Satomi Tezuka -- Killer Angel

 

Just around four years ago, I wrote about the 2nd single of then-aidoru Satomi Tezuka（手塚理美 or 手塚さとみ）, "Bobby ni Kataomoi"（ボビーに片想い）released in April 1979. That was basically it for the Tokyo native's singing career after which she focused on acting. Well, perhaps the more accurate thing to say is that the singing was more of a brief diversion for a few years in the 1970s since she had started out as a child model in the early part of the decade.

Well, I'm closing the circle, so to speak, regarding this 45" since I have here the B-side to "Bobby ni Kataomoi", "Killer Angel". The same songwriters and arranger on the A-side were back to work on the flip side: lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and arranger Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）. But unlike the 50s love balladry of "Bobby ni Kataomoi", everyone involved opted for a much more livelier tune that actually brings to mind the uptempo material of Pink Lady and Candies. Plus, there is an interesting touch with the country music riff at the beginning of the verses.

Matsumoto's lyrics paint a picture of what seems to be the story of a romance wrecker in the form of a high school girl, although the bouncy music perhaps puts the entire situation in a lighter vein of puppy love gone wrong as would happen in a typical slice-of-life anime comedy. Tezuka's innocently off-tune vocals emphasize the pouty view from someone who was most likely the latest victim of the titular figure.

In the last four years since I first wrote about Tezuka, I've read on her J-Wiki profile that she had won a Best Supporting Actress award in a TV drama and that she recently appeared in a main role for the 2021 movie "Made in Heaven"（メイド・イン・ヘヴン）directed by Masato Tanno（丹野雅仁）. Another piece of information is that Tezuka had been married to actor Hiroyuki Sanada（真田広之）, who was in "The Last Samurai" and a couple of Marvel movies, between 1990 and 1997.