tohko -- Fuwafuwa Fururu（ふわふわ ふるる）

 

Cosmetic ads on Japanese television have always had their flair and sensuality as they featured some of the most popular stars of the day. Above is a commercial for Kanebo's Testimo II range of makeup starring actress and model Koyuki（小雪）. Just to remind folks, she was in "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise. This is about as glammed-up as I have ever seen her; she usually doesn't have that much makeup on her face.

It's been a good long while since I've posted anything by singer tohko on KKP. I remember her primarily for her debut single "Bad Luck On Love ~ Blues On Life ~" from early 1998. However, this 3rd single "Fuwafuwa Fururu" from July that year also pinged my memory engrams so I figure that I must have seen the Testimo II commercial that it graced a number of times. However, I cannot find that specific ad on YouTube at the moment.

As for the title, I can only guess that it's onomatopoeia to describe how the Kanebo cosmetics come out but maybe those who are well versed in anime and/or manga can set me straight. In any case, Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was responsible for words and music with Marc Panther, Komuro's bandmate from globe, also helping out on the lyrics. It definitely feels like a Komuro tune and both the arrangement and tohko's vocals lend to the dreaminess out there. "Fuwafuwa Fururu" scored a No. 16 on Oricon.

tohko -- It's all about us ～from the motion picture "BEAT"～

 

When I arrived in Japan at the end of 1994 to start my second stint there as a teacher, I think the Komuro Boom had been a year in. Even while I was still in Toronto, I had heard about the band trf and then when I made my way to Tokyo, it was the tidal wave of Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, Yuki Uchida（内田有紀）, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）, globe, dos, etc. It was a big few years in the middle of the decade for Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）and his gang as I saw them on the charts, music shows and videos, and opening credits for TV dramas. 

But a quarter of a century later, aside from Amuro, Uchida and perhaps Kaba-chan（KABA.ちゃん）from dos since she's been a tarento for many years, all of those folks of the Komuro Boom, including even Komuro himself, have rather disappeared from the limelight. Now, it's usually the case that from time to time, one of those people ends up in one of those "Whatever happened to this person?" segments on a variety program.

I think another one of the members from the Komuro Boom that has been largely out of my sight all these years is the singer tohko. Remembering her mostly for her debut single "Bad Luck On Love ~ Blues On Life ~", Tomoko Saito（斉藤朋子）has left me with the impression that she was a quieter version of Tomomi Kahala in terms of her music. Whereas with Kahala, there was that dance club and city feeling, tohko was more about that quiet park or seashore away from the urban jungle.

Her 4th single was "It's all about us ～from the motion picture "BEAT"～" released in September 1998 and it was also a track on her first album "Tohko"（籐子）from August. Komuro had more of a direct hand in the creation of the song being both lyricist and composer with Marc Panther (from globe) and Cozy Kubo（久保こーじ）assisting with lyrics and music respectively. It's definitely one of those songs that invites the listener to take a load off, relax on a bench and breathe deeply for a while. Kinda wished that it did better than its modest No. 49 ranking on Oricon.

Assuming that she had retired from the music industry long ago, tohko has actually been continuing her work there, releasing a 13th single, "Mugen no Chikara"（無限のチカラ...Infinite Strength） back in 2016 although any original album production finished up in 1999. Plus, according to her website, she has appeared on a recent NTV variety show and has given a performance in the last couple of weeks. Also in 2000 and 2001, she played the role of Cosette in the Japanese version of "Les Miserables".

tohko -- Bad Luck On Love ~ Blues On Life ~

Throughout the 4 years that I've been writing on this blog, I was scouring my brain for a particular singer that I had vaguely been able to remember back in the 90s. At the time, the name escaped me although I could remember an album cover of hers, but when I was writing the Creator article for Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, my memories finally divulged the name: tohko.

For a while, she seemed to be the It girl on the charts as the music video for her debut single, "Bad Luck On Love ~ Blues on Life ~" got heavy rotation on the various music shows. Released in January 1998, it was written by Marc Panther from globe and composed by Daisuke Hinata（日向大介）. Even though, the song wasn't directly a Tetsuya Komuro creation, there was something about the sound which fairly hinted at his involvement as producer. Plus, at the time she reminded me quite a lot of TK's then-ingenue (or not...not quite sure how long the relationship lasted) Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）. The reason that I could remember her at last was because her name (which was then written as トーコ until her 3rd single) was listed as being one of the Komuro Family.

However, "Bad Luck On Love" has a more down-to-earth sound to go with the girl-next-door look of tohko. When I was re-acquainting myself with the song, I have to admit that I couldn't quite remember the verses but then when the refrain came out...ahh...now I could since it was always that part of the video which was shown on programs like "CD Countdown". Nowadays, my exposure to the latest Japanese pop music has mostly been restricted to anison and the AKB stuff so that it is nice to hear some of the mellower late 20th-century material again.

"Bad Luck On Love" peaked at No. 14 (spent 9 straight weeks in the Top 20) and went Platinum before becoming the 72nd-ranked song for 1998. It was also a track on tohko's debut album, "Tohko"（籐子）from August of that year which went all the way to No. 3.

As for the singer herself, she was born Tomoko Saito（斉藤朋子）in 1977 in Tokyo. She was a member of the Otowa Yurikago Kai（音羽ゆりかご会）, a very famous children's choir which has performed a ton of anime and tokusatsu songs. When she graduated junior high school, she had tried to enter the prestigious Takarazuka Music Academy but failed the 2nd round of examinations.