Utada, who received a recording contract by Toshiba-EMI, had written an English-language version of the song, which remains unreleased to this day.

An accompanying music video was shot for the single, which featured Utada on a chair in a computer lab and dancing to the song.

To date, the song is her fifth-best selling physical single with over 1.22 million units sold in the country.

Born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, Hikaru Utada had started singing at a very young age; she was a member of U3, a musical act with her mother Keiko Fuji and her father Teruzane.

In 1996, the group was rebranded as Cubic U, an R&B project that focused primarily on Hikaru, resulting in the English language album Precious in 1998 with record label Toshiba EMI.

[5] During this time, Utada had signed solely with Toshiba EMI and started recording her singles and eventually her then-forthcoming album First Love.

[6] During the process of the tracks and album, Utada desired to become a singer-songwriter and occasionally practiced producing and composing her music rather than become a Japanese idol.

[9] The song also incorporates dance-oriented R&B rhythms that were present on her previous single and the parent album and contains more "fresh" and "comfortable" vocal abilities that are delivered by Utada.

[11] A reviewer from the online publication CDJournal was positive towards the song, calling it a "speedy dance beat" and praised her lyrical content and vocal delivery for being quite "persuasive" and challenging for a fifteen-year-old.

[17] Oricon tabulated the 8cm and 12cm versions separately, but when combined, "Movin' on without you" was the eighth best-selling single of that fiscal year.

[20] Following the success of her million selling singles, this effort was followed by "Addicted to You", "Wait & See (Risk)", "For You", "Time Limit", "Can You Keep a Secret?"

"[9] Eventually, the song was released as a promotional single from the compilation album on December 9, 2014, by Universal Japan.

Bradley Stern from MuuMuse was particularly positive towards the collaboration, stating "Happily, the result sounds exactly like something you might expect to hear on one of Ayu's Ayu-mi-x Euro-dance compilations.

[13] A demo version of the single was featured on Utada's 15th anniversary album First Love; "Automatic" still remains unreleased.