is the sixth studio album by Chara, which was released on September 21, 1997. It debuted at #1 on the Japanese

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 ...

album charts for two weeks, and charted in the top 200 for 26 weeks. The album is Chara's most popular, and eventually sold 1,055,000 units in Japan. The album was released at the height of Chara's popularity, after starring in the movie

Swallowtail Butterfly Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the large ...

and singing the hit theme song for the movie (). Her first single for this album was ''

Yasashii Kimochi is a song by Chara (singer), Chara, released as the first single from her 1997 album ''Junior Sweet''. The song was used in a Shiseido commercial for their 'Tessera J' range. The B-side of this single, ''Junior Sweet'', was also used in these com ...

'', released in April 1997. The pop song was used in a

Shiseido is a Japanese multinational cosmetic company founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1872. Its product categories consist of: skin care, makeup, body care, hair care, and fragrances. The company is one of the oldest cosmetic companies in the world and ...

'Tessera J' commercial, boosting its popularity. The song was arranged by

Zentarō Watanabe , was a Japanese musician and music producer. He debuted as a musician in 1986 as the guitarist for the band Shijin no Chi, later forming the duo Oh! Penelope with former bandmate Mutsuji Tsuji. Since the mid-1990s, Watanabe worked as a music pr ...

, member of the band Oh! Penelope. Chara had assisted on their album ''Milk & Cookies'', released a month prior, lending her vocals to the song ''I Want You''. The B-side to this single, ''Junior Sweet'', was later also used for this ad campaign. The B-side later became the eponymous title track for the album, five months later. The single eventually sold more than 500,000 copies, making it Chara's second biggest single. ''

Time Machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

'' was used as a promotional single for the album, released a month before the album's release. It is an acoustic ballad, and was written in collaboration with

Bloodthirsty Butchers Bloodthirsty Butchers was a long-running indie rock and punk rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. Although little-known in the West, they have contributed to two compilations on the Olympia, Washington based Yoyo label. The band has also re ...

vocalist

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and his former bandmate

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(when a part of the band Copass Grinderz). It reached #12 on the single charts and saw some success, but nothing rivalling ''Yasashii Kimochis. Chara later covered the

song with her then husband, actor

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. The song was released on a 1999 tribute album for the band, entitled ''We Love Butchers''. A month and a half after the album was released, ''

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'', another acoustic ballad, was released as a re-cut single. The song was written as a collaboration between Chara and the writer of

Des'ree Desirée Annette Weekes (born 30 November 1968), known by her stage name Des'ree (), is an English pop recording artist who rose to popularity during the 1990s. She is best known for her hits "Feel So High", "You Gotta Be", "Life", and " Kissi ...

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, Ashley Ingram. Yasashii Kimochi was released with an extended introduction on the album. ''Junior Sweet'' and were released as B-sides to Chara's ''Yasashii Kimochi'' and ''Time Machine'' singles, respectively. ''Watashi wa Kawaii Hito to Iwaretais originally released version was 6:01 in length.

Track listing

Singles

Japan sales rankings

References