YMMV / Hikaru Utada

aka: Utada Hikaru

• Accidental Innuendo: The otherwise somber Break-Up Song "This One (Crying Like a Child)" has this:
  You are all the shelter that I need above me
• Audience-Alienating Era: Arguably, This is the One. While neither of their English albums tend to be noted as high-points of their career, Exodus has received more appreciation from fans and critics in the years following its release and was at least a big success in Japan despite flopping internationally. Conversely, This is the One received a lot of criticism for a perceived watering-down of Utada's sound and attempts at fanservice, and did even worse sales-wise than Exodus, not even making much impact even in Japan. Some people attribute their hiatus in the years following its release, as well as their English albums often being excluded from their discography to its failure.
• Awesome Music:
  • The Kingdom Hearts theme songs and "Beautiful World". Also, anything that ever gets remixed by PLANITb.
  • Their rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon" for Rebuild of Evangelion. It's fantabulous.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Boku wa Kuma" from Heart Station can definitely be considered one. It's a cutesy children's song about their teddy bear... which comes directly after "Take 5", a song with dark, poetic lyrics about leaving one's body. The lyrics are completely unrelated to the rest of the album which is mostly about relationships and dealing with life's difficulties. The former song ends abruptly which makes the transition even more jarring.
• Broken Base: Mostly in relation to their English albums. There's a camp that feels Exodus was a daring and innovative work while This is the One was a cheap attempt at mainstream success by chasing trends, while others feel This is the One is a more mature and accessible work while dismissing Exodus as a clumsy attempt at "avant-garde" music, citing narmtastic lyrics in "Easy Breezy" and "Let Me Give You My Love." There's also fans who like both albums, and those who think both albums are lacking and wish they would just stick to Japanese music altogether.
• Canon Discontinuity: Their English albums have seemingly become this. Utada's offical website lists Fantôme as their 6th album and their first album in 8 years.^note Counting their English albums, it's their 9th and their first in 7 years.
• Creator Worship: You'll have a fine time searching for a hint of criticism over the praise they get from fans, although admittedly this is not that unjustifiable.
• First Installment Wins: Their debut album First Love^note technically their second if you count Precious released as Cubic U, though it's still their first Japanese album is their highest selling album and the highest-selling album in Japanese history. Some fans also consider it their best album.
• Growing the Beard: Deep River can be seen as one. It marks the beginning of their Genre Shift away from R&B to a more eclectic and electronic style, and is the first album where they were involved in arranging the majority of the songs. Many fans consider it their best work.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "Wonder 'Bout" is about leaving a bad relationship, but after their mother's suicide in 2013 some of the lyrics can now sound like a metaphor for their mother's death and mental health issues:
    Living in a house of pain
    Ran away and I'm glad that I ran away
    Rather be out in the rain
    Now I understand why my mother ran away^note This line was originally in reference to their parents' divorce.
    • Further, following this metaphor would also imply Utada is talking about themself committing suicide as well.
  • "Sakura Nagashi" released a year before their mother's suicide, is about life and death, with lyrics about a lost love who is implied to be dead, and a newborn child implied to be theirs with their lover. The song was originally written for Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, but after their mother's death and the birth of their son it sounds much more personal. They later included the song on Fantôme which is dedicated to their dead mother. Doubles as Life Imitates Art.
• Les Yay: The video for "Nijikan Dake No Vacance" has them and Shiina Ringo holding each other rather intimately.
• Memetic Mutation: From "Sakura Nagashi" we get "Everybody finds love, in the end".
• Moment of Awesome:
  • As heavily implied on the main page, they are very, very good at ''Tetris. So much so that they participated in a tournament and cleaned house. Nintendo sent in two of their 'Nintendo Assassins,' (gamers who essentially get paid to be awesome at gaming) to beat them. They beat one of them and came close to beating the second, with a smile on their face the entire time.
  • They also holds the record for fastest selling album ever in Japan for Distance, which sold 3 million copies in its first week. (It was also the fastest selling album in the world, until Adele released 25.)
  • After a six year hiatus, they released Fantôme which instantly shot to number 1. It stayed as number 1 for four weeks, breaking their previous personal best, First Love, which was number 1 for two weeks. More impressive is that it charted in the top ten in non-Japanese iTunes Stores where their album was not promoted at all.
• Narm:
  • Their English albums have these in abundance:
    • The transition from "A child just died next door to me" to Intercourse with You within the space of one line in "Let Me Give You My Love" is a bit of a mood-killer.
      What a day, young boy next door passed away
      Oh, it makes me want to say, I don't wanna waste another day
      Could you and I start mixing gene pools...
    • The weird Lyrical Shoehorn in the otherwise serious "This One (Crying Like a Child)":
      We should get back on the road
      Like Simon & Garfunkel
      Let's get married
      You are all the shelter that I need above me
    • "Easy Breezy" has the classic gem "You're easy breezy / And I'm Japanese-y". Why was this the song they chose to introduce themself to an English audience?
  • The "Be My Last" music video suffers from this in the car crash scene due to a Special Effects Failure, becoming inadvertently hilarious despite the dark tone of the rest of the video and song. There's also fact that for some reason Hikaru stands in the middle of the road for several seconds, basically letting the car hit them. Of course, this could be interpreted metaphorically, but that doesn't make it any less hilariously weird.
• Narm Charm: The infamous "You're easy breezy and I'm Japanese-y" line from "Easy Breezy", while bizarre and cringe-worthy to some, is also pretty hilarious, and showcases Utada's unique sense of humour (which was apparently their intention).
• Signature Song: All of their Kingdom Hearts themes, but "Hikari" (and its international counterpart, "Simple and Clean") in particular. They call the song "Hikaru Junior" due to their name using the same kanji (光).
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Final Distance", given the story behind it: It's an orchestral ballad version of a cute little tune that appeared on their second album, rearranged to honor the memory of 6-year-old schoolgirl Rena Yamashita who was killed in the Osaka school massacre. Prior to her tragic death, she had won an essay competition with her writing about wanting to be a singer just like Utada.
  • The deeply wistful "Passion".
  • Another notable mention would be "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro", the theme song to their director ex-husband's movie Casshern. One critic remarked that he didn't understand the movie until he heard the theme song. Then apparently it just clicked.
  • Utada appears to purposefully invoke this with "This One (Crying Like A Child)". Somber acoustic guitar backing emotionally charged lyrics, especially the chorus.
  • Several songs on Fantôme could count, seeing as the album was written after their mother's death, but "Ningyo" and "Manatsu no Tooriame" in particular are both heartbreakingly somber.
  • "One Last Kiss" is a gut punch: the wistful tone paired with lyrics about losing someone very dear and just wanting one last bit of love from them before saying goodbye forever really cut deep.
  "Oh, I really do understand.
  That even til' the end of time,
  That even when I grow old,
  There's someone I won't be able to forget.
  Someone I can't forget, someone I can't forget.
  Someone I can't forget.
  I love you more than you'll ever know."
• Tough Act to Follow: A notable aversion in their early career. First Love is the #1 best-selling studio album in Japan... the runner-up? Their sophomore album Distance, with their third Deep River being #4.^note In terms of overall rankings, they place #1, #4 and #8, but that's counting compilation albums. Exodus is a more straight example, as it sold 1.1 million copies in Japan compared to Deep River's 3.6 million and attracted some backlash for its experimental style and sexual content.
  • Utada themself apparently feels this way about Fantôme. They've said they won't be able to make an album like it again.

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