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"Final Distance" is a song by Japanese recording artist Hikaru Utada for her third studio album ''Deep River'' (2002). Written by Utada herself, the song was produced and composed by long-time collaborators Akira Miyake, Utada's father Teruzane Utada and herself. "Final Distance" was originally recorded as "Distance" which was taken from the album with the same name, despite not being a single. The song was re-recorded and re-arranged after Utada was aware of the young girl who was inspired by Utada, was murdered during the Osaka school massacre. Musically, "Final Distance" incorporates more instrumentation than the previous, including violins, an acoustic piano and synthesizers. The song strips the original pop music from "Distance" and is a pop ballad song. Despite being written in 2000 from the original version, Utada reflected on emotions of sorrow, pain, anger and celebration upon hearing the Osaka massacre. Utada personally dedicated the track to six-year old student Rena Yamashita who, being a fan of Utada and written an essay about her, was murdered during the event. "Final Distance" received praised reception from most music critics, who praised the re-arrangement and favored this version, although some critics felt the song was inferior to her past ballad tracks. Critics have cited the track as an album and one of Utada's career highlights. Commercially, "Final Distance" stalled at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart, making it her first single to have missed the top spot. The song also resulted in being her lowest selling physical singles at the time but was surpassed by her 2004 single "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro". An accompanying music video was shot by her then-husband Kazuaki Kiriya, featuring two versions of Utada inside a Utopian-inspired city with ballet dancers and a gothic-like orchestra. The song has been performed on her ''Utada United 2006'' tour and has been featured on a MTV Unplugged appearance in 2002. ==Background== During her four year career since her 1998 debut with her single "Automatic", Utada's status as a Japanese singer and producer was enormous and had benefited with strong sales around Japan. Her first two singles since her debut; "Automatic" and "Movin' On Without You" sold over one million units in Japan, with the first selling over two million. The parent album ''First Love'' eventually became the highest selling Japanese album of all time, exceeding sales of more than 7.6 million units in Japan and was certified octuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipments of eight million units; the album eventually sold an additional three million worldwide, totaling to 10 million sales. By the end of the year, Utada was rank number 5 on a Japanese radio station Tokio Hot 100 Airplay's ''Top 100 Artists of the 20th Century'' by the station and its listeners. After having a two year break from the public, her second studio album ''Distance'' (2000) became another success in Japan and sold over four million units in Japan. The album was backed by the singles "Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)", "For You" / "Time Limit" and "Can You Keep a Secret?", with nearly all the singles achieving over one million sales in Japan. On that album, she recorded "Distance" which contained the same lyrical content as "Final Distance" but the arrangement was handled by Utada and Japanese composer Kei Kawano. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Final Distance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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