Okamura Kazuyoshi -- Same to Ningyo（サメと人魚）

 

To refer back to the previous article regarding enka singer Kouhei Fukuda（福田こうへい）, also on "Uta Con"（うたコン）was singer-songwriters Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）and Kazuyoshi Saito（斉藤和義）. Knowing that the NHK Tuesday-night kayo kyoku program has long proven that it's been far more open than its predecessors in allowing current J-Pop singers and bands onto the show (outside of hard rock and metal acts), it was still a little surprising to see Okamura (I believe Saito has appeared once before). Both Okamura and Saito in their Business Casual gear looked very calm and collected when they were being interviewed, and my albeit wrong impression of Okamura had been of him being super jittery based on his performances on stage for songs like his great "Viva Namida"（ビバナミダ）.

Actually, this is the first time that Saito has gotten onto KKP since my knowledge of his discography is still rather embryonic. He was singing the ending theme for the anime "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）in the most recent episodes to be seen on the now-defunct TV Japan.

Apparently for the past several months, Okamura and Saito have been together as a duo dubbed Okamura Kazuyoshi（岡村和義）. Because it is a name of a duo and not a real person in this case, I haven't done the switching of the names into English fashion as I would for any other individual singer on the byline. They've released other songs but this time (and actually, this digital single will be ready for release as of tomorrow on April 17th), "Same to Ningyo" (A Shark and A Mermaid) is a heartfelt rock ballad. With Saito handling the lyrics and both men tackling music and arrangement, it seems to be a song about two people on opposite sides of the track with one of the couple beseeching the other desperately and perhaps in vain to escape together into a better fate as the titular shark and mermaid. But maybe fate has a sadder if more realistic option for them. Incidentally, the music video stars actress Mai Kiryu（木竜麻生）.