The first Daria I loved was not Daria Morgendorffer
I mean, I’m a big fan of MTV’s Daria, but the reason why I started watching in the first place wasn’t really because of the plot. I’ve grown to love our sarcastic teen girl and the people in her life dearly, but to be real with you all, I started watching her show because she had the same name as another lady named Daria.
Namely, the vocalist of metal band Feel So Bad, Daria Kawashima. I became a big fan of her after I discovered her repertoire of compositions for multiple artists in Japan, which may or may not include “Moonlight Densetsu”, the theme song of Sailor Moon. When people think of female vocalists under the label Being, most people would maybe think of Mai Kuraki or ZARD’s Izumi Sakai. Maybe Maki Ohguro if they’re lucky. But, Daria Kawashima doesn’t really come up in conversations (unless you’re talking to a big Being fan).
But Daria was inspired by her older brother that was in a band when she was younger, but she began her path to an idol career in 1983, after she was scouted at an audition at CBS Sony, at the age of 16. She made her major debut in 1986 at 19 with her song “Silk no Kuchibiru” under the name Miki Kawashima and became a little bit popular then. She didn’t write her own music until she was transferred to Being, though, and from there, she became known as Daria Kawashima, the singer-songwriter. And she was the only one who ever wrote complete lyrics for ZARD, who’s vocalist Izumi Sakai is known for writing her own lyrics.
Her career under Being is still ongoing. Although her solo stuff never made a big boom in the music world, she is still beloved by fans of artists of the company for providing her compositions to these famous artists during the 90’s.
In addition, in 1993, she formed the heavy metal band Feel So Bad with Fuyuki Kurata. They were originally a duo until Masato Yamaguchi and Masato Ohashi joined in 1994. Their biggest song was the opening to Jigoku Sensei Nube, “Bari Bari Saikyou No. 1.” They seemed to have a lot of potential, having toured in America twice. Even now, they’re still active, although Ohashi has left and Kurata passed away from lung cancer.
So, she’s made big contributions to the music industry with her talent of songwriting, and I’ve become quite the fan of her this past year and a half. And although people usually focus on her songwriting for other artists, I like to listen to her solo songs a lot. And so earlier this year, I stumbled upon a clip of MTV’s Daria I was interested in on YouTube. I found it so intriguing that there was a character in an American TV show with that name (I assumed Daria Kawashima got her name from the Japanese pronunciation of “dahlia” so I never questioned it). And so, an obsession started.
Adelina Peterson
lovethebanglesforever (a) gmail.com