Hikari (song)

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“Hikari”
“Hikari” cover
Single by Utada Hikaru
from the album Deep River
Released March 20, 2002
Format CD, Regular Single
Recorded —
Genre Pop
Length N/A
Label EMI Music Japan
Writer(s) Utada Hikaru
Producer Utada Hikaru
Utada Hikaru singles chronology
"traveling"
(2001)		 "Hikari"
(2002)		 "Sakura Drops / Letters"
(2002)

"Hikari" (光? lit. "light") is Utada Hikaru's 10th Japanese-language single (12th overall), and is also her 3rd single on the Deep River album. Its release date was March 20, 2002.[1] It is the main theme song for the Japanese release of the Squaresoft (now Square Enix) and Disney Interactive video games Kingdom Hearts[2] and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories". Utada was the only singer Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Kingdom Hearts, had in mind for the Kingdom Hearts theme song.[3] This also marked the first time Utada had produced a song for a video game.

The English language version of the song, titled "Simple and Clean," was used in the English release of Kingdom Hearts. Although the two songs share a similar melody and background music, the meaning of the lyrics is significantly different. Simple and Clean was also used in both Japanese and English-language releases of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. A similar melody to "Simple and Clean" is present in the chorus of "Uso Mitai na I Love You", on the same album.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. Hikari
  2. Hikari (Planitb Remix)
  3. Hikari (Godson Mix)
  4. Hikari (Original Karaoke)

[edit] Music video

The music video (directed by Kazuaki Kiriya) for Hikari is a simple one. Utada washes dishes, and enjoys a glass of water through its course. Utada, in an interview, explains how she enjoys washing dishes at home as well, which contributed to her making this music video.[citation needed]

"Actually we were to shoot the PV of 'Hikari' with him (Kazuaki Kiriya) but it didn't come true due to his scheduling conflicts at the last moment and that's why we requested Kiriya urgently to shoot that dish-washing video." --Utada Hikaru [4]

(They were able to reach Kazuaki Kiriya eventually, but they had no time to shoot a complex video.)

[edit] Reception

The single proved to be very popular. It hit #1 on Oricon charts for a lengthy three weeks, selling 270,370 in its debut week.[citation needed] By August of 2002, it had sold over 598,130 copies in Japan.[3]

[edit] Charts

"Hikari" - Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

Release Chart Peak Position Sales Total Chart Run
March 20, 2002 Oricon Daily Singles Chart
March 20, 2002 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart #1[5] 598,130 copies 13[5]
March 20, 2002 Oricon Yearly Singles Chart #10

[edit] References

  1. ^ RELEASE - Single 光. Toshiba-Emi. Retrieved on May 16, 2007.
  2. ^ IGN Staff. Hikaru Utada Sings Kingdom Hearts Theme. IGN. Retrieved on May 13, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Stephen Coleman. Square, Disney and Japanese Pop Star Utada Hikaru Collaborate on Kingdom Hearts. IGN. Retrieved on May 13, 2007.
  4. ^ Message from Hikki "びーでーおー". Toshiba-EMI. Retrieved on July 26, 2007.
  5. ^ a b CDTV PowerWeb! : 宇多田ヒカル. Tokyo Broadcasting System. Retrieved on June 26, 2007.

[edit] External links

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Hikaru Utada
Japanese studio albums
English studio albums
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Kingdom Hearts series
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