Chu Kosaka & Ultra -- Kimagure Tenshi（気まぐれ天使）

 

I'm taking a little tangent away from City Pop for this article only to note that it's been close to six months following the passing of singer-songwriter Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）. In 1976, Kosaka and his group Ultra created a theme song for an NTV family drama titled "Kimagure Tenshi" (Capricious Angel) which was notable among other things for having an animated opening credit sequence directed by Tsutomu Shibayama（芝山努）who directed a lot of the "Doraemon"（ドラえもん）series of films. "Kimagure Tenshi" was all about a somewhat goofy employee at a lingerie company who ends up engaged to a young lady working in a different department of the firm.

The theme song, also titled "Kimagure Tenshi", was an October 1976 single for Kosaka, and it has that folksy and comforting arrangement by Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）, the type of music that would welcome a tired salaryman from another 12-hour day at the salt mines. As well, there also seems to be a hint of 1970s soul inhabiting the music. Hiroshi Matsuki（松木ひろし）, who came up with the script for the show, was also responsible for the lyrics.