fast tempo and memorable lyrics, the song would have functioned much better during the Skyline showdown.

The final film of the series, Shuto Kousoku Max (1996), has none other than the epic Akira Sudou (須藤 あきら) herself. The singer’s "Love Doesn’t Sleep" (愛が眠れない) song from the album Pandora is used as the main theme throughout the movie. Sudou’s rock style is just perfect for Shuto Kousoku Trial filmmaking structure, resulting in one of the best racing scenes ever. It is such a shame that more of her work has not been used.

This was my look at the music of Shuto Kousoku Trial. I like all the tracks, but my all-time faves are definitely "Mr Juggler," "Time is up," and "Love Doesn’t Sleep". If you can, give these movies a try, if not for the race vibes, then at least to appreciate the pre-Eurobeat music. All in all, Shuto Kousoku Trial films served as a template for subsequent franchises, such as the aforementioned Initial D, Wangan Midnight, and, of course, The Fast and The Furious. My respect goes to the cast and crew for their hard work put into making these stories about daredevil drivers possible on the silver screen.

Note: Please hit the hyperlinks in order to check out the movies, music clips, and album versions of the songs on YouTube.

Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.