[Single Review] Mika Nakashima - Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no wa

The single translates to "I thought I would have died". It's like Mika could read my mind, because I thought my fandom towards her would have died as well. It's interesting that someone who looks like death all the time would release a song about how she would've died.

Apparently the songwriter, Akita Hiromu of Amazarashi, wrote Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no wa a long time ago and kept it with him for so long because he's so emotionally attached to it, so Mika managed to record the song and wanted to capture as much of the original emotion to it as possible. She fucking did it; bitch almost sent me into tears. Intentional or not, the simple pop-rock arrangement is also what makes the lyrics stand out a lot more than it already does. You can definitely tell Mika took the effort to make sure every line REEKED of heavy emotion, and the song doesn't even feel like a 6-minute song. Because of that I was able to also tolerate her near-horrendous near-shouting at some parts.

Today also somewhat runs along the same track as Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no wa arrangement-wise, which makes the entire single a lot more cohesive as a whole. It's catchy in its own right too and is a decent upbeat song coming from her in a really long time. I was almost convinced she gave up upbeat for good and was gonna pull a MISIA on us for life. I'm a little puzzled as to why they didn't include its instrumental track though.

The other b-side of the single is Sakurairo Maukoro -natural edition-, which is essentially an acoustic remix of the song. I have no idea why the heck they decided to go with the word "natural", but okay. Interesting choice of song to remake and include in this single though. Very out of the blue. But it sounds good and is a nice little bonus to the single.

This is Mika's first single is an extremely long time that actually kept me listening from start to end - I think the last single to do so was ALWAYS, and that's 3 bloody years ago! I'm so satisfied with this single, I can forgive that horrendous mess of a cover. I can even forgive that trashy weave she has on her head. I have to say this single has really stopped me from drifting further apart from her music and I'm excited to see what she has to offer for the rest of this era.

8/10