Utada Hikaru - Final Distance

This song has long been one of my favorites by this massive J-pop star, simply for its sound. I like the melody, even though Hikki’s voice isn’t quite enough to cover the range. I think in high school I acquired this song through a friend lending me the album it was on, but I’d heard it before that because it was quite popular. I only just now found out the story behind it, though, which is that the song was arranged into a ballad when it was dedicated to a little girl who was murdered. The young student had won an essay contest by writing about how this artist was her idol. I guess that accounts for the songs’s eerie and decidedly unromantic music video.


Utada Hikaru A.K.A. 宇多田 ヒカル - Final Distance:



You can check out the official music video here:

Utada Hikaru - Passion ~After the Battle~

Wow, WTH? I’ve only posted two songs by this artist already! That’s ridiculous. She’s been one of the most famous J-pop artists of the past few decades and is really prolific. Her other songs are more… linear I guess, but this one, made for the video game Kingdom Hearts II, I find to be especially pretty in its abstractness. There’s more than one version of this song, and they’re all nice. I picked this one ‘cause it’s got piano, and it goes through different phases.

Utada Hikaru A.K.A. 宇多田 ヒカル - Passion ~After the Battle~:


This music video for the single version of this song has animated parts that are SO PRETTAY:

Utada Hikaru - Colors

Again I am posting music by the first Japanese music artist whose CD I ever bought. This is one of my first Utada songs, too, and the first one that I liked enough to memorize the lyrics of back in the day. Even back then, I was impressed by her vocal range, which I think is one of her primary claims to fame. She has so many popular songs, but this remains one of my favorites by her.

Utada Hikaru A.K.A. 宇多田 ヒカル - Colors:

Utada Hikaru - Prisoner of Love

If you listen to any Japanese pop at all, you probably have listened to this artist.  She's immensely famous and, fortunately, also very talented and prolific.  I like a lot of her songs, but this is one of my favorites; I even memorized the lyrics!  I love the strings in this song.  This was the theme song of the Japanese drama Last Friends.  The drama was quite good, and this song really set the mood.  Even though it has an audible beat, it has a sad tone to it that I feel conveys the overriding emotion of the series.
Note:  I'm including the opening credits of the drama for which the song was used, because I think it's gorgeous.

Utada Hikaru A.K.A. 宇多田 ヒカル - Prisoner of Love:


And here's the opening credit sequence for the drama:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/lMOxUj90c4M/