Hikaru Utada’s new ending theme for "Chibi Maruko-chan", "PAPPAPARADISE", will be released digitally on May 6th, and a pre-release campaign is currently ongoing.
Hikaru Utada’s new song PAPPAPARADISE, their first new release in a year, is set to hit digital platforms on May 6th.
As previously reported, the song will serve as the ending theme to long-running anime series "Chibi Maruko-chan", a show airing every Sunday night in Japan. The music for PAPPAPARADISE aims to match the upbeat mood of the
show.
Following its debut on the "Chibi Maruko-chan" spring special broadcast on March 29th, the ending sequence featuring PAPPAPARADISE is now available on YouTube.
A pre-release campaign for PAPPAPARADISE launched on April 5th, and will run until 23:59 JST on May 5th. Fans who participate via iTunes pre-order will be entered into a lottery, with 100 winners receiving an original eraser. In addition,
all participants who pre-order via iTunes or pre-save the track on Apple Music, Spotify, or Amazon Music will receive an original wallpaper image. Details are available at the campaign page.
In conjunction with the campaign launch, selected audio
from PAPPAPARADISE has been made available on TikTok and Instagram.
For fans in Japan, PAPPAPARADISE has also been selected as the theme for a new commercial campaign for green tea brand Ayataka, which will begin airing nationwide from April 6th. This marks the third consecutive year that Utada has contributed
a song to Ayataka’s commercials, following traveling (Re-recording) and Mine or Yours.
Hikaru Utada commented:
"I got to know “Chibi Maruko-Chan” when I was 9, the same age as her. I’d just moved back
to Tokyo from New York, and the manga and TV series brought me closer to what every day life is like in Japan while it told of universal feelings we all share no matter where you live. It was unlike anything I’d come across, with its dry humor and warmth,
and soon I was a fan of the author, Momoko Sakura.
I grew up reading her very popular essays, and not long after I debuted I was surprised and delighted to see my name mentioned in her writing. Now that I’ve experienced more in life and even became a mother to a boy, like she was, I feel so fortunate
to be offered the opportunity to make the ending theme song for this show.
The subtlety of social interactions and their awkwardness, the inner world of a sensitive child and her imperfect family, the chaos and embarrassment of the human experience, and the ability to have a laugh about it all… Momoko Sakura taught
me so many things.
She also wrote the most magical unhinged lyrics…I hope some of it has rubbed off on me and that my song PAPPAPARADISE carries on the spirit of her playfulness and kindness. To all the children and all of us grown up children of the
world, I hope we never forget that our spirits are free, and it’s okay to be silly and different."
The ending sequence for "Chibi Maruko-chan", featuring a "TV-size" version of PAPPAPARADISE, can be
viewed below.
