RetroPanda
Fri, 14/10/2022 - 04:59
Yakushimaru Hiroko (born: June 9, 1964) was a very popular actress in the 1980s, and also a top idol singer in that era. When she was young, she often played as the main lead in a lot of movies - mostly movies produced by "Kadokawa Pictures Inc.", one of the big four film studios in Japan, until she became independent from "Kadokawa" in 1985 yet still starred in a lot of other movies. And being top singer, she also sang most of the OSTs of her own movies back then (especially in early 1980s), resulted in both the movies and the songs became big hits.
She made her acting debut in 1978 when she was in her first year of junior high school
In 1970s, the biggest idol singer was Yamaguchi Momoe. She suddenly retired in 1980 because of her marriage and left a hole in entertainment industry. In the era called "post Momoe", her place as biggest idol singer immediately replaced by a rookie idol: Matsuda Seiko (who was so big, she ended up surpassing Momoe). But don't forget, Momoe was also a big actress who starred in a lot of movies, one of "Kadokawa" main actress. "Kadokawa" soon found someone to fill her place, their young actress who later became one of the biggest idol actresses in 1980s: Yakushimaru Hiroko.
Young Yakushimaru Hiroko in Shiseido Lipstick CM, circa 1978:
As an actress, Yakushimaru Hiroko has starred in a total of 44 movies (1978-2022) and 52 (1978-2023) dramas. In her prime, she won a lot "Best Actress" awards. In the age where she needs to play as someone's mom, she still won a lot of "Best Supporting Actress" awards. She has won about 48 award in total. She also has worked on some stage plays, documentaries, radio shows and did narration in some tv programs.
Some of her representative works:
video with youtube id DLJj3Wtf_uY was removed automatically due to unavailability
Compilation of Yakushimaru Hiroko in her movies
Three years since her movie debut, Yakushimaru Hiroko still hadn't released any single, she was once called "idol who doesn't sing" by the media. In 1981, she finally made her singing debut, singing the OST of her movie and it turned into a big hit. As a singer, Yakushimaru Hiroko has released a total of 24 singles and 10 original albums. 3 of her songs reached #1 in Oricon chart. In "Top 50 Idols of All Time" survey made by "Music Station" in 2011, Yakushimaru Hiroko was ranked in #29 with a total of 5,850,000 sales.
About this song
This song is her debut song, her biggest hit and her most iconic song. Released in November 21, 1981, it reached #1 in Oricon chart and sold a total of 864,670 copies (*or 1.2 million copies according to her company's data). At the end of the next year, this song was ranked #2 in Oricon yearly chart of 1982..
This song was used as OST for her most iconic movie with the same title:
Her live performances:
video with youtube id mhuR6ygnXaA was removed automatically due to unavailability
^ in "Yoru no Hit Studio", 1981
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ji4y1b7Pe
^ this also seems to be in "Yoru no Hit Studio", but it was several years later, probably around 1987
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1i4411d7eU
^ in "The Best Ten" that had their own ranking system, this song was also ranked #1.
^ in "The Best Ten"
^ in "The Top Ten" (before they changed the show's name into "Uta no Top Ten").
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ya411v7Ts
^ the full video
in 1987:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Eg411q7Qy
in 1989:
in 1990:
video with youtube id _vX0mI7DwzM was removed automatically due to unavailability
This song earned her invitation to Kohaku Uta Gassen 1982, but around that time Hiroko was on hiatus to prepare for her university exam. So, only the song made it to Kohaku, sang by other singer: Sakurada Junko
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1rV411W7jg
The opportunity to perform in Kohaku has been missed. She appeared in Kohaku 2005 as one of the judges, and Kohaku 2007 and 2013 as guest performer, and finally as the actual song battle contestant in Kohaku Uta Gassen 2014, and once again in Kohaku 2021. So in total, she has performed (*as real contestant, not just guest, etc) 2 times in Kohaku Uta Gassen.
...and decades have passed...
Hiroko singing this song in 2019:
Now, this also has something to explain. As human ages, it affects their vocal cords too. Most if not all retro idols need to sing in lower key in their current performances than when they were young. Yakushimaru Hiroko believes a nostalgic song need to be presented in its original key to preserve the nostalgic feeling. So since she was young, she always trained her vocal to prepare for such scenario. That's why even now, Hiroko can still sing in a high key very close to when she was young.
And..... this is Yakushimaru Hiroko in May 2022:
uji na 
Diazepan Medina 
The main character in this song is a man because the composer is a man and he made this song for himself as his debut song. Their management company ended up giving this song to Yakushimaru Hiroko instead. The composer's sister who also wrote the lyrics became angry and about to move to other company. To avoid offending anybody, in the end they decided to allow both of them releasing the same song, only with different title and first stanza .
Yakushimaru Hiroko version was titled "School Uniform and a Submachine Gun" because it was the title of her movie that this song was used as its OST. That's why it has that title, even though it has nothing to to at all with the lyrics of the song.