I fell in love with actress Ishida Hikari (石田ひかり) from her appearances in such doramas as Kagayaku Toki no Naka de, Asunaro Hakusho and Kekkon Shiyouyo, (the latter of which has to have had the lamest of endings ever, at least in MY opinion) so imagine my surprise and interest when I was watching the MUSIC STATION TEN YEAR SPECIAL and came across a clip of a very young Hikari singing with a trio of idol girls!
The song was called 悲 し げ だ ね and the idol group was calledあすか組. At the time I couldn’t recognize some of the kanji that comprised the idol group’s name or the title of the song, and since this was obviously an old (and probably obscure!) single, I didn’t have high hopes ever getting my hands on the song!
I was to find out a lot later that the song was actually the theme for a drama that Hikari starred in along with the other two girls in the trio, Megumi Okada and Natsuki Ozawa (she later of ZERO WOMAN fame!), a show called Hana No Asuka Gumi, and what do you know, Asuka Gumi ended up being the name of the trio, too!
Years later I walk into a used j-pop CD store (yes the same one that I mention every now and again here though I’ll be darned if I can remember the name of the doggone place) and as I’m casually browsing the ex-rental CDs, I suddenly come across the very CD single you see scanned above. I paused. I couldn’t believe it! This was that same trio of girls! Wasn’t too sure that this single was the same SONG they were singing on that Music Station Special, but I decided to go for it since I figured, even if it WASN’T the song I wanted, I’d still have a rare Hikari Ishida collectible, and brother, that was worth it for me!
Well I got home, and as soon as the song started , I leapt up, going, “YEAHHH!! The song!” And by then I was able to translate the kanji that stood for “Gumi” as well as the kanji for “Kanashi”, so the mystery was finally resolved, and I got my single!
Boy, If only “Kekkon Shiyouyo” could have had a happy ending like this!
