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Yeah I saw the CBS performance. It wasn't my favorite. She was very thin and fatigued back then. You can tell she was stressed out.

I don't think she smokes. She said in one of the recent interviews that she doesn't smoke, she only took a puff? Let's hope that's true. Smoking can be really bad for her voice, not to mention her lifespan.

The CBS performance kinda scared me a little. It was my first time watching her perform this badly. It wasn't REALLY REALLY bad but we all know her live performances before the CBS were great. Come Back To Me was performed so badly during one of the parts, I was a bit taken aback.

I remember her saying her voice became or got damaged because of the vocal technique she was trying for UU06. :(

I think her voice strained DUE to Utada United.That was a lot of emotional stress she was touring on :/ If it effected her anyways.Also she had there is that time where she performed in that hall made of pine was it?Well she is allergic to it.This coupled with the surgery she had to get when she was younger I think it's not too surprising that some strain would set in.Let alone if she smokes :/ Stephen Jenkins smokes too I think but Ursa Major sounds might fine to me.


Edit:You know what?If Hikki said "I'm retiring." and then gave us a L.A.,NY,Tokyo and Yokohama(or Osaka,but that's place is CRAZY right now) performance schedule as a last tour then I'd be happy.TiTO isn't my least favorite album despite what I've said before.First Love probably is.I think all the songs are good but I love only 1 song on it.TiTO I love 3 :/ I think it is alright to end on this album.It did great in Japan :/

As we can see from the videos, her ethereal voice quality from her deep river and distance era seem to be the best such as ETERNALLY, FINAL DISTANCE, LETTERS, etc. It degraded during her ultra blue era wherein the highest and finest vocals can be heard only in COLORS and BLUE. It aggravated during her HEART STATION era wherein the only ethereal song she recorded was FLAVOR OF LIFE & STAY GOLD(stay gold seemed to be mastered only on CD recording) :{

Her voice strained a lot after utada united.

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I agree with a_kikoo. Who am I to say tell Hikki to keep working just to satisfy myself? How can you blame the woman for wanting to take a break for a while? She's been one of the biggest stars in Japan for the last decade! With all this talk of retirement, a lot of people on this forum are too pessimistic and jump to conclusions WAY too fast. Let her have her break. It's not like she's doing absolutely nothing; she posted that she's in the studio...

I don't think her voice changed due to smoking and drinking either. I knew she liked drinking from years ago, didn't know about the smoking though. I wasnt surprised since everyone in japan smokes. But she said that she gets similar symptoms of the sickness once or twice a year. And I believe a surgery was reccommended? So I would think after a while of that repetitive sickness, her throat would be damaged. She needs a lot of rest. She's been working hard these past 10 years. And I dont think she's had much time to herself.
Then again, that's what I think.
I believe she will continue to produce good music. As her fans, we have to always be there supporting her. She'll resume her work eventually. Music is in her blood. Who knows, she may return to us with a surprise.

I wouldn't think that her sickness was "planned", If u catch those live performance on CBTM and FYI aired on CBS morning show, she's really struggling with her voice... she preferred to use her normal talking voice instead, which i think is less taxing on her vocal chords. And when she does use her diaphragm to sing, its kinda tight.

I do agree with shurikid, it really depends too on the kind of song she sings live, most of her Flavor of Life performance are quite good, despite being so called "after excessive smoking and drinking". infact, she already liked alcohol during her be my last days (seen from smap x smap bistro)...

Utada's retirement won't be in the near future i suppose, although ghostdog u mention that she keeps bringing up the word "retire" in the hawaii interview. Retiring is always wat working people think, like the end of their career. Its always easy to promise something before retirement. Anyway "hoping to make a cover CD, where the artists she mentioned are not even japanese... and then hoping to have some live performance in the US, and hinting that if she will, it would be something awesome" means she at least still have the heart to keep moving on in the US. Well i do think jim jam is right about her feeling bored with making music, which is why the cover CD... hahahaha. After 10 years of rigorous work... maybe she is... but music is in her blood!!! she will do something that's somehow related to it anyhow

Hikki kinda likes to take things easy though. I remember her saying that she doesn't like to plan stuff, cos u'll never know what would happen next. Like in this TiTo case, she didn't expect her sickness to come at such timing, which then lose her momentum... and she goes like, "oh well i didn't really plan anything big at 1st anyway. Let it be then... might as well take the chance and rest, and come back again another time " Well, she could since she's still so young, and she's a smart girl alright!

I'm with Ghostdog here. I was watching some older clips for some reason, and WOW could she EVER sing live back in the day. I was saying that she sounded EXACTLY like her CDs. That's no reasy feat! But not these days -

Smoking is bad for you Hikaru. *slaps nose with rolled newspaper* BAD BAD!

From a selfish fan perspective, less smoking, less drinking, less partying, more work.

But as a fellow human being, she can do whatever she wants. Skydive naked into the Sea of Japan for frak's sake.

If she releases a good product, I'll buy it. I bought TITO because it wasn't half-bad. But it wasn't great either.

JimJam is sadly right. A TITO single is about as likely as an EXODUS one at this date. "Timing" is a really relevant point. I don't at all buy the 'illness' excuse, as she took the effort to dissapear without trace for months. It seems as though promo was cancelled and dried up, or she just gave up. "I'm rich enough already - ", "I don't do small-time.", "I miss sleeping with Kuma-chang.", "I needa drink or two (or sixteen)."

I fear that the 'heyday' of being a Hikki fan is over.