Oricon Announces 2022 Half Year Rankings!

With the end of June upon us, Oricon has finally released their half year rankings for 2022. Surprising no one, popular nine-member Johnny’s boy group Snow Man took the top spot with hitting number one on both the Singles and Album ranking. Their single “Brother Beat” took number one by selling over 850,000 copies. This is continuing from last year’s successful number one hit Grandeur, which also took first place in the first half of 2021. Because of this success, Snow Man has became the first group since their older brother group ARASHI to have done so in consecutive years. They are also the fifth artist to have all five of their releases sell over 500,000 copies consecutively. Boys group INI with their single “I”, and Snow Man’s younger brother group Naniwa Danshi with their single “The Answer/ Schiare”, took second and third respectively.

Johnny’s domination didn’t stop with just Snow Man, as their brother group SixTONES has also took the number one spot in top seller with their album CITY for the first six months of 2022 by selling over 560,000 copies. Like Snow Man, this is continuing from their last year successful hit 1ST and are the fifth artist to have done so. Korean group SEVENTEEN with their album Face the Sun, along with popular girl idol group Nogizaka 46, with their album Time flies took second and third respectively.

On the digital side, anime songs took over the singles with vocalist Aimer taking number one with their song “Sankyo Sanaka”, the theme song for the popular Demon Slayer series. With King Gnu taking both second and third with Sakayume and Ichizu respectively, Ichizu was used as the theme song for the popular Jijitsu Kaisen Zero movie. Ado with her first album Kyougen also took the top spot for the digital album side and became the first female solo artist to do so.

We at OTY like to congratulate all the artists for a successful 2022 so far and hope for them to finish out the year strong!

Kairiki Bear Launches “Retbear”! Chosen to Sing Opening Theme for Black Summoner!

“Atamannaka DEAD END” Jacket Cover

Kairiki Bear, a popular vocaloid producer who is known for hits such as “Venom” (44 million views on YouTube) and “Darling Dance” (22 million views), launched a new project called Retbear in June 2022. Retbear is an “anonymous” unit that combines Kairiki Bear with a different unknown vocalist for each song. The guest vocalist performs under a different name from usual. Retbear’s debut song will be “Atamannaka DEAD END” (unknown Vo: 10fu), the opening theme of the TV anime Black Summoner. The new opening theme was recently revealed in the anime’s second official trailer.

Black Summoner, which will be broadcast from July 2022 in Japan, is an adaptation of a popular isekai series about a battle junkie published by Overlap Bunko, which has sold more than 1.4 million copies and has over 280 million views on the novel posting website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. In addition to the information on the opening song, it was also announced that the ending theme will be sung by Minori Suzuki, who plays the role of Sera in the anime.

Be sure to check out the trailer for Black Summoner below!

PIKOTARO and his wife TAMI deliver smiles to children around the world, with new English-language puppetry YouTube series ‘PIKO ST KIDS’!

Singer-songwriter and ‘PPAP’ star PIKOTARO has launched a new series titled ‘PIKO ST KIDS’ on his YouTube channel. The series ‘PIKO ST KIDS’ is a puppet show created by PIKOTARO and his wife TAMI, delivering fun songs, games and chat in English with the aim of bringing smiles to children all over the world. 

In the wake of the ongoing pandemic, parents have more time to interact at home with their children. However, as many of us continue to deal with working from home, there are times when we cannot spend quality time with the kids, and they in turn are spending more and more time enjoying video content on their tablets. PIKOTARO and TAMI hope to help out mums and dads around the world by offering fun, safe videos for their kids to enjoy via ‘PIKO ST KIDS’.

For example, episodes of the show will feature traditional Japanese nursery rhymes such as ‘Tulip’ and ‘Kisha Poppo’ sung by children in kindergarten, hand-gesture based rhymes like ‘Ookiku Nattara Nanni Narou’ (‘What Shall We Become When We Grow Up’), and games where kids raise red and white flags to learn their left and right – all of which can be enjoyed by children and their parents.

Just as PIKOTARO’s song ‘PPAP’ has been viewed all over the world on YouTube, his channel also delivers other videos featuring songs and conversation in English and Japanese that are suitable for children to enjoy.

On the launch of this new series, PIKOTARO commented, “Anytime, anywhere, I’ll be happy if this channel makes you smile.” Be sure to check it out below!

WITHDOM Drops The Pieces with Latest Release!

“Tetris” is the lead single of WITHDOM’s new mini album called, “JUK3BOX”. This album was released on the 27th of April this year. This song has trendy rhythm and style which is composed with a limited number of sounds. This edgy, cool and minimalist sound is perfect for dancing. Also, the lyrics of the song paint a unique portrait of human beings and the listeners loved it. This song was chosen as a song for official playlists on major streaming sites including Spotify and Apple Music in Japan and is getting so much attention.

The song “Tetris” is now popular worldwide and the song has been playing on an Indonesian FM station called DJFM as a “J-POP power play song” everyday. DJFM is the FM radio station in Surabaya Indonesia and the song is featured on the program “JK-POP” which introduces popular J-POP and K-POP specially. WITHDOM’s “Tetris” has ranked at 10th place on the DJFM J-POP weekly charts on Saturday the 11th of June. WITHDOM was lined up alongside other popular Japanese artists including GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE, Kenshi Yonezu, Fujii Kaze and Aimer.

A song from their full album called “Synergy”, which was released digitally in 2021, won No.1 in 18 categories on the iTunes Store. This mega album became the talk of the town and they were invited to many TV programs including popular music programs which aired all over Japan. Their song was appointed as a weather theme song for a news program. They also achieved No.1 on music video rankings of a popular music program as well. They have been enjoying the songs’ popularity across various media in Japan. Their success started when Boyz II Men introduced WITHDOM’s cover of “On Bended Knee'' to the world on their Instagram page. Boyz II Men is a worldwide band who have won Grammy Awards. It had a huge impact on them when Boyz II Men recognized their talent.

They released a cover of “Gunjo” by YOASOBI officially last November. YOASOBI is a Japanese music duo who have been enjoying their popularity worldwide. This exciting news of their cover has been buzzing around the world including Southeast Asia, China, Brazil and the States. WITHDOM has been getting more attention from all over the world. WITHDOM has been recognized for their excellent vocal talent not only inside Japan but also from artists from around the world. That led them to a successful result as getting onto the top 10 on J-POP charts at Indonesian FM radio station.

The music video of their latest song “Tetris” creates a unique world which is almost like scenes from a movie. The members of WITHDOM showed their excellent acting skills in the video. They showed the collapse, struggle and pain that can come with relationships. Every member successfully showed their feelings with their facial expressions and acting and it matched the feeling of the song perfectly. The theme of the song was expressed well and the video received huge applause for its quality as a work of art.

The Music Video of “Tetris” has subtitles in languages including Indonesian, Javanese, French, Portuguese, Thai and this song has been shared to the world besides Japan. WITHDOM are good at making magnificent ballads and love songs as a vocal group and they have many fans. With this new song “Tetris,” they demonstrate a totally different approach compared to the songs they have done in the past. Both the lyrics and the music video are so different. Especially for their music video they concentrated on transforming a world of lyrics into a work of art.

Be sure to check out the music video in question below, along with the streaming link for Apple Music and Spotify here!

Maika Loubté Remixes Her Dreams With Latest Release!

Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes Jacket Cover

Tokyo based singer, songwriter and producer Maika Loubté will release a remix version of her latest album Lucid Dreaming titled Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes back on June 15, 2022 through her own label Water Records.  Maika enlisted a collection of talented artists and producers from Japan and beyond to reimagine her songs from her last LP.

Participating remixers include Cwondo, Dai Ishio, ermhoi, EXPCTR, Kan Sano, lIlI, LISACHRIS, Primula, Risa Taniguchi, Small Circle of Friends, Sountrive, TiMT, 80KIDZ, Food Matsuri a.k.a foodman, and more. Each of the 14 different unique creators brought their own creativity to freely reconstruct the music. 

Lucid Dreaming means "明晰夢" in Japanese, and is a concept album in which dreams and reality cross over as a single story. Maika describes the remix version of the album as “a deeper dream, where one can enjoy the sensation of falling deeper and deeper into the second and third levels of the dream.”

Since the release of Lucid Dreaming, Maika has been touring throughout Japan with sold out solo shows in Tokyo.  She recently was featured on the track “薄明” (which means Twilight in English) by KIRINJI on his album crepuscular. Currently, Maika is working on new music. Be sure to check out Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes here, along with the music videos for It's So Natural - Food Matsuri a.k.a Foodman Remix below!