Looks like I'm one of the few who discovered her before ever knowing what Kingdom Hearts was. xD Haha.

It was late 2002, and at the time I was browsing this one site called 'Nanokiero.' Anyway that was a site that provided PVs for various Japanese artists. I was there for Do As Infinity. (still one of my fave bands by the way, eight years later <3)

Anyway, on the forums there, Utada was basically the only discussion there ever was. So naturally I decided to try her out. I downloaded the Sakura Drops PV.

... And hated it. I tried out her song First Love and hated it. Tried out Automatic and thought it was boring.

A while later I decided to give her another chance and tried out Traveling. I hated it; I thought it was horribly repetetive and obnoxious.
I tried 'Simple and Clean' and thought it was whiny and terrible and basically growled any time it was brought up.

Any site I browsed, this "overrated" artist was all that was ever talked about.

I hated her.

Four years later of very vocally hating Utada, I accidentally heard the song Sanctuary after mindlessly browsing on YouTube. I loved it. As I was listening to it, all I could think was "... Is this Utada? This is way too GOOD to be Utada! It can't be!"

Then from there, I listened to "Blue," and loved it. I loved "Making Love", and "Keep Tryin'" and so on.

I purchased the albm Ultra Blue the very next day.

Then I went back and listened to all those songs listed above, and suddenly found that I liked them all a lot.

Tadah! Fan of Utada. Took me a while, but I made it. x3

My favorite albums are Heart Station, This is the One, and Ultra Blue and Distance are tied for third place.