Kimi no Hana / キミの花

Kimi no Hana / キミの花: “Your Flower”

kimi / キミ

“you”. Written out in katakana, possibly for stress (i.e. “your flower” as opposed to “your flower“)

no / の

A particle indicating possession. Roughly equivalent to “of”.

hana / 花

“flower”

Oku Hanako’s new double A-side single, Kimi no Hana/Saigo no Kiss / キミの花／最後のキス has been released!

I’ve taken a listen to the songs on the single and it seems to be a bit of a departure from her usual style. If you’ve heard the TV size version of Kimi no Hana from either Seiren or the short music videos, you’ll know that the song features the piano less prominently and takes on a more rock style. I’ll briefly discuss my opinion on the other two songs afterwards.

I was going to publish this post yesterday, but I figured you wouldn’t mind the wait if it were to provide a good translation. I found a translation by Nakari Amane, but it needed so much editing that I ended up just making my own. My translation is available below, and my translation notes are available. As this is my first complete translation of a song, any corrections are appreciated.

Here’s the music video:

HO – KnH by Aysohmay [Dailymotion]

I’m actually okay with this. I still prefer her older piano works wish she would do more of that style, but I don’t think I’d complain too much if we got more of this. Although it’s not prominent, if you listen closely, the piano is still an important part of the song, where instead of the piano being singled out as being the more important instrument (other than the part after the pre-chorus), it works together with the others to create a beautiful song. The more I listen to this song, the more I appreciate it.

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Kimi no Hana / キミの花 single short MVs released

I’m going to save my thoughts for the actual release date (February 22), but for those who want to be teased a little, Pony Canyon released the short versions of the music videos and a 60-second digest PV of Oku Hanako’s upcoming double A-side single Kimi no Hana/Saigo no Kiss / キミの花／最後のキス yesterday.

I’ll start with the 60-second digest:

奥華子『キミの花／最後のキス』６０秒ダイジェスト映像 by ponycanyon [YouTube]

Kimi no Hana / キミの花:

キミの花／奥華子（Short Ver.) by ponycanyon [YouTube]

And lastly, Saigo no Kiss / 最後のキス:

最後のキス／奥華子（Short Ver.) by ponycanyon [YouTube]

Here’s hoping they release the full versions on the release date.

Track list for Kimi no Hana / キミの花

The track list for Oku Hanako’s upcoming single, Kimi no Hana / キミの花, was announced on Oku Hanako’s blog earlier this week! It turns out that it’ll be another double A-side single, with the other song being Saigo no Kiss / 最後のキス (“Last Kiss”).

There will be two editions of this single: a Seiren edition and a regular edition. I wondered why the Seiren edition will be cheaper when it was first announced, and apparently it won’t have the third track.

Here’s the track list:

1. Kimi no Hana / キミの花 (“Your Flower”)
2. Saigo no Kiss / 最後のキス (“Last Kiss”)
3. Tsumiki / 積木 (“Building Blocks”)

Do any of these songs pop out at you? If you’re familiar with Oku-san’s more obscure works, Tsumiki / 積木 should. Tsumiki was released on Oku Hanako’s first indies release, the 2000 mini album Ai no Shizuku / 愛のしずく. The original was just her singing with a drum accompaniment. Later preformances purpotedly had a piano accompaniment. I predict this arrangement will have both, possibly with electric guitars. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing this one.

As for the main song, Kimi no Hana, we have the TV edit available to us. After all, it’s being used as the OP for Seiren.

Seiren OP[“Kimi no Hana (キミの花)” by Hanako Oku] by Rin Eleksra [YouTube]

The song is very unique in her discography. It’s the only song that I know of that is restricted to a rock band arrangement (keyboard, guitar, bass, drums). Like Ai to Iu Takaramono / 愛という宝物 from her last single, it seems the keyboard is no longer the featured instrument.

There are translations on Lyrical Nonsense and Dreamsland Lyrics. There’s also a translation in GJH’s fansub release of the anime.

According to the Pony Canyon announcement, Saigo no Kiss will be like an opposite to Kimi no Hana. It will be a “broken heart” ballad with grand strings and dramatic heartfelt singing. I’m not sure what to make of that, but I’m looking forward to hearing it.

If I’ve interpreted this correctly, this cover art is only for the digital release of “TV size” release of Kimi no Hana, available on iTunes and Rekochoku:

Kimi no Hana (TV size) cover art

If that’s the case, I expect the cover art for the February 22 release to come out in a few weeks.