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Sakura Drops
is a song by Japanese musician Hikaru Utada. It was released as a double A-side single with the song "Letters" on May 9, 2002. Background and development Since they debuted as a musician in 1998, Utada had worked as the primary or sole songwriter for their music. Beginning with their second album ''Distance'' (2001), Utada began to co-arrange songs, such as "Wait & See (Risk)", "Distance" and "Kettobase!" The bonus track on ''Distance'', "Hayatochi-Remix", was arranged entirely by Utada. In March 2002, Hikaru Utada released "Hikari", the theme song for the game '' Kingdom Hearts''. "Sakura Drops" was first announced as the theme song for the drama ''First Love'' in mid-February. Promotion and release The song was used as the theme song for the TBS drama ''First Love'', starring Atsuro Watabe and Kyoko Fukada. This was Utada's third composition to be used as a drama theme song, after "First Love" was used for ''Majo no Jōken'' (1999), and " Can You Keep a Secret?" for ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letters (song)
"Letters" is a song by Japanese musician Hikaru Utada. It was released as a double A-side single with the song "Sakura Drops" on May 9, 2002. Background and development Since she debuted as a musician in 1998, Utada had worked as the primary or sole songwriter for her music. Beginning with her second album ''Distance'' (2001), Utada began to co-arrange songs, such as "Wait & See (Risk)", "Distance" and "Kettobase!" The bonus track on ''Distance'', "Hayatochi-Remix", was arranged entirely by Utada. In March 2002, Hikaru Utada released "Hikari", the theme song for the game '' Kingdom Hearts''. "Letters" was written and arranged solely by Utada. It featured six different guitarists all performing the acoustic guitar in the backing, including Char, Hisashi from Glay and her own father Teruzane Utada. Promotion and release The song was used in commercials for NTT DoCoMo's 2002 range of FOMA cellphones. This was the third song of Utada's to be used in collaboration with DoCoMo, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hikaru Utada
, who is also known by the mononym Utada, is a Japanese-American pop singer, songwriter and producer. By 2010, Utada had become one of the most influential, and best-selling, musical artists in Japan. Born in the United States to Japanese parents, record producer Teruzane Utada and singer Keiko Fuji, Utada began to write music and lyrics at an early age and often traveled to Tokyo as a result of her father's job. Eventually, a recording contract with Toshiba-EMI was signed. Under the stage name Cubic U, she released an English-language debut album '' Precious'' in early 1998, but it was a commercial failure. In the following year, heavily influenced by R&B and dance-pop, a Japanese-language debut ''First Love'' was released and became an immediate success. Backed by the success of singles " Automatic", "Time Will Tell", and " Movin' On Without You", the album sold two million copies in its first week in Japan, topped the Oricon charts for six non-consecutive weeks and went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hero (2001 TV Series)
''Hero'' is a Japanese drama series that aired in Japan on Fuji TV in 2001. Hero achieved the highest Japanese TV drama ratings record in 25 years (average audience share over the entire series = 34.3%). It was so successful that it spawned a 2006 miniseries and a feature film entitled '' Hero: The Movie'' which reached #3 on the 2007 top-grossing film chart in Japan. Starting July 2014, Fuji TV aired a second series entitled ''Hero 2'', which had Takuya Kimura reprising his role. Plot Kuryu Kohei is a young public prosecutor who gets transferred to a division in Tokyo from Aomori. Kuryu is unlike a typical prosecutor; he refuses to wear a suit and tie, opting for casual clothing, his trademark orange down jacket and stylish boots. He looks and behaves more like a Generation X slacker. He is known for always buying bizarre items from infomercials and the home shopping network. Kuryu is a high-school dropout who was falsely accused of a felony, cleared only by a public pros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yōsui Inoue
is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, guitarist and record producer, who is an important figure in Japanese music. "Hailed as the Bob Dylan of Japan .. He is renowned for his unique tone, eccentric lyrics, and dark sunglasses which he always wears. Under the stage name Andre Candre, Inoue debuted in 1969 and released a single "Candre Mandre" by CBS Sony Records. After he changed his stage name and signed onto Polydor, he recorded his first studio album '' Danzetsu'' in 1971, and the album was acclaimed by critics. Inoue gained recognition as a folk-rock singer-songwriter through his 1973 '' Kōri no Sekai'' album, which became the first long-playing record that sold more than a million copies in Japan alone. His early work has been compared with the music of Paul McCartney and Roy Orbison. Mark Anderson writes in the ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture'', "His music was smart, melancholy and melodic. ..Inoue's work of the early 1970s ..is widely thought to have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disney On Ice
Disney on Ice, originally Walt Disney's World on Ice, is a series of touring ice shows produced by Feld Entertainment's Ice Follies And Holiday on Ice, Inc. under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows feature figure skaters portraying the roles of Disney characters in performances derived from various Disney films. Feld Entertainment licensed the rights to Disney material for ice shows and includes shared merchandising revenue between Disney and Ice Follies. History Soon after Mattel's Irvin & Kenneth Feld Productions purchased Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice in 1979, the company approached Disney about doing a Disney-related show on ice. Feld Productions licensed the rights to Disney material for ice shows. In 1981, they began productions under the name Walt Disney's World on Ice. In March 1982, Irvin & Kenneth Feld purchased back Feld Productions from Mattel including Ice Follies/Walt Disney's World on Ice. In 1987, Walt Disney's World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Itō Jakuchū
was a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period when Japan had closed its doors to the outside world. Many of his paintings concern traditionally Japanese subjects, particularly chickens and other birds. Many of his otherwise traditional works display a great degree of experimentation with perspective, and with other very modern stylistic elements. Compared to Soga Shōhaku and other exemplars of the mid-Edo period eccentric painters, Jakuchū is said to have been very calm, restrained, and professional. He held strong ties to Zen Buddhist ideals, and was considered a lay brother (''koji''); but he was also keenly aware of his role within a Kyoto society that was becoming increasingly commercial. Biography Itō Jakuchū was the eldest son of Itō Genzaemon, a Kyoto grocer whose shop, called Masuya, lay in the center of downtown, in the Nishiki food district. Jakuchū ran the shop from the time of his father's death in 1739 until 1755, when he turned it over to one of his brothe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edo Period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, perpetual peace, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture. The period derives its name from Edo (now Tokyo), where on March 24, 1603, the shogunate was officially established by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule to Japan. Consolidation of the shogunate The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's regional '' daimyo''. A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the Tennō's court, to the Tok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer-generated Imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may be static (still images) or dynamic (moving images), in which case CGI is also called ''computer animation''. CGI may be two-dimensional (2D), although the term "CGI" is most commonly used to refer to the 3-D computer graphics used for creating characters, scenes and special effects in films and television, which is described as "CGI animation". The first feature film to make use of CGI was the 1973 film ''Westworld''. Other early films that incorporated CGI include ''Star Wars'' (1977), ''Tron'' (1982), '' Golgo 13: The Professional'' (1983), ''The Last Starfighter'' (1984), ''Young Sherlock Holmes'' (1985) and ''Flight of the Navigator'' (1986). The first music video to use CGI was Dire Straits' award-winning " Money for Nothing" (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Final Distance
"Final Distance" is a song by Japanese recording artist Hikaru Utada for her third studio album '' Deep River'' (2002). Written by Utada herself, the song was produced and composed by long-time collaborators Akira Miyake, Utada's father Teruzane Utada and herself. "Final Distance" was originally recorded as "Distance" which was taken from the album with the same name, despite not being a single. The song was re-recorded, re-arranged, and dedicated to Rena Yamashita, a six-year-old victim of the Osaka school massacre who had written an essay about being inspired by Utada. Musically, "Final Distance" incorporates more instrumentation than the previous version, including violins, an acoustic piano and synthesizers. The song strips the original pop music from "Distance" and is a pop ballad song. Despite being written in 2000 from the original version, Utada reflected on the emotions of sorrow, pain, anger and celebration of life while recording the single version. "Final Distance" r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazuaki Kiriya
, born April 20, 1968, is a Japanese photographer and director of films and music videos. His birth name is . He is represented by Paradigm Agency. Early life and career In 1983, in his second year of junior high school, he moved to the United States. He attended Cambridge High School and Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts and then the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design in New York. At first, as a student, he aimed to enter the business world, but through the experience of seeing others' pleasure when he communicated through drawing at times when his English failed him, he came to be more oriented toward the world of art. Beginning in 1994, he became involved in designing album covers, photography, and directing music videos for many recording artists including Hikaru Utada, SMAP, The Back Horn, Mr. Children, Misia, Southern All Stars, GLAY, and Ayumi Hamasaki. Kiriya made his feature film debut in 2004, writing and dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Life (concert)
''Wild Life'' was Japanese-American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada's final concert tour before her scheduled hiatus from 2011. Utada performed only two dates at the Yokohama Arena, Japan on December 8 and 9, 2010. Tickets Tickets were initially going to be distributed through purchases of the limited first-press issues of the album supporting the tour, Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2, with people being told to visit a website to enter the draw, but this idea was later scrapped. Instead, the codes received in the album are now for a website in which people can view the show on demand, watch a special movie (which later turned out to be a "Making of" featurette about the making of the ''Goodbye Happiness'' music video), view pictures from the concerts, as well as sign up for a special gift of the week. The site went live on January 13, 2011. Concert Tickets to the show were sold in a "lottery"-style fashion, similar to that of previous Hikaru Utada concerts (not counting '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
