Ao (蒼; Blue) is Ishii Rika's second single after leaving Hello! Project, and her last released under the record label BM.3. It was released over three years after her previous single, Kotojima. Unlike her previous release, this was marketed as her major debut single, available for sale everywhere. Songs from this single was used in the horror movie Zoku, which Ishii Rika also stars in.
"I've sung this song in concert several times before, so maybe some of you remember it. There are so many people and we have all different bodies, different faces, different feelings but we all live in the same time. Please have a look at my feelings. If some of them reached yours as well, that’s the beginning of a new encounter."
Ao no Koro
"This song was the beginning to everything this time around: "Youthful days." This song was born when song producer Suzuki Kenji and music arranger Yamautsuri Takahiro helped me open the door to my own youthful days, which I had always been unable to do. The wounds I didn’t want for anyone to touch have been kept hidden up until when I started writing this song and put all of those feelings into it. I want you to feel and get a touch of a new side of me through this song."
Jiro-san
"I met him when I was just walking aimlessly around Shinjuku as per usual. We walked different roads and lived different days, but he’s very important to me and we wish for the same thing. Please meet him, Jiro, in this song."[1]
Trivia
Ishii released Chinrenka in 2015, which also was marketed as her major debut single.