Final Distance

"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, re arranged, and dedicated to Rena Yamashita, a six year old victim of the Osaka school massacre who had written an essay about being inspired by Utada. Musically, "Final Distance" incorporates more instrumentation than the previous version, 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 the emotions of sorrow, pain, anger and celebration of life while recording the single version. "Final Distance" received positive 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 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.

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 (2001) became another success 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.

"Final Distance" was written, co composed and co produced by Utada herself, which she had done since her debut. The song was co composed and co produced by her father Teruzane Utada and long time collaborator Akira Miyake. She had managed to re record and finish the track in time. The conception of re recording "Final Distance" was due to the Osaka school massacre that took place in early June 2001. The Osaka school janitor Mamoru Takuma, armed with a kitchen knife, stabbed and killed a total of eight children, with fifteen
others being injured. Mamoru was diagnosed with severe borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder; He was later convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on September 14, 2004. One of the murdered schoolgirls, six year old Rena Yamashita, had written an essay about Utada, talking about how she wanted to become an actress and how Utada inspired her. Yamashita had won an essay competition regarding her essay about Utada. A reviewer from CDJournal had reviewed the original version "Distance" and said the song was a "positive" pop tune, commending the song's production. Another reviewer from CDJournal discussed Utada's first greatest hits compilation Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 and commended the track. The reviewer said the song was "beautiful" and "delicate", and felt the production "penetrated" well. Yonemoto Hiromi from Yeah! J Pop praised the song's "transformation" into a pop ballad. Despite Himori calling it one of "[Utada's] masterpieces", he did find Utada's new ballad focused music to be "inferior" to her previous music, citing her 1999 single "First Love" as an example. A reviewer from OngakuDB. com commented that they were "impressed" with the track, commending the "haunting atmosphere" and ballad influence. The reviewer also called it "tremendous".

"Final Distance" debuted at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart. The song was blocked from the number one position which was held by "The Peace!" by Japanese idol girl group Morning Musume. "Final Distance" stayed at number two for four consecutive weeks, while the number one spot was occupied by two songs: "Jidai" by Japanese band Arashi for the second week and "Gold" by B'z for the third and fourth week respectively. The song fell to number six in its fifth week and number ten in its sixth week. "Final Distance" resulted in being Utada's lowest selling single in physical sales until this was surpassed by her 2004 single "Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro" which only sold over 300,000 units with a double platinum certification. It was not until Utada's 2005 single "Passion" where it became Utada's lowest performing single based on both digital and physical sales, only selling 100,000 physical and digital units respectively. "Final Distance" became her first single to miss the top spot on the Oricon chart.

"Final Distance" was directed by Utada's then husband Kazuaki Kiriya and was his first directional debut for Utada's singles.

In November 2014, Universal Music Japan had announced that there would be a tribute album towards Utada's musical works and would be covered by a variety of musicians. It was then announced through AramaJapan. com that the artists had been unveiled for the project which included Japanese American singer Ai; she was revealed to have recorded "Final Distance" for Utada Hikaru no Uta, a tribute album celebrating 15 years since Utada's debut. A duet version that mixes Utada's vocals recorded in 2001 and Ai's vocals recorded in 2014 was released in Ai's collaboration collection album, The Feat. Best, released on November 2, 2016. This version has a new arrangement, closer to the original song. It was released as a preceding download from the album on December 3, 2014. The song was performed on MTV Unplugged, along with her single "First Love". Utada has played the song only on one of her concert tours, this being the Utada United 2006 tour.