Tarako -- Anata dake no Natsu（あなただけの夏）

 

It's been a little over six months since the passing of singer, songwriter and seiyuu Tarako and I've still been plumbing through her discography back in her early years of the 1980s.

This track from her June 1983 debut album "Totteoki no Shunkan"（とっておきの瞬間...Special Moments） is an interesting one. The brief Tarako file on KKP that I've had up to now has shown her tackling the City Pop genre. But her "Anata dake no Natsu" (A Summer Just For You) is a very different animal in that it sounds just like a jaunty country tune. Written and composed by Tarako herself, the song seems to describe a nice life out in the rice fields or cornfields and her voice is quite a bit higher when compared to her vocals for "Only Goodbye" which had been the most recent song that I wrote about shortly after her untimely death.

Tarako -- Only Goodbye

 

I was putting the finishing touches on the tribute article to mangaka Akira Toriyama（鳥山明）when I came across the news on Yahoo Japan that seiyuu and singer Tarako, most famous for her voice behind the title character in "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）, passed away on March 4th at the age of 63. The news is literally only a few hours old so there really hasn't been any YouTube footage of any announcements of her passing but I've now been noticing expressions of condolences in the comments underneath any video to do with Tarako. When I saw the news, my jaw just fell along with my posture. First Toriyama and now Tarako.

My most recent article on Tarako as a singer was posted back in August of last year and it was a City Pop tune "Tasogare"（たそがれ）from her September 1984 album "Warawanai Koibito"（笑わない恋人...The Unsmiling Lover）. For today, I am also putting up a track from that same album, "Only Goodbye" which has that same City Pop vibe. Written by Tarako and composed by Sho Suzuki（鈴木晶）, it's got that certain "lone wolf" feeling in a lonely city, and I have to say that Tarako's singing remind me a lot of singer-songwriter Iruka（イルカ）who's given her own contributions to the urban contemporary in the 1980s.

I'm sure that we will all get some further information about the sudden death of Tarako in the next several hours. However, I would like to send my condolences to her family, friends and fans.

Tarako -- Tasogare（たそがれ）

 

A few months back, I put up an article featuring veteran seiyuu Tarako, of course famous for her signature role as Maruko in "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）all these years. As far as I know, all seiyuu have undergone further voice training (in addition to all Japanese students getting the basics in singing in mandatory education) in their academies, but it was admittedly still a surprise to realize that Tarako had released records back in the 1980s.

That article was on her September 1984 debut single "Yuuwaku Game"（誘惑ゲーム）which apparently isn't included on her third album "Warawanai Koibito"（笑わない恋人...The Unsmiling Lover） that was released on the same day as the single. In comparison to "Yuuwaku Game", Tarako's voice is relatively lower in the funky number "Tasogare" (Sunset) on the album, and the vibe is very much of downtown intrigue. Considering the meaning of the album title, the song title and its arrangement, I can imagine Maruko in one of her unleashings of imagination where she's in a trench coat following up on a suspicious case in the darkest reaches of Shinjuku. Meanwhile, her doting grandfather has most likely gathered the entire Seniors' Association to rescue her from Shizuoka Prefecture, but before I let my own imagination run uncontrollably, I'll stop here.

Incidentally, "Tasogare" was written and composed by Tomohiro Nishimura（西村智博）, a singer-songwriter and also a seiyuu who has been plying his trade until the late 2010s at least.

Tarako -- Yuuwaku Game（誘惑ゲーム）

 

Just as William Shatner will always be known as Captain James T. Kirk and James Earl Jones will always be known as the voice of Darth Vader, Tarako will always be known first and foremost as the voice behind the impish Momoko "Maruko" Sakura（さくらももこ）in "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）. The Gunma-born Tarako has worn a lot of hats in the entertainment industry: singer-songwriter, narrator, actress, scriptwriter, essayist, and of course, seiyuu since she began her career in 1981, but if you mention her name to anyone on the street, invariably most if not all people will mention Maruko right off the bat.

Seeing another episode of "Chibi Maruko-chan" last night as we usually do on Sundays, I did wonder about her singing career so looking things up on her J-Wiki file, I discovered that Tarako did release four singles between 1984 and 1991 along with ten original albums between 1983 and 1995. Her debut single in September 1984 was "Yuuwaku Game" (Temptation Game) for which she provided the lyrics while Kazuto Hiraga（平賀和人）of the band NSP composed the spirited melody which kinda hovers between pop and the more upbeat aidoru tunes of the day. There's quite a nice bluesy instrumental solo before the final chorus where Tarako finishes her story of a woman with some tsundere tendencies about a fellow.

You can also have a look at one of her commercials.