Through mountains high and valleys low, Hikaru Utada is kind of everywhere right now: Japan, England, America…Brazil. (More on that in just a moment.)
Ahead of the release of her new single “Pink Blood” on June 2, which is currently soundtracking a popular anime TV series called To Your Infinity, Hikki’s releasing a vinyl pressing of her highly successful Evangelion theme song “One Last Kiss” in multiple color variants across territories.
Now, the song’s already been out since early March, and it’s already notched some impressive chart and sales records, as the artist behind the highest-selling album in Japanese history is wont to do. But Sony Music Japan’s doing the eternally (REFERENCE) thirsty international fans a solid by supplying the international-specific goods, via Milan Records.
Pre-orders just kicked off for the European and American editions of the release: the EU is getting blue (ULTRA BLUE, presumably), and the US is getting a clear vinyl.
Plus, the lyrics sheet will feature English translations provided by none other than the “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – FYI” maestro herself. First press editions also featured a limited edition sticker, but these things appear to be flying off the shelves already.
There are actually even more color variant options, spread out across some different retailers.
We are sold out but you can still get color variants from @newburycomics and @lightintheattic !
The LP will also be available tomorrow for pre-order on @amazonmusic pic.twitter.com/ZaEvc5LvJm— Milan Records (@MilanRecLabel) April 30, 2021
And that’s not all! Hikki also hopped on her Instagram Live over the weekend for another round of “Ask Hikaru Paisen!” To promote her new single, “Pink Blood”? God, no!
Instead, she adorably fumbled with the technology, and thoroughly RTed for Brazil with a sweet shout-out to a fan who provided a book of messages and translations from Brazilian fans. She also gave a very knowing nod to the LGBTQs with one perfect utterance: “hey queen…”
Hey queen ₕₑᵧ ᵩᵤₑₑₙ pic.twitter.com/FFhbmBeZtM
— Utada The Pink Blood Print (@hikkipedia) May 3, 2021
To be fair, she did tease some exciting news about the upcoming album: Hikaru’s not intending on creating an English album anytime soon, because she doesn’t feel the need to differentiate between languages at this point. There will be at least one English song on the record, and she’s going to attempt to include one or more English versions of some of the Japanese songs, too.
“I can tell you that there will be at least 1 English song in the new album.” #HikaruUtada #宇多田ヒカル https://t.co/3zbU16S72C
— UBLOG (@UTADABLOG) May 2, 2021
Oh, and Sony Music dropped the single artwork for “Pink Blood” and a new official artist photo – which are two incredibly striking visuals.
“PINK BLOOD” -the theme song of TV anime series “To Your Eternity “- will be released on June 2!! Check out the cover artwork and new artist photo!! #HikaruUtada #PINKBLOOD #ToYourEternity kb pic.twitter.com/JmMpKieUdk
— 宇多田ヒカルSTAFF (@hikki_staff) May 1, 2021
Honestly, it’s a very exciting time to be a Hikaru Utada fan! She might not exactly be known for doing much self-promotion these days (unless photographing tiny trinkets found at her feet on the streets counts), but this feels like the most active she’s been in years. And it feels nice to get real, tangible goods to buy – and a whole album still on the way.
To grab the vinyls, click here.
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Photo credit: Sony Music Japan