Gamertell

Everyone in Japan gets involved in video games. It almost seems like it is an honor to have a song included in an upcoming title. When these games are localized for North American releases, it’s a toss-up as to what happens to the original music. Many companies are including the original tracks with games, while some will substitute them with songs in English.

Hikaru Utada is one of the biggest pop singers in Japan. This means that her music has appeared in games, animes and Japanese dramas. She’s also has worked as a voice actress - one of her roles was Pinoko in the anime Black Jack.

Before we get into her relationship to video games and a few of her songs I’d recommend, here’s a brief backstory. Utada was born in New York, New York. She’s fluent in English and Japanese. Her mother’s the Enka singer Fuji Keiko. Her first album was released as Cubic U in both the US and Japan. After that, she focused on a Japanese-only career. She’s sold over 40 million records, and has released eight CDs. She released her English R&B CD, Exodus, in the US in 2004, and is currently working on a second US CD that might be released this year.

Inclusion in Video Games

Many of you may know Hikaru Utada, without even realizing it. If you’ve played any Kingdom Hearts game released in the US, you’ve heard her. She provided the track “Simple and Clean” for Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and the track “Sanctuary” for Kingdom Hearts II.

She originally did the songs for the Japanese versions of the game. “Hikari” was written for KH, and “Passion” was written for KHII. She then translated and rewrote the lyrics. “Hikari” became “Simple and Clean” and “Passion” became “Sanctuary.”

Personally, I preferred “Passion” to “Sanctuary.” Yet, I preferred “Simple and Clean” to “Hikari.” Weird.

Passion video:

Most recently, her song “Flavor of Life” appeared in Daigasso! Band Brothers DX as one of the 200 extra downloadable songs. The track originally was used as a theme for the second Hana Yori Dango live action, Japanese drama series.

Video Game Spokesperson

Perhaps due in part to her self proclaimed love of video games, Hikaru Utada is a spokesperson for the Nintendo DS. There are commercials of her playing Yoshi’s Touch and Go, Super Mario 64, Picto-Chat, Pokemon Dash, Rune Factory and Nintendogs while her song “Easy Breezy” plays in the background. They’re very similar to the recent Nintendo DS commercials featuring Carrie Underwood, Liv Tyler and America Ferrera.

Hikaru Utada’s DS commercials on YouTube:

She also a fierce Tetris player. She participated in a special Club Nintendo event in 2006, where she took on 30 competitors. The final score: Utada - 26, normal people - 4. Technically, this probably doesn’t belong here, but since you can find videos of it on YouTube and it was a somewhat-commercial event for Club Nintendo, I figured it qualified.

Recommended Tracks

Hikaru Utada is a best selling artist for a reason. She has a fantastic catalog of songs with plenty of hits. Below are a few of my personal favorites that you may want to check out.

• “Flavor of Life” from the Flavor of Life single
• “Final Distance” from Deep River
• “Drama" from Distance
• “Automatic" from First Love
• “First Love” from First Love
• “Devil Inside” from Exodus
• “Animato" from Exodus
• “Keep Tryin’” from the Keep Tryin’ single
• “Stay Gold” from HEART STATION
• “Passion" from Kingdom Hearts II
• “Simple and Clean” from Kingdom Hearts
• “Traveling" from Single Collection Volume 1
• “Wait and See -risk-” from Single Collection Volume 1
• “This is Love” from ULTRA BLUE
• “Be My Last” from ULTRA BLUE

COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Portables reviews Ohimesama Debut.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables reviewed Daigasso! Band Brothers.

Read [U3 Music] Via [Kotaku] Read [Siliconera] Site [Utada Island] Site [Hikaru Utada EMI Music Japan]

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