Onitsuka Chihiro
Both relaxing and absorbing, her smooth voice seems to come right from her heart and goes straight to yours. Knowing when to use a clean voice or pour emotion into it at the right moment is part of the art of singing and sometimes you can tell when such a thing comes naturally. This is definitely the case here. Jane-of-all-trades, she is also a superb lyric and music writer and also handles the guitar when required.
For Chihiro, words are the focal point of her songs and she makes it a rule of thumb to always concentrate on them before the music. Trust me, it shows; rare are the repeated clichés about old boyfriends but instead we discover new facets of her personality and past with every creation. Fortunately, there is no laxity in the music department since the simple yet beautiful melodies used as complements to her prose add greatly to the air. Her songs sometimes appear repetitive but this impression comes from the almost exclusive use of piano, violins and vocals. Digging a bit deeper shows Chihiro is far from monotonous. In fact, she does a great job in keeping everything diversified while retaining a similar atmosphere throughout her albums. The beauty of it all? She is doing what she loves and works very hard to contribute to the music scene in her own personal way.
Since she had a fascination for English but hardly knew a word of it, she could only do covers of American and British songs while clumsily trying to write her own. She later learned the true beauty of her native language but it was one of such covers that got her the first place at an audition by Virgin Records. The hundreds of scribbles in her notebook eventually formed Insomnia which was an unexpected mega-hit due to the use of her second single, Gekou, as the closing theme for the Japanese drama Trick. Chihiro's latest album is called Sugar High and was a major bestseller. Do not be fooled by the small amount of tracks; with only one exception, all songs on Sugar High are well over four minutes and this album is clearly up to par with her previous works. Sign, Beautiful Fighter, Iihi Tabidachi Nishi e, Watashi to Waltz wo... the album containing all these 2003 singles was due in March with a compilation of singles but all we saw was the compilation. Months later and still no word of Chihiro. Scared? You should be. I know I am.
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This Armor
Perhaps gained with experience, This Armor is a bit more complete than her debut album, Insomnia, and has slightly deeper lyrics. Including Infection, Ibara no Umi and Ryuuseigun the former doesn't rely as much on one hit as did her first album with Gekkou, which even has two versions of the said song. Sugar High is a very good one, as well, and I enjoy it a bit more every day.
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Why Infection?
Oh man, this begins as a pleasant but mundane Onitsuka song, but gradually builds up tension and culminates in an ending that shows how emotionally driven this vocalist truly is. She also goes into much lower tones in this piece and pulls them off with aplomb. | ||
Official Site: http://www.melodystar.com/onitsuka/ (Tip: use AltaVista's Babel Fish translator) | |||
Be on the lookout for this rising star. With only three albums of about ten songs each, Onitsuka Chihiro seems to have been singing all her life, as I am sure she has. I first discovered her by accident while looking for some information on the Japanese animation Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. It only took a few samples to know how enjoyable her style was. 
As with the vast majority of solo artists, everything revolves around the vocals. The most beautiful voice is useless if it sounds too much like all the others. Onitsuka Chihiro excels in that sense; her voice is both shy and a bit raw even if she can reach incredibly high and low tones. She also steers clear of the pop-idol trends currently raging in Japan and neither sounds nor looks anything like a carbon copy of some of the anonymous J-Pop stars out there. It is that same rawness that also gives her songs a more genuine feel, making most of her melancholic compositions an intense listening experience yet all the while comforting and pleasing. 
Onitsuka Chihiro grew up with parents who loved American music. Listening to it day and night, she, herself, discovered a passion for music without being able to express it concretely until the day she got her hands on the single You Were Meant for Me by American artist Jewel Kilcher. From that moment on, she knew what she wanted to do: write and interpret songs. She just did not know where to start. 
A big fan of American recording artist Jewel, Onitsuka Chihiro was encouraged to become a singer and song writer while still in high school. After graduation in 1999, she moved from Miyazaki-pref to Tokyo to begin working as a professional singer/song writer. During that year, she reportedly wrote 60 songs in a 6 month period.
Chihiro quickly got a record deal with Melody Star and her debut came in February 2000, with her first single "Shine". Her second single "Gekkou" ("the moonlight" in English), was selected as the closing theme song for Trick, a dorama, which got her more attention. Onitsuka continued to release singles until March 7th 2001 when her long awaited first album "Insomnia" was released. This album hit record sales, selling 1,300,000 copies in two months. No doubt the public was captivated by her beautiful voice. Her fanbase spans a wide generation of ages, ranging from ten-year-olds to those in their sixties and even seventies. The one thing they all have in common is a love for this dynamic young songstress.
Chihiro's career has been somewhat on hold lately after a label shake-up that caused split from Virgin Tokyo / Toshiba EMI (she left Melody Star in 2002) and arranger Haketa Takefumi. The result is a clear change of direction, going one step further than the jangly pop of previous singles "Sign" and "Beautiful Fighter". Her first single since the split, "Sodatsu Zasso" (Growin' Weeds) released on A&M / Universal Music in October 2004, has a more heavy sound. It seems the gentle, passionate balladeer has gone rock and roll. After it’s hard and heavy opening salvo, the pace dips slightly (a la Smells Like Teen Spirit) before a gradual build up to an almost punk-ish ending. It’s really stirring stuff, as she informs us that she is "dead like a dog without a home". One can definitely sense this song is about the frustration she has had recently in her career with the split and label issues. She also needed a throat operation and time off to rest. Time will tell us if this is a permanent change of direction or one mad burst of frustration.
The second track on the "Sodatsu Zasso" single, called "Rainman", is one of the growing list of songs written and performed in English. This track sees Ms. Onitsuka alone on the piano, itself a change of direction. It may be the first time she has performed the music herself on any of her tracks (yet another reason for the split with Haketa, perhaps).
On December 1st 2004, her old label released the complete clips, a DVD with all her PVs done during her Melody Star / Virgin Tokyo / Toshiba EMI days. It reached #9 on the Oricon DVD charts, which is pretty impressive since the list apparently includes all DVD releases (movies, etc). The same day also saw the release of the ultimate collection, a CD containing remastered versions of her hits. It also sold very well and reached #3 on the Oricon album charts for the week of December 10th.
