Hikari (song)

Hikari (song)

"Hikari" (Japanese: 光?, "light") is Hikaru Utada's 10th Japanese-language single (12th overall), and is also her 3rd single on the Deep River album. Its release date was March 20, 2002. It is best known as the main theme song for the Japanese release of the Square (now Square Enix) and Disney Interactive video games Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. Utada was the only singer that Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Kingdom Hearts, had in mind for the Kingdom Hearts theme song. This also marked the first time Utada had produced a song for a video game.

The English language version of the song, titled "Simple and Clean", was used in the English and Final Mix releases of Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (as the Planit B remix) and Kingdom Hearts RE: Coded. Although the two songs share a similar melody and background music, the meaning of the lyrics are changed significantly in the English version. "Simple and Clean" was also used in both Japanese and English-language releases of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Utada stated that she couldn't get the same meaning she wanted to portray in "Simple and Clean" as in "Hikari", so changed the chorus melody to the one used in "Uso Mitai na I Love You", also on the Deep River album. Both "Simple and Clean" and its remix, "Simple and Clean -PLANITb Remix-" were later released as the B-side of her single Colors.

"Hikari" was performed during Utada's two date concert series Wild Life in December 2010.