Chihiro Onitsuka’s Most Popular Songs Ranking [2026]

growing weedsOnitsuka Chihiro29rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka - “Growing Weeds” LIVE

This is the song that completely revamped Chihiro Onitsuka’s image.

Even so, the lyrics and her vocals remain as brilliant as ever, making it a favorite among devoted fans.

It’s true that the musical style and lyrics differ greatly from her usual vibe, but the irresistible charm that draws you in is still very much there.

Heat hazeOnitsuka Chihiro30rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka – Heat Haze

It’s a single released in 2009.

The overall tempo is relaxed, yet within it there’s a powerful strength that conveys the conviction embedded in the vocals—an epic rock ballad.

With the song’s theme being the beauty of Japan, the inclusion of seasonal imagery in the lyrics is particularly striking.

It’s a piece that evokes an intense emotion toward someone that cannot be discarded, and by layering it with depictions of the four seasons, it seems to express a feeling that persists throughout the year—so fervent it borders on frightening.

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Slow DanceOnitsuka Chihiro31rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka – Slow Dance (Film Version Music Video for the movie “Pornographer: Playback – The Movie”)

When it comes to the live-action adaptation of the popular boys’ love manga Pornographer, many fans probably feel that Onitsuka’s theme song is indispensable.

Released in February 2021, Onitsuka’s 23rd single, Slow Dance, was also chosen as the theme song for the film Pornographer: Playback, released the same year.

With lyrics that portray a pure, awkward kind of love—distinct from her more abstract and sometimes enigmatic turns of phrase—the song brings out a different side of Onitsuka’s appeal.

Even now, in the 2020s, more than 20 years after her debut, her undiminished talent as a singer-songwriter continues to astonish.

It’s a masterpiece we especially want those who only know her early work to hear.

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Sin of SummerOnitsuka Chihiro32rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka – “Sin of Summer” MUSIC VIDEO

Chihiro Onitsuka’s “Natsu no Tsumi” is a song in which she sings, with a powerful voice and beautiful melody, about her feelings for a man who betrayed her and left without even showing a sad expression.

It was chosen as the theme song for the TV drama “Age Harassment,” and Natsumi Hanaoka also performs it, showcasing her unique style.

An unfinished letterOnitsuka Chihiro33rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka – An Unfinished Letter (Live at Bunkamura Orchard Hall on November 17, 2020)

This is a digital-only single by Chihiro Onitsuka, released in June 2020.

It’s positioned as a recut single from the best-of album REQUIEM AND SILENCE, which was released in February of the same year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her debut, and it’s a superb ballad that lets you fully savor Onitsuka’s unchanging individuality as a singer-songwriter since her debut.

The sound arrangement by keyboardist Masayuki Sakamoto—who serves as bandmaster for major names like Chihiro Onitsuka and Hideaki Tokunaga—is also outstanding.

Onitsuka herself has said it’s “the first song I’ve ever sung about myself,” and compared with the lyrics of her early masterpieces, which often carried a somewhat detached, objective gaze typical of an artist, the candid fragments of memory and the messages that evoke hope feel like words only she could write upon reaching her forties.

At the same time, while she uses the word for “self,” it also seems as though she deliberately avoids the first-person pronoun “I,” which inevitably makes one imagine a kind of karmic burden inherent to being a songwriter.

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fireflyOnitsuka Chihiro34rank/position

Chihiro Onitsuka – Hotaru

It’s a single released in 2008.

It was also used as the theme song for the film “The Last Game: The Final Waseda–Keio Match.” The “firefly” in the title doesn’t signify a season, but is used as a symbol of transience.

It expresses the sadness of precious moments passing in an instant and the wish for them to last forever by likening those feelings to the brief glow of a firefly.

Precisely because moments pass so quickly, the song, imbued with gentleness and warmth, makes you want to cherish the here and now.

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Blue BirdOnitsuka Chihiro35rank/position

[PV] Blue Bird / Chihiro Onitsuka

This song is also a very beautiful piece.

It’s a track that makes you happy to say, “Chihiro Onitsuka is back.” Her singing voice has changed a little, but it’s still beautiful, and the calming atmosphere remains—making it a very soothing song to listen to.