Finding More Aiko, You Can't Always Trust the Internet, and Some Ground Rules

My latest cdjapan purchase was a treasure hunt of sorts.  My first selection was 'GIRLS BOX ~Best Hits Compilation Winter~.  While most of these GIRLS BOX compilation cd's include Aiko songs, they are usually singles you can find elsewhere.  Aiko fans, take note:  this cd contains a song of hers that you're not likely to have, or find on the internet.

In 2005, before there was Kingyo, there was "a☆girls", a duo consisting of Pretty Ami and Aiko Kayo.  Though I'm not sure what they did otherwise, the song "Tsuioku no Heroine" is included on this compilation.  Any Aiko completist needs this song in his or her collection.  The song is in a style that I'd term 'hard disco', similar to Aiko's 'Fantasy' with a little more variance and more sound effects, plus a few polyrythms.  In typical Aiko style, it's upbeat and catchy, slightly aggressive, but with an underlying coolness that shines through.

In the future I might make a lo-Q version of this song available, to drum up some advertisement for this album.  You'd want this song if you could hear it.

If this were the only reason I'd purchased this disc, it'd been worth it;  but there are a few more bonuses for the Aiko fans.  A long version of '3rd Xmas' (now with more 'yeah yeah yeah sha-la-la-ding-dongs!), and that song's PV (which I don't think you can get elsewhere), with clips from the Girl's Box Xmas TV series.

Also, a live clip of 'Futari no Ai Land', sung by a stage filled with every Japanese girl that ever lived.

  

Standing next to Aiko during 'Futari no Ai Land' is the incomparable Saito Michi.  Feels nice to know that Saito is Aiko's partner in crime for this song.  Plus, she gets her own song on the album, 'Tooi Machi no Dokoka de...', a Christmas song, a very good song.  I'm slowly becoming a huge Mi-chan fan, the more I hear of her.

Also among the millions on that stage, front and center is Nanase Hoshii.  She also gets a song on the album, one I didn't have before, 'Fuyu no Opera Glass'.  It's another Nacchan song which (again, dammit) defies description.  There's mellotron, referee whistles, old-Pink-Floyd style electric organ, flange guitar, and a sitar.

Prepare yourself as well for a song sung by Hiroko Sato, labelled a 'newcomer' here.  She's a ridiculously gorgeous model with a surprisingly average voice.  She's a model, after all, and unfortunately, hasn't done much with music before or since, perhaps something a little more suited to her voice.

The other item in my purchase was, unfortunately, Aiko-free.  I've seen titles of a couple songs Aiko had sung for anime, prior to her first single, and was hoping to unearth one to prove that it really did exist.  Those songs are 'ABC no Kodomotachi' and 'Midnight Horror School', and so I bit the bullet to try for the latter.  The first installment of Midnight Horror School looks like this:

My sources had listed 'Midnight Horror School' as the 'first' theme song for this anime.  There's another theme, 'Happy Mystery', credited as the 'second' theme song.  Sounds logical, then, to get the first few episodes to find my Aiko song.  Mission failed, however.  'Happy Mystery' is the theme for the first four episodes, and I know that for a fact.  The song was done by Kawakami Tomoko, not Kayo Aiko.  So if Aiko did do 'Midnight Horror School' the song is not the 'first' theme song, if your method is chronological order.

There are 13 of these MHS collections, each priced a little over $40 each, so I'm not taking chances which might ultimately cost $600 to collect the whole series, just for one Aiko song which may last 1:30.  I invite anyone with a little more knowledge on the subject to come forward on this before I empty my wallet again.

So it's bad enough that Aiko's song has been mis-labeled as the 'first' theme song when it isn't, but remember, there's also hope for another song, 'ABC no Kodomotachi', right?  Wrong.  I wasn't expecting to find it so easily, but 'ABC no Kodomotachi' is on this disc, and it's again done by Kawakami Tomoko.  Don't believe everything you read on the internet.  There's still hope that a song called 'Midnight Horror School' exists, and that it's sung by Aiko*.  Otherwise, my sources were wrong, and Aiko should not be credited for 'ABC no Kodomotachi', nor the 'first' theme song of this anime.

Not all is lost, though;  the anime seems really cute and done in beautiful CGI.  Once I get over the shock I'll have to go back and watch the show.  I may enjoy it enough that buying every successor will come with time.  Sadly, this DVD is Aiko-free.

Last, as promised, some ground rules for the S.P.A.K.A. site.

I won't enforce copyright of anything I post here.  Meaning, unless other rights are reserved (the cropped Aiko pictures, for instance), this site is fully public domain.  My only goals with this, as posted before are:

1. to get in touch with Ms. Kayo Aiko and let her know we appreciate her.

2. to encourage continued support for her career in showbusiness.

3. to provide information about Ms. Kayo Aiko to anyone who wants to know more about her.

I'm not doing this for personal gain, except maybe for the chance to shake her hand and tell her 'arigatou' and 'ganbatte'.  If you have any information about her, pass it on.  It'll help me (and the entire English-speaking world) to be able to sort fact from fiction.

* Note 9/27/2018: 'Midnight Horror School' as sung by Kayo Aiko exists and I have a recording.