"Kimi ga Iru Kara" (君がいるから) is a song recorded by Japanese singer Sayuri Sugawara as her second single. The single was released on December 2, 2009, by For Life Music. "Kimi ga Iru Kara" serves as the theme song for the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII, while the B-side "Eternal Love", is also used in the game as an insert song. The other B-side, "Christmas Again", samples a piece of Franz Liszt's work.

Track listing

Live performances

At a Final Fantasy event held on November 29, 2009, Sugawara was present and performed both "Kimi ga Iru Kara" and "Eternal Love" in front of 2,000 people. Sugawara also performed "Kimi ga Iru Kara" on the December 6 episode of Music Japan.

Reception

Critical reception

The single received poor reviews from critics. Gann of RPGFan called it "vanilla" and said that the single, especially the headline track, was over-produced and uninteresting. While he did not mind "Eternal Love" as much, he still felt that the CD was his least favorite Final Fantasy theme single. Square Enix Music Online had similar opinions of the release, calling it "bland". They felt that while "Kimi ga Iru Kara" was better than "My Hands" and "Eternal Love", the single was still disappointing in both the context of Final Fantasy singles and of Sugawara's previous discography.

Chart performance

On the Oricon single chart, "Kimi ga Iru Kara" peaked at number 11. The single charted for 11 weeks and is currently her best-selling single, with 36,400 copies sold. The digital version of the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.