Koi no Tsubomi

"Koi no Tsubomi" (恋のつぼみ / Bud of Love) is Koda Kumi's 31st solo under the Rhythm Zone label. It was the first single to bring in the new era after BEST ~second session~. The single was released in CD and CD+DVD and charted at #2 on Oricon, selling over 140,000 copies in its first week and staying on the charts for twenty-one weeks. The song also managed over 1 million downloads. It became the highest selling song debut for a female artist, until Ayumi Hamasaki surpassed it with her single BLUE BIRD, which also came out that year.

The song was used as the theme song to the Japanese drama ブスの瞳に恋してる (Busu no Hitomi ni Koishiteru / In Love with the Eyes of an Ugly Girl), which starred SMAP's Goro Inagaki. The song was also used for the television commercial of the 2006 Pixar film Cars.

Music video

The music video for Koi no Tsubomi was inspired by Koda Kumi's younger sister's, misono, video Kojin Jugyō (個人授業 / Private Lessons), which was also a new take on the classic fairy tale Cinderella. The videos' similarities are both sisters have their own little fairy, who is able to transform their appearance. However, where Kojin Jugyo ends with the spell wearing off and returning misono to her original state, Koi no Tsubomi ends with the transformations staying.