Japanese music waits in despair for the Goddess's return in her 44th thread
 

sayonara hikki. :( Till you take the world by storm again....

first post this week? next week? maybe never....no one cares. I'd rather be working on the new Perfume thread.....:(

That's the spirit!

oh...I thought this was the Koda thread...

sorry...I'll just...go...

utaba who?

perfume thread awaits you

The new hikki thread will be filled with other artists info from now on...

:laugh..

The last time she mentioned the hiatus she made it seem as though it would only last for the duration of 2011, not the original 2-5 years. xD Assuming she'll resume activities in 2012, we're already 1/24 of the way through the hiatus! :D

1/24?!

I had no idea we were that far in! ;P

Just trying to remain optimistic! Utada's the only J-Pop artist I care about anymore, so I'm really gonna miss her. :(

;)

Wild Life on demand is now available to access.
i just saw several pics on there only

So guys, how about the weather today? Nice isn't it?

Oh wait this is an Utada topic.

Nice to know she won't be gone 2-5 years at least lol.

That one year will slowly become a decade.

You guys are making me sad :weep

Utada's never going to come back. lol She's such a lazy person. Even if she does she'll create an album like 1 every 5 years like she already does.

Um she already stated that she IS coming back for sure. Plus the new global contract doesn't hurt either....I don't think she would sign a contract and just turn her back on EMI. She's not that spiteful.

^But she also said she's not sure that she'd really do anything. "Yeah u guyz... I am coming back, but I can't really promise anything, maybe a single here and there, but nothing too intense. I'm not really sure what I'd be doing if anything at all. kthxbye see in you a few yearzz. Have fun."

She has to do something....legally. We don't have to worry about that. What we do have to worry about regarding her laziness is whether that something will be something crappy or.....:rolleyes

Goodbye Utada... Party hard but wear panties.

the poster :
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...7/SDC13250.jpg

:o

Such a weird poster

to be honest... I kind of agree :( As much as I really love her music -- and truly, I do, as her voice is beautiful and her music is original and very nice -- I find it so silly that she's going on a hiatus when she hasn't even done much to warrant needing a break for "artistic reasons" or whatever. Of course, I don't know her life and I don't know her personally so for all I know she could very much need a break from the industry right now, but while I support the fact that artists do need a break, I find it so laughable that she could go on one when she doesn't really do that much already... she barely tours, she has a pretty lax release schedule -- she works at her own pace, basically.

I think my biggest problem with Utada is that she doesn't seem to have as much passion or intensity for music as other artists and bands do. For Utada it has as much interest as people go to a 9 to 5 job. And I find that so weird because most of the artists I listen to care deeply for their craft. I'm not saying she DOESN'T, only that she can be so casual about it strikes me as so strange.

I hope she has a nice year off and comes back refreshed, so the fans can be happy :)

the poster looks wrong.

so many people would kill to have a music career and she's just giving it up
*sigh* I never said anything negative about hikki but this makes me sad

LMAO! wait for me.

[just reminiscing from forever ago...]

didn't she say on her site that she's sorry for the scv2 cover that was posted on the sight cause it doesn't capture the intensity and the originality as what it actually looks like? or something like that. >> And then when you finally get the album, it looks exactly like what it does on her site.

Good move for her though announcing her hiatus and then releasing it. Definitely boosted sales. I myself probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't going to be the last thing from her for the next few years.

I think she meant that on a computer screen as a stand-alone picture, it does look a bit bland. But the actual CD looks much better, I have to agree with her. The entire packaging is black so the cover stands out more, it's almost like you can look into it or something.

yes I quite like it :)

It's glossy and really high quality....inside and out....sure it lacks pictures....but then again hikki was never one to throw on a pair of fat lips and a years worth of makeup and call it a cover....

Thread title is so damn true. :D Just when I have this Hikki craziness going on she decides to go on a hiatus... Just my luck. :'3

no offense to hikki or the fans, but I really don't care about her high quality glossy paper.


@inorinouta: I agree. I think the fact that she actually makes good music, makes her incredibly lucky. Anyone else who was like her but had lesser music, would have just completely failed and left the industry long ago.

LOL Me too! I got into her like few months ago.

Hmm was channel surfing and saw utada's wild life concert (part of it) on NHK. now is her interview on Goodbye happiness pv.
First time listening to her speak english. Nice
EDIT: just realise the show is '宇多田ヒカル ～今のわたし～'

this is so random, but I was on Isle of Tune right now...and someone did Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence :laugh

Where will be able to find the concert and documentary for download? JPOPSUKI?

[edit\
I found it on JPOPSUKI; was it in English? If not, I'll wait for someone to sub it.

i remember i saw her communicating with the drummer(or guitarist?) in english. I miss her 'prisoner of love' performance so much :(

Watching the Kingdom Hearts RE:coded commercials makes me feel NO better about this situation. T_T

:weep:weep:weep:weep:weep I want hikki back!!!!!!!!!!! i hope she comes back sooner than she thinks she would. I mean if she doesn't do music what else would she do? Go back to school?

If anyone finds subs for ima no watashi, please share!

GREAT advice that I wish some of these party girls I run into would have gotten.

just in case no one's seen it yet. (no, it's not subbed)

http://edohsama.blogspot.com/2011/01...ashi-15th.html

the interview is in japanese. Waits for sub

translation -> http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/01/nhk...re-her-hiatus/

i will miss her ... She sounds amazing live! First Love and Goodbye Happiness ...

A W E S O M E !!!

i see the documentary uploaded at jpopsuki too...
but i will wait for smaller size file and i need sub!!! english one...

thanks!

I didn't know the lalala's in Goodbye Happiness were sung by other people.

lol can you imagine visiting your grandma and seeing Hikaru working there? XD

I wonder whats she doing now

Probably cooking, travelling a bit with Kuma and more cooking.

From her blog she really seems to love cooking and I can vividly imagine her trying out all these different kinds of recipes just because she has time for it now.

Pfft she always had time to cook
she belongs in the kitchen

I ripped the audio of the five performances from Ima no Watashi and uploaded it in the download section. (:

Is it wrong that I really like the poster? I like how simple it is and the contrast between her and the universe shot.

Her voice is flawless in those new performances. Show Me Love is pure bliss <3

^It's all in your heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

yeah. It is.

^:laugh

It was written in the booklet (credits part). The voices don't sound like her anywayz :P.

I always loved that she would do her background vocals
I loved them the most in ketobase

Oh, thanks for uploading that! I'll download and watch tomorrow <3

This thread is pretty hilarious. :D

Of course :P. The artist (hikki) we're supposed to talk about are exploring outside of her world right now, so we have nothing to do except making random stuff about to her as much as possible.

Honestly, if her hiatus only last till next year, I guess the thread will be able to survive. I mean... there were times when she practically did nothing, yet we still talked about her. ;)

^She's always like that. "Oh, I haven't released an album in 2 years? Psh...they can wait another 2 or 3....."

It's not like she was even filling her time in between with tours/radio shows/live performances/interviews/photo shoots/or magazine spreads, I honestly don't think she was doing anything in between each album she releases.

She seemed to be active when she started but I think by the time UB came out, she was just spent and didn't feel like doing anything anymore. I don't think this hiatus is well deserved. It's not like she's working herself to death and wants to just have some "me" time, unless secretly she's doing everything all the time/all day and just doesn't like to show it and likes to make it look like she's already on hiatus 24/7. She toured around Jan/Feb '10. It was only 10 stops, and then we didn't hear from her til october of the same year. A few months shy of a whole year. "Oh btw guyz, I'm going on hiatus." Really? It's like she died and we haven't heard from her in almost a year, and then she just announces she's going on hiatus? Jeeze. lol

That's one of the things that bugged me the most. It's not like in the middle of all this album releasing, live performing, music career stuff she announced that she had enough of it, and wants to relax and really get to know herself better. we go almost a whole year without hearing a peep from her and think she could possibly be sleeping in every day and then one day we finally hear she wants to go on hiatus.

and....?

so what?

It's her life so deal with it? She is an artist not an attention ***** after all :( I kind of wish she was because she deserves all that attention....but what the hey. At least she's happy. :)

Well... I think Picaflor is just expressing his feeling, as everyone has one's own emotion towards particular thing.

For me tho, she is this type of person since the beginning of her career, so I'm not really bothered by that. Of course she had a faster schedule in pre-UB era (or probly pre-DR :P). Then again, she was considered "slow" back in the old days when ayu was releasing stuff almost every single month. So she's really not that slow now (if ayu only released a few cds per year, I dun even need to hope that hikki will release the same amount lol).

And she's not really a performer, not even an artist. She's a musician who only loves to release thing when she is willing to. We can really think about her in the same way. It's like... yeah probly she was not even doing anything at all about music for a few months before she decided to go on hiatus and wrote 5 new songs for the farewell. Nonetheless, we can't blame her for the lack of production. She's more realistic compared to, let's say ayu or kuu. Those artists are surrounded by staff almost 20-24 hrs every single day. I dun even know if ayu can manage her own life. I'm sure hikki can manage that, but she really wanna feel what a normal person would do in normal daily life. I'm actually happy with her decision because I dun wanna her to live in a protective bubble like ayu does. Everyone's telling her she's right (or maybe OK), but they'll never tell her what's wrong. This is not really healthy.

Also, I have a feeling that hikki's music will have a new direction when she's back. I will wait for that :D.

she's just, one of those artists, you know?

you just have to deal with them lol


And it's different being a celebrity like Ayu and Kuu. They are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves lol It's just that their demanding schedules let them employ other people who can help them, and that's not a bad thing at all. It helps them get through the madness more efficiently.

tbh, hikki doesn't know what it's like to have to go from, tv show to tv show, to mag shoot, to rehearsal for tomorrow's performance, to another mag shoot, to the studio, etc.

So I really don't know why it's so hard for her to take care of herself...or why she has to have staff do this and that O_O But the good thing is, that she's recognized this, and is trying to fix it.

Hikki really is more of an artist than an entertainer...she has a pace, and she is wrapped up in herself, and we just have to wait for her art whenever it comes.

Her announcing a hiatus, honestly, was probably more for like her label, to tell them "hey, im not working for a while so leave me alone"...even if she does work during the hiatus...

otherwise she probably wouldn't have said anything. I think this kind of just gives her an official way to get away from just the pressure of *having* to work...

And they told the media...probably just because lol Sales. I bet hikki couldnt care less.

Or maybe she wanted to tell people how she felt or maybe she feels bad for the fans...idk...imo it was kind of retarded to announce the hiatus either way...I really get the feeling that the label just did it for exposure, and they told her "here, you can go on hiatus, if you do this, this, and this."

She mentioned why she actually announced a hiatus in her Tower Records interview:
If she wants to take a break, she can. It's not like we (i.e. fans) own her or something. It's her life.

Well, I don't really agree here... Both Ayu and Kuu show the biggest evidence someone can that they know where they are mistaking and that they aren't perfect: They work change with time... If they were living in a protected bubble 24 hours a day where they are always right, they would never improve at singing, dancing and performing, and would be re-releasing new versions of their old hits year after year...

You need to see ur low points in order to work on them, and u can only do that if u know that u r not perfect and if u have people u trust helping u on that...

About the staff taking care of Ayu's or Koda's life, we don't know what they do when they are not working, simply cuz they never talk about it, and they never show themselves doing it... I'm pretty sure Ayu is not surrounded by bodyguards and stuff like that when we have no news about her, cuz it would atract so much atention we would most likelly get pictures of it from paparazzis... the same goes for Koda...

On the other side, Hikaru has her own staff, the people who fix her schedule, who filter the messages she gets from fans (she even talked about that once), her marketing team, etc.

It's pretty normal for an artist to have someone who takes care of those stuffs for them lol my mom's not even an artist or busy but she hires help just to make her life easier.

It's not wrong to have people do things for you especially when you work really hard.

I don't know much about Hikki but her schedule is probably more lax than Ayu or Kuu.

I have nothing to say about her hiatus, it's her life anyway.
But I always thought that Hikki fans wouldn't have a problem with her hiatus since even when's she's active, she doesn't really do much.

ANYWAYS At least there's twitter now.

She acknowledges it. What can she possibly be doing in those two years that doesn't qualify as a hiatus? I think she should have just not announced the hiatus since she practically has already been on one since UB. Over the years, her schedual has gotten so lax it makes me wonder if she died or something without us knowing it.

Why does she want to experience real life? Real life is student loans, bankruptcy, minimum wage retail jobs, 10% unemployment, and home mortgages that take a life to pay off. If she wants to experience real life, she needs to cut off her family money, get an apartment, get a minimum wage job, and live life to the full recession she can. I doubt she'd do that though.

Not everybody has the luck to be born in a rich family like Hikki. And I must say I agree with you in your points. I really wondered why her fans seem to deal all the time with her attitude. I'm not a fan, so it doesn't really bother me, but if an artist I'm a fan of would act like her, I would be absolutely pissed.

Because this is where inspiration comes from: Real life... If she is not living, if she is not seeing the world, if she is not gaining new experiences and growing more mature, she will not produce... simply as that...

And Utada released +- 1 album ever 2 years, what I hardly would call little or lazy...


People should get over the fact Hikaru is not Ayumi or Koda... She will never work like them, she will never do that they do and she is mainly working at USA music pace... And guess what? It works for her...

It's a shame she's going on hiatus, but personally I prefer artists that release few good CDs over those that release a CD every year, and their songs start to sound more and more alike. I hope that she will enjoy her break and release an amazing album when she returns.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!
this is what pisses me off she's giving her career up, sure it would be for a few years BUT COME ON! I would kill to be her

^She is just on hiatus for about 2 years, something she did before... She is not giving up on anything o.O

like I said just a few years and she ain't doing anything with her career now

To be fair, it's her life. She can do whatever she wants. She doesn't live to please her fans. She doesn't have to live as a poor person just to "experience real life". In real life, people work hard for their money and some people manage to get reasonably wealthy. I think she's worked hard enough to sit on her lazy bum for a bit now. You can't blame her for being privileged.

Because it's kind of awful to wake up one day and realise that you're just going through the motions of where life takes you, that you can't even take care of yourself, and that you've forgotten the real substance behind of what life actually is.

She isn't going to experience real life the way that we know it, but the simplest form of it...which we don't even get to experience a lot either, because we have to work and do all this crap.

She's damn lucky she can just, take a few years off for herself to go figure out the world. Normal people cant do that.

When she wasnt "working" or, releasing, she obviously wasn't living the way she wanted to...so whatever, she's lucky she can give herself the opportunity to do this.

I'd give anything to stop going to school for a few years and just...live away.

I always made sure to know that everyone has life even artists.

And you're right it's her life but I still can complain about it, nothing wrong with that.

Of course she can do whatever she wants with her life -- that doesn't stop people from having an opinion about it, though. I think it's easy to call her lazy, and while I've definitely thought that about her myself, I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't be a little easier on her. Who am I comparing her to? Artists with a work ethic like no other? That's not exactly fair. Hikki is Hikki, and does whatever she wants to do -- if she acted like someone else, she wouldn't be Hikki.

Though I can't say that makes me a bigger fan of her lol. I'm not too pressed about this hiatus. I can deal because for one thing I'm more of a casual fan of her music than anything else. It actually took me a while to LIKE her stuff, though once I did I found it absolutely gorgeous.

I was never good at revealing my thoughts so actually I'm talking about something similar to yours (and I actually agree I wrote in a wrong way :P). I'm not talking about their work. I'm talking about their normal daily lives. I've said it before (probly in another ayu thread) that ayu is living in her diva style (tryin' not to be too exaggerate here... If so please forgive me). I dun even think she can turn back to normal living style. No, I'm not talking about "Real life is student loans, bankruptcy, minimum wage retail jobs, 10% unemployment, and home mortgages that take a life to pay off..." because I dun think she will have to face those (touch wood for not), but like... does she do groceries herself? does she do laundries? does she walk down the street in Japan without surrounded by her staff? you know what I'm talking about the normal daily life.

I think this is what hikki is trying to do during her hiatus. IMO, before her hiatus I think she is doing normal daily stuff in a certain degree, but I guess she wanna try further, see what she can do without the help of her management team.

Lol. Give her a mop and an apron, and tell her she was hired at McDonalds. then we'll see how long this hiatus lasts, and how long she really wants to experience life. haha

Of course she definitely is the lucky one. I would love to be able to say "I'm sick of my parents, I'm sick of student loans, I'm sick of paying car insurance, I'm sick of my minimum wage retail job, and I'm sick of my life. I want to just take a few years off from it all and enjoy what I want to do." Of course, about 1% of the world's population gets to do that. Like what she does with her albums, I'd love to be able to take 2 year breaks in between each day I work.

For the past couple of months I've been kinda of angry... but now I'm just starting to feel sorry for her.

^I've been waiting for someone to post this. :thumbsup

Experiencing "reality" does not only entail what it is like to be underprivileged or struggling financially for pete's sake. It's about the simple things in life that we take for granted. Like some of you mentioned before, she just desires to be more independent and not rely on external forces (the entertainment industry) to do her bidding incessantly. What the hell is wrong with that?

I see no reason to mount on a high horse and start charging at her. You should not wish for her to struggle, instead be content that she desires to be like the rest of us. :yes
It seems no matter how high an individual obtains fame, there will always be those who find fault with them.

This is what I really wanna say, unfortunately I'm not good at expressing my mind sometimes :P. She doesn't need to be hired at macdonald's or "try" feeling how a struggling life is by doing some harsh works. What she wants right now is, like you said, learn about simple things in life. Let's say wash your own clothes, cook yourself, use "correct" ways/stuff to clean the house (don't laugh, it's quite a serious subject), do groceries and stuff (like... how you can effectively buy the things you want without wasting money), learn about bills and stuff without an accountant, and blah blah etc. Probly you think these are stupid stuff and everyone should be able to do it, but hikki may not be able to do those (am I exaggerating a bit? :P).

Or maybe she can do the stuff above, and she wanna learn something above: socializing with people in normal daily lives (without everyone greets her and says, "hikki your songs are good, oh i love you..."), volunteering in the locals, or back to school to be a normal student again.

Oh and I think she really wanna communicate with her parents like everybody does. Right now she feels like whenever she talks to her parents, it's always about business.

There are lots of things to learn, and actually we are still learning as well. Learning the way to live (what you want in you life) is a really deep subject...

On a lighter note, where the heck is my In The Flesh?

I guess in the end it would have been better for her to grow up normally and debut at a later age. She never had the chance to live a normal life ever since she was a teenager, because she's never had to take care of herself.. Since she can't go back in time and change that, I guess a hiatus is a good option for her.
But I do agree she's a little lazy and spoiled. But hey, that's Utada. I think in her position I might become a lazy person too..

And that's what I'm talking about too... U know? Maybe she does... maybe she does make normal people stuff without her staff, considering we have no idea about how her life is besides work... All of her blog posts are work related, all the pics she shows are work related... Ayu always made sure her personal life was... personal :P And I doubt the rest of the time she is not telling us what she is doing, she is at home playing with her dogs...

I dun really know if ayu usually manages her own stuff. I mean, one of her last TA blogs she talked about opening the suitcase during honeymoon... And her staff wrote details of what things in the suitcase? (I forgot, lemme find it)

It feels like that her team packed her stuff. So I dunno... But anywayz, it doesn't matter whether ayu can manage herself or not (:P), since she's not interested in doing what hikki is doing rite now :). I rather ayu do something else for music, so at least I have something to get this year. If ayu decides to go on hiatus as well, I will cry out loud and beg for either of them of come back (to entertain me :laugh... jk).

Just sayin, you sound terribly jealous of her. You should feel happy for her that she has the ability to do just that, but instead your acting like she's doing something selfish by not choosing to continue to miss out on new experiences and continue to slave away and do nothing but make music. :innocent

^ I can see how that'd read like jealousy, but I think to give Pica the benefit of the doubt, she's expressing some pretty honest thoughts. The real world is ****. It's hard, it's painful, and not a lot of people get anywhere no matter how hard they struggle and try. Pica's just expressing her very real desire to be able to have a chance to break free of pressures, and in that case, I can definitely see why Hikki's "oh I want to live in the real world for a while" remark might come off as a bit naive and foolish.

The real world is ****. Why would you WANT to come here? For experience? Well, I wish Hikki all the luck in the world, if that's the case.

The real world ≠ struggles.

The "real world" might be tough on some people - more in certain parts of the world than others - but real life doesn't automatically have to be horrible.

I think a lot of people forget all the things "the real world" implies.

And also, the real world doesn't automatically equal the world the average person lives in.

I certainly don't think Hikki means that when she talks about gaining experience.

I was playing devil's advocate to try to see things from Pica's POV. It's trite as hell to simply state that life =/= struggles. Life IS struggling in one way or another, big and small. Only a fool would think life is easy.

>I certainly don't think Hikki means that when she talks about gaining experience.

Neither do I, really. I think she just means she wants to relax and enjoy herself without having to worry about label nonsense.

omg you guys. :^D We're doing good here with the coversation. Now we just need to keep this going for the next 5 years and we'll be golden. It'll be like she never left us at all. (or at least to non hikki members viewing the main forum cause they'll see this thread title pop up all the time)

I thought she was. I thought she was trying to just live life like a normal person in this hiatus. You can't exactly do that if you keep your fame and your name. I have a feeling she'll try to do it in america too where she's less known. It'd be kind of hard to gain life experiences if you let everyone know you were "utada hikaru" all the time. She'll probably have to do something to not get a group of stan followers everywhere she walks.

I have a feeling she's going to move somewhere in the US or to France and just get a job doing something random like working at a bookstore, while studying French and maybe a few other things. I've got a feeling she just wants to settle down somewhere and meet new people, make new friends, go through some new life changing experiences. I don't believe there's anything selfish about that at all. In fact, I'm kind of ecstatic about it. I can live a few years without new music from her. Most of the music she's created in the past could hold me forever! But I know that when she does reemerge a year, two, or five down the road, her music will be even better yet because she'll be re inspired and eager to share all the emotions she felt during this hiatus. She's an artist, that's what she's supposed to do! :D

She didn't sound as eager to come back in her interview. I really wish I could find it somewhere so I could quote it, but I swore she said something like "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone. Maybe 2 years, maybe 5 years. I will come back though, give me some time, but I can't promise that once I'm back I'll be as full blast in the music business as I was before. But I will be back."

Either way, she was never super excited about the music business anyway. Except when she made exodus. She seemed so proud of her work with that album.

Not only Exodus. She was really proud of herself when she made DEEP RIVER (which I agree).

I just hope that why she's hoping around the "real world" (struggle or not, let her adventure decides), the "new" things (or to us, normal things) will excite her inspiration, so that she will have some new wonderful music.

... But I dun want to hear a new hikki with songs talking about how harsh life is, and maybe people should rebel, etc. I just want her to talk about weird stuff, such as smelling the old books, going to the universe, etc. I dun need another singer to tell me what struggling sounds like...

I just feel kinda like she is walking away from this - something so many people would kill to have. I think she may regret it when she looks back on it. There's so much time to live life come mid-30's-40's. But I wish her luck I suppose.

I just realized tomorrow is her birthday.

Actually, she didn't really say that.....

She said she was proud of choosing to do something experimental without really caring. That doesn't mean she was proud of the actual outcome. She said it sounded forced and like she was trying too hard...which is pretty much what we all feel listening to.......Exodus. A blemish in her discography but a growing experience for her nonetheless. Glad that she had the whole Exodus catastrophe because I think it really made her change....we got all the cool experimenting in UB after all.

i know she didn't say that. that's why i said she seemed so proud. i thought she looked it. especially in that cnn interview. she was so bubbly happy like "look at this album. it's so experimental. look what i could do."

no she didn't say any of that. it just feels like it. and i personally loved exodus.

omg it's been a year since I saw her in concert...sigh.