Okaerinasai (おかえりなさい^?) is the sixth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima, released in November 1979.

The album contains the cover versions of the songs Nakajima composed for other singers, including five top-40 hit singles—"Abayo" sung by Naoko Ken (topped the chart in 1976), "Shiawase Shibai" and "Oikakete Yokohama" recorded by Junko Sakurada (reached #3 and #11 on the chart from in 1977-78, respectively), "If I Could Take to the Sky" performed by Tokiko Kato (peaked at #14 in 1978), and "Ame..." by Rumiko Koyanagi (reached #25 in 1978).^[1][2][3][4] It also features a song "Rouge" which was initially issued as the title track on Naomi Chiaki's album issued in 1977.　It was later widely recognized around the Asian countries, because of the cover version interpreted by Faye Wong on her album Coming Home in 1992.

Okaerinasai peaked at #2 on the Japanese Oricon LP chart and became one of her most commercially successful album, selling in excess of 530,000 copies while it was entering there.

Track listing[link]

All songs composed by Miyuki Nakajima, except the lyrics of "Yomaigoto" written by Yu Aku

Side one[link]

Side two[link]

Personnel[link]

• Miyuki Nakajima - Lead vocal, acoustic guitar
• Toshiaki Usui - Acoustic guitar
• Hiromi Yasuda - Acoustic guitar
• Nobuo Tsunetomi - Acoustic guitar
• Yasushi Suehara - Acoustic guitar
• Chūei Yoshikawa - Acoustic guitar
• Shigeru Suzuki - Electric guitar
• Kimio Mizutani - Electric guitar
• Munemitsu Noguchi - Steel guitar
• Tsugotoshi Gotō - Electric bass
• Rei Ohara - Electric bass
• Shigehiro Takahashi - Electric bass
• Shigeaki Takebe - Electric bass
• Kazumi Okayama - Drums
• Eiji Shimamura - Drums
• Yūichi Togashiki - Drums
• Tatsuo Hayashi - Drums
• Nobu Saitō - Percussion
• Yasukazu Satō - Percussion
• Jun Sato - Keyboards
• Hiroshi Shibui - Keyboards
• Makiko Tashiro - Keyboards
• Hidetoshi Yamada - Keyboards
• Jake H. Conception - Saxophone
• Shin Kazuhara - Trumpet
• Eiji Arai - Trombone
• Sumio Okada - Trombone
• Yasuo Hirauchi - Trombone
• Masao Suzuki - Clarinet
• First Music - Strings
• Isao Kaneyama - Marimba
• Fumihiko Kazama - Midget Accordion
• Keiji Azami - Dulcimer
• Osamu Tozuka - Chorus
• Hiroshi Narumi - Chorus

Production[link]

• Designer: Hirofumi Arai
• Disk Promoter: Yoshiki Ishikawa
• Recording Director: Yoshio Okujima
• Recording & Mixing Engineer: Yoshihiko Kaminari, Koji Sakakibara, Shoya Mizutani
• Manager: Hiroshi Kojima
• Assistant Promotion Manager: Kunio Kaneko
• Disk Co-ordinator: Yuzo Watanabe
• Costume Designer: Mihoko Kiyokawa
• Art Director: Jin Tamura
• Remixing & Mastering Engineer: Kinji Yoshino
• General Producer: Genichi Kawakami
• Special Thanks to Sailor Shinohara

Chart positions[link]

References[link]

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本 真綾, Sakamoto Maaya^?, born March 31, 1980^[1]) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actress, and voice actress.^[2] She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime series Little Twins, but is more well known for her role as Hitomi Kanzaki^[3] in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. She released her debut single Yakusoku wa Iranai, in collaboration with Yoko Kanno under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996.^[4]

Since her 1996 debut, she is among the more popular voice actresses who have also branched into singing, performing songs in both English and Japanese. As well as being a prolific seiyū, she has also had several successful releases; despite initially only modestly selling, her singles Tune the Rainbow,^[5] Loop,^[6] Ame ga Furu,^[7] and Triangler^[8] have all reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart: Triangler in particular charted at #3 and remained charting for 26 weeks. Her albums have had similar success, with Shōnen Alice^[9] and Yūnagi Loop^[10] both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; and her newest album, You Can't Catch Me, released on January 12, 2011, became her first release to ever reach #1.^[11] She held a concert at the Nippon Budokan on March 31, 2010, her thirtieth birthday.^[12]

On August 8, 2011, Sakamoto married fellow voice actor and frequent co-star Kenichi Suzumura. She announced their marriage on her official site five days later.^[13]

Early life[link]

Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up within a family of her parents and her older brother, who sustained a serious motorcycle accident in 1999 or 2000 (he married in 2002 and had a daughter in 2004). Sakamoto graduated from Toyo University with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology in the spring of 2002.^[14] Her favorite colors are blue and gold,^[15] while her hobbies are performing, reading, and singing.^[1] She was one half of the seiyū duo Whoops!!, alongside Chieko Higuchi. She has been called onee-sama (お姉さま, onee-sama^?), a respectful way of saying "older sister" by her Ouran High School Host Club co-star Ayaka Saitō.

Collaborations[link]

Sakamoto first teamed up with composer Yoko Kanno in her 1996 debut single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai" ("Promises Not Needed"), which was used as the opening theme for the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. Kanno collaborated with Sakamoto up until her fifth album, Yūnagi Loop, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Sakamoto also performed three songs for the series Wolf's Rain, for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity" (which is sung completely in English), "Tell Me What The Rain Knows" (with lyrics by Chris Mosdell) and "Cloud 9". She performed "Hemisphere", the opening theme of the series RahXephon, as well as two songs for the series' theatrical version RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio: "Tune the Rainbow" and "The Garden of Everything" (duet with Steve Conte). In 2008, Sakamoto and Kanno collaborated again for "Triangler", the opening theme song for the series Macross Frontier.^[16] She also performed the song "cream" with HIDE, which was featured in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mini album be Human.

Awards and nominations[link]

In the 23rd Anime Grand Prix, she ranked tenth place under the seiyū category with 126 votes.^[17]

In addition, in the first Seiyū Awards, she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her portrayal of Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club as well as "Best Musical Performance" for Tsubasa Chronicle's ending theme Loop.^[18]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Appearances in other media[link]

Webcast[link]

• Maaya Sakamoto's Full Moon Recital Hall (September 23, October 23, November 22, December 21, 2010) -Ustream
  • reading of Japanese literary works^[31]
  • one of the special projects offered by a Japanese online magazine "Saizensen"

Publications[link]

Serialization[link]

• Sakamoto Maaya no Manpukuron (坂本真綾の満腹論^?) – Currently in Newtype.

- A monthly column

Books[link]

• I.D. (アイディ。^?) – December 9, 2005^[32]

- An essay collection (out of print)

• Chizu to Tegami to Koi no Uta (地図と手紙と恋のうた^?) – April 18, 2008^[33]

- A photo and lyrics book compilation

• from everywhere. – February 21, 2011^[34]

- An essay collection

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maaya Sakamoto's Official Homepage (Japanese)
• Idling Stop ~ Official Fansite (Japanese)
• "Saizensen" Maaya Sakamoto's Full moon Recital (Japanese)
• Maaya Sakamoto at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Maaya Sakamoto discography at MusicBrainz