HIMEKA Thus Far: Asue no Kizuna and Hatenaki Michi Singles (Review)

Remember HIMEKA? She’s a French-Canadian singer who’s making it big in Japan. Sony Music Entertainment Japan has announced that her first full-length album will be released in March of this year (a cover album, apparently), so we thought it’d be a good time to look at her two singles thus far: Asue no Kizuna (Bonds of Tomorrow) and Hatenaki Michi (Endless Road).

Each single has an additional B-side, making for 4 tracks totaling close to 20 minutes of music. Despite the sparse selection of tracks, HIMEKA has already displayed a lot of versatility, venturing into rock and love ballads, and all in pretty convincing Japanese. And I must mention that “Asue no Kizuna” is the theme song for the Valkyria Chronicles anime.

Read on for our reviews of HIMEKA’s first two singles.

Let’s start with the Asue no Kizuna single since it was her debut. I must say that of the music HIMEKA has released thus far, “Asue no Kizuna” is probably her best. There’s some pretty standard alternative J-rock stuff going on throughout most of it, but what really makes it is the powerful orchestral backing. Strings and piano lend an epic edge to the track, making it stand out. The album’s B-side, “Sayonara Solitaire” is a strict ballad, featuring only HIMEKA’s voice and a lovely piano backing. As it turns out, this track is a cover of the Chrono Crusade ending theme originally sung by Saeko Chiba.

While her second single, Hatenaki Michi, isn’t nearly as epic, it has definitely grown on me (is it just me, or is the album cover (bottom right) reminiscent of “One Winged Angel?”). “Hatenaki Michi” itself is the ending theme for Tegami Bachi, and slowly builds from just HIMEAKI’s voice and droning strings to add some snappy electronic percussion, synths, and piano that create a smooth atmosphere. Eventually chugging electric guitars and strings join in as the piece ascends to even greater heights. This track has a great melody, but there are perhaps too many conflicting ideas going on here as the track transitions from mellow portions to heavier, rock-oriented ones. The B-side, “Sora wa Oshiete Kureru” (“The Sky Will Let Me Know”) provides some standard J-rock. I do enjoy the highs that HIMEKA is able to hit, and the guitar solo towards the end is quite nice, but this one doesn’t stand out a whole lot. Those who pick up the limited edition of Hatenaki Michi will also get the “Hatenaki Michi (Anime Edit)” as a bonus.

Well, there you have it. HIMEKA will have her first album out in a couple months, but in the meantime, you can check out her Asue no Kizuna single at Play-Asia or CD Japan and her Hatenaki Michi single at CD Japan. If you had to pick one, I’d recommend checking out Asue no Kizuna first as it’s the better of the two.

Have you been following HIMEKA or any of the anime series that her music has been featured in? Will you be looking into her album release in March?