• Vinyl record album cover featuring a woman posing against a graffiti-covered wall, with a green and red circular sticker on the top left.

Miki Asakura

I Love Exciting Mini / Hero & Heroine

Regular price $39.00
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SLEEVE
NM
MEDIA
  • VG+
YEAr
  • 1984
COUNTRY
Japan
extras
  • Insert, Poster, Flyer, Only Pressing
IF YOU LIKE
  • Funk / Soul
  • Pop Rock
  • Disco
  • City Pop
  • Junko Ohashi
  • Anri
  • Momoko Kikuchi
  • Yumi Matsutoya

Released in 1984 on Crystal Bird,  Miki Asakura’s mini-album I Love Exciting Mini / Hero & Heroine is a high-energy Japanese city pop/kayōkyoku release best remembered for housing her iconic Japanese-language cover of Bonnie Tyler’s "Holding Out for a Hero" (Hero), which famously served as the theme song for the hit television drama School Wars. Pressed on clear vinyl, the short-form project bridges Western pop-culture anthems and musical standards—including renditions of "Memory" from Cats and Olivia Newton-John's "Twist of Fate"—reimagined through Asakura's powerhouse vocals and glossy 1980s synth-pop production. While brief and heavily reliant on covers, it stands out as a quintessential 80s artifact that cemented Asakura's reputation as a premier Japanese voice for theatrical Western pop-rock adaptations.