| Asian Kung-Fu Generation | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Yokohama, Japan |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Label(s) | Ki/oon, Tofu |
| Website | asiankung-fu.com |
| Members | |
| Masafumi Gotō Kensuke Kita Takahiro Yamada Kiyoshi Ijichi |
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Asian Kung-Fu Generation (アジアン・カンフー・ジェネレーション Ajian Kanfū Jenerēshon?) is a Japanese rock band formed in Yokohama, Japan in 1996. For nearly its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotō, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada, and drummer Kiyoshi Ijichi. The band's musical style has been heavily influenced by seminal indie, punk, and alternative rock acts. As a result, their songs maintain a balance of various elements of the genres, most typically ranging from fast-paced and hard-edged to rhythmic and emotional. Despite the indie nature of their music, the band has enjoyed widespread commercial success in addition to critical acclaim and their songs have come to be been used for memorable opening themes of highly popular anime series.
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Asian Kung-Fu Generation was first formed when Masafumi Gotō, Kensuke Kita, and Takahiro Yamada met in a musical club of Kanto Gakuin University in 1996. The three started their very first band, with Kiyoshi Ijichi joining them later on after parting with another college band, and began performing at the university as well as throughout the local Yokohama area. After graduating from college, years of playing in several small venues and collaborating with rock musician Caramelman, AKG released their first indie EP in 2000. The six-track EP contained original lyrics written and sung almost entirely in English. The four spent the remainder of the year playing in multiple clubs and hosting various independent events.
The year after, the band tried to get their first Japanese single, "Konayuki" (粉雪?), onto indie radio stations. The song was eventually picked up by a popular radio DJ and put into heavy rotation on FM Yokohama due to the demand of listeners. AKG then released their second indie EP, I'm Standing Here, this time expressing songs written with Japanese lyrics. At this time, the band had began drawing an increasingly large number of audiences to their shows held in various clubs in Shibuya, Shimokitazawa, Kichijōji, and Tokyo.[1]
On November 25, 2002, after contributing to the Under Flowers Records compilation, Whatch You Gonna Do?, the band officially released their first major-label mini-album Hōkai Amplifier (崩壊アンプリファー?), enlisting internet radio host and artist Yusuke Nakamura to design and create their single and album covers.[2][3] The immensely critically-acclaimed EP topped the High Line Records' weekly chart for two consecutive weeks and peaked at number thirty-five on the Oricon indies sales chart. As a result of its success, Hōkai Amplifier was re-released by Ki/oon Records on April 23, 2003. A month later, AKG held their first headline show at Shimokitazawa Club Shelter. That same summer, the band performed at both Fuji Rock Festival 03's "ROOKIE A GO GO" and Summer Sonic '03 in Tokyo and Osaka. On August 6, the band released their first major-label single, "Mirai no Kakera" (未来の破片?), with their second single, "Kimi to Iu Hana" (君という花?), following shortly after. Days later, AKG held the first of what would come to be many ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION presents NANO-MUGEN FES on August 11th at the Shinjuku LOFT.[4] Their first full-length album, Kimi Tsunagi Five M (君繋ファイブエム?) was released on November 19th.[1] The LP sold over 250,000 copies and landed in the number five spot on the Oricon charts in its first week. As their fame grew, fans began calling them simply Ajikan (アジカン?), shortened version of their full name.
When 2004 came around, AKG received the award for Best New Artist while their video for "Kimi to Iu Hana" won the award for Best Music Video. From January 19 to February 25, AKG held their first headline tour, Five Nano Seconds, which consisted of thirteen shows. On July 1st, the band held their third ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION presents Nano-Mugen Festival at Nippon Budokan.[4] That following summer, the band went on to play in more than ten summer festivals, including Meet The World Beat, Rock In Japan Fes 04, and Fuji Rock Festival 04.
Over the course of the year, the band would release four more singles: "Siren" (サイレン?), "Loop & Loop" (ループ＆ループ?), "Rewrite" (リライト?) and "Kimi no Machi Made" (君の街まで?), before releasing their second full-length album, Sol-fa (ソルファ?) on October 20th.[1] The album would go on to sell more than 600,000 copies and debut at number one on the Oricon charts for two consecutive weeks. During its conception, fans from around the world organized and petitioned for copies of Sol-fa to be distributed outside of Japan. The support for Ajikan eventually resulted in Tofu Records striking a contract to release Sol-fa in the United States on October 18th. Following its release, "Rewrite" found fame both domestically as well as on an international level when it was chosen as the fourth opening theme for the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist.[5] Around the same time, their song "Haruka Kanata," enjoyed similar success after being used for the second opening of the anime series Naruto.[6] Asian Kung-Fu Generation spent the next two months on a national tour consisting of twelve shows called Tour SUI CUP 2004 -No! Member, November, which included a prestigious headliner at Nippon Budokan arena, and then released the year-end video DVD, Eizō Sakuhinshū Vol. 1 on November 26.[1]
Due in part to their growing recognition, Asian Kung-Fu Generation would dedicate a significant amount of time the next couple of years going on extensive national tours. Between March 14 and June 26 of 2005, AKG went on an extensive sold-out Re:Re Tour, performing at forty-eight concerts in thirty-eight cities throughout Japan. At the same time, the band released their first live DVD, Eizō Sakuhinshū Vol. 2: Live at Budokan +, which topped the Oricon DVD charts for an entire month. On July 9th, AKG held their fifth Nano-Mugen Festival at Yokohama Arena, where they performed with seven other Japanese and UK bands.[4] To advertise the event, they released a preceding compilation album that retained one song from each band attending the festival. Over the next summer, AKG attended a host of festivals, including Summer Sonic 05, Rising Sun Rock Fes. 2005, and Rock in Japan Fes. 05. They also appeared as guests on GOGOICHI –SPACE SHOWER CHART SHOW– on November 27th on SPACE SHOWER TV. The band closed the year by releasing the single, "Blue Train" (ブルートレイン?), followed up by a brief tour entitled, Tour SUI CUP 2005 - Winter Dragon in December.
The band began 2006 with the release of the single, "World Apart." The single was unique in that it featured a song in which Kensuke Kita stood as lead singer. It was also AKG's first to achieve number-one single status. It was also the year that the band was able to finally acquire their very own studio. They then took part in live performances in LIVE SUPERNOVA DX on February 16, 2006.[7] On March 15th, AKG released their third full-length album, Fanclub (ファンクラブ?) which went on to stay in the Oricon top five for nearly two months. The following month, the band went on a national tour entitled, Coung 4 My 8 Beat. Tickets for all thirty-eight shows quickly sold out. AKG's sixth annual Nano-Mugen Fes. was held at Yokohama Arena.[4] For two days, Asian Kung-Fu Generation and eleven other bands, including six Japanese bands, three American bands and two English bands, performed. Like the previous year, a compilation album was released in July to advertise the Nano-Mugen Festival. After three years of attending the Fuji Rock Fes, the band had the opportunity to perform on its primary Green Stage for the first time at Fuji Rock Festival 06.[1]
To commemorate their ten-year anniversary, Asian Kung-Fu Generation released their first compilation album, Feedback File on October 25th. However, rather than featuring hit singles, the nostalgic album was primarily compiled of B-sides, live performances, and old demos from their early indie days. Despite retaining little new material, the compilation managed to debut at number two on the Oricon charts. AKG then went on a two-month arena tour entitled, Tour Sui Cup 2006-2007: The Start of a New Season. Well over 100,000 fans attended this tour, which traveled through eight cities and featured guest performances by band from Japan and the United States.[1] In the midst of the tour, AKG was commissioned by the director of the then-upcoming anime film, Tekkon Kinkreet, to compose a song that would be featured in the movie. They created a song called, "Aru Machi no Gunjō" (或る街の群青?) and released it as a year-end single prior to the film's debut.[8] As a sign of their increasing prominence, the band came to be parodied in a volume of the popular Hellsing manga by members of the Vatican named, "The Vactikung."
On March 21st, the band released another live DVD, Eizō Sakuhinshū Vol. 3: Tour Sui Cup 2006-2007 The Start of a New Season, containing footage of their previous tour. Although they took part in various domestic summer festivals, AKG gradually became more and more withdrawn over the course of 2007 before ending appearances almost entirely. It was also the year that the band withheld their annual Nano-Mugen Festival.[1] However, they did close the year with the November release of their next album's second single, "After Dark." The song debuted in the top ten on the Oricon charts and was used as the seventh opening for the anime series Bleach.[9] Additionally, on December 22nd, AKG held a live concert in Seoul entitled, ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION Tour SUI-CUP 2007 ~Project Beef~ Live In Korea. The concert was the band's first concert in Korea since their performance five months earlier at Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival, which received enthusiastic applause from the foreign audience and led to the band being invited to play again.[10]
While they performed at the Japanese New Year countdown, AKG primarily remained withdrawn and spent the next few months working on their fifth studio album.[11] On February 2008, AKG released the final single, Korogaru Iwa, Kimi ni Asa ga Furu (転がる岩、君に朝が降る?), before quickly following it up with their album, World World World. Despite the lack of media appearances and the significant time-span between their releases, the album topped the debuted Oricon charts on its first week before eventually relapsing the weeks after.[12]
Albums
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EPs
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| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | "Kimi to Iu Hana" | SPACE SHOWER Music Video Awards 04: Best New Artist[13] | Won |
| 2005 | "Kimi no Machi Made" | SPACE SHOWER Music Video Awards 05: Best Concept Video[14] | Won |
| 2006 | "Blue Train" | SPACE SHOWER Music Video Awards 06: Best Group Video[15] | Won |
| 2007 | "Aru Machi no Gunjō" | MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2007: Best Rock Video[16] | Nominated |
| "Rewrite" | American Anime Awards: Best Anime Theme Song | Won | |
| 2008 | "After Dark" | SPACE SHOWER Music Video Awards 08: Best Rock Video[17] | Won |
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