I think Automatic is more R&B-influenced.
Hip Hop music includes DJing, backbeats, and rap music, which doesn't exist in Automatic. I think I should let you know about that. XD

Although I had always liked her, it was with Be my last when I "fell in love" with her. She's making great music.

been seeing her CYKAS pv for a few times on MTV, and i learned her name

then i saw Sakura Drops pv, and was so amazed by the awesome pv and great music. still havent got the JPOP craze yet

came KH, as i watch the credits when my lil bro finished it, and saw her name again. i thought "wow. she can sing english without accent too?". and the rest is history

probably the main reason i LOVE her is maybe bcoz she's the first japanese artist with perfect english that i knew. naturally, i found her music so good and meaningful lyrics. hoping for another english album >.<

I heard "Automatic" back in like 2000 and thought "hey this is a pretty good song and her English in the song is so good! I want to hear more." And then I d/led more songs by her and thus my interest in jpop began =P

Exodus '04. I LOVED that song. XD; I still do. I really got into her ALOT from "The Workout" XD

The Workout was a really great song.
Along with Exodus '04, those were the only 2 songs I truly liked on the album.

It's kind of a funny story with me, I guess. I originally heard of her because I bought Kingdom Hearts and heard Simple & Clean. I wasn't huge into J-Pop at the time, so I didn't really try to listen to anything else by her until her EXODUS album came out, which I purchased thinking that it was in Japanese. I was originally horribly dissappointed and thought it was one of the worst albums I'd ever heard, but after MANY repeated listens, I ended up falling for it, which prompted me to buy her Japanese Singles Collection Vol.1. Those songs took a little bit to grow on me, but I eventually fell in love with them all (except for Time Limit, which still sucks). Anyways, that just evolved into me having to buy all her albums, and I'm now a big fan. I don't quite love her as much as Ayu, or even Namie, but she's pretty damn close.

I have know about Hikki for years, but I JUST RECENTLY got into her a few weeks ago when I heard Flavor of Life LOL! :D
Now I REALLY love all her songs, and I'm buying some of her CD's :)

But then again, I did like her song "First Love" a few years ago.
So I guess that's what got me into her :)

I've been hearing her name for /years/. I still remember the Kingdom Hearts commercials.

But the fact that everyone thought she was so freakin' great made me check her out. At first I thought she sucked. So I waited another year before listening to her again. Now I think she's okay.

well for me...it was Simple & Clean. when KH was in production (for the US release) they'd show promotional shots/CM/ and behind the scenes for it on the Disney Channel, cause you know KH is very disney oriented. So I'd see it constantly and Simple & Clean would always play.

Those commercials (because I loved Disney movies and I loved gaming) sparked my interest for the game. So after a year or so after its release I finally got my hands on it, and lo and behold the remix was showed in the beginnings of the game.

That pretty much started my interest in her, but I didn't really look for her music. :shrug whenever I chanced upon her surfing the 'net I'd grab it (during this time I'd learned to love both Simple & Clean and Hikari equally, since they're both great. However I favor Passion better than Sanctuary), but that's about it. Until I heared eternally then I bought Exodus from Amazon. After that I actively searched for her music, downloading wise and on online shopping sites.

Last Nov. I found Deep River @ an anime convention for a reasonable price, so I bought it. (partly for FINAL DISTANCE) mostly for Hikari (brings back old memories, you know...) I listened to it and was blown away. I love the whole album. I've only got Deep River, For You single, and Exodus (+KH Original Soundtrack; finally bought it! ;3) in my physical Hikki collection, but I'm hoping to expand on that, especially since I'm currently job searching...

Kingdom Hearts commercials on FOX TV. I fell in love with Simple & Clean the first time I heard it. I always looked forward more to the commercial break than the show I used to watch. I was addicted. Gotta.. see... the.. KH COMMERCIAL! I got a computer later in the year and I downloaded the song. My gateway to J-Pop. I've been following the Japanese music scene since 2003.

Thank you, Hikaru Utada! :D

I just got into Ayu when I heard that Utada is the real queen of Japanese music (it was a very common opinion in my country) and that whatever Ayu does she won't beat Hikki in selling nor in popularity. I also heard that Utada is very short-tempered person and that she often insults Ayu (and this wasn't said by Ayu fans or other singer / band fans, it was just a note about Utada you could read on some J-music sites). Anyway, I got kinda mad with her and didn't want to hear any of her music at first just because I thought she's a bad person. I never had my own opinion about her, I just didn't know her and didn't want to know her music. When I've been to Japan my boyfriend wanted me to listen to her played for me Sakura Drops (the worst choice ever, I don't like this song even now). I don't remember when I decided to give her another chance but I know that I just sat and decided that I want to have my own opinion. I found three songs in the net (one of them was Passion) and she pwned me. I felt in love with her music right away (but I still don't like Sakura Drops :p).

the first songs I heard fron her were Final Distance and traveling, which i liked a lot! But it wasn't until the release of Be my last when I began to love her music *__*

Long story short: Kingdom Hearts + Bearshare = Simple and Clean...the rest fell into place.

A friend emailed me Hikari and I really liked it, so when I became friends with Kiyomi (an exchange student at one of the HS' I went to), I put it into a mix with some other Japanese songs for us to listen to. When she saw I liked Japanese music, she gave me some of the CDs she brought over to the States with her. One of the CDs was the first press of Hikki's Deep River album. <3 It's still my favourite Hikki album to date.

"First Love" , "Distance" & "Deep River" album got me interested in Utada.
The rest of the album didn't.

lessee...

i was in taiwan, watching a japanese drama with my aunt and mom (me being sorta young back them, i couldn't read the chinese subs, nor could i understand the japanese...dur...) it was the drama hikki's song first love was used for. i liked it, so my aunt bought me the album. then, i came back to the us, and she sent me her otehr albums (not including distance and ultra blue, but that wasn't released at the time.) so now, i have:

cubic u's precious
first love
deep river
utada's exodus
(wow...that doesn't sound much...)
yea, i knew hikki before ayu.

random thing: after the kh craze i had, i fell in love with simple and clean. then i listened to my deep river cd after losing it for so long (XP), i listen to the last song. i started screaming
it was simple and clean the japanese version

okee, that's my story XD

I was addicted to her Movin' on without you and Another Chance from her first album. Been a fan ever since then!;)