Watch the 2021 edition of Hikaru Utada's Live Top Fan Picks before it gets 'archived'

Y'all. I don't know why I'm even posting this second round of Hikaru Utada's Live Top Fan Picks, because this damn video will stupidly only be available for a limited time. So by this time next year, the video in this post will be dead. Hikaru's team says they're archiving it, which in Japan means deleting. But here I am posting the shit anyway. Better to enjoy it whilst it's here than not at all, right?

Whilst it is great to see some of these performances on YouTube in an official capacity, given how difficult some of them are to even find, the breadth of performances is still pretty narrow.

Whilst the 2020 Live Top Fan Picks seemed to be more of a case of moving through Hikaru Utada's career, 2021's selections seem to a case of showcasing the range of Hikaru's music. Hikaru Utada's sound has become so broad and nebulous to a point that I think even us fans forget it, because we're so used to it. But Hikaru really has run the gamut of sounds throughout their career. And then when you throw live renditions of some of these songs into the mix, where they are sometimes transformed into something different - Hikaru's range of sound becomes far broader still.

I do wish that these picks included some of Hikaru's televised performance. I imagine that the reason why we will never get them is because the networks that broadcasted the performances own the rights to them. But if anybody can wrangle a deal, it's Hikaru's team. I know Teruzane's got some contacts to make it happen. Hikaru performed so many unique versions of her classics and gave a bunch of performances of songs from Fantome in 2016, but they were all on television shows. And because of that, they aren't on DVD's, they aren't on streaming services and because Japan likes to 'archive', they aren't anywhere on YouTube or any online video services. Bitch. Not even Youku.

So if Hikaru Utada's team decide to do this shit again next year, I'mma need to see some televised performances. The world needs to be reminded of that performance of "Automatic" with THE legend Oda Kazumasa, and the wig snatch that was their NHK Songs of Tokyo performance of "Tomodachi" that was so good that I can't even listen to the album version of that song because of it.



On a COMPLETLEY different note, but an important one, this week was non-binary visibility week. And I came across a really cool post on Instagram which gives some key, points on what it means to be non-binary.

📷 A lot more people would identify as non-binary if understood what it meant | via mattxiv on Instagram

I'd seen a really dumb discussion in the comments of a blog concerning Hikaru Utada's coming out as non-binary which was just...dumb. The exchanges were completely misinformed from a bunch of people who were were just ignorant. Not understanding something is 100% fine. We're all here in this universe growing and learning every day. And there will be things that we'll never fully understand. But you don't always have to understand something to be understanding. Taking what you don't know and just being toxic with it, is a mess. We should always be willing to educate ourselves and be open. So if you would like a crash course in what being non-binary means for either yourself or for others, I recommend clicking the link above and passing it around.