"Frienger" (フレンジャー; Furenjā) is

Ai Otsuka is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Suminoe-ku, Osaka, Japan. She is a popular artist on the Avex Trax label and is best known for her 2003 hit " Sakuranbo", which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 103 weeks. A piano player ...

's 11th single under the

avex trax is a record label owned by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Inc. The label was launched in September 1990, and was the first label by the Group. History Two years after Max Matsuura began a career distributing studio albums from othe ...

label and her first of three singles in 2006. "Frienger" is a catchy, upbeat song. The title is actually a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words "Friend" and "Ranger". The song was used in the CM for au mobile service and was the theme song for the television program "Sports Uruguzu". The B-side track, "Amai Kimochi Maru Kajiri", was used in a Music.jp CM. The music video for the song was filmed in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. "Frienger" debuted at #2 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart with 70,414 copies sold. It maintained high sales for the following two weeks and sold a total of 173,115 copies in 2006. "Frienger" was Otsuka's best-selling single of 2006 and the 60th best-selling single of 2006 overall. It is currently her fourth best-selling single.

Track listing

Live performances

*3 April 2006 – Hey! Hey! Hey! Special *15 April 2006 – Music Fighter *21 April 2006 – Music Station *22 April 2006 – CDTV *1 May 2006 – PopJam DX *29 December 2006 – Sakigake Ongaku Banzuke - "Frienger" + " Ren'ai Shashin" *1 January 2007– CDTV - "Frienger" + " Ren'ai Shashin"

Charts

Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

References

{{authority control 2006 singles 2006 songs Ai Otsuka songs Avex Trax singles Songs written by Ai Otsuka