is a song by Showta, released as his 6th single on April 23, 2008. The song was featured on

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

's ''

Minna no Uta , literally ''Everyone's Songs'' (English title: ''Songs for Everyone''), is a five-minute NHK TV and radio program which is broadcast several times daily. The program started on April 3, 1961. It is one of NHK's long-running programs. The pr ...

'' for the months of April and May 2008 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of '' The Tale of Genji''.

Background and release

"Hikaru no Gen-chan" is a dance song composed by

Akira Senju is a Japanese composer, arranger and conductor. Biography Senju studied composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and received his master's degree with honors. Between 1994 and 2003, he produced series of cover albums ...

, with lyrics written by Kenzo Saeki, for the ''

'' segments on

. The song was written to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of '' The Tale of Genji'' and was broadcast from April to May 2008. Showta performed the song, and his voice was described as having "succeeding high notes." The television segment was animated by Hiroshi Nishimura. The single was released on April 23, 2008 under the King Records, along with "Sausage", the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

. "Sausage", an R&B song, had previously been released on Showta's album, ''

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

''.

Reception

"Hikaru no Gen-chan" reached #140 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

Weekly Singles Chart. ''CDJournal'' described "Hikaru no Gen-chan" as having a "unique sparkle", while "Sausage" had a warm R&B taste that made an impact with Showta's "unisex-sounding" voice.

Track listing

Charts

References

{{authority control 2008 singles 2008 songs Minna no Uta Works based on The Tale of Genji