Talk:Hikaru Utada/Archive 1

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Previous discussion

Hikaru Utada is funny. Yeah she is. I thought her personality was cool but when I saw her interview on Hey Hey Hey.. I was like wow.. she's weird. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pureofsoul (talk • contribs) .

Mainstream news sources use Western order yet she uses Japanese order for herself on her website and Japanese order gets more google hits. Hmmm... - In the meantime, the English Mainichi Shimbun uses "Hikki" as her nickname. WhisperToMe 02:41, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

On second thought, she refers to herself as "Hikaru Utada" in the English portion of the site (http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/hikki/profile/index_e.htm) WhisperToMe 00:44, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

She's very confused. I wouldn't take her word as authoritative. - Sekicho

According to this: http://www.time.com/time/musicgoesglobal/asia/mhikaro.html - She's doing that on purpose to separate her "English" and "Japanese" personas. Since Hikaru Utada wishes for the Western order to be her "identity" in the Anglophone world, should we reflect that in the article? WhisperToMe 05:17, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Since this is an encyclopedia, as opposed to a publicity page, the best way to handle it would be in a consistant manner, which ever order is selected. Since she's known mostly as "Hikaru Utada" in english-speaking countries, that would likely be the best choice for all references to her within the english version of this page, allowing other versions to use the name by which she is best known to them. Izuko 17:33, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

I also go with 'Hikaru Utada', since she is American. Having Japanese parents does not make her Japanese, only of Japanese heritage.

The offical Wikipedia style guide is that Japanese names from the modern era are written in Western order given-name family-name. As she is American anyway the point is moot, it's Hikaru Utada. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.216.0.148 (talk • contribs)

Just as being born in the US makes you a US citizen, being born to one or more Japanese parents do make you a Japanese citizen, by respective countries' laws. Either way, Utada Hikaru is also her stage name, as her official legal name in Japanese is Hikaru Iwashita (岩下光 Iwashita Hikaru), so the point is moot regarding what standard is applied to non-stage name titles of non-celebrities and their non-artist friends. —Tokek 02:10, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

That's correct. In Japan, the family name comes first, so what is "Utada Hikaru" in Japanese is "Hikaru Utada" here in America. Before she became married, her name was Iwashita Hikaru (in Romaji, in English. Romaji is Japanese writing in Roman letters, which we use). Calling her "confused" is unfair, because I'd think she'd know her name. -User:SonicHowler

Skingg ?

What is the 'Skingg' in Teruzane Skingg Utada? It does show up on google... Kappa 12:59, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC) It prolly is like a name he dubbed himself with like a nickname or something. Bakahito 15:03, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I would call her Utada Hikaru. We have to respect the culture of Japan and many Asian countries such as China and Korea and the surname comes before the first name. And she is most well known as Utada Hikaru and not Hikaru Utada.

宇多田光

I'm not sure about this, but it seems like this version of her name is only used in the Chinese-speaking world. Does it pop up in Japan? - Sekicho 22:52, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Her name is written in the same form in Japanese and Chinese, because Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese share some common characters. To be more precise, it shall be 宇多田 光 in Japanese, while in Chinese the space between her family name and first name is not necessary.

---

No, this version (宇多田光 "Yu Duo Tian Guan") is only used in China. If those four characters were read in Japanese, it would read "Utada Hikari" instead of "Utada Hikaru." So her Japanese name should be written with surname in kanji, and given name in katakana. ("Hikaru" in Japanese, used as the verb "to shine," would be written 光る...if I remember correctly) Zekintha

• • I don't know if this particular "hikaru" is ever written in kanji, but kanji are often read differently when used as names. "Hikaru" is a possible reading of the character when used as a name. Look at this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%E5%85%89%E3%80%80%E3%81%B2%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B&btnG=Google+Search Kappa 12:18, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
    • • Hrm...I've never seen it written that way in Japanese; I'm pretty sure I've only seen that name on Chinese CDs of her stuff. Zekintha 10:31, 6 Mar 2005

I'll edit the article and make note of the differences in the name order. Thanks for the heads up, guys.

---

The 光 character is not ever used for her first name in Japan. It is always written ヒカル. The pronunciation is the same, but the aesthetic difference is important, especially in the tumultuous world of J-Pop.

Genjuro 20:35 JST, 3 Jun 2005 (this comment in fact left by 61.195.58.8 (talk · contribs))

Actually her real given name is 光.—Tokek 02:36, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Titles

Albums & singles, like books, films, etc., often use non-standard typography for titles, etc; this is part of the graphic designer's trade. The title in Wikipedia, however, should use standard typography unless there's good reason to believe that the typography is part of the artist's original intention. For example, E. E. Cummings' book is 5 uses lower-case, but not his name; his publishers used lower-case on book covers, etc., but he didn't. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:40, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

• This isn't at all the case with J-pop. If you look at the official web-sites, such as http://www.toshiba-emi.co.jp/hikki/disco/index_j.htm www.avexnet.or.jp/ayu http://tofurecords.com and http://amazon.co.jp you can easily see that the Japanese treat upper and lower-case roman letters as distinctly different ways of writing. Just like hiragana and katakana, they represent the same sounds but can look very different, and are their differences are used to make titles more interesting and/or to make connections between certain titles. For example, "ayumi hamasaki" is always written in western order and with no capitals. If you look at both the name of artist and the track-listings of J-pop albums, you can see that most of them use a complex combination of upper and lower-case rômaji, hiragana and katakana, the odd kanji character and all kinds of punctuation like ♥s, waves, dashes and multiple exclamation marks. And so the track-listing usually ends up being far more interesting to look at than the music is to listen to.Turtleheart 19:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

• Hikki herself chooses the typography of her titles. For instance, she decided to use 誰かの願いが叶うころ over 誰かの願いが叶う頃 for "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro," as stated in her April 15th blog entry. She's well aware of the difference between a capitalized "A" and a lowercase "a." And as such, I am inclined to believe that every title she comes up with is rendered the way it is for a specific reason. Why else would her first and second albums have titles that are "proper," but then her third album's title be rendered in all capital letters? Not only that, but "traveling" (the word) is properly spelled with one L, not two. And you could've just changed all the titles back without removing all the PVs I added that were directed by Kiriya.--Soulsteelgray 19:18, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

1. According to various messages above, she can't even be trusted to get her own name right…
2. I must have changed "traveled" to U.K. English automatically (it always looks so silly with only a single "l" — it breaks the normal spelling/pronunciation rules of English).
3. Having spent a great deal of time tidying this and other articles, checking for double redirects, making sure that the articles were consistent, etc., I felt disinclined to go through it all again. If you make your new chanegs in one edit, and then revert all my changes in another, we're free to disagree over the one without affecting the other. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 22:32, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

• • According to various messages above, she can't even be trusted to get her own name right…

It's not a question of whether or not the name is right. It's her own personal choice to render her name as ヒカル. For instance, in the manga/anime series Bleach a character known as Tatsuki (竜貴) chooses to forego the Kanji used for her name and renders her name in hiragana (たつき) purely because it "looks cuter." Hikki's name could easily be 光る or 光, but ヒカル is what she chose to go by.

And if you're referring to the name order, she goes by "Utada Hikaru" for a Japanese-language environment and uses "Hikaru Utada" in an English-language environment.--Soulsteelgray 01:15, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Yes, the first point was not meant completely seriously (but I suppose only the ellipsis indicated that). --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 08:53, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Hikki seems to actually flip-flop between surname-given name and given name-surname order in the West… urutapu 04:53, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

• I'm sure that there plenty of people who do that. It must be very confusing for them, and even more confusing for me, as I usually have no way of telling weather a name has been flipped into western order or not. Ideally, Wikipedia should use the rule that eastern family names are always written in capitals (eg. MIYAZAKI Hayao) as that way one can always tell which are the family and given names, no matter which way round they are written. Although, I'm still not sure that this would apply to a 'stage name' such as Utada Hikaru or Shirow Masamune. You certainly wouldn't do it with "Monkey Punch", for example.Turtleheart 19:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

She does go by Kanji, therefore ヒカル. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 218.103.253.97 (talk • contribs) .

• This comment makes no sense at all. "ヒカル" is katakana. In Japanese, her stage name is "宇多田ヒカル", a phrase which has the same sound as her birth name but is not the format in which Japanese names are written (a real name would only use katakana for a non-Japanese name) and the official rõmaji of it (how it is written on the official web site and many of her CDs and DVDs) seems to be "Utada Hikaru". I think it makes sense to keep it this way as it is not only not her real name, it is not even written like real name would be.

Marriage?

Is it worth noting her marriage to a producer-type several years her senior? Last I heard they were still together. --Do Not Talk About Feitclub (contributions) 11:38, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Utada Hikaru and Kiriya Kazuaki just recently divorced. (March 1, 2007, I believe)--Remadi 05:40, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Chart Success

I think it would be nicer to add that all her singles sales number were in Japan. Her English song titles can be misleading..

Unneeded information

I deleted the entire column that pertained to the SINGLE COLLECTION VOL.1. We don't need to know if it's in the CD or not. Also, I want to stress the same thing here that I did on Koda Kumi: the information presented about rankings pertains only to weekly rankings and not daily rankings. Daily rankings mean nothing in the long run. Please stop trying to make Hikki look better by adding in a side note that she got #3 in the daily rankings for Passion. It's not going to do anything for her. Soulsteelgray 01:13, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

it does say something about what kind of following she has Chsf 17:33, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

singles

Isn't it pretty much certain that "Dareka", "Be My Last", and "Passion" are all singles for the upcoming album?? Or at least BML and Passion are obviously going to be on the next album. --Stzr3 06:05, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

"Dareka", "Be My Last", and "Passion" is still unconfirmed by Hikki or Toshiba-EMI does not matter even its a possibly. Darknshadow 07:23, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Iwashita (岩下)?

The Japanese and Chinese articles list her "real name" as "Iwashita". Strange, considering that it doesn't come from anyone she's related to. Can this be verified? --OneTopJob6 07:45, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Supposedly, it's her legal name from marrying Kiriya Kazuaki, whose real name is Iwashita Kazuhiro. Soulsteelgray 16:39, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's not made clear at all in this article. Indeed, the contrast of her "real" name and her husband's stage name borders on contradictory. --Do Not Talk About Feitclub (contributions) 18:22, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Nationality

So Utada is 22 now. When she turned 20 many articles pointed out that she would have to choose between Japanese and U.S. citizenship by her 22nd birthday, following Japan's Nationality Law. Does anyone know if she actually did this? And, if so, which passport she chose to keep? - Sekicho 13:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Correction, she is 23. --Snkcube 02:04, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

So what did she do then? --chsf 11:10, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to find an answer without success. In practice most Japanese ignore this and end up with dual citizenship. The law is not enforced.

Angela Aki is 28 and has a dual US/Japanese citizenship ^^ --10:18, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

US Constitution says anyone born here is automatically a citizen, and Hikki was born in the USA. There may be factors that require her to choose Japan as country of citizenship, but where JP law would not overlap, then her USA status takes precedent. So, for example, if she were needing to be evacuated from Lebanon, as many American women her age are now doing, then she would ride on the helicopters evacuating US citizens and not wait in line as a non-American evacuee. Constituationally speaking, Hikki can serve as President of the United States, while Arnold Schwartzenegger, a naturalized ciziten who was born in Austria, cannot.69.255.0.91 05:12, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

In case of Lebanon, Hikki can go with either the Japanese or the Americans or the UN actually. The Japanese can't have army due to WWII and the Americans are still doing "peace keeping" job there. But that's another story... The citizenship law was changed in the 1985. For a Japanese decendant born outside the country, as long as one can provide proof of the bloodline, he or she can apply for Japanese citizenship and still keep their original status if that country allows. i.e. She can keep her dual citizenship for as long as she wants. (However, it does not apply to people of other races.) For someone born in Japan and later got US citizenship. That person has to choose by 22 or within 2 years of naturalization. The government claims that they want to attract talents like Utada back to the country, but minority Japanese attack such policy as racist.

Past Tumor Problems

There should be something written in the article stating that she suffered the tumor during the Distance to Deep River era and how she recovered, afterall, it is about her life too. Bakahito 15:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Google counts and the two names

On 12 March 2006, WhisperToMe added (perhaps unintentionally) this:

...while the press mostly refers to her as Hikaru Utada.

However I was not able to back this with Google search counts, so I am removing it. Note that it is unusual for most modern Japanese artists to have their name popularly romanized in the "(surname) (given nanme)" order, which suggests that this is a special case based on artistic / personal preferences, different from cases that have had little to no precedence, and thus generic romanization / ordering rules are applied. —Tokek 02:10, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Google search counts:

"Utada Hikaru"	"Hikaru Utada"	domain or other restrictions
1,380,000	172,000	"Search English pages"
201,000	27,100	"Search Japanese pages"
28 (7)	12 (3)	site:bbc.co.uk
3 (3)	4 (3)	site:cnn.com

number in parentheses is the count after very similar results were omitted.

It may also be worth pointing out that, in the credits for Kingdom Hearts, her name appears in "Japanese" order, despite the rest of the Japanese staff credits being listed in "Western" order; this may corroborate the personal preference angle. -Rikoshi 19:16, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

It appears that she has been consitently romanizing her name as "Utada Hikaru" (in that order) for the Japanese domestic market (e.g. "Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1"), and possibly there are different versions for each of the Kingdom Hearts albums out there (one for the US market, one for the Japanese market, and perhaps more for other markets), so I'm not sure if her name has been "consistent" for all the varations that could possibly exist for the Kingdom Hearts series. :-( —Tokek 09:43, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Decision required

Further information: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style %28Japan-related articles%29 § Utada

Okay, so now the Talk page is separated from the main page because I'm not going to start moving pages around. I reverted the full-page replace on Utada Hikaru so that the information is still available to readers. -- Taral 20:50, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

I think Utada Hikaru (order used on official album art, album name, advertisement, etc. for the Japanese domestic market), Utada (official "debut" stage name when she re-entered the US market), and Hikaru Utada (name taken from the Japanese market, then flipped) are probably the best candidates. Another possible candidate being Hikaru Iwashita (her post-marital legal Japanese passport name). However, I would firstly wish everyone would agree to just stop renaming the article without a concensus of some sort (revert wars considered harmful). —Tokek 09:54, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

• I definitely don't see a problem using a stage name as the article name; look at the articles for Cher and Sting as examples of other musical artists being listed under the names they're most commonly known as. -Rikoshi 17:40, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

• Okey, I'm a bit late for this since I only saw this now, but here are two details to add:

-Utada was credited as 'Hikaru Utada' on the Rush Hour 2 OST, which disregards the stage name argument. She even had this planned as her western release name before switching to just Utada. Besides, other artists listed in Wikipedia who generally use [last name][first name] when printed for their name are listed under [first][last] (for example, Kumi Koda).

-Utada made a reference to her name as being 'Hikaru Utada' in an English radio interview in 2004 (I can't remember which one it was, but I think it was the Arizona one)

If wiki policy states that Japanese names should be listed as [first][last], why is there an argument at all? It'd just confuse people as to what her first name was if this page was an exception to the wiki standard. --Mahogany h00r 07:47, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was move to Utada Hikaru. —Nightstallion (?) ^{Seen this already?} 08:32, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Requested move

Hikaru Utada → ?

Since this article has been moved around several times already, this vote aims to produce a democratic decision on what we want the article title to be. See also: Hikaru Utada#Utada's_names. I don't see the need to hurry, so let's have the vote close after 1 month. Please leave your votes in the Survey section, comments in the Discussion section.

Survey

Please list your name (# ~~~~) under the article title(s) that you support. A one-sentence explanation is optional.

Hikaru Utada → Utada

1. your name here

Hikaru Utada → Utada Hikaru

1. Tokek 03:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
2. Rikoshi 17:34, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
3. Taral 08:02, 6 April 2006 (UTC) Famous by stage name, people who want the details about the name can find it in the article.
4. ReyBrujo 12:00, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
5. Stzr3 02:30, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
6. Bakahito 11:45, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
7. User:Erith 6:00, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
8. your name here'

Hikaru Utada → Hikaru Utada (keep current)

1. Jenna2486

Hikaru Utada → Other (please specify)

1. Some title --your name here

Discussion

I was a bit surprised to find that there are way more google hits in English for "Utada Hikaru" than for "Hikaru Utada". This being the case, unless somebody can up with some reason to do otherwise, I don't see any reason not to go with Utada Hikaru. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 06:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Utada Hikaru

The stage name "Utada Hikaru" (宇多田ヒカル) derived from her maiden name Hikaru Utada (宇多田光) has seen continued usage in the Japanese domestic market, where she has acquired astronomical success.

The "Utada Hikaru" romanization and name ordering is visible on the following album covers at Amazon.co.jp:

• Movin' on without you -- February 17, 1999 -- one of her first Japanese market releases
• First Love (mini CD ver.) --  ????
• First Love -- April 28, 1999
• Addicted To You -- November 11, 1999
• Wait & See ~Risk~ -- April 19, 2000
• For You/Time Limit -- June 30, 2000
• Can You Keep a Secret? -- February 2, 2001
• Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 -- March 31, 2004 -- Album title is romanized as well
• Keep Tryin' -- February 22, 2006 -- Her latest release under any moniker

On the other hand, the "Hikaru Utada" name ordering is not visible on any of the album art hosted on Amazon.co.jp that I could find. On Wikipedia, the article was under the Utada Hikaru title the longest.

Additionally, her name is romanized as "Utada Hikaru" on:

• The album cover of "Jazz de Kiku Utada Hikaru Songs II" (November 22, 2000) by the Kenny James Trio
• Her official website [1] currently reads: "Utada Hikaru Official Web Site"
• On imdb.com, for their Casshern (2004) entry [2]
• Presumably in every instance her name was romanized in official products/advertisements for the Japanese domestic market, except when romanized simply as "Utada."

Also, this name ordering sees the highest Google hits:

Google search counts:

"Utada Hikaru"	"Hikaru Utada"	domain or other restrictions
1,380,000	172,000	"Search English pages"
201,000	27,100	"Search Japanese pages"
28 (7)	12 (3)	site:bbc.co.uk
3 (3)	4 (3)	site:cnn.com
2	3	site:nytimes.com

number in parentheses is the count after very similar results were omitted. —Tokek 03:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

• Can anyone verify whether her maiden name is ever given as 宇多田光 (with the 光 for Hikaru) in Japanese? I have only ever seen her name written this way in Chinese, and the Japanese Wikipedia article makes no mention of this. (It does, however, confirm that her current legal name, 岩下光 Iwashita Hikaru, uses the 光 kanji.) - Rikoshi 17:42, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Apparently, 宇多田光 is only used for her overseas pressings of her products (see YesAsia) [3], in other words, she is know as 宇多田光 towards Asian fans outside of Japan. So far, she hasn't released any items in Japan as 宇多田光. I suppose that she uses the katakana for her name only because of personal likings.Bakahito 14:15, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Utada

For a brief period, she went international and released CDs under the "Utada" name, in the US, UK, and Japanese domestic markets. Especially considering the amount of investment that must have gone into marketing, etc., this was a relatively unsuccessful venture. (See also: Hikaru Utada#Discography.) She has gone back to releasing her CDs under the "Utada Hikaru" stage name in Japan.—Tokek 03:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Hikaru Utada

Most modern Japanese individuals order their names so that the surname comes last when romanized. Also, Wikipedia policy tells you to do this for names of modern Japanese individuals (WP:MOS-JA, policy based on a poll where about 10 people voted). Such name order switching is common for the following individuals:

• Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister of Japan
• Shoko Asahara, cult founder and terrorist master mind
• Shizuka Arakawa, gold medal winning figure skater
• Hideo Nomo, baseball pitcher

Also, Utada was listed as "Hikaru Utada" once in an omnibus album for the US domestic market, prior to her use of the "Utada" stage name.—Tokek 03:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Many Japanese people's name is first name + family name (example. Junichiro Koizumi, Takeshi Kitano, Ayumi Hamasaki, Masashi Tashiro and so on). Why is Utada only "Utada Hikaru" not "Hikaru Utada"?? I can't understand it. Why was her article moved from "Hikaru Utada" to "Utada Hikaru" repeatedly? I think that you should unify Japanese names in first name + family name because this is English wikipedia. --Hatto 14:21, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

New Picture

It is supposed that the picture in the article has to be the most recent and the current picture is of 2004, in the promotion of Exodus. It should be changed to the last one, the Ultra Blue picture, right? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.12.157.220 (talk • contribs) .

Can we have a new picture of her as the Main picture of this page for 2 reasons, 1) you can hardly see her in that picture and 2)if you didn't know who she was and came to this page and saw that picture you would think it was a group of people not one person.please change the picture, I don't care if it's a rare. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.63.44.38 (talk • contribs).

Feel free to find a new free image. At this moment, it is that image or none. Our criteria is to replace fair use images with free images, but not free images with fair use ones, and since that is a free image, we can either find another better free image (I looked for this one for months, so it won't be easy, but you are welcomed to try!) or remove it altogether. And since removing it will invite people to post images found in websites, it is better to keep it, at least for the time being. -- ReyBrujo 18:30, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

List of best-selling music artists ?

Why is this link on the "See Also" if Utada isn't even listed there? ShinjiPG 11:42, 27 May 2006

I think Hikki only best-selling music artists in Japan only not gobal. -- 66.215.71.146 01:44, 1 June 2006 (UTC) | (contribs)

Clarification Required?

The page reads: "A year after the release of EXODUS, Utada was back into the Japanese music industry with the single, "Be My Last". Three months later, she released another single, "Passion", the theme for the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts 2. "Passion" is not the Japanese version of the English song "Sanctuary," which she wrote first and appears in the English release of Kingdom Hearts 2'".

Am I the only one who finds the bolded part confusing? --Avatar Z 17:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Not really that confusing?Bakahito 12:52, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a clarification, maybe it doesnt need to be bold but no its not confusing, just re-read again and make big pauses in between commas, see if it makes sense. Garbagefan2424 12:52, June 2006 (UTC)

Heh heh, I bolded that part myself. The part I found confusing at the time was "Passion is NOT the Japanese version...," which is obviously false. It's been fixed now, so no worries. --Avatar Z 14:23, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, it is partially true, just worded wrongly. "Passion" is not the Japanese "version" of "Sanctuary" since the lyrics for both are no where close to each other. I won't edit it but I thought to make a point. pandaki 02:46, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Tetris

I added in a section about her Tetris playing, she's participating in a contest in cooperation with Nintendo of Japan in which the winner will be able to challenge her to a game of Tetris. I included all the sources (though most of it is in Japanese), but if someone wants to clean up the entry please do. Zarcath 18:10, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Tetris move to Trivia

Tetris should be moved under trivia not its own section Garbagefan2424 02:47, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It's an interesting piece of trivia, but it certainly doesn't deserve its own section. I'd move it myself, but I'm not terribly confident in my editing skills. --Avatar Z 05:51, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I just changed the tetris part to a separate mini-article to the trivia section.--Bakahito 07:23, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I "delinkified" it, try not to wikilink headlines. Other than that, the change is fine enough. -- ReyBrujo 21:42, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I deleted the image of the top score, as it came from http://www.u3music.com/message/index.php?m=1&d=2006070318521j.xml, which reads, "This site is managed and operated by U3MUSIC INC. For private viewings only. Any other use including copying, reproduction or broadcast in public, in whole or in part, is expressly prohibited." --Avatar Z 14:20, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

NPOV

With these recent edits, I've been seeing way more NPOV-ish comments in the article. The first two paragraphs of the article is a great example of it. --Snkcube 08:23, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I cleaned up most of the article. Any comments about the edits? --Snkcube 08:28, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

merger

yes Joan-of-arc 23:47, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I also agree with the merger. Kuma Chang could be added in the trivia section. --Snkcube 07:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I also agree. It doesn't makes sense for something as trivial as a stuffed bear to get a separate Wikipedia article; the importance is just not there. It belongs in the Trivia section of this article instead. Avatar Z 16:43, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

The Kuma Chang article has been deleted. I removed the merger tag. Why sigh, cutie pie? 02:46, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Not NPOV

While many pop stars are satisfied with remaining complacent, Utada has started on a path of self-exploration that is rarely seen in the Japanese pop world. With each new self-assured step, Utada's musical experimentation reminds us why she has remained relevant as an artist for the past seven years. While this type of experimentation may alienate some listeners, her desire to test uncharted waters is what continues to make Utada a key player in the ever-changing landscape of Japanese pop music.

This is not NPOV. Should it be taken out? Why sigh, cutie pie? 03:15, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I find that very NPOV. It seems more of an opinion. However, I already removed it from the article. --Snkcube 08:36, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

32,000,000 or 40,000,000?

Right now, there's an edit war when deciding how many total sales Utada has as of 2006. Could we decide on one instead of reverting all the time? --Snkcube 07:39, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Okay, but we need sources, official ones to be specific. --Bakahito 13:46, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Utada's mother in battle with DEA

To anyone who hasn't heard, Hikaru's mother is in a battle with the DEA to take back money that was seized from her by the DEA claming it was drug money. I feel this could be notable enough to have warrant a section regarding this in the article itself so I've added the section under biography since it deals with her mother who is an assistant to Hikaru's music production according to the federal court document. If anyone objects, please state why and state your reasons for removing the section. KSweeley 07:29, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Just so you're aware, there is actually already an article on Utada's mother at Keiko Fuji. I believe the information is currently duplicated in both articles. I believe a small mention may be appropriate in this article, but the details should be on Fuji's article. --DDG 16:34, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

I'll agree with DDG on this one. --Snkcube 01:34, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree, Utada's mother's problems have nothing to do with Utada, that information belongs in Keiko Fuji's page not Utada... Unless Utada does something significant about this that is newsworthy or life changing (such as write her a song or lead some type of organization because of this.) EDIT: Wow I didnt see the page with the new info, seriously guys that thing with utada's mother really does not belong there. You may mention it in a sentence perhaps, but that paragraph does not have any information on Utada and therefore is useless and destroys the neutrality of the article as well. Sorry I'm ranting but that really doesnt belong there, please insert that into Keiko's page. --Garbagefan2424 22:32, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Honestly, you're very naive if you don't think the money that was seized was Hikaru Utada's. What's more likely -- that her mother happens to have $400,000 from nowhere and is trying to smuggle it to buy drugs, or that she it is Hikaru's and her mom was trying to smuggle it in order to avoid taxes? Does it make sense now why this is important? Most people would set up a fake company and a branch in another company in order to transfer funds. I don't know why Hikaru didn't do that. --Cyborg Ninja 01:07, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Can somebody please revert this back to an older version, one without the OBVIOUS VANDALISM in the Hikaru's mother's problems section? And can somebody have that person banned? -- Cyborg Ninja

Please remove the thing with her mother it has nothing to do with Utada Hikaru! Cyborg Ninja you are more naive then me to believe that Utada has given her mother that money, you cannot put that on the wiki if its not a fact, this is why wikis fail because of people like you trying to stick in inaccurate information and vandalism. When there is more information that Utada is linked ot this then the facts can be included to a point, casue even then its not Hikaru we're talking about its her mother. Either way the reports dont link Junko to Hikki so please remove the vandalism --Garbagefan2424 22:44, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Garbagefan2424, please view the History page. I only edited a case of simple vandalism. I did not add the DEA section myself. Please do not comment if you can't comprehend what you are reading. And yes, news on someone's family does belong in an encyclopedia article, especially in this case because of the significant amount of money that garners questioning Hikaru. -- Cyborg Ninja 08:32, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

UNITED TOUR Clarification

Under Trivia, it says "During her UTADA UNITED 2006 tour, she sang a hit song from the Kingdom Hearts game, commonly known as Simple and Clean in America, but Hikari in Japan." This should be removed as this was a concert and she sang many songs on the tour. If someone can make the argument that it should stay (under "Trivia"), it should be clarified which song she sang as "Hikari" and "Simple and Clean" are not the same song. --Pandaki 03:05, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree. That point is far too trivial, even for Trivia. I'm removing it now (by the way, the song in question is "Hikari," not "Simple and Clean") Avatar Z 18:22, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. That would be a good trivia for the Kingdom Hearts article, but not here. -- ReyBrujo 18:26, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

World Record?

I read the Guiness book recently and it said she is the only artist in the world to sell over 20 million for a certain amount of records in a row, cant remember that part, I think it was 5, could someone look at that? It was the 2005 book, I just saw that it wasnt in the article and remembered reading that. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.5.197.180 (talk) 07:55, 19 December 2006 (UTC).

it was in the 2004 edition i think, i have it lol.Xxxxmoogle 11:48, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

EXODUS +

If anyone can prove that this exists, please cite your information before changing the article. One of the remixes appears to be a fanmix, and no online retailer appears to be carrying it.

(talk) 21:40, 29 January 29, 2007 (UTC).

The reason no retailer is selling it is because the only way to get it is by ordering EXODUS and getting an Exodus+ special edition album in a random CD. There's a screenshot of the news at Image:UtadaExodusPlusNews(talk) 3:53, 31 Jan., 2007 (UTC

FAMILY GUY

Is Utada gonna be on Family Guy? It's all over YouTube and MySpace —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.24.164.125 (talk • contribs).

We would need a reliable source to confirm that, we just can't speculate around. -- ReyBrujo 02:54, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Utada on FAMILY GUY??

It isn't impossible...where did you get that information? YouTubr and Myspace... but specifically... add the links. Daisuki GreyFace Daisuki GreyFace 00:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)Greyface

Flavor of Life 1,000,000 ringtones downloaded?

When did ringtones become a big deal? please remove this. Cryptomystic 01:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

What's wrong with keeping it? —Tokek 12:53, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, Ringtone downloads have become a very big deal in Japan. Amount of times a ringtone is downloaded also reflects how popular the song is. Xxhiroxx 03:05, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Divorce

Please include a reference for her divorce, otherwise it is treated as original research and removed. -- ReyBrujo 21:01, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

hikki.blogspot.com

or

www.u3music.com

GreyFace 22:22, 5 March 2007 (UTC)Greyface

Thanks. As soon as we get a reliable one (like MTV), please update the article. -- ReyBrujo 02:18, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

It's already updated!

GreyFace 06:26, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

The part about the divorce states that Utada was seen performing without her ring on the night of her divorce. While that is true, she was also seen performing without her ring a week earlier on Feb 25 on CDTV. 4nGeLuS 13:12, 9 March 2007 (GMT+1)

NPOV

This article is extremely NPOV. The beginning paragraph reeks of NPOV. Right from the NPOV guideline:

"Karada offered the following advice in the context of the Saddam Hussein article:

You won't even need to say he was evil. That is why the article on Hitler does not start with "Hitler was a bad man" — we don't need to, his deeds convict him a thousand times over. We just list the facts of the Holocaust dispassionately, and the voices of the dead cry out afresh in a way that makes name-calling both pointless and unnecessary. Please do the same: list Saddam's crimes, and cite your sources.

Remember that readers will probably not take kindly to moralising. If you do not allow the facts to speak for themselves you may alienate readers and turn them against your position."

Saying that Utada is "one of the most successful, influential and acclaimed pop singers in Japanese music history." is like saying Hitler is evil. Let the facts speak for themselves. I would've edited the article significantly to get rid of the bias however I decided to take it to the talk page and throw up a NPOV template. abarry^✓ 04:01, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

It's fine

If the previous editor didn't gaved credits as to where he/she took information about Utada being one of the greatest Japan artists then I would agree, but there's links that support this.

And if it's gonna be like that, then Britney Spears, Shakira, Madonna, to name a few, need to be re-edited. And pretty much every artist/entertainer's article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joeltz33 (talk • contribs) 19:55, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

should be Hikaru Utada

just because she calls herself Utada Hikaru (which is because she works in Japan, not because she has to have it in that order!) doesn't mean the article has to be named such. Tila Nguyen calls herself Tila Nguyen but look at that article, anyway Utada's article should be under the same convetion as all other Japanese singers. Aren't we supposed to have Japanese people born in the modern era listed in western order?

even if she works in japan, she could also have her name in the western order. (like ayumi hamasaki) but she chose to have it in the japanese order. she once said in an interview that it was a way of seperating her japanese and english persona(or something).Erith 12:30, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Deleting/Merging the Trivia Section

I have added the {{toomuchtrivia}} tag to the Trivia section twice, and both times it was removed. Now, I want to establish consensus with this: is there any useful information that could be merged into this article or other articles, or is all the trivia "interesting, but doesn't belong"? I'll wait 7 days to see what everyone thinks. SuperDT 21:40, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

---

It's not useful info, but isn't that what trivia is?

GreyFace

Not necessarily. WP:TRIVIA defines trivia as "information that is not important to the subject it is being presented in relation to." Essentially, almost all of the info in the trivia section is not important to the article. The Tetris section could be integrated somewhere, as well as the people she's met, but she's allergic to Cedar Wood? Her so-called "double" singing along stage with her? Useless. SuperDT 22:53, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

---

One.. WHY IS THE PICTURE CHANGE TO "DEVIL INSIDE"?

---

You have a point... here's my view on the trivia.

---

Hikaru has met with the United States President, George W. Bush (I'm so sorry, I feel your pain...), as well as former Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, at the Kantei.[25] (She's famous, she's met with LOTS of fmaous people -_-)

Utada Hikaru is the youngest artist to appear on MTV Unplugged so far. There, she sang her rendition of U2's "With or Without You".[26] (This is something that should be in trivia)

According to Oricon, Utada is now on a record for having 5 straight #1 albums since debut in Japan.[27] She also reached #3 in total female artist sales.[28] (Eh...)

Utada went to the same high school in Japan as Lisa from m-flo. Lisa invited Utada to the last airing of her live radio show in June 2001. They were working together on her then new song "Final Distance" at the time. (This is fine)

Utada's U3 blog contains an area for her to post entries in English as well as Japanese. She rarely writes in English, and when she does, it's a lot more diplomatic than Japanese blog entries. As of July 2006, her last post in English was on May 4, 2006. In it, she states she knows her Japanese entries are unofficially translated.[29] (Ughh... this is a bit useless)

Utada is allergic to cedar wood. This has slightly affected her performance at the Ehime Prefectural Budokan venue during the Utada United 2006 tour. The building was made with approx. 3,000 m³ of natural wood and laminated wood of cedar. She hadn't told many people about this allergy — not even her father.[30] (This is good, its trivia...)

Infobox image

Please don't insert a promotional image there. We are trying to encourage finding a free replacement. I have contacted a Flickr user to see if he is willing to change the license of one of his pictures to a free one (you can see it here), let's see if he agrees. While you may think it is not as good as a promotional image, at least (if the user accepts) would be a free version. Thanks for understanding. -- ReyBrujo 17:31, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I replaced it with a temporary image, so just leave what i have until somebody else gets a pic. GreyFace —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.199.76.42 (talk • contribs).

Thanks is not how we do it. Also, images about living artists are tagged as {{fair use replaceable}}, and are deleted after a week. -- ReyBrujo 19:03, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Er... I don't get it... Why can't we use that picture? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.199.76.42 (talk • contribs).

Ah, I got your message... I probably have some pics on my digital camera of Utada... not sure if they're good quality or not.. I've seen her a couple times... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

Lols... I'm looking for my camera... meanwhile... I created that with four different photos that my friend took when he went to Utada United 2006. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

Ok, let me explain this. In Wikipedia there are two kind of images: those that are free and those that are not. Fair use images (like the ones released by Avex Trax, Utada's management, etc) are not free, and while their quality is very good, it goes against our spirit of being a free encyclopedia. Now, free images are usually released by their copyright owners. If you take a picture of her, you own the copyright of that picture, and can decide to release it with a free license, including GFDL, public domain, some Creative Commons ones, etc. If your friend went to a concert and took pictures, please ask him if he can release one of them under a free license (in the highest resolution he can). If he agrees to do so, he will have to follow a few formal steps to declare that, indeed, he is the only copyright owner, that he took the picture, and that he is willing to release it. If you have pictures of her, you can do the same. Note that when we talk about "free picture", we don't talk about "free as in beer" (meaning that the picture costs nothing) but instead "free as in freedom" (meaning anyone, anywhere, can take the picture and do whatever he wants with it, including using it in a web page, creating T-shirts with it, or anything else). You still are the legal owner of the picture, but are allowing anyone to use it.

We are trying to find free images, and if you can indeed offer us one or more, we will really appreciate it. However, we must be sure that, indeed, the images were taken by your friend (or you) and that they haven't been just picked up from some website around the internet. -- ReyBrujo 23:51, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I'm pretty sure that my friend licensed the images because I've seen them on a couple websites AND on this camera... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

However, that is not enough justification for us. You know, we need to be stricter with these images, because they must understand what they are accepting when releasing an image under a free license. A "I took this image and leave everyone use it" is not enough, as the Wikimedia Foundation must be notified so that they can be assured you are the owner and you free it. If you can, please contact your friend and tell him to mail an image (no matter the quality) to permissions-commons@wikimedia.org where they will archive the acknowledgment and allow us to use it with a free license. As you can imagine, unfortunately in legal matters we can't just accept "My friend took the picture and let me upload here" as reason :-( -- ReyBrujo 00:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Alright, We'll try to find the license... I'll call him... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

Yay! Thanks, tell him the image will be used in many, many Wikipedia articles :-) -- ReyBrujo 00:14, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

O_O why many? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

Because we are needing a free image in many of the other Wikipedias, not only the English one. In the article, there is a box with the title In other languages, all those articles are about Utada Hikaru in different languages which will surely be happy to receive a free image. -- ReyBrujo 00:18, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay... BTW- if we can't find the license, do you know anywhere we can get a free one? Then I'll re-upload... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by GreyFace (talk • contribs).

(removing indentation) When you try to upload an image, there is a combo with several licenses. The free ones include the public domain, GFDL and Creative Commons. If your friend allowed a website to use the image, it is likely he did grant permission only to that website. Also, you will have to mail the image and the authorization to the Foundation to confirm you (or your friend) is the copyright owner. -- ReyBrujo 00:24, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks... we'll probably find the license, but if not we're try re-uploading it!

• I have replaced the image with another free one, from a Flickr user who kindly helped us. As soon as your friend is able to mail the image to us and assert the copyright of the image, we will be able to decide whether to keep the current one or to use the new one. Until them, please leave this one here. Thanks again! -- ReyBrujo 07:47, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

• Stop changing the picture, can't we just decide on one and stick with it, instead of changing it to whatever picture the user likes which may not even be freeErith 13:11, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

  Until another free equivalent is found (that is, a REAL free image, not some image found in a website and tagged with a free license), Image:Utada Hikaru Kanto 2004.jpg is the image we should use. So, don't upload new images and tag them with {{GFDL-self}} unless you have taken the picture yourself with a camera. Understood? -- ReyBrujo 13:15, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Not very objective

I think that Utada is a great artist but I feel that the intro paragraph is a bit nonobjective such as:

She has been hailed as one of the most successful, influential and acclaimed pop singers in Japanese music history.

and

Utada became an unprecedented icon in Japan after her debut

If the point is to have a biography page, I don't see why that is necessary.

Riskia 09:36, 3 April 2007 (UTC)Riskia

Well, that was a problem before, and that's why the word "hailed" was added, to suggest that some people say that she is the most succesful. Maybe it would be better if it was "hailed as a very successful, influential"...

The other one is good too, since it was true that her style was different and especially for her age... she was instantly recognize-able...

GreyFace —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.199.76.42 (talk • contribs).

Utada was an intersexed baby?

From double viking's sex column: "Interestingly, inter-sexed and transsexual babies who are switched over to the female gender often grow up to have careers as models or actresses due to the fact that their tall height, an aspect of masculinity, is considered to be an symbol of beauty. Such examples include the stunning Italian actress Eva Robinson, angelic Japanese pop sensation Hikaru Utada, and purportedly Jamie Lee Curtis who qualifies as American Hollywood royalty."

Source: Fausto-Sterling, A. (1993). The five sexes: Why male and female are not enough. The Sciences, 33(2), pages 20-25.

http://www.doubleviking.com/the-10-things-we-guarantee-you-didn-t-know-about-sex-4771-p.html

Can anyone verify this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Neuropuff (talk • contribs) 01:17, 14 April 2007 (UTC).

The only things I could find {http://www.google.com/search?q=Utada+Hikaru+intersexed+baby&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a] pointed right back to your article, so I can't say the information was sourced... nor should it be put in the article, for that same reason :)SuperDT 02:11, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

This is ridiculous, Utada is ALL WOMAN, reread the article it says:"angelic Japanese pop sensation Harisu" not Utada. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Moneylucky (talk • contribs).

It appears that the Double Viking article edited out Utada Hikaru a few weeks later after I posted this topic; it was a mistake they corrected. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Neuropuff (talk • contribs) 02:10, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Indeed. Source was wrong. They also temporarily claimed that it was Ayumi Hamasaki who was the intersexed one, which was also exposed to be wrong. They were obviously blabbing on about Japanese pop culture when they didn't really know much about it.—Tokek 12:31, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's still wrong-- Harisu is a KOREAN singer!146.95.224.171 14:50, 9 May 2007 (UTC)GreyFace

Point of View

Could someone make it more neutral I was reading the 2003 contuning success and it looks like a Utada fan wrote it to make her look as good as humanly possible. (I didn't read it all since it started bothering me that much) Thanks~

70.127.190.51 03:53, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Image needs adjustment

In the topmost photo of the article, Image:Utada_Hikaru_Kanto_2004.jpg, Utada looks so tiny! Perhaps someone could create a more useful cropped version so that her face doesn't look like a small dot in the thumbnail. —Tokek 12:51, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Programmer?

Can we have a citation for that.

What languages does she program in, or what software has she written? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Macgruder (talk • contribs) 15:43, 7 May 2007 (UTC).

she programmes her own music using a keyboard synthesizer Erith 04:42, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Holiday & Other Covers

Yamaguchi Momoe - Playback part 2 - From her Bohemian Summer Tour
Yutaka Ozaki - I Love You - From her Bohemian Summer Tour and Blue ~ A Tribute to Yutaka Ozaki
The Carpenters - I Won't Last a Day Without You - From a collaboration with Shiina Ringo from "Utaite Myoli ~Vol. I~. She also performed this in a concert some time ago with her.
Inoue Yousui - Shounen Jidai - From her UH Live Streaming 20 Dai wa Ikeike!

^ Official

Fly Me to the Moon was also a vinyl. She's covered Sukiyaki, No Woman No Cry, Moon River, Save the Best For Last, Happy Birthday (for the president), Konya wa Boogie Back (at the same concert where she sang with Shiina Ringo) and some other songs not "released".

Someone should note that First Love and Colors were feature on Karaoke Revolution J-Pop Best Collection Volume 1. Automatic for J-Pop Best Collection Volume 2. traveling for J-Pop Best Collection Volume 3. SAKURA Drops for J-Pop Best Collection Volume 4.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.12.73.155 (talk) 02:56, 14 May 2007 (UTC).

Fair use rationale for Image:Exodus utada.jpg

Image:Exodus utada.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 06:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

"Third culture"??

"utada hikaru also known by her fan-nickname of Hikki (ヒッキー, Hikkī?), is a [b]third culture[/b] Japanese pop singer-songwriter, arranger and record producer."

Is there anyway to specify in the article what this phrase means? Maybe I don't understand because I'm American? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.40.159.10 (talk • contribs) 03:58, 6 June 2007

• • It doesn't mean anything in particular-- her classmates didn't know how to pronounce 'Hikaru', so they called her Hikki. At the time, they didn't know what a hickey was.

--Greyface

I believe what is implied here by "Third Culture" in this context is that she is a third generation musician and artist like her mother and her mother before her.Utada's mother was a famous enka singer (Keiko Fuji) in the 70's and her mother was a blind shamisen player or "goze".Utada has some great genes ,she was destined for greatness. -- Cryptomystic

"Third Culture Kids (abbreviated TCKs or 3CKs or Global Nomad) "refers to someone who [as a child] has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture".

-the definition of third culture on wikipedia's article "third culture kids" hikaru was born in new york, and so is considered a US citizen. however, she also has japanese citizenship, because her parents are japanese. She has said many times that she lived in both new york and america during her childhood (it was always half-half). So we could say that she was a third culture person.Erith 06:54, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

New album

I heard a rumor that she's releasing a new english album.

--Greyface

not true...yet.

she did mention that she's thinking about producing another english album. but that's not confirmed. at least, not until the single with kiss and cry is released on 29th August 2007 Erith 04:40, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Album Pictures

Should the album pictures be deleted from the article? It seems more like decorations to the article. Album pictures for artists like Ayu abd Koda has been removed from the article already. Just asking so I will not be called an Utada hater and for me to go back to Ayu.Icaazn614 02:39, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

They're already gone...Utadahikaru1259 00:48, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Theme Songs

How come her Theme Songs only list the Kingdom Heart series and Easy Breezy? What about the songs she sang for dramas and other tie-ins?А ;_; They should not be forgotten. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.12.148.239 (talk • contribs).

Improvements to Article?

http://wiki.theppn.org/Utada_Hikaru

i came across this page and i believe that its better than this one on wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Astone92 (talk • contribs) 07:43, 27 July 2007

Awards, honors, and records

I think that this section can be organized much more neatly than it currently is. Right now, within the same awards, there is no uniform way of recognizing her awards, honors, and records. 1) I think that the two dash makrs before and after the name of the award are unnecessary since there are bullets already. Take a look at Ayumi Hamasaki's section on awards and records. It is much less cluttered and in a more orderly fashion. I suggest typing in the name of the award, then follow with a space, dash, then space. Do be careful and use the computer's dash mark/minus sign only or wikipedia's dash mark. One is slightly longer than the other and looks funny when the two are mixed together.

2) Unnecessary honors in my opinion: The Tokio Hot 100 Radio Charts and the EMI Report on Most Downloading Ringtone. (It's only a contender, EMI isn't even sure of that, since no one keeps track of ringtones worldwide).

3) Use "Japan Gold Disc Awards"; it looks simple and that is what the RIAJ uses on their english website. Thank you. Utadahikaru1259 05:35, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Kingdom Hearts theme songs

You guys have probibally heard this a million times, but why aren't the KH themes listed in the Discography? Is there some kind of consensus I'm not aware of? Quatreryukami 19:00, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

They are listed there, under Hikari and Passion. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:27, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Theme songs in the Template

I notice that only theme songs for Kingdom Hearts and the Nintendo DS commercials is listed, but where are the others?

• Movin' on without you is the theme song of the Nissan Terano commercials.
• Can You Keep a Secret? is the theme song of Hero.
• Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro is the theme song of Casshern.
• Be My Last is the theme song of Haru no Yuki.
• Flavor Of Life is the theme song of Hana Yori Dango 2.
• Beautiful World is the theme song of Rebuild of Evangelion.

I don't see how any of these songs are less important than the current theme songs listed. Andrew Eng 18:15, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm thinking that it's because adding all of them would make the template too long? :-/ Additionally, I think that the popularity of both the Kingdom Hearts series and the Nintendo DS makes the theme songs listed in the template more notable than others. -- SilentAria ^talk 03:30, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Quatreryukami 15:19, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

o.o Your point? Hana Yori Dango 2 was a major tie-in as well as the Hero and Rebuild of Evangelion tie-in. At any rate, Evangelion is more popular than Kingdom Hearts yet Hikari and Passion would be more noticeable? What kind of logic is that? Tie-ins are tie-ins despite how popular or noticeable they are. Either list them all or remove them all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.12.70.244 (talk) 21:00, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

English

Do any of her Japanese-language songs *not* contain any words of English? I've never found such a song. Badagnani 00:25, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Actually, there are a few.

• Dareka no Negai Ga Kanau Koro
• Sakura Drops, unless you count the title.

I hear "heartbreak" at the end of the first phrase of the song. Am I wrong? --Badagnani 02:06, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

No, you're correct. xD Sorry, my mistake.

• Passion [except for that 'my fears, my lies']
• A personal favorite-- Deep River [unless you count the title].
• I was listening to Letters, and it had no english until that last paragraph. Grr! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.86.67.174 (talk) 14:19, 15 September 2007
• WINGS

Well, it does say CHANSU a few times, I'm pretty sure there is a japanese word for it.

• Kairo
• Sunglasses
• Kotoba ni Naranai Kimochi-- not exactly sure about all of these so~

(UTC) User:GreyFace 14:10, 15 September 2007 (UTC)GreyFace

Username policy

According to WP:USERNAME, "Usernames that match the name of a well-known living or recently deceased person, unless you verifiably are that person, in which case please note this on your user page. Wikipedians with articles is a list of such users." That means that the user Utadahikaru, if not the actual person by this name, should probably change his/her username to "Utadahikarufan" or something similar. Badagnani 17:44, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I guess I need to say that I am not Utada Hikaru. Would you like me to ask a bureaucrat to change my username? I'm okay with that if you believe that it is deceiving to the readers. Thanks for telling me this though, because I never really thought about that. I just like Utada Hikaru so much that I named my username after her.

Utadahikaru1259 02:59, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining. I try not to bother other users, but you can ask to have it changed if you want. Other people might comment on your name in the future. You picked a very good singer to be the fan of! Badagnani 03:15, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Singles Collection available on iTunes Plus USA!

Shouldn't either this or the singles collection article mention that people that use american iTunes are now able to access that album. This started around October 20th, someone should write about it. It should also be noted that Hikari became one of the most downloaded songs of the hour when the album was released.user:GreyFace

Award clean up

Cleaned up awards section. #1 yearly ORICON can be stated in article, rankings on TV show isn't a award, sales on a online store isn't an award. This section should be reserved for actual awards and records, and not poll and TV rankings, commercial rankings, etc.. Hedatari (talk) 00:52, 28 November 2007 (UTC)