is the 27th single by Japanese entertainer

Noriko Sakai is a Japanese singer and actress. Under her former stage name , Sakai released her first single, on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. She is particularly popular in Hong Kong ...

. Written by Emi Makiho and

Tetsurō Oda is a Japanese composer, record producer, and singer-songwriter. Oda is the third best-selling composer in the history of the Japanese singles chart, with over 40 million units being sold. Biography Between years 1978-1979, he was member of th ...

, the single was released on May 10, 1995, by

Victor Entertainment is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...

Background and release

"Aoi Usagi" was used as the opening theme of the

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televisio ...

drama series '' Heaven's Coin'', which also starred Sakai. According to lyricist Makiho, she won a competition to write lyrics for Oda's composition to match the ''

Grimms' Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (, , commonly abbreviated as ''KHM''), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm, first publish ...

''-influenced theme of the drama. "Aoi Usagi" peaked at No. 5 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

's singles chart. It sold over 997,000 copies and was certified Double Platinum by the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

, becoming the biggest-selling single in her career. The song was also ranked No. 1 downloaded song on the iTunes Store in 2009 before her drug scandal with her then-husband Yūichi Takasō prompted Victor to withdraw all of her media from stores. The music video features Sakai performing

Japanese Sign Language , also known by the acronym JSL, is the dominant sign language in Japan and is a complete natural language, distinct from but influenced by the spoken Japanese language. Population There are 304,000 Deaf and Hard of Hearing people who are abov ...

while singing the song, as she played a deaf and mute girl in ''Hoshi no Kinka''. She did a similar performance on the 46th ''

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

'' in 1995, her first and only appearance on

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

's New Year's Eve special. Makiho self-covered the song on her 1996 album ''Aromatister'' while Oda covered it on his 2006 cover album ''Melodies''. Sakai re-recorded the song as the B-side of her 2007 single " Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto". In 2014, Sakai recorded a Chinese-language version of the song, titled "Jìmò de xiǎo bì tù" (寂寞的小碧兔); this version is included in her 2016 compilation album '' The Best Exhibition: Noriko Sakai 30th Anniversary Best Album''. In October 2021, Sakai re-recorded the song and placed an

NFT A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

of it and promo photos on auction to promote the fourth season of the drama series ''Producer K'', which marked her first drama appearance in eight years.

Track listing

Charts

Certification

Cover versions

* McKee covered the song in

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

as "Ako Ay Maghihintay" on their 1996 self-titled album, released exclusively in the Philippines. *

Marie Miyake is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She is affiliated with Raccoon Dog (:ja:ラクーンドッグ, Japanese Wiki). Voice roles Bold ''denotes leading roles.'' Anime ;2007 *''Gakuen Utopia Manabi Str ...

(as Nana Abe) covered the song on the 2013 soundtrack album '' The IdolM@ster Cinderella Master Cute Jewelries! 001''. *

Nanase Aikawa is a Japanese singer. She publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group. Biography Early life She was born in Higashiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, Japan on February 16, 1975. Throughout her school years, Nanase had sung and p ...

covered the song on the 2015 tribute album ''Treasure Box: Tetsurō Oda Songs''.

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 1995 singles 1995 songs Songs written by Tetsurō Oda Japanese television drama theme songs Victor Entertainment singles