ZARD / SAKAI IZUMI

Small reminder: The names are said in order of last-first. So first name is Izumi, last name is Sakai.

If you want to listen to something while reading, there you go ! "Lonely Soldier Boy" by ZARD. I'll be linking more songs below anyway.

Most of us got that one music artist who makes us act like wild chimpanzees on heroin whenever we listen to their music. Or perhaps they make us feel like the world is at peace & give us a sense of sedating calmness. ZARD is what that is for me, in both of these cases.

Before I start rambling like a ward patient (or a zard patient) I'll probably need to explain who ZARD is, very briefly. They were a 5-member pop/rock band that debuted in 1991, with frontwoman Sakai Izumi being the only consistent member throughout the years. She pretty much went solo while keeping the band name, so the names "ZARD" & "Sakai Izumi" are used interchangeably most of the time. Her real name is Kamachi Sachiko & she used to do modelling before debuting as a singer in 1991. She passed away at age 40 on May 27th 2007 after an unfortunate accident. Not much is known about her personal life, just like most artists from her record label.

You've most likely heard ZARD's music before if you're familiar with TV commercials or TV drama insert songs. Or if you're familiar with anime openings/endings too, since that's how a lot of the Western audience discovered their music. I believe their most well-known anime insert song is Dragon Ball GT's opening theme "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku" (it was originally performed by Field of View, but she wrote the lyrics for the song & also made a cover of it in the album "TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY"). She also performed "Don't you see!" which was used as the ending theme for Dragon Ball GT. I never watched or cared for Dragon Ball, but I love both tracks a lot !!! She made songs for the anime Detective Conan, the anime Slam Dunk, the video game Tokimeki Memorial 3 & more. Lucky Star also included ZARD's most well-known song, "Makenaide", at the end of an episode as a tribute to her. You can listen to the cover here. It sounds very silly lol & I'm always happy whenever I hear anything related to ZARD, so I like listening to it !

Also, one thing that made her stand out was her being a prolific writer. ZARD released 45 singles, 11 studio albums & she wrote the lyrics for all the songs with the exception of 2 in ZARD's debut album "Good-bye My Loneliness" (which were written by Kawashima Daria). On top of that, Sakai Izumi wrote songs for other music artists as well ! That would be 150+ songs written by her, which is insane.

So, the song that first got me into their music was "Unmeino Roulette Mawashite", used as the 4th opening for the series Detective Conan. One day I was just fucking around & very legally downloading all the full versions of the detco openings so I could have something to listen to during car rides. That was like, years ago, I was maybe 13 or 14. When I finished listening to the entirety of Unmeino Roulette Mawashite for the first time, my brain just thought : "Dude. Is there more of this. Please tell me there's more."


The ending of the song is literally crack to me. I don't know how to describe it in a normal way. But it's the most beautiful thing I've heard in my life.

From there, I became addicted to their music. Like, I'm talking only listening to ZARD & nothing else for years. The discography is massive, over 100 songs, so there was a lot to discover. The variety is impressive, I genuinely believe there's at least 1 ZARD song for everyone. As of now, I currently own 11 of their CDs, including the live album "Cruising & Live" which also had a cassette tape with it & a CD-ROM that contains a video game ! (& my luck is terrible when playing it, but I still won a few times) My dream is to own all of ZARD's studio albums & all my favorite singles of theirs, but shipping costs are absolute hell & I don't want to end up eating ice soup for a month because I spent my money on my special interest instead of basic necessities. So I listen to the rest of the songs online, but I prefer listening to the CDs on my Walkman.


Here's a screenshot of the game I mentioned, Cruising HAZARD. Looks really cool !!! It was released in 2000, so that's why it looks outdated. The goal is to find the room containing the entry ticket to her live concert in under 30 minutes ! The rooms are randomized & there are cool rooms where you can view a gallery of photos of Sakai Izumi, rooms about their discography & more, rooms where you get violently shot (which removes a lot of minutes from the timer) & rooms where you straight up die from a helicopter shooting missiles at you & a "game over" screen shows up after that. I have no idea who came up with this.

ZARD's work has been a major art inspiration for me as well. I've drawn several pictures with her lyrics in it, pictures referencing her poses too. If you looked through my art gallery & saw Japanese phrases written in some pieces, they are most likely her lyrics. I love her songwriting a lot, her "transparent sound", just everything. The music can range from upbeat to tranquil, from happy to melancholic, but her voice remains calm, stable, clear & powerful. It's something that I can't detach myself from, I listen to ZARD's music every single day. I put their songs in my jukebox on my home page so that others can listen too (desktop only, sorry !) because I want more people to discover the beauty of ZARD's sound !

While my top 10 favorite ZARD songs always changes over time, there's one song that always stayed #1 for me for some reason, "Sunaoni Ienakute". 2 versions exist : the original from 1991 & a rearrange that was released posthumously in 2009 featuring Mai Kuraki, who has also made many songs for Detective Conan. I personally prefer the original, but the 2009 version grew on me eventually.


There's something about the emptiness of it that makes it so good. It's crisp & raw. The lyrics are also beautiful. Not only that, but she also composed the song ! Their songs had a "darker" vibe during their debut years & I honestly love it. The way the song ends makes me crazy too.

This is the 2009 arrange. More upbeat, which fits Sakai Izumi's personal style. Hearing Kuraki Mai in the backing vocals makes me a bit emotional for some reason. Their voices sound great together, wish there was another collab between them. I also like how Sakai Izumi's vocals sound clearer here than the original.

I'm not really the type to get attached to celebrities, but she's been an exception. My life changed as soon as I discovered her sound & I don't think this is a type of sound that can ever be replicated by somebody else. Thank you, Sakai Izumi, for blessing me & many others through your music, for helping us through difficult times with the power of your words. I hope you are resting peacefully in heaven.