Make Believe Bonus: SCIENCE FICTION

25 years And Traveling

As a physical item and moment in their career, Hikaru Utada’s SCIENCE FICTION is a best-of collection. Here’s the hits from across the J-pop titan’s 25 years in the game, from record-breaking singles released as an adolescent to recent explorations of maturity. One could easily point at this tracklist and say “yep, these are the hits,” or present this as a gateway into the catalog of one of Japan’s most important artists ever.

Yet within the timeline of their artistic career, SCIENCE FICTION serves as a natural next step. After the reckoning of Fantôme, the bargaining of Hatsukoi and the acceptance of BAD MODE comes a look backward. It isn’t simple nostalgia or even curiosity, but an opportunity to revisit with newfound wisdom in tow. Nobody can ever make sense of their life in the moment…sometimes it takes time before certain periods make sense. Not many of us get a chance to play around with the markers of those times.