Miki Nakatani -- Suizokukan no Yoru（水族館の夜）

 

I don't think that I ever mentioned this on any of the Miki Nakatani（中谷美紀）articles on KKP, but the first time I remember seeing her was the above Nippon Oil commercial, and it was that one scene that you see frozen as the thumbnail image that I remember which had me mistakenly identifying the ad as one for a diet medicine. But actually it was for gasoline and the lass didn't even say a word. She just popped up in different scenes and mouthed what the recording booth singers were singing in the jingle.

Although I myself haven't seen her in any movies or television shows in recent years, her filmography on J-Wiki has her still active in front of the camera. But I did want to feature a song from her September 1997 2nd album, "Cure", which I had posted over a decade ago.

"Suizokukan no Yoru" (Night at the Aquarium) was one of the songs that I hadn't covered in my article on "cure", but I'm glad that I'm able to do so today as an individual posting because it stands out for sounding a bit like a late 1960s (or perhaps even an early 1990s) Brit-rock or Brit-pop tune with that whimsical keyboard and the elastic guitar. It was written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composed/arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）with the story being about a woman trying to get over a romantic relationship that has just ended. I first assumed that the lass was visiting a Japanese version of Sea World to get over her troubles but by the end, the aquarium may have been the one made of her tears pouring down her face in her room. I realize that "Suizokukan no Yoru" isn't a kayo kyoku by any means, but as I was listening to it, I did pick up on the trope of the somewhat upbeat melody paired with some sad lyrics.