Nao Toyama to Sing OP Theme of Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3 Double Tie-Up Single!

Ascendance of a Bookworm season 3 Key Visual

©香月美夜・TOブックス／本好きの下剋上製作委員会

During the Nao Toyama Birthday Celebration ~Naobou is quitting the 20s~ held at EX THEATER ROPPONGI, it was announced that Nao Toyama will be singing the opening theme of Ascendance of a Bookworm season 3, which will be airing in Japan from April. It was also announced that she will be releasing a double tie-up single on June 8!

This 6th single, which is also part 3 of her 5th Anniversary Plan, will include both “Ano Hi no Kotoba,” the opening theme of Ascendance of a Bookworm season 3, and “Growing,” the previously announced ending theme of I’m Quitting Heroing. “Ano Hi no Kotoba” was written by singer-songwriter Sakura Fujiwara and composed and arranged by Soulife. Comments from both artists can be found below.

The new single will be released in three formats. The Ascendance of a Bookworm Edition (Limited Edition A) will feature a jacket illustration by Yū Shiina and come with a Blu-ray disc containing a 120 minute digest video of Nao Toyama Birthday Celebration ~Naobou is quitting the 20s~, including bonus footage. The booklet will contain a birthday report manga drawn by Makana Watari, a manga artist who has previously created illustrations for Naobou-chan.

Be sure to pre-order all three editions of “Ano Hi no Kotoba” below!

Standard edition 

Limited edition A

Limited edition B

Yui Makino Gives Fans a Touch of Hope with Latest Single!

“Touch of Hope” Digital Jacket Cover

This past week, vocalist Yui Makino released her new digital single “Touch of Hope” across all digital music streaming platforms. “Touch of Hope” is the theme song of The Girl from the Other Side, a feature-length animation based on a Japanese manga series by Nagabe that was completed in March last year. The silky, clear sound of her voice during this pleasant, slow ballad will touch your heart. As the song progresses, layer after layer of sound is added, giving this masterpiece a grand scale.

The Girl from the Other Side was released in 2019 as a short art animation and was highly acclaimed at national and international film festivals. The feature-length animation was produced by Wit Studio and directed by Yutaro Kubo and Satomi Maiya. To fund this production, Wit Studio held a crowdfunding campaign from March to May last year, and the target amount of 3 million yen was achieved in just four hours. In the end, the campaign raised over 20 million yen from 1,418 users.

Yui Makino has also announced that she will be releasing a new album in 2022 under the FlyingDog label. More information will be released at a later date, so please keep your eye on Yui!

Be sure to check out the streaming link for “Touch of Hope” here!

I Don't Like Mondays. Aims Towards the Sky with Latest Release!

“Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete” Jacket Cover

Following their theme tune for the current season of hit anime series ONE PIECE, four-piece rock band I Don’t Like Mondays. released a brand-new single this past week on March 7 titled  “Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete”. A lyric video was also published on YouTube to celebrate the release of the single.

I Don’t Like Mondays. is a Japanese rock band consisting of YU (vocals), CHOJI (guitar), KENJI (bass) and SHUKI (drums). The band are quickly gaining popularity in Japan, thanks to their unique sound that combines YU’s distinctive lyrics with catchy melody lines and the members’ strong taste in Western music, along with their stylish look. Their January 9 single “PAINT” is currently being used as the theme tune to the latest season of ONE PIECE, adding to the band’s incredible momentum. This has now been followed by the release of new single “Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete” and its lyric video.

“Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete” is a pure coming-of-age love song that is perfectly suited to the onset of spring. The song is centered on the kinetic rock sound it inherits from ONE PIECE theme tune “PAINT”, and it poetically spotlights an innocent young man’s pure heart among the arrival of spring and the budding seeds of love. Another highlight is a chanted choral section in the middle that symbolizes the band’s hope that the day will come soon when the live music industry recovers to full health, and we can all sing together once more. Check out the song along with the lyric video below along with the streaming link here.

Comments from the band members

YU (vocals)

“I wanted to write a love song that traces the innocent and pure feelings of youth, which I try not to forget even as an adult, and I chose to express this tale of boyhood against a backdrop of spring, the season of new beginnings. I truly cannot wait for the day when we can sing this song live together with everyone.”

CHOJI (guitar) 

“I aimed to play this song with a combination of strength and delicacy, like the wind. This is our first song in a while to have a guitar solo. In order to avoid the solo becoming too overbearing, I played an arpeggio while creating a tone that felt just right, made by combining a chorus effect together with an effect pedal called a POG. The guitar line is even deeper than on our last song, ‘PAINT’, and I hope you will try to recreate it yourself. The chorus has a difficult melody line, too, but I hope you’ll sound cool when you sing along.”

KENJI (bass) 

“With all the restrictions at live music venues these past two years or so, the overwhelming amount of extra time we have all spent at home, and even the changes in the way we listen to music now, I wanted to create songs that will connect with your heart even more deeply when you listen to them alone. Our new song ‘Sora no Aosa ni Miserarete’ is about our heartfelt wish that we can all join together soon for a live experience, sing together and become one. I hope that the future will bring an even better environment where we can enjoy the wonderful sensation of singing together.”

SHUKI (drums)

“In 2022, which we began with the release of ‘PAINT’, we are paying extra special attention to creating music with a band sound, a live sound, with the hope that the live music scene can recover even more than last year. The song includes a section that everyone can sing along with, and we tried to find a sound that carries a sense of speed and clarity without sounding too fresh; and as a result, we ended up sprinkling YU’s vocal part with some digital processing. It’s a song packed with contradictory elements, such as analog and digital sounds, live instruments and sequencers, innocence and dirt, quietness and explosion, and so on. I hope you will listen to it over and over, and enjoy the playful musical approach.”

FEMM Announce FEMM-Isation UK/EU Tour 2022!

Calling all agents: FEMM are embarking on their first ever overseas tour! 

After many international appearances at conventions and events, the rap/J-pop duo are finally stepping out as headliners and hitting the road in the UK and EU this July! Presented by Orion Live in association with Ran Touring, the FEMM-Isation UK/EU tour 2022 will see the J-pop sensations performing a full-length set of fan-favorite tracks giving fans a long overdue dose of the live experience only FEMM can deliver. Dates and ticket details, including VIP packages, will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Supporting FEMM on all dates will be J-pop singer MIKUROMIKA, also touring for the first time. MIKA’s fresh brand of house-infused J-pop, released worldwide via Setsuzoku Records, will be the perfect compliment to FEMM’s iconic sound and presentation.   

In celebration of the tour, FEMM’s international label—JPU Records—will be releasing the group’s latest two albums Tokyo Girls Anthem and Tokyo Ex Machina on CD for the first time! The physical releases will be available ahead of the tour. FEMM’s previous releases will also be reissued due to popular demand. 

For the latest updates on the tour, be sure to stay connected via social media and the artist’s official website.

FEMM 

official website: https://femms.jp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FEMM____

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femm____/

Singing Cosplayer Hikari Collaborates with Upcoming Vietnamese Trackmaker in Latest Remix!

“Yume to Hazakura Remix” Jacket Cover

A new remix version of Singing Cosplayer Hikari's cover of "Yume To Hazakura" (lyrics and music by Gekkoh Aoki) has been released in collaboration with Vietnamese trackmakers Nya and Starling, who have over 480,000 YouTube channel subscribers. Singing Cosplayer Hikari is an international cover singer of anime and vocaloid songs, mainly on YouTube, TikTok and other social networking sites and has released a total of 27 cover song videos on YouTube, with a total of over 8.7 million views. Among them, the video of "Yume To Hazakura" has received more than 2.47 million views on YouTube and this cover song reached number one on the J-Pop charts in 14 countries and still ranks high on the J-Pop charts around the world.

In addition, Singing Cosplayer Hikari collaborated with comedian/bodybuilder Nakayama Kinni-kun to release a cover of "Muscle Please!(Onegai Muscle)",the opening theme song of TV anime "How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?., as a major distribution release from Yoshimoto Music on January 26. The song is aired as the ending theme song for the Japanese national TV network of Kansai Television / Fuji Television Network, "Doyou wa nanisuru!?”. And the music video has received more than 1.42 million views on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga combined. The song ranked 6th on the LINE MUSIC music video chart in the first week, and 10th in the second week. And on the USEN monthly request ranking chart for February,March 1st, ranked 3rd. It is expected to become a distribution hit in Japan as well.

Be sure to check out the the music video for the remix below, along with the streaming link for it here!