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Ultra Blue

2006 studio album by Hikaru Utada

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ2702745 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ultra Blue (stylized in all caps) is the sixth studio album by Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada, released on June 14, 2006, by Eastworld. It is their first original Japanese language album in four years, following Deep River (2002). Ultra Blue contains thirteen songs, including six singles released between 2003 and 2006. While the arrangements for Deep River were done collaboratively, all but one of the songs on Ultra Blue were written, composed, and arranged solely by Utada, who also did the programming. In this album, the R&B elements that have been present since their debut are further diminished, and the majority of the songs have an electronic flavor with an emphasis on synth sounds.

Ultra Blue received mostly positive reception from music critics. The album was a commercial success in Japan, selling over 500,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number one on the Oricon Albums Chart. By the end of the fiscal year, it became 2006's best-selling original album by a Japanese female soloist. It was also the fourth most downloaded album of the year on iTunes Japan, and was certified as a million-seller by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). During summer 2006, Utada held a nationwide concert tour to help support the album titled Utada United 2006.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ultra Blue” as 2006 studio album by Hikaru Utada. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 2002, 2003—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2006-06-14. The account is most persuasive where Ultra, Blue and studio can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2006 studio album by Hikaru Utada. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2702745. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2002 and 2003.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ultra Blue”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ultra Blue primary sources, Ultra Blue archive and Ultra research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ultra Blue”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ultra Blue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.