Yuko Nito -- Okorinbo no Ningyo（おこりんぼの人魚）

 

I have to confess sheepishly that I would never have imagined a title like "Okorinbo no Ningyo" (Short-Tempered Mermaid). For one thing, I had never heard of the cutesy word okorinbo before (usually, my term for short-tempered has been tanki), and for another, I had never even considered the concept of a crabby mermaid. Up to now, my impression of the half-humanoid/half-fish had been that mermaids and mermen were pretty serene types.

Well, the more you know, right? Anyways, "Okorinbo no Ningyo" was the June 1987 debut single for Chiba-born aidoru Yuko Nito（仁藤優子）. Graduating from the famous Horikoshi High School in Tokyo, she opted to sing Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）hit "Shojo A"（少女A）in the Horipro Talent Scout Caravan in 1986, won a prize and entered show business. 

I do like "Okorinbo no Ningyo" for the AOR-like intro, the sparkly aidoru melody by Ken Sato（佐藤健）with lyrics by Jun Natsume（夏目純）, and Nito's clear-as-a-bell vocals which remind me of those by a young Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）back in the early 1980s. It's got that winning summery vibe as this mermaid-human male romance plays out. Her first single peaked at No. 13 on Oricon.

According to J-Wiki, up to 1990, Nito released five singles along with one original album. However, ongoing issues with her throat led to her eventually slowing the pace in the music part of her career to its end, so for a while, she focused on becoming a baradol（バラドル...variety show aidoru） along with another up-and-comer Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）and then went along the acting route.