half-assed everything

I remember a long long time ago… and I’m going to date myself, but WHEN YOUTUBE WAS STILL NEW… I heard Hikki’s cover of “Shounen Jidai” from her 20th birthday stream and the melody has haunted me ever since. maybe it was the fact that I had to wait 30 minutes for the damn thing to even buffer over a dial-up connection, but no other cover I’ve heard since then is quite as bittersweet and nostalgic as Hikki’s version for me. not even perfect goddess Natsukawa Rimi (I still love her though!).

ANYWAY the point of this was, I can’t believe I first saw this over 10 years ago now. I’m sure there’s some people out there that don’t get all the hype about Fantome. just, before you give us your Very Important Opinion about how boring you thought it was, please imagine how it feels for those of us who watched her grow over the years from a precocious teenager into a beautiful, hopeful, strong woman with a “normal” family. this album is like the Toy Story 3 of J-Pop for millennials. let us have this moment to celebrate her return and her happiness.

Utada Hikaru’s comeback details announced

Hanataba o Kimi ni and the NEWS ZERO theme Manatsu no Toori Ame (真夏の通り雨; lit. Midsummer Shower) to be released digitally on the 15th of April 2016.

The music videos for both songs will be unveiled on the same day on her website and on streaming service GYAO!

A new 16-page interview with photos by Ryuichi Ishikawa to be published in Pia MUSIC COMPLEX Vol.4 released today (4th April 2016)

when i grew up, playing video games was a social activity. you went to arcades, and learned how to struggle with controllers designed for kids twice your age; your neighbor had a console your parents wouldn’t buy; your neighbor had a console your loyalty wouldn’t let you buy, but curiosity would win out. 

by the time i was in high school, the most “socializing” most of the people i knew did in video games was “lol noob” and its lesser derivations; that, of course, wasn’t the only culture around video games even then, but it was the largest one. 

without the wii - shepherded into homes everywhere on the back of a vision satoru iwata was the face of, the encourager of, the tireless coworker of the developers of - satoru iwata, who joined nintendo on the back of a dream that he could make games, despite having never coded in his life and not even knowing what a ROM was, and turned out to be such a fantastic programmer he could do something like insert an entire pokemon game into another one just to see if he could, not even because they had to - i’m pretty sure all the mobile phone apps in the world wouldn’t have seen even a slight return back to the gaming culture i remembered from my childhood.

he did something better, in the end, than feed a benevolent but damning lie that video games could be someone’s friend. that corporate overlord gave video games a chance to be part of my home again. 

I have some news for all of you.

Um, recently,

We had a baby!

He’s a very calm, quiet boy who’s been drinking his milk and sleeping well.

Once again I’d like to say thanks to all the many people who’ve supported me, the people who’ve been close at my side, and to my mother and father.

I worked on a new album while I was pregnant. It’ll take a little bit more time before it’s finished, but I can’t wait to work on the next part and show it to all of you. Wait just a little longer for me!

July 5, 2015

Girlfriend | Skating On Thin Ice (Japanese Version)

From Girl’s Life (1993/Japan Only)

逃げ出すのなら　口元のルージュ　拭いていたら？ “Why don’t you just wipe off your lipstick if you’re going to run away?”

Saturday 2nd May 2015:

I spent the whole day at relative-theory’s place watching the JKT48 sousenkyo, casually translating the girls’ winning speeches and the cheesy commentary from the hosts of the program. 

The fact that JKT48 have established themselves in Indonesia has gotten me in awe! Harugon’s fluent bahasa gives me so much pride for her. Though, seeing Indonesian wota go ballistic over their faves makes me feel a bit of secondhand embarrassment.