Beautiful World
"Beautiful World" debuted on the radio and was released as a ringtone on July 23, 2007. The song is now available on CD and as a digital download from the Japanese iTunes Store. The song was originally planned to have a June/July release, however, early feedback for it had been quite positive. Sanspo.com describes the song as an "upbeat yet sad song" that fits Eva quite well. Another earlier listener, the writer of the official Eva blog, was also quite impressed with the song. A preview of the song was released on her official webpage. It has had a very positive reaction by most all of her fans, and has an extremely experimental and up-tempo tone in the vein of many tracks from her then-latest Japanese studio release Ultra Blue. "Beautiful World" has been immensely successful in the Japanese download market for ringtones and full songs, reaching #1 on virtually every chart it appeared on, and has also outplaced "Kiss & Cry" on every Airplay chart that either have charted on. It hit #1 on the prestigious MTV Japanese chart and the CDTV Top 100 chart. According to the Best Top Sellers 2007 iTunes Japan, "Beautiful World" was the third most downloaded song in Japan.
The promotional video (PV) for "Beautiful World" is a montage of its Evangelion tie-in. For many, this PV has been a point of contention since Utada does not appear in the PV.
The lyrics of the song offer insight into the female singer's feelings, implied to be Misato Katsuragi but could also fit Rei Ayanami, for protagonist Shinji Ikari over the course of the film. "Beautiful World" is played during the ending credits of the film, preceding the preview for the then-upcoming second Rebuild of Evangelion film, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. It also features on preview clips of the first film.
The song was remade in 2009 for the second Rebuild film, as Beautiful World: Planitb Acoustica Mix. It was released as a digital download on June 28, 2009. Utada worked with Russell McNamara, who had previously made remixes of her songs Distance, Traveling, Hikari and Simple and Clean between 2001–2002. The song did well on charts. It reached #8 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, and #1 on iTunes' Japan Top Songs and at Recochoku. The song also had a physical release, appearing on the first disc of Utada's second Japanese compilation album, Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 in 2010.
Read more about this topic: Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry
Famous quotes containing the words beautiful and/or world:
“Our bread need not ever be sour or hard to digest. What Nature is to the mind she is also to the body. As she feeds my imagination, she will feed my body; for what she says she means, and is ready to do. She is not simply beautiful to the poet’s eye. Not only the rainbow and sunset are beautiful, but to be fed and clothed, sheltered and warmed aright, are equally beautiful and inspiring. There is not necessarily any gross and ugly fact which may not be eradicated from the life of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I fancy we are almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their while.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)