Oshi-Katsu Chronicle 2003: "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana," Winter Sonata, Tenimyu, and Fans Start Blogging
In 2003, SMAP’s single “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” (“The Only Flower in the World”) passed 2 million copies sold, becoming a generational standard sung across Japan. In pro baseball, Senichi Hoshino’s Hanshin Tigers won the Central League pennant for the first time in 18 years, sending Tigers fans in Kansai and across the country into celebration.
In spring, the Korean drama Winter Sonata aired in Japan for the first time on NHK’s satellite channel, and the Prince of Tennis musical (“Tenimyu”) opened in theaters. In Tokyo’s Roppongi district, the Roppongi Hills complex opened its doors, while Bayside Shakedown 2 rewrote the all-time box-office record for a live-action Japanese film. From autumn into winter, domestic blog services launched one after another, making it easy for fans to write daily impressions on their own pages.
SMAP’s “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” Passes 2 Million, Alongside Naotaro Moriyama and Yo Hitoto
On March 5, SMAP released their 35th single, “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (Single Version).” Written and composed by singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara, the song had first appeared on the group’s 2002 album SMAP 015/Drink! Smap! before being released as a single as the theme song for the Fuji TV drama Boku no Ikiru Michi, starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. On Oricon’s weekly chart, it passed 1 million copies in its second week and topped 2 million in the issue dated August 4 (its 21st week), finishing No. 1 on the annual singles ranking (ORICON NEWS, in Japanese).
- 1 million
- Copies passed in the second week
- 2 million
- Copies passed by the 21st week
- No. 1
- On the annual singles ranking
A single kept selling from March into summer.
Source: ORICON NEWS (in Japanese)
Its lyrics comparing each person’s individuality to a flower and its simple index-finger choreography made it a staple at school chorus events and karaoke boxes alike. By 2019 it had spent a total of 184 weeks in Oricon’s weekly top 100—the longest chart run of any single—and when SMAP’s dissolution was announced in 2016, a fan buying campaign pushed cumulative sales past 3 million copies (ORICON NEWS, ORICON NEWS on 3M copies, both in Japanese).
- March 5
SMAP's "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" released
Passed 1 million copies in week 2 and 2 million in August to top the annual chart.
- March 5
Naotaro Moriyama's "Sakura (Solo)" released
Spread by word of mouth through nationwide in-store live tours to become a million-seller.
- December 31
45th Japan Record Awards
Ayumi Hamasaki's "No way to say" won a third straight Grand Prix, and Yo Hitoto took Best New Artist.
On the same day, March 5, Naotaro Moriyama released his single “Sakura (Dokusho).” Sung with soaring vocals over solo piano accompaniment, the song gained word-of-mouth acclaim through a nationwide tour of in-store performances at CD shops across Japan and kept selling well past the spring graduation season to pass 1 million copies. Yo Hitoto, who had debuted at the end of the previous year with “Morainaki” and released “Hanamizuki” the following year, and the Chinese instrumental ensemble Twelve Girls Band—twelve musicians performing pop and classical arrangements on traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu, pipa, and yangqin—also won wide support across age groups, with their debut Japanese album Beautiful Energy (Joshi Juuni Gakubou Beautiful Energy) topping 1 million copies. At the 45th Japan Record Awards on New Year’s Eve, Ayumi Hamasaki won an unprecedented third consecutive Grand Prix with her 30th single “No way to say,” and Yo Hitoto received Best New Artist (Japan Composers Association, in Japanese).
Winter Sonata Premieres on BS2, and Bayside Shakedown 2 and GOOD LUCK!! Hit Big
From April to September, the 20-episode Korean romance drama Winter Sonata, directed by Yoon Seok-ho and starring Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo, aired on NHK’s satellite channel BS2 on Thursday nights. Its pure portrayal of first love, amnesia, and fate—along with snowy scenes on Nami Island where the protagonists build a snowman and wrap a scarf around a loved one—captivated viewers in their forties and older, and letters and phone calls flooded NHK after the finale asking for a rebroadcast (Fujin Koron.jp, in Japanese).
Following a year-end marathon rebroadcast on BS2, terrestrial broadcasts on NHK General began in April 2004, turning “Yon-sama” fever and pilgrimages to Korean filming locations into a nationwide phenomenon. The 2003 satellite broadcast was the starting point of the Korean Wave in Japan, spread by viewers lending recorded VHS videotapes and DVD-Rs to family, neighbors, and friends (Fujin Koron.jp, in Japanese).
Domestic films and television dramas also produced historic hits. Released on July 19, Bayside Shakedown 2: Save the Rainbow Bridge! (Odoru Daisousasen THE MOVIE 2), starring Yuji Oda as Aoshima and Eri Fukatsu as Sumire, drew 12.6 million theater admissions and earned ¥17.35 billion at the box office. Surpassing the 1998 first film (¥10.1 billion), it stood for more than two decades as the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film of all time. On television, TBS’s Sunday drama GOOD LUCK!!, starring Takuya Kimura as commercial airline co-pilot Hajime Shinkai alongside Shinichi Tsutsumi and Kou Shibasaki and featuring Tatsuro Yamashita’s theme song “RIDE ON TIME,” reached a 37.6% finale rating in Kanto and inspired a surge of job applications across the airline industry (Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, in Japanese).
Tenimyu Opens the Door to 2.5D Theater, and Roppongi Hills Opens
On April 30, the first run of the musical The Prince of Tennis—known by its nickname “Tenimyu”—opened at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre’s Playhouse. Adapted from Takeshi Konomi’s hit Weekly Shonen Jump tennis manga, the production overcame pre-opening skepticism about bringing two-dimensional manga characters to the stage by using spotlight beams and sound effects to trace ball trajectories across the net and showcasing energetic song-and-dance performances by an all-male young cast, spreading rapidly by word of mouth so tickets became hard to get (Tenimyu official blog, in Japanese).
- April 25Roppongi Hills opens
- A vertical urban complex housing Mori Tower, the Mori Art Museum, a multiplex cinema, and TV Asahi's new headquarters.
- April 30The Prince of Tennis musical premieres
- Pioneered the culture of enjoying stage adaptations of manga, anime, and games as "2.5D musicals."
Tenimyu laid the foundation for “2.5D” theater culture—stage productions based on two-dimensional manga, anime, and video games—fostering the habit of attending multiple performances of the same run (tasute) and cheering both the original character and the young actor embodying that role on stage.
Five days earlier, on April 25, the Roppongi Hills complex opened in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Centered on the 54-story, 238-meter Roppongi Hills Mori Tower with the Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View observation deck on its upper floors, the 11.6-hectare site brought together the Virgin Cinemas Roppongi Hills (later TOHO Cinemas) multiplex, TV Asahi’s new headquarters in glass-walled Atrium space, and Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider sculpture Maman, becoming a busy hub for film stage greetings, red-carpet premieres, exhibitions, and summer television festivals (Mori Building, in Japanese).
Summer Sonic Sells Out for the First Time, and Fullmetal Alchemist Airs
At Summer Sonic 03 on August 2 and 3, tickets sold out completely at both the Tokyo and Osaka venues for the first time. Headlined by the British rock bands Radiohead and Blur, the Makuhari Messe venue placed the “SONIC STAGE” for overseas acts and the “FACTORY STAGE” for domestic acts facing each other so sets alternated without overlap (Summer Sonic official site, in Japanese).
SONIC stage
- Radiohead and Blur as main acts
- Sets alternate with the other stage
FACTORY stage
- ORANGE RANGE and ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION
- Young bands heard the same day
Tickets sold out for the first time on August 2 and 3.
Appearing on the FACTORY STAGE were Okinawa band ORANGE RANGE, who had just broken through with their July 16 single “Shanghai Honey,” and ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION. In the visual kei scene, NIGHTMARE made their major debut in August with “-Believe-,” and Dir en grey released their album VULGAR in September (ORANGE RANGE official site, About NIGHTMARE, Dir en grey’s releases, all in Japanese).
In television anime, Makoto Raiku’s Zatch Bell! (Konjiki no Gash Bell!!) premiered on Fuji TV in April, and Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) began airing on October 4 in the Saturday 6 p.m. MBS/TBS slot. The story of brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric searching for the Philosopher’s Stone to restore their bodies won a wide fanbase, Porno Graffitti’s first opening theme “Melissa” became a hit, and the original manga won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award the following January (Official series chronology, Production company Bones, both in Japanese). At Comic Market, the summer fair (C64) drew 460,000 attendees and the winter fair (C65) drew 420,000 over three days each (Comic Market Preparation Committee, in Japanese).
Japanese Blog Services Multiply, Making It Easy to Write Impressions on Your Own Page
From autumn into winter 2003, domestic blog services including Doblog, livedoor Blog, Seesaa BLOG, and Cocolog launched one after another. Previously, running a personal website required knowing HTML and uploading files yourself, whereas a blog let anyone publish dated entries simply by typing text and adding photos on a browser dashboard (INTERNET Watch, Introduction to Cocolog at the time, both in Japanese).
Personal website
Each update meant writing HTML and rebuilding the page yourself.
Blog (from 2003)
You only had to enter text and images on a ready-made screen. Posts lined up by date, and readers connected via comments and trackbacks.
Fans began recording episode-by-episode anime impressions, concert setlists, and CD or book reviews on their own blogs, exchanging comments and “trackbacks” with other bloggers writing about the same works (Article on the service launch at the time, Expansion of eligibility, both in Japanese).
Key Events of the Year
- Mar. 5SMAP releases "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana" (2 million copies as of Aug. 4)Music
- Mar. 13"Final Fantasy X-2" (PS2) is releasedGames
- Mar.The Iraq War begins, and the SARS outbreak becomes a public concernSociety
- Apr.–Sept."Winter Sonata" airs on NHK BS2Media
- Apr. 30The musical "The Prince of Tennis" opensStage
- July 16ORANGE RANGE releases "Shanghai Honey"Music
- Aug. 2–3Summer Sonic 2003 sells out its tickets for the first timeMusic
- Aug. 15–17Comic Market 64 (460,000 total visits over 3 days)Fan works
- Aug. 21NIGHTMARE makes its major debut with "-Believe-"Music
- Sept. 10Dir en grey releases the album "VULGAR"Music
- Sept.The Hanshin Tigers win the Central League pennant for the first time in 18 yearsSports
- Oct. 4TV anime "Fullmetal Alchemist" begins airing (MBS/TBS "Saturday 6" slot)Anime
- Nov.–Dec.Blog services such as livedoor Blog and Cocolog appear one after anotherMedia
- Dec.At the 20th Buzzwords of the Year awards, "Kachitai n ya!" makes the top tenSociety
- Dec. 28–30Comic Market 65 (420,000 total visits over 3 days)Fan works
- Dec. 31At the 45th Japan Record Awards, Ayumi Hamasaki's "No way to say" wins the grand prizeMusic
- SMAP and Moriyama singles"Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" and "Sakura"
- Winter Sonata on BS2Broadcast through September
- Roppongi Hills and TenimyuNew urban complex and first 2.5D musical run
- Bayside Shakedown 2¥17.35B live-action Japanese box-office record
- Summer Sonic sells outRadiohead and Blur headline
- Fullmetal Alchemist animePremieres in the Saturday 6 p.m. slot
- Cocolog startsDomestic blog services multiply
Fans found new ways to watch, revisit, and write about what they loved.
The Year’s Buzzword Awards
- Grand PrizeDoku manju ("poisoned bun," a sweet bribe with a catch)
- Hiromu Nonaka (former member of the House of Representatives)
- Grand PrizeNande darou~ ("I wonder why~")
- Tetsu and Tomo (entertainers)
- Grand PrizeManifesto
- Masayasu Kitagawa (professor, Waseda University)
- Top 10Kachitai n ya! ("We wanna win!" in Kansai dialect)
- Sen'ichi Hoshino (former Hanshin Tigers manager)
- Top 10Kome dorobo ("rice thieves")
- No recipient
- Top 10SARS
- No recipient
- Top 10Nenshu 300-man-en (an annual income of 3 million yen)
- Takuro Morinaga (UFJ Institute)
- Top 10Baka no kabe ("The Wall of Stupidity," a bestselling book)
- Takeshi Yoro (professor emeritus, University of Tokyo)
- Top 10Before After (from the TV program Daikaizo!! Gekiteki Before After)
- Midori Kato (TV program narrator)
- Top 10Hee~ (the "wow, I didn't know" response on the TV show Trivia no Izumi)
- Katsumi Takahashi, Tomohito Yashima (program host and actor)
The grand prizes went to “Doku Manju” (“poisoned bun”), “Nande darou~,” and “Manifesto.” “Nande darou~,” sung by the red-and-blue tracksuit comedy duo Tetsu and Tomo about everyday mysteries, became a huge hit with children and served as an ending theme for the anime Kochikame (Jiyu Kokuminsha, in Japanese).
The top ten also included “Kachitai n ya!” (“We want to win!”) from Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino. Powered by Makoto Imaoka, Norihiro Akahoshi, Tomoaki Kanemoto, Hideki Irabu, and 20-win left-hander Kei Igawa, Hanshin clinched its first Central League pennant in 18 years on September 15 after Akahoshi’s walk-off hit against Hiroshima at Koshien Stadium, setting off celebrations across Kansai that saw more than 5,000 fans leap into Osaka’s Dotonbori River (Nippon Professional Baseball, in Japanese).
In 2004, social networks such as mixi and GREE began, and the Nintendo DS and PSP portable game consoles arrived.
FAQ
When did "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" pass 2 million copies?
On Oricon it reached 2 million in the issue dated August 4, 2003, in its 21st week on the chart. It had passed 1 million in its second week, and it was also No. 1 on the 2003 annual singles ranking.
When did Winter Sonata air in Japan?
It aired from April to September 2003 on NHK's satellite channel BS2. The broadcast on terrestrial NHK General came the following year, 2004.
What is Tenimyu?
It is the nickname of the musical based on the manga The Prince of Tennis. The first run opened on April 30, 2003, with actors playing the characters and expressing matches and story through song and dance.
What blog services appeared in 2003?
From autumn into winter, Doblog, livedoor Blog, Seesaa BLOG, Cocolog and others launched. Cocolog started on December 2 for connection-service members, and its availability widened on December 17.
When was "Kachitai n ya!" a buzzword?
It was one of the top-ten phrases at the 2003 buzzword awards. The words came from Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino, and that year the Tigers won the Central League pennant for the first time in 18 years.
