Ongaku Cafe (The 2000s): Nagasawa Nao - To You (2007)

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Sure, this latest song marks a new change but Nagasawa Nao still looks sexy and beautiful in the music video and she will always have that killer “love body” but now she has very cool music to enhance her music career and I look forward to the next CD single.

ARTIST: Nagasawa Nao (長澤奈央)

CD SINGLE: To You

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-31280/B

DURATION: 14:39

Release Date: September 19, 2007

To you
Cloudy blue
To you (Instrumental)
Cloudy blue (Instrumental)

DVD: Region 2, 4:3, DURATION: 10 minutes

To you (Music Video)
Making Of

Originally reviewed back in 2007

Like many music idols that have came before Nagasawa Nao, typically when one reaches a stage of maturity, their music also goes through changes.

Nagasawa is well known for her role as Nono Nanami (Hurricane Blue) in the sentai TV series “Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger” and has a strong following because of her role.

And Nagasawa Nao returns with her latest CD single “To you” which ditches the “Love Body” idol style music and features a very cool rock n’ Roll sound.

Her last CD single back in December was “Game/Love Body For…” and earlier in the year, her latest album “Love Body -Season 1-” which both showed the sexy pop idol known for her naughty dancing and her body was typically the showcase.

With “To you”, the “Love Body” theme has been ditched and in my opinion, this new direction if Nagasawa Nao continues this route is a definite positive transition because both songs on this CD single “To you” and “Cloudy blue” are well done.

It’s very rock and it fits her well. Not that the past pop music didn’t but her vocals work with this rock format as opposed to the idol songs that she did, which I was not much into the music but more for her cute vocals and of course, watching her showcase that “love body” on the DVD.

As for the DVD, the DVD features Nagasawa Nao walking into an underground corridor with a Chinese dress and dragging a broken electric guitar. The band enters and they rock!

The video still retains Nagasawa’s sexiness but unlike previous videos before “GAME” which were cool but in a way cheesy (but enjoyed more due to Nagasawa’s sexy nature), this music video is very cool in style and overall atmosphere.

With most making of videos for Nagasawa, Nagasawa tends to showcase her cuteness and a side of her quirky self, but for this CD+DVD version, the focus and direction of the making of was much more professional and Nagasawa introduces people to the people involved in the music video, from the rock band to the makeup artist.

No flirtation, no quirkiness, purely professional, so fans who did enjoy that, like I have, may feel that the DVD is missing that typical Nagasawa element but personally, I didn’t mind and it was cool to see this mature side from her music carry on to the “making of” video editing.

The CD-insert features the music lyrics.

The difficulty for this CD single and for Nagasawa Nao’s music is that the majority of her fans enjoy her either for her sexiness (and purchase her gravure videos) or enjoy her because of that idol quirkiness.

For me, because she’s not in her teens and that she can only do the idol pop for so long, I’m glad that this makeover for Nagasawa is going in a positive direction musically and I hope people/fans approve.

I also hope that this is not a temporary change for just one CD single and we see her back to the pop idol routine in the next release. For me, that would truly suck.

Ongaku Cafe (The 2000s): Nagasawa Nao – To You (2007)

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