Miki Matsubara

Miki Matsubara (松原 みき) was a Japanese composer, lyricist, and singer from Kishiwada, Osaka, Japan.

She participated in the opening and ending theme songs of the TV anime Gu-Gu Ganmo under the name "Suzie Matsubara".

The song was ranked 28th on the Oricon Chart, and according to that chart sold 104,000 copies and 300,000 copies announced by Canyon records.

Some of her other known songs were "Neat na gogo san-ji (ニートな午後3時)" and "The Winner" among others.

After the release of the song "Neat na Gogo San-ji" Matsubara became a well-known singer during that time.

She was offered by many to perform in college festivals, concerts and so on.

The song even gained a feature in a commercial of the famous Japanese multinational personal care company Shiseido, only less than two years after her debut.

Miki Matsubara received a number of artist awards.

Amidst her career, she formed her own band called Dr. Woo.

Matsubara also had some international work with Motown jazz fusion group Dr. Strut in Los Angeles (becoming a backing band in the album recordings for "Cupid" and "Myself"), Tokyo and Osaka (Hall concerts), later releasing a jazz cover album titled Blue Eyes.

On that album she covered some famous jazz songs like "Love for Sale" and the soft rock song "You've Got a Friend", originally written and sung by Carole King.

Her vocal range was that of a mezzo-soprano.

During her music career she released 8 singles, and 12 albums.

Despite her work being mainly domestic, outside of Japan she was also known for her work as an anime singer and songwriter, singing the opening and ending songs to anime such as Dirty Pair: Project Eden, although recently with the popularization of city pop her other work has gained overseas fans as well.

While singing theme songs for the anime Gu Gu Ganmo, she performed under the name Suzie Matsubara (スージー・松原).

Matsubara's song "The Winner" was used as the opening for the Gundam OVA-series Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.

It attracted a lot of attention and ranked 28th place on the Oricon chart.

She married Masaki Honjo (1953–2007), a support musician (drummer) for her band.

Matsubara was born 28 November 1959 in Kishiwada, Osaka in Japan.

She spent her childhood in Hiraoka Town, Nishi-ku, Sakai, Osaka.

She grew up in a family of four, including a father, a mother and a younger sister.

Her father was a board member of a hospital and her mother was a jazz singer who had sung with the Japanese jazz band and comedy group Crazy Cats.

Matsubara started learning the piano at the age of three and later became familiar with jazz.

As a child, she went to Sakai city's Hiraoka Elementary School and then in 1972, entered Poole Gakuin Junior High School.

Around this time Matsubara became interested in rock music and joined the rock band "Kurei".

In 1975 she started in Poole Gakuin High School and became active as a keyboard player of the band "Yoshinoya Band".

They would play songs at a live house called Takutaku located in Kyoto.

Matsubara was described as an excellent student and was expected by many around her to attend college, but at that time she had already made plans to pursue her dream of becoming a singer.

In 1977, when she was still in high school, Matsubara went to Tokyo alone at the age of 17 to make her debut as a singer.

The Japanese pianist found her playing music and singing in various places in Kantō such as in the live music venue Birdland located in Roppongi, Tokyo.

Her 1979 debut song "Mayonaka no Door (Stay With Me)" became a hit, reaching number 28 on the Oricon chart, selling 104,000 copies according to Oricon survey, and selling 300,000 copies announced by Canyon Records.

Matsubara started her career in 1979 and is known from hit songs such as her debut and immediate breakthrough "Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)" which has been covered by numerous artists, including Akina Nakamori.

From the 1990s forwards she especially worked on anime soundtracks and music for commercials.

Matsubara composed songs for a couple of anime, some of her most known musical compositions were for the anime series Gundam.

Matsubara composed songs for several singers, like Hitomi Mieno, but her most notable works were likely with the singer and actress Mariko Kouda, whom Matsubara composed multiple songs to.

Kouda's song "Ame no Chi Special" (雨のちスペシャル), which Matsubara composed, was featured in the five-minute music television and radio series Minna no Uta as a music video in 1997.

The song was repeatedly rebroadcast until 2004.

Little is known about Miki Matsubara's personal life.

Honjo later became a dentist and died in 2007 at the age of 54.

In addition, since around 2020, the song has become widely heard not only in Japan but also overseas thanks to the video sharing platform TikTok.