PEOPLE
stop with the fat comments
she's not fat at all
if anything she looks skinnier than before

wow, this discussion comes up on forums too much. I think the whole thing should just be dropped but I can't say what to do.

I can't wait to see Hikki's NINKI rating. I want a 300 rating like Kumi and EXILE!

^Hmm...when you think about it, this will be Hikki's 1st album on the Ninki. I'm expecting 400 to 500 tops. lol Just imagine if Ninki was around when First Love and Distance was out. XD

lol, First Love -> 1000!!!

haha, it'll be interesting though. 400 - 500 is HUGE. Isn't the highest one to date in the 300s. I wanna say it was Kumi but I don't know. This album looks like it'll be HUGE though...

1) Massive Promotion -> ~30 magazine / radio appearances; tons of TV appearances as well [I think, not positive]
2) Flavor Of Life -> #2 single of last year [even Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry earned the number 2 female single of last year]
3) it's Hikki -> who blows people away with her album sales

- P.S. I cannot wait for Sakigake! That's my fav Hikki appearance EVER! I can't wait to see the one for HEART STATION

And this mixi thing sounds interesting. Bet it spurs promo even further

I dunno, her album sales have been declining with each successive release, so I'm guessing the max amount she'll get is around 600k ~ 800k maybe?

so big @.@; I don't like that picture of her. :( I like the attitude, but maybes its the lighting against her skin...

^ Her pictures lately have been making her look kind of pale :/
And she looks as if she's getting kind of thin (not in a good way). I hope she's taking care of herself and not letting the media get to her too much (with all their fat comments and all although this picture isn't as bad as some screencaps I've seen)...
Not only that her style seems to be going in a very boyish direction.

^If I'm not not mistaken, Hikki has always been pale. I think the only time she hadn't look pale was during her First Love era. If you look at her promo pics from her Distance to Heart Station era, she looks pale which how she's just about always looked. COLORS show she looks so beautiful as a pale Japanese women, don't ya think? Also, again, her weight is normal for her age. Ugh, just be lucky she's not some overweight 200-something pound person. :yes

100% agree Luv!

I couldn't believe that 30 magazines were going to feature her new album :thud That's three times as many as Ayu! It makes me happy :D

ALSO
What is NINKI ratings exactly? Someone had told me before but I still only have a basic grasp of it.

I actually think Ninki had been out before ULTRA BLUE was released.. Unless oricon was lazy and didn't update the Ninki chart, otherwise this will be at least her second album on the Ninki. (come to think about it... Be My Last was on Ninki as well, so ULTRA BLUE should have been on Ninki).


HEART STATION could be a special case.. This will be the first album after divorce, and it seems like Hikki popularity increased after this incident. Most singles are better received than those in UB (except Dareka and COLORS, but those two were released a long time before UB).

Either hikki will be sinking like ayu is, or HS will be another million seller.

@AyUta

NINKI basically polls the interest of people for upcoming singles / albums. The numbers they give aren't estimates but basically are measures for how many people are interested. Of course, NINKI doesn't always get it right but it gives a somewhat grasp of the positions that people [mostl big names] will hit.

And yes, I think HEART STATION can outsell Ultra Blue despite everyone's declining sales :)

not everyone's sales decreasing.. Look how well EXILE's last album sold. (Honestly.. fangirl effect towards Takahiro... :P).

And more about NINKI..
Basically oricon randomly surveys 400 people (from 4 million people), and the results based on "interest, concern rate" and "purchase intention".
The last sentence is a bit confusing tho... It says those 400 people are from 5 different generation groups (10, 20..., 50), 50 males and 50 females within each group..
(probly I misunderstand some sentences... otherwise 100 people from each generation meaning there should be 500 people being surveyed instead of 400... :no)
(edit: I look at the graphs presented by oricon... they only cover 10, 20, 30, and 40... so I guess only 4 generations were done.)

I'm anxious to see how HS will sell in the 1st week & in the long run

Credits to U.Blog -

The choice to use “HEART STATION” as the album title was quite random, as Utada casually chose the name as it sounded very appropriate for a Title.

“Boku wa Kuma” played a vital role in shaping the outcome of this album. It allowed Utada to realize how important it is to loosen up, and to not take things too seriously.
This more relaxed, soft side is reflected in much of the songs in the album, and allowed her to create tracks that she would not have been able to otherwise.

With “Prisoner Of Love,” Utada utilized chords which she describes as “the ones that come easiest to me.” She references other tracks as having a similar structure, and she explains that she originally shyed away from using these chords for fear of accidentally rehashing old material, but decided that it was far more unnatural to avoid doing something for the sake of avoiding it. She also mentions a J-Drama tie-up (which has yet to be confirmed), and thematically the producers wanted lyrics that could relate to both lovers and friends.

“Prisoner Of Love” has strings, which are more intense in nature, required her to create lyrics that would be easier to annunciate, making the singing on the song lighter and keep the track from dragging down and becoming heavy. The song was originally written in English.

“Gentle Beast Interlude” and “Celebrate” were originally part of the same demo, but were split up for their respective tracks. There is said to be a smooth transition between these songs. “Celebrate” was the last song created for the album, and Utada mentions that she wanted it to be an upbeat song, as most of the last songs created for her albums are darker and more ballad oriented.

The music track for “Take 5″ was actually created for “ULTRA BLUE.” It was very difficult to create lyrics for the song, so she approached them more as writing for literature than for a song. She found them to be a bit strange, but thought it fit in with the vibe of the track. She found inspiration in the work of poet Miyazawa Kenji’s ”Ginga-Tetsudou no Yoru.”

“Niji-iro Bus” has an “analog sound,” something Utada has not done in a long time. Thematically, the song is very melancholic, talking about everybody’s longing to go to a place beyond their current reality. The interviewer describes the song as seeming to come from an adolescent point of view, hypothesizing that because of Utada’s sudden rise to fame at such a young age, perhaps she is going back and re-experiencing adolescence from a 25 year-old’s perspective, thereby creating something fresh.

”Niji-iro Bus”: Everybody feels the same/Everybody feels the same/Niji-iro bus de, niji no mukou he (On this rainbow colored bus, to that place beyond the rainbow)

“Prisoner Of Love”: Arifureta nichijyou ga kyuuni kagayakidashita/Kokoro wo ubawareta ano hi kara/Kodokudemo tsurakutemo heiki dato omoeta (These days have suddenly begun to shine/Since the day my heart was taken away/I’ve begun to think that even through loneliness and pain, I will still be okay)

“Celebrate”: Just enjoy the art of life

“Take 5″: Kyou no kibun wa saikou desu/Zetsubou mo kibou mo nai/Sora no youni suki toutte itai (My mood today is the highest/With no hope nor despair/Like the sky I want to be see-through)

~

I love that lyric for "Celebrate" - sounds very deep. And I hope even if the album is ballad-oriented, it's filled with amazing sounds and are ballady like the songs she's released so far.

didn't wikipedia updated her wikipedia page saying that initally the album title would be DEATH ?

I almost fainted when I saw that . Thank goodness HEART STATION is a more suitable title .

The songs sound interesting after this..hopefully there are good...
her relaxed style seems very similar to each other apparently...so i hope the OTHER new tracks can provide more variety..

That may be true...but at least it looked natural back then..it seemed like she had more of a complexion in her skin but ah well. And I never complained about her weight so I don't really know what you meant by the last part :/
I just said that it looked like she might be losing weight in an unhealthy way. But hey ya know, I'm pretty pessimistic on these topics so don't mind me xD!

I think her weight is pretty normal right now, and the pictures are really just washing her out. I think it's okay though since very white skin is so fashionable in Japan :luv2 She looks so cute in her latest interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDnE3JnOAuQ

FULL ALBUM LYRICS!

NOTE: I need someone to translate/put them in Romaji. Either one works :D

Fight the Blues
http://music.goo.ne.jp/lyric/LYRUTND61985/index.html

Celebrate
http://music.goo.ne.jp/lyric/LYRUTND61986/index.html

Prisoner of Love
http://music.goo.ne.jp/lyric/LYRUTND61987/index.html

Take 5
http://music.goo.ne.jp/lyric/LYRUTND61988/index.html

Niji-ro Busu
http://music.goo.ne.jp/lyric/LYRUTND61989/index.html

Credit - Uta-Net