To Your Eternity – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. Fri, 12 Nov 2021 05:00:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/en_rocket_1024.png?w=32 To Your Eternity – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com 32 32 176746664 Utada Hikaru announces new album, streaming concert https://soranews24.com/2021/11/12/utada-hikaru-announces-new-album-streaming-concert/ https://soranews24.com/2021/11/12/utada-hikaru-announces-new-album-streaming-concert/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2021 05:00:30 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=565185

J-pop megastar’s new album is available for pre-order now, will include themes from Evangelion and To Your Eternity anime.

Utada Hikaru has pretty much reached the ideal situation in terms of creative freedom for a musician, with so much star power that no one can pressure the singer into writing new songs, but if and when the mood does strike, recording companies, sponsors, and other creative partners are always patiently waiting to be a part of the latest project.

And now Utada is ready to release a whole new album.

It’s been more than three years since Utada’s album, Hatsukoi, came out in the summer of 2018. The singer doesn’t seem to have had much trouble finding the musical muse during the pandemic, though, having written and recorded a number of new numbers since the start of the COVID crisis, even filming videos for them entirely at home or with the help of a young family member.

A partial track list for the album confirms that it will contain “One Last Kiss” (theme song for Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time), “Pink Blood” (theme song for To Your Eternity), “Time,” “Face my Fears,” “Find Love,” and “Kimi ni Muchu,” in addition to other new songs. Utada will also be performing a “streaming concert” to commemorate the album’s release, with filming for video to be incorporated into the event already taking place in London, where the singer currently resides.

▼ Video for “One Last Kiss”

The album’s title is yet to be revealed, and its release window is still nothing more specific than “spring of 2022.” It is available for digital pre-purchase through the iTunes Store and Spotify as of November 12, though, and more details are coming on December 9.

Source: Ongaku Natalie via Otakomu
Top image: YouTube/Hikaru Utada
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]]> https://soranews24.com/2021/11/12/utada-hikaru-announces-new-album-streaming-concert/feed/ 0 565185 UH 1 J-pop megastar Utada Hikaru’s haunting new music video for “Pink Blood” is here!【Video】 https://soranews24.com/2021/06/02/j-pop-megastar-utada-hikarus-haunting-new-music-video-for-pink-blood-is-here%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2021/06/02/j-pop-megastar-utada-hikarus-haunting-new-music-video-for-pink-blood-is-here%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2021 02:00:45 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=544447

Anime theme song deals with the solitude that can come with learning to care for yourself.

Released in 1999, Utada Hikaru’s major debut, First Love, remains the best-selling album of all time in Japan. The 38-year-old artist has never been one to rest on her laurels, and she’s just released her latest creation, the music video for her song “Pink Love.”

Utada’s last two music videos, by nature of being filmed at the height of the pandemic, featured no one on camera other than the vocalist herself, save a few people in the distant background of an outdoor scene. In stark contrast, “Pink Blood’s” video shows her in the middle of a writhing mass of darkly clothed humanity.

The experience doesn’t really look like a pleasant one, though, and several other shots are of Utada in solitude, including a repeating motif where she’s part of the earth itself, either emerging from or receding into the ground.

The mixture of music and lyrics also reflect the sense of melancholy that can accompany necessary emotional self-reliance. “Being cared for by someone who doesn’t understand my value won’t help me,” she sings, along with “It hurts when you realize that you’re the only one who can heal yourself.”

▼ Though at one point a bunch of horses show up to keep her company for a while.

The bittersweet atmosphere is especially fitting in light of “Pink Blood” also being the opening theme for currently airing anime “To Your Eternity,” the story of an immortal being who emotionally grows through the relationships he forms with people he’ll outlive and inevitably have to part with.

Overall, it’s a much more somber tone than the at-home vibe of the videos for Utada’s “Time,” or the warm sequences of “One Last Kiss” that her son helped film. There’s long been a mixture of sorrow and strength in Utada’s vocals, though, much like there often is in life, and the sights and sounds of “Pink Blood” will likely to linger in fans’ minds for quite some time.

Source, images: YouTube/ Hikaru Utada
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