Trivia / Hikaru Utada

• All-Star Cast: Their tribute album, Utada Hikaru no Uta featured several very high-profile artists, such as AI, Ayumi Hamasaki, Inoue Yosui, Shiina Ringo and Peabo Bryson.
• Chart Displacement:
  • They've had plenty of #1 hits, but their debut single, "Automatic / time will tell", peaked at #2 on the charts despite being their best-selling (physical) single, with "Automatic" in particular being arguably their Signature Song.
  • In the USA, their best-charting song is the fairly obscure "Devil Inside", which reached #1 on the US Dance Clubs Songs chart; however, "Simple & Clean" and "Sanctuary" are by far their best-known songs among English-speaking audiences.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: A large number of Western publications have referred to Utada as "the Japanese Britney Spears". Though they are both female-presenting (at least before Utada came out as non-binary in 2021) pop singers who had their peak of success in the late 90s - early 2000s, their musical styles and personas are completely different from each other, and virtually no Japanese publication describes Utada as such. Utada themself has stated that they disagree with the comparison.
• Creator Backlash: They publicly opposed the release of the compilation Utada the Best as there was no new material on the album, stating that they hoped fans wouldn't buy it.
• Creator Breakdown: They lost their mother a few years before the release of Fantôme, and it shows, with multiple Grief Songs and a generally much Darker and Edgier atmosphere than their previous albums.
• Flip-Flop of God: Their father (and manager) confirmed and retracted whether or not Utada will write a song for Kingdom Hearts III several times, before it was finally confirmed.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Unsurprisingly after releasing the best-selling album in the country, a lot of Japanese singers in the early 2000s drew influence from their R&B-pop style and vocal technique, the most notable being Kuraki Mai who despite achieving massive success in her own right was frequently criticized for being an Utada-wannabe.
  • For Utada themself, This is the One qualifies. This was intentional on their part; they specifically wanted the album to sound mainstream compared to the experimental Exodus.
• Hitless Hit Album: Precious didn't produce any charting singles, but still managed to go Triple Platinum in Japan, thanks to its being re-released in 1999 after the massive success of First Love.
• Life Imitates Art: "Sakura Nagashi" is about life and death, with lyrics about a lost love who is implied to be dead, and a newborn child implied to be their's with their lover. The year after it was released, Utada's mother committed suicide; two years after that they gave birth to their first son. The song is included on Fantôme which is dedicated to their dead mother. Doubles as Harsher in Hindsight.
• No Export for You: Their album as Cubic U, Precious, never saw a release outside Japan despite being entirely in English. This is because Capitol Records was restructuring at the time causing it to fall through the cracks.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: "Kotoba ni Naranai Kimochi" was supposed to be on First Love but wasn't finished in time for the album release. Instead the opening lines were put on the track "Interlude", making for a nice Continuity Nod. The demo version of the song is also included on the 15th anniversary version of First Love.
• Reclusive Artist: During their hiatus it seemed like they disappeared off the face of the earth - the release of Sakura Nagashi, the news they got engaged, and eventually news of their child seemed like it came out of nowhere.
  • To a lesser extent this applies to their career in general. Though they put out music regularly (other than during their hiatus) they're notorious for making very few television appearances and doing almost no promotion for their music. Early in their career this was due to them still being in high school and not having time to do promotions, and they're now a large enough star that it's not necessary for them.
• Technology Marches On:
  • "Moving On Without You" (1999) dates itself with the line "I'm waiting for my PHS at my bedside to ring"^note "Makuramoto no PHS naru no matteru". The Personal Handy-phone System, or PHS, is a mobile network system invented in 1995 and almost completely replaced by mobile phones in the 2000s.
  • In "Automatic pt. 2" (2009) Utada tells listeners to find out more about them on MySpace. Facebook had already started to overtake MySpace in popularity by the time it was released, and most listeners today have either stopped using MySpace or are too young to have ever used it to begin with.
• They Also Did: Their first English-language release (that actually made it to English-speaking markets) was actually on the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack, of all things. They and Foxy Brown duet on the track "Blow My Whistle".
• What Could Have Been: Utada originally recorded "Automatic" and "Time Will Tell" in English, but their label refused to release either version. The English version of "Time Will Tell" eventually wound up on the 15th anniversary reissue of First Love, but "Automatic"'s English recording has yet to surface.