Hamasaki goes global with Dragonball

Hamasaki in Popteen 2002

Despite the fact that this year is not yet over, Ayumi Hamasaki has already got huge plans for 2009. The popular diva has landed her biggest gig in her musical career. She been given the honor to create and sing the theme song for the upcoming Dragonball live-action movie, “Dragonball: Evolution“.

The Hollwood movie is based on the popular manga “Dragonball“, which was created by Akira Toriyama. The manga series has sold around 350 million copies worldwide. It was reported that the production costs for the movie were over US$100,000,000. The movie will be screened in Japan on March 13th and shall be released in America in April.

The theme song, which is already completed, is called “Rule“. This song is described to be a powerful rock number and it was sung in Japanese. Until now, no release date has been revealed. The movie shall be screened in over 60 countries and therefore the song shall be distributed worldwide. Therefore this shall be Hamasaki’s first international break.

According to “The Sports Nippon” the director, James Wong is a big fan of Hamasaki’s music and he is familiar to her discography. He personally requested Fox to offer Hamasaki the opportunity to land this gig and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Wong felt that since the manga was born in Japan, a Japanese person should sing the theme song. It is quite rare for a Japanese artist to be given the opportunity to sing for an international movie. For Hamasaki, it shall also be her first time to produce a song for a non-Japanese movie.

Hamasaki had completed the song on December 7th and she announced this on her official Team Ayu blog. On the same day, the song was sent to America. On the 10th of December the news was first announced on Sanspo“. The lyrics were penned by Hamasaki, Miki Watanabe composed the song and H/\L was in charge of the arrangement of the song. Hamasaki wrote the lyrics, after reading the screenplay and she based the lyrics on her impression of the protagonist.

Since 2006, Hamasaki has gradually started to extend her activities outside Japan. She surprised her fans by speaking a few sentences in English on CNN Talkasia and she mentioned how she is willing to go anywhere if people are willing to listen to her. In the following couple of years, Hamasaki extended her arena tour to Asia, which proved to be a huge success. After being offered this huge opportunity, Hamasaki mentioned in her blog how she might attempt to make a worldwide debut.

Needless to say, Hamasaki is also quite excited and enthusiastic. She has mentioned how honored she feels, especially since she used to love Dragonball. In an official comment, Hamasaki was quoted to say,

“I hope both old and new fans of ‘Dragonball’ throughout the world will enjoy the film.”

It is questionable to predict the magnitude of exposure she will receive from this collaboration. Nonetheless, this is an excellent opportunity for Hamasaki and this will definitely give her a certain level of global exposure. Furthermore “Rule” will definitely top the charts once again in Japan and there is a high possibility that “Rule” shall become another huge hit.

Sources:

• Anime News Network
• The Sports Nippon
• Sanspo
• Tokyograph
• Japan Zone
• Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai
• Team Ayu

Special thanks goes to Delirium-Zer0, who translated Ayumi’s entries from her Team Ayu blog.

About the author

Rinoa enjoys spending her free time writing articles, most particularly reviews, biographies and news articles. Her favourite artist is Ayumi Hamasaki but she enjoys listening to a wide range of musical talents from all over the world.