Kimi no Hana / キミの花 cover art released!

The cover art for Oku Hanako’s upcoming double A-side single Kimi no Hana/Saigo no Kiss / キミの花／最後のキス was released today her blog as well as on the Pony Canyon news site.

Here’s the cover for the regular edition:

Kimi no Hana/Saigo no Kiss / キミの花／最後のキス regular edition cover art

And here’s the cover for the Seiren edition, featuring the three main girls of the series – Tsuneki Hikari, Touno Kyouko and Miyamae Tooru:

Kimi no Hana/Saigo no Kiss / キミの花／最後のキス Seiren edition cover art

In addition, the Pony Canyon post includes this as promotional art:

Promotional art

One more month to go!

Kusabi / 楔 cover art revealed!

The release of Kusabi / 楔 is about a month and a half away and the cover art for the new release has been revealed:

Kusabi / 楔

I wonder if that photo was taken in one of the subway stations or one of the streets where she used to perform. If so, it would give the cover a deeper meaning.

It’s quite reminiscent of the older covers, too. The first one that came to mind was the one for Chiisana Hoshi / 小さな星:

Chiisana Hoshi / 小さな星

Kimi ga Kureta Natsu / 君がくれた夏 cover art and track list announced!

I checked the official home page^[jp] and I noticed that the header image shows the cover art for the new single:

The header image since February 9, 2015

I don’t know how long it’s been up for, but according to the filename, it has been up no earlier than February 9.

Remarks 2014-09-15

You may have noticed that I’ve been posting the weekly song two days late for the past few weeks. This was unintentional, but it I may keep it if it works to my advantage. As a result, I’m officially changing the posting time from Friday/Saturday to “sometime during the weekend”.

Also, I’ve noticed that my posts have been somewhat lacking in descriptions lately. It’s hard to come up with thoughts when my mind is on other things, and it also doesn’t help that it’s also on another artist. For that, I do apologize, and I hope I’ll get “back in the groove” soon.

As a partial consolation, here’s a promotional image. I don’t remember if this is from Fuyu Hanabi / 冬花火 or from Kimi to Boku no Michi / 君と僕の道.

Rainy Day

Rainy Day

Here we dive into a little Oku Hanako history. “Rainy Day” is one of her really early indies songs, before her vol.x indies CDs. “Rainy Day” was released in 2003, and vol.1 in 2004. This song appeared as track 4 in an omnibus called “Cocktail2”, part of the Cocktail series released by King Records containing piano hikigatari songs by indies artists. (Maybe it was a competition; I don’t remember).

Cocktail2

If the artists selection page means anything, then Oku Hanako is the left-most one on the cover.

2003 was before she started wearing glasses:

Oku Hanako in 2003 as she appears in Cocktail2

This is taken from page in the Cocktail2 booklet:

Oku Hanako’s page in the Cocktail2 booklet

Now then, the song that was put in the release:

“Rainy Day” by Oku Hanako by mokade3 [YouTube]

She doesn’t often go that low, but when she does, she pulls it off really nicely; this is no exception. Her singing, her playing; the song is beautifully done. It’s a sad song, but beautiful nonetheless. Even this early in her works she impresses me! Simply amazing…

YouTube user airuland875 opening her copy of Kimi to Boku no Michi

I mentioned in my Kimi to Boku no Michi / 君と僕の道 release post that I expected YouTube user airuland875 to post a video of her opening her copy of Kimi to Boku no Michi and showing us the contents soon. It’s finally up!

So for those of us who can’t get a physical copy of the album for one reason or another, here you are:

奥華子さん 7thアルバム 君と僕の道 開封動画 by airuland875 [YouTube]

Ah, a copy of Hanako to Yorimichi / 華子と寄り道 ! Also, those are some really nice photos in the booklet.

More videos of airuland875 opening Oku Hanako releases:

• Band Live Tour’11 “Cinderella”/CONCERT TOUR’12 Hikigatari ~5th Letter~ / バンドライブツアー’11 “シンデレラ”/CONCERT TOUR’12 弾き語り～5th Letter～
• Fuyu Hanabi / 冬花火

Kimi to Boku no Michi released!

Kimi to Boku no Michi / 君と僕の道 has been released! It was released a few hours ago, actually, because of time zone differences.

Kimi to Boku no Michi (CD+DVD)

Kimi to Boku no Michi (CD only)

1. Kioku / 記憶 (“memory”)
2. Period / PIRIODO / ピリオド
3. blue green
4. Fuyu Hanabi / 冬花火 (“winter fireworks”)
5. Maboroshi no Hibi / 幻の日々 (“everyday dream”)
6. Aimai na Kuchibiru / 曖昧な唇 (“vague lips”)
7. 10 Nen / 10年 (“year 10”)
8. Anata to Denwa / あなたと電話 (“phone call with you”)
9. Wedding Dress
10. Shiwakucha / しわくちゃ (“wrinkled”)
11. HIKARI (“light”)
12. Mirai Chizu / 未来地図 (“future map”)
13. Michi / 道 (“road”)

Theme changed on official site [2014-03-08]

It’s been a while since they’ve changed the whole look on Oku Hanako’s official site. The last time they changed the whole theme was sometime between June 23, 2012 and November 3, 2012. Here’s what it looks like now:

okuhanako.com homepage, 2014-03-10

Of course they used that image; after all, it is really cute….

The navigation grid on the left has a new entry: Oku Hanako’s official fan site, announced on her blog on January 25, 2014.

I was considering changing the background color of Thoughts on Oku Hanako to a similar red colour, but I couldn’t find one that I liked, and for the one that I did like, the text was hard to read. If anyone can come up with a suitable colour, please drop me a comment.

7th Album Announced! To Be Released in March

Oku Hanako just announced the release of her next album! It’s come a lot sooner than I expected; I thought it would come out sometime in October.

Cinderella / シンデレラ

Cinderella / shinderera / シンデレラ : “Cinderella”

Cinderella: Oku Hanako’s 12th single, released on January 11, 2011.　The fun and upbeat feel of this song is almost deceiving: this is a sad love song (almost made me cry reading the translation, actually; yes, there’s a translation available at the end of this post). Even Oku Hanako says so: 「歌詞は切ないけど、曲は明るく。」 (“The lyrics are sad, but the song is bright”). The speaker likens herself to Cinderella in that she had a man who truly loved her, but she still chose to break up the relationship anyway for whatever small reason (perhaps accidentally, in this case?).

シンデレラ／奥 華子 by ponycanyon [YouTube]

Quite the video, I must say. She plays the piano in the cold (her fingers got really cold) and the scenes even match up with the lyrics.

There’s a slightly different feel to it when you know what the song says (perhaps not so different if you’re already familiar with Hana-san’s style). Her tone of voice and the strings add that touch of sadness that the song conveys. On top of that, the almost-bright feel to the song can be representative of the fun times the speaker had with her lover, and may also suggest that things will work out in the future. Overall, well done!

The team involved in the Cinderella music video.