All these years after I'd taken this photo from the back cover of an "Eye-Ai" magazine issue, I was wondering in which situation I would ever use this photo from an episode of "Kayama Yuzo no Blackjack"（加山雄三のブラック・ジャック...Yuzo Kayama's Blackjack）. Yes. That Yuzo Kayama portraying that Blackjack from the manga by legend Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）. I never would have believed it myself. Well, we all gotta try something new.
Well, the show was realized as the first live-action televised drama of "Blackjack" back in 1981 (although a live-action cinematic version had been done several years earlier), and I can now use the above photo without any irony. The reason for that is that I found the ending theme for "Kayama Yuzo no Blackjack", "Glass no Dance" (translated directly as "Glass Dance" but given the official English title of "Crystal Dancin'", according to the Discogs site.
"Glass no Dance" was recorded by the technopop band Hikashu（ヒカシュー） as their 4th single sometime in 1981, although it did appear as a bonus track on a later reissue of the group's 2nd album "Natsu"（夏...Summer） from 1980. Once again written by vocalist Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）and composed by synthesizer operator Yasushi Yamashita（山下康）, the elements of technopop are more subdued here in this case but the hoppy New Wave bop is brought in, and Makigami sounds as if he's exhorting some sort of tokusatsu theme song. And I guess that fits because Blackjack is the hero or the antihero here. I've also noticed a bit of either reggae or ska thrown into the pot as well.
I never knew there was a live-action version of Black Jack along with a cool song.
ReplyDeleteNever would have thought the Big Man on Campus from the 1960s would tackle this particular character. To be honest, he seemed a little too old to play Black Jack, but perhaps those who actually saw the series can explain.
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