RetroPanda
Tue, 18/06/2024 - 14:21
Mizuki Arisa , born: December 5, 1976, was a top idol in 1990s and a very big actress in her era.
She began her career as child model from the age of four, appearing in some commercials and modelled for magazines, even appeared in a drama in 1983.
^ little Mizuki Arisa, around 5-6 years old, in her first ever commercial, co-starring with Okita Hiroyuki, circa 1982
Entering her pre-teens, she made her acting debut by starring in a drama in 1988:
"Abunai Shonen III" (1988)
^ co-starring with SMAP in their debut drama. SMAP members played the male leads in this third season, replacing Hikaru Genji who played the leads in season one and two. (1:23) Mizuki Arisa looked the smallest there, being only 11 in real life despite playing junior high school girl character. Five of the six SMAP members were in their mid teens, later she said they treated her like little sister while the youngest member was the same age as her so they became like childhood friends. When there's SMAP, of course there's their most important member: (4:08) Kimura Takuya (was 15-16 at that time, 12 years later he would become Kudo Shizuka's husband). There's also (0:03) Croket in that episode.
In 1990, she gained attention when she appeared in the Fujicolor commercial
Mizuki Arisa, along with Miyazawa Rie and Makise Riho were known as the three big idols in early 1990s dubbed the "3M"
^ thumbnail left to right: Miyazawa Rie, Makise Riho, Mizuki Arisa, the "3M" trio who starred in a lot of commercials.
She made her singing debut on May 15, 1991. Being a big actress, a lot of her songs were used as theme songs for her dramas. After 1994, she became too busy as actress that she rarely perform her song live anymore.
About this song
Released on May 27, 1992, this song reached #4 on Oricon chart and sold 362,680 copies. At the end of the month, it charted at #7 on Oricon monthly chart of June 1992. This is her biggest hit and her signature song.
The song was used in a soft drink commercial:
Her live performances:
video with youtube id nsJWbEy9TeQ was removed automatically due to unavailability
in 1996:
^ the year SPEED debuted. Arisa was about 20 in that video. The host was Moriguchi Hiroko.
In her career, she has released a total of 25 singles and 7 original albums. Her total sales (all singles + all albums) are 2,991,888 copies. With that kind of numbers, she was clearly a top idol, even more impressive considering she achieved that during "idol winter period" when most idols failed.
But Mizuki Arisa was even bigger as an actress. She has starred in a total of 83 dramas (1988-2024) and 12 movies (1991-2024), playing a lot of lead roles. In fact in 2010, she was recorded in Guiness World Record as the actress who got at least one lead role in drama every single year for 19 consecutive years (1991-2010). And....apparently that record needs to be updated because she still got at least one lead role in drama every single year until 2023. And we're only midway through 2024, who knows she might get another lead role this year and prolong her record.
Some of her works:
"Kyoshi Bin Bin Monogatari II" (1989)
^ the male lead was Toshi who played as a teacher while Mizuki Arisa played as one of his students
"Cho Shoujo Reiko" (1991)
"Houkago" (1992)
^ gender swap drama; a girl and a boy have their bodies switched
"Jajauma Narashi" (1993)
"Help!" (1995)
"Nurse no Oshigoto" (1996)
^ co-starring with Ito Kazue
"Boyhunt" (1998)
Trivia:
- Being tall (170 cm) and has beautiful legs, she often participated in fashion events. She even won "Beautiful Legs Awards" (*yes, it's a real thing. lol) twice in 2007 and 2017
- She was said to have a wide circle of celebrity friends. She used to hold birthday party every year that was attended by more than 200 celebrities that she needed to rent a big venue. And more than just normal birthday party, it was more like an event with those celebrities performing songs, dances and impersonation gigs.
- In 1997, she officially changed the romanization of her name from Mizuki Arisa into Mizuki Alisa
...and decades have passed...
Mizuki Arisa released a remix version of this song in 2021 on her 30th career anniversary
^ the remix version was used as her drama OST in 2021
^ behind the scenes
And....this was Mizuki Arisa in April, 2024
video with youtube id 4LSZlz2RLEs was removed automatically due to unavailability
in May, 2024:
Mizuki Arisa, July 2024
Audio-only video as backup: