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:
“These great and beautiful ships, imperceptibly rocking like waddling ducks on tranquil waters, these robust ships, with their idle and nostalgic air, aren’t they telling us in a silent tongue: When are we leaving for happiness?”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“I had the idea that there were two worlds. There was a real world as I called it, a world of wars and boxing clubs and children’s homes on back streets, and this real world was a world where orphans burned orphans.... I liked the other world in which almost everyone lived. The imaginary world.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)