"Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく) is a song written by Izumi Sakai and Tetsurō Oda, originally recorded and released as the fourth single by Japanese rock band Field of View on March 11, 1996. The song serves as the opening theme to the anime series Dragon Ball GT, and the main theme song to the theatrical film Dragon Ball: The Path to Power. The single reached number four on the Oricon Singles Chart, and sold over 400,000 copies. Sakai released a cover of "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" with her group Zard on their 1996 album Today Is Another Day.

Background and recording

"Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" was written by Izumi Sakai and Tetsurō Oda to serve as the opening theme song to the Dragon Ball GT anime series. U-ya Asaoka, lead singer of Field of View, first heard the song when it was a demo featuring just a guitar, and already felt it was "incredible". He said the band was able to exchange opinions on the track equally with Oda and arranger Takeshi Hayama. Asaoka had imagined writing the lyrics himself, but then received a fax with lyrics written by Sakai; "Now, I'd tried to write lyrics on my own, but hers were just so much better, so incredibly catchy. I thought, 'I simply can't top this.'" He also realized how well they fit with Dragon Ball, "There's the part that goes 'Ai to yuuki to hokori wo motte tatakau yo' ('I'll fight with love, courage, and pride'), and that's just Dragon Ball in a nutshell. The more time passes, the deeper the lyrics seem to get." Although he found them "wonderfully catchy", Asaoka felt that Sakai's lyrics were a little unusual. "There were some parts where I wasn't really sure how they were meant to fit with the background music. For example, there's a part right before the first chorus that goes, 'Sukoshi dake furimukitakunaru you na toki mo aru kedo', and I had no idea how I was meant to time it all." The singer said they were still trying to find the right pattern by trial and error during recording, until receiving a demo tape of Sakai singing it herself. According to Asaoka, the song's two writers later realized that Sakai's lyrics and Oda's music were created with different phrasing in mind, so putting them together had the unintended effect of creating something different with its own unique appeal. "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" is Field of View's first release following keyboardist Jun Abe's departure from the band, and was recorded before bassist Kenji Niitsu had joined. The song's music video was filmed at Kogakuin University. The single's B-side is "Dear Old Days", which was arranged by Akihito Tokunaga, composer of the music in Dragon Ball GT.

Reception

The single reached number four on the Oricon Singles Chart, and charted for 11 weeks. It was certified Platinum by the RIAJ for sales of 400,000 copies. Asaoka still performs the song live and stated that, even though he has improved as a singer, he lowers his skill level in order to sing it exactly as he did over 26 years ago. "When a song becomes a hit like that and is loved by so many people, it's not my song anymore—it's theirs.", "I consider it a given that I should perform it the way it always was without changing anything." Kickboxer Panchan Rina, who derived her ring name from the Dragon Ball character Pan, uses "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" as her entrance music. Mixed martial artist Shooto Watanabe and Dan Onodera of the baseball team Hanshin Tigers have also used it as entrance music.

Track list

Cover versions

"Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" has been covered many times in different languages.