Secret

Secret (stylized as secret) is the fourth studio album by Japanese pop-R&B singer Kumi Koda, released in February 2005. It charted at #3 on Oricon in Japan, her highest charting album at the time, and stayed on the charts for fifty-six weeks. This album also jump-started Kumi's ero-kawaii/sexy-cute image, with which she became synonymous. This style later spread throughout Japan's high school community upon her release of "Butterfly". Information Secret is the first predominantly-pop album by Kumi, with her first three albums, feel my mind, grow into one and affection, being R&B. Due to Kumi feeling most comfortable with the style she donned in "Crazy 4 U", she created the "sexy-cute" style (known as ero-kawaii) for her A-sides used in secret. This is the style that she became famous for and received both positive and negative attention. During her performance for "Cutie Honey" at Music Station, she donned the outfit she wore during the jazz parlor scenes in the music video. The outfit was heavily criticized, when revealing clothing was not worn by mainstream artists in Japan at the time. On April 13, 2005, three special editions of the album were released, which contained the music video for "Hot Stuff", which featured the rapper and, depending on which special edition was purchased, came with a T-shirt or a tank top.