Twelve Short-Lived Musical Acts That Hit Hard with Their Only Anime Part 1

Prior to the mid-80s, theme songs for anime were what were known as "anison", which was shorthand for "anime song". In other words, they were songs made precisely for the anime they were associated with & mostly performed by singers who essentially made their careers via performing anison. However, with anime becoming more & more prevalent in Japan, eventually music labels wanted to play larger roles in anime production, and an easy way to do so was to use a new anime, especially one that would air weekly on TV, to help promote a new music act. It's often cited that the City Hunter TV anime that debuted in 1987 is what popularized the concept, as it was the first anime where both of its initial OP & ED themes would enter the Oricon Top 10, but it was by no means the first TV anime to also act as blatant (& somewhat unrelated) music promotion. In fact, while I can't verify if it was the first one either, 1985's Blue Comet SPT Layzner was another show that did the same thing with its OP theme, "Melos no You ni -Lonely Way-" by Airmail from Nagasaki, & it's two ED themes by Seiko Tomizawa... only in Layzner's case neither of its promoted musical acts went on to achieve the continued success that both Kahoru Kohiruimaki & TM Network would go on to see via & after City Hunter, and both acts would break up or leave the music industry after only a handful of years of activity.

However, I would still argue that while Airmail from Nagasaki would break up shortly after Layzner finished airing, "Melos no You ni -Lonely Way-" is a stellar song, so while the band itself was only around for a handful of years they still hit hard. So I gathered together 12 other examples of musical acts that were only officially around for no more than five to seven years & only have a literal single anime to their names... but they all more than made up for that lack of physical longevity as a musical act by truly hitting hard with the one anime opportunity they each had.

While I am in the middle of a year-long celebration of Masami Kurumada's 50th Anniversary in manga, this starting the list is entirely coincidental, since I decided to simply organize this in chronological order, based on when each musical act was originally founded. Therefore, we start off with arguably one of the most iconic short-lived musical acts in anime theme song history: Make-Up. Originally founded in 1983, Make-Up was a rock band that, technically, was an off-shoot of iconic J-metal band Loudness. Originally, the name "Make-Up" was used for a band featuring Loudness' guitarist Akira Takasaki & drummer Munetaka Higuchi, before an old high school classmate of theirs named Hiroaki Matsuzawa took over, after Matsuzawa played guitar for Higuchi's 1983 solo album, Destruction ~Hakai Gaisenroku~. Also contributing to Higuchi's solo album was singer Nobuo "NoB" Yamada, who later joined Matsuzawa to be the vocalist for this new version of Make-Up, alongside keyboardist Yougo Kouno, bassist Yausyoshi Ikeda, & drummer Yoshihiro Toyokawa. With Higuchi acting as producer, Make-Up would finally make its official debut on April 4, 1984 with the album Howling Will, followed by three more albums (& three singles) up through mid-1986. Roughly a month after their third single, though, the TV anime adaptation of Masami Kurumada's newest manga Saint Seiya debuted... and with it was a duo of songs that would define Make-Up forevermore.

The first 73 episodes of Saint Seiya would all open with the OP theme "Pegasus Fantasy", a truly iconic & rocking theme song that fit the "up to eleven" style & panache of Saint Seiya to a T, while accompanying ED theme "Eien Blue" was a little slower paced but still fittingly rock; they'd later be replaced with a second OP/ED pair performed by anison legend Hironobu Kageyama. In just two songs, Make-Up achieved what they seemingly couldn't do at all with three entire albums by having two hit songs, but in the end that still wasn't enough & in 1987 the band would break up, though Yamada & Kouno would still occasionally make new songs for Saint Seiya over the decades under the Make-Up name, most notably the ED theme for the Heaven Chapter movie in 2004. In 2009 Yamada, Matsuzawa & Kouno would reunite as Make-Up, recording new versions of their iconic OP & ED themes, but on November 18, 2010 Hiroaki Matsuzawa would pass away at age 50 from a heart attack, effectively ending Make-Up's reunion for good, outside of the band being credited for co-performing yet another new version of "Pegasus Fantasy" for 2012's Saint Seiya Omega, alongside Shoko Nakagawa; once again, though, it was more Yamada representing the band as a whole. Both Nobuo Yamada & Yougo Kouno have continued to work with anime, primarily in composing, writing, & arranging theme songs, though Kouno himself actually wound up being a bit of an honorary mention for this list when he sung the OP theme for the TV anime adaptation of Kinnikuman II-Sei (i.e. Ultimate Muscle) in 2002; he originally only did it as a proof of concept, but his performance was so beloved that it became the official version.

Make-Up as a band, & specifically the form that would release albums, only really existed for a handful of years, but through just two songs it managed to achieve legendary status among anime fans that has allowed its name to remain relevant long after the band's initial break up.

The rest of this half of the list focuses in on the 90s, a time where the idea of using anime to help promote musical acts would truly go into overdrive, especially once the concept of late-night anime started to find some momentum. The idea of the modern-day late-night anime infomercial started with late 1996's Those Who Hunt Elves, and it took almost no time for the music promotion train to run off the rails & enter into madness. The 1997 Eat-Man TV anime that came right after Elves, for example, notoriously featured no animation at all for its OP & ED sequences, instead being nothing more than credits set against pure black while songs by King-Show & Fields played, making it blatantly obvious what viewers should be paying attention to. However, I'd argue that the idea of early late-night anime being used as blatant music promotion, and the pratfalls of it, is best exemplified with Hareluya II BØY, the 1997 TV anime adaptation of Haruto Umezawa's highly successful delinquent manga that ran in Shonen Jump throughout the 90s for 33 volumes. For this anime King Records got involved, via its now defunct Starchild Records label, and in doing so took full advantage of it in order to promote its newest acquisition, SPYKE.

Founded in 1994, SPYKE was a duo made up of lyricist/vocalist Hiroyuki Shibata & composer/guitarist Hironori Morikawa, and in 1995 the duo signed with BMG Japan. During this run SPYKE would release four singles & one album throughout 1995 & 1996, with four of their songs even getting used as theme songs for programs like variety show Asakusabashi Young Youhinten, All Japan Pro Wrestling's truncated 30-minute broadcasts, & even Nintendo promotional program 64 Mario Stadium. However, in 1997 the duo decided to leave BMG Japan & move over to King Records, and this is where the BØY anime comes into play. King Records must have had really high hopes for SPYKE, because not only were three songs by the duo used for the anime's OP theme ("Tight-Break") & two ED themes ("Words of Free" & "Closet Freak"), with ED1's sequence even featuring live-action footage of Shibata & Morikawa on screen, but SIX songs ("Egoistic", "Heat in Motion", "After", "Before Lies", "Eve", & "Breath") were also use throughout the entire show as insert songs! That's nine whole songs by SPYKE that were featured in the BØY anime, nearly enough for an entire album on their own... it's just a shame that said album never actually happened. Yep, while King Records would release two singles for SPYKE during BØY's run on TV (totaling the OP, both EDs, & "Before Lies"), with the single containing "Tight-Break" & "Words of Free" apparently even being the only single to ever crack Oricon's Weekly Top 100, there was never a second SPYKE album, and after a final live performance on August 30, 1998 Shibata & Morikawa disbanded; SPYKE was around for no more than five years, in total. While King Records would include all of SPYKE's songs across the two OSTs released for Hareluya II BØY, this may go down as the biggest backfire in the history of using anime to promote a musical act; nine songs throughout one show, only for nothing more than two singles & a disbandment.

What's even crazier, though? SPYKE's songs in Hareluya II BØY are all excellent. Seriously, Shibata & Morikawa created banger after banger after banger, and they match the overall style, feel, & mood of the anime excellently, as they're a perfect match for the shows utterly 90s aesthetic; personally, I think "Before Lies" is one of the greatest anime insert songs of all time. Both members have continued to work in music, too, though only Shibata has had future anime work, technically, singing back-up on a number of Psychic Lover's songs; Shibata also sang numerous songs heard in Konami's DrumMania & GuitarFreaks games. While SPYKE was around prior to their sole anime, they truly burned white hot in 1997, only to burn out just as fast the following year.

This next one kind of feels like a cheat slightly, because two of its individual members are by no means "short-lived" acts, individually. However, this specific collective was only around for roughly five years, and has only one anime to its name, so I'd say it still counts. In 1984 a 16-year old Saori Saito was the runner up at the third Miss Seventeen Contest. In 1986 Saito made her professional debut performing with the duo The Heartbreakers (later known as both BaBe & Vis-à-Vis), before changing her professional name to Akira Asakura & going the the United States in 1995 for some voice training. Meanwhile, Joe Rinoie made his professional debut in 1988 as part of the band D-Project, before going solo once the band broke up. Rinoie would first make waves in 1995 with the song "Synchronized Love", a 100% English song made to be used in commercials for (the now defunct) consumer loan company Takefuji which became such a hit that it went from single verse jingle to legit dance club standard, and even professional sports teams throughout Japan wanted to play the song. When Asakura returned to Japan after her training, she would team up with Rinoie & guitarist/keyboardist/composer Masaki Suzukawa to form the group ROmantic Mode in 1995, signing with King Records.

Almost instantly, ROmantic Mode (or RO-M, for short) made a name for themselves by doing the two OP themes for 1996's After War Gundam X, "Dreams" & "Resolution". Simply put, both of ROmatic Mode's songs for Gundam X are all-time classics among Gundam OP themes, and it truly shows how talented Asakura, Rinoie, & Suzukawa truly were, and both songs have since been covered by the likes of Masami Okui, HIMEKA, m.o.v.e., Nami Tamaki, Hiroko Moriguchi, Ritsuko Akizuki (for The Idolmaster franchise), Masaaki Endoh, & Holy Knights. In fact, ROmantic Mode is probably the most successful entry in this entire list, as the group would put out a total of six singles, three albums, & two best of albums, while six more of their songs would be used as themes for a variety of other Japanese shows, though Gundam X would remain the group's sole involvement with anime. In 1999 ROmantic Mode would move over to Toshiba EMI, which is where RO-M's first best of album came from, but following that release it was essentially radio silence. The most that was ever heard about the group wouldn't be until Super Anison Tamashii's "Summer Battle" live event in 2008, where Akira Asakura made an appearance & was credited as "Formerly of ROmantic Mode", followed by the second best of album coming out in 2011, though it was released by King Records. It's unknown as to why ROmantic Mode broke up in 1999, only four years after forming, especially since it looked to be a rather successful gathering of talented artists, but at least for anime fans we'll always have the two stellar Gundam X OP themes they produced to remember them by.

Up next is a perfect example of what this list is about, because there's essentially no major information regarding this musical act online, even in Japanese, yet the one song they made that was associated with an anime is one that's impossible to forget. Born in 1966, Ryo Fujio (a relative of actor/musician Shigeki "Jerry" Fujio, on his mother's side) got into music very early on, eventually becoming an orchestral arranger while in junior high. He also formed a band during that time, but it would be while in high school in 1984 that Fujio would make his first real mark. Teaming up with his classmates Katsunori Honda (on vocals) & Nobuo Ito (on keyboard & percussion), Fujio would play guitar for the band A-JARI, a band that would find some good success throughout the 80s, getting a number of their songs featured in movies & the like, before they broke up in 1989 due to clashing musical styles between the members. Ryo Fujio would then join the band The Heart immediately afterwards, but would leave in 1991, instead becoming a song writer & offering tour support for various artists.

In 1996, though, Fujio would form a new band, Ikebukuro, alongside Rieko "Reach" Hamada & Hiroshi Ikeya, with even Yoshiyuki "Yoffy" Wada (future founder of Psychic Lover) being a member before leaving just as they made their official debut. Unfortunately, info on Ikebukuro is extremely scarce, and the band's name being written in English makes it tough to not simply find info about the district of Tokyo it's likely named after. From what I can find out, it looks as though Ikebukuro only ever released two singles, one featuring the songs "Diamond" & "Korosaretai" (the only song Yoffy was a part of, singing back-up) & the other featuring Ikebukuro's only anime song, "Kizudarake no Tsubasa", the first ED theme to the 1996 TV anime adaptation of The Violinist of Hameln. While the Hameln anime movie that came first earlier that same year was accurate to the comedic fantasy manga that Michiaki Watanabe was making in Monthly Shonen GanGan, the later TV anime adaptation went in the complete opposite direction by being immensely serious, dark, & operatic, though telling the story overall story that the early part of the manga had. Because of this, the first OP theme "Magical:Labyrinth//" by Skirt, kind of clashed with the series by being so upbeat & fun (though an excellent & memorable song, in its own right), but "Kizudarake no Tsubasa" made up for that by being a bit more serious sounding in its tone, but still giving a touch of the fantastical. Fujio even snuck in a bit of his orchestral experience in the full version with some harpsichord, though I have no idea who actually was the vocalist for Ikebukuro; it could be Fujio, but it could also bee Ikeya, as his name is listed first on the single's cover.

Unfortunately, Ikebukuro would disband in 1998, only two years later, and since then Ryo Fujio has been a freelance musician, joining the occasional band, helping make songs for others, & even helping reform A-JARI for a year between 202 & 2021. In comparison, Ikebukuro was merely a drop in the bucket that is Ryo Fujio's career in music, but it certainly still gave anime fans a truly memorable song to cherish.

Believe it or not, anime has a long & rather storied history of getting American (or, at least, English-speaking) musicians, lyricists, & composers involved in some form or fashion, and this one always feels like a bit of a bizarre one to me, personally. So, to start, the late Masahide Sakuma's career in music dated back to the 70s when he was the guitarist of the rock band Yoninbayashi, before moving over to the short-lived new wave band the Plastics. Despite only being around between 1976 & 1981, though, the Plastics were very influential & found fans abroad, partially due to American new wave bands helping get their albums released in the US, namely Talking Heads, Devo, & The B-52s. It was through this, & touring in the US, that Sakuma became close friends with The B-52s, and specifically really wanted to work with founding member Kate Pierson, so in the late 90s Sakuma finally decided to contact Pierson about a collaboration. Pierson agreed, so Sakuma got Takeshi Shima (also formerly of the Plastics) to join in, & since the rock band Judy & Mary (which Sakuma was a producer for) was on hiatus at the time he also asked vocalist Yuki Isoya to sing alongside Pierson. Finally, bassist Mick Karn (formerly of English new wave band Japan) & legendary session drummer Steven Wolf were added to the supergroup, and since Yuki Isoya was 27 at the time she decided to name the group NiNa, as in "two-seven".

Despite intentions to tour in America, there were what Sakuma called "adult circumstances" (namely that Isoya & Pierson were signed to rival companies, Sony & Warner), so NiNa wound up being a Japan-exclusive thing. The supergroup would also only exist throughout 1999, releasing two singles & one self-titled album, but NiNa still made a notable impact in that little time, with four of its songs getting used in Japanese media, two of which acting as the ED themes for the Arc the Lad TV anime that aired that same year, which was based on the PS1 RPG Arc the Lad II. The first ED theme, "Happy Tomorrow", which was also used later that same year as the OP theme for J-Drama Kanojo-tachi no Jidai, is an excellent little song that's performed fully in English, with Isoya taking lead while Pierson joins in for the bridge & chorus, while the two swap for the second verse. Meanwhile, the second ED theme, "Rest in Peace", is the opposite by being primarily in Japanese, with Isoya mostly reciting the lyrics like she's reading a letter of remembrance for someone, outside of the chorus which is properly sung, & even features Pierson singing alongside Isoya in full Japanese for a few lines!

I will fully admit that this inclusion is really more of a personal pick, as the Arc the Lad anime was the very first anime I ever owned in full, predating me even getting into anime properly in 2004, and both of NiNa's songs have an immense nostalgia for me, in that regard. However, there's no denying that NiNa fits this list perfectly, because for an international supergroup that was literally only around for a single year it certainly made two songs for the Arc the Lad anime that today remain rather unique among anime themes when it comes to how they sound; there aren't many anime OPs & EDs that sound quite like NiNa.

We end off Part 1 of this list with a truly obscure example, so much so that I can't definitively tell when this musical act even started & ended, and in fact it might have only ever produced a single original song. Debuting as a manga in late 1997 in the pages of Monthly CoroCoro Comic, Chosoku Spinner was a manga by Takashi Hashiguchi (this was before he made a name for himself with Yakitate!! Japan) that was made to help promote Bandai's Hyper Yo-Yo line of, well, yo-yos. The manga itself would run until 2000 across seven volumes, but during that time an anime adaptation of Chosoku Spinner was produced in late 1998 by Xebec that aired as part of children's variety show Oha-Suta; it only ran for 20 episodes, but due it only airing twice every month it took nearly an entire year to fully air. As for the show itself... it's an anime about competitive yo-yoing, and it makes no bones about that, but it's honestly fine for what it is; it's also known abroad as Super Yo-Yo, after its Odex-produced English dub for Singapore. However, what starts the first 14 episodes of Chosoku Spinner is an OP sequence featuring a song called "Someday Let's Go Together", and it's performed by a musical act known as rub-down.

So... who's rub-down? Honestly, I'm not really sure. The (unfortunately for a kids anime) slightly suggestive name for the act/band/group/whatever is too generic to give you anything good on its own, and adding in the song's title naturally just gives you info regarding the song itself, or its single that came out on February 1, 1999; in fact, the single itself doesn't even have a second song, instead coming with the "original karaoke" version! The only things one can really find out regarding rub-down are the basics, really, like that they was signed to Pyraid Records, their seeming only original song was composed & arranged by Shinsuke Sugiuchi (who did the music for the Cowboy Bebop game for PS1), & it was written by Kiri Yunomae & Ima/Ema Mitachi, the latter of which also wrote lyrics for some songs related to the anime adaptation of Sensual Phrase that same year; I'm also guessing on Mitachi's name, as even VGMdb has no romanization for their name, only kanji! As for any other songs performed by rub-down, all I can find are covers of "Leo no Uta" & "Ace wo Nerae!" for Osamu Tezuka & Beatmania albums, both in 2000; it dries up after that, so rub-down may have only existed between 1998 & 2000. If you have no idea why this confounds me so much, it's simply because "Someday Let's Go Together" is actually kind of amazing. This was a song that went with an anime about nothing more than kids competing against each other in yo-yoing... yet this song goes so hard in how utterly late 90s it is that it's absolutely charming. The broken English gives us gems like "I no can't help myself", "Out of your mind they said" (only the singer pronounces the last word phonetically, so it sounds more like "side"), "I can everything will out fine at last", and the cherry on top of it all: "But I just gonna tell you I don't give a dawn". The rocking guitars & honestly smooth transition from softer sounding rock to a continual building into the hard rock of the chorus also shows that the people who made this song were actually pretty damn talented.

And all this for an anime about yo-yoing meant to promote a line of yo-yos made by Bandai... yo-yo. "Someday Let's Go Together" has become a little bit of a meme today, mainly because of the "But I just gonna tell you I don't give a dawn" line, but it's honestly a really cool & fun song to listen to, and it hasn't been totally forgotten professionally, either. Earlier this year Hong Kong-based one-man act Kasa actually put out a cover of this song... and it's really "dawn" good! Sure, Kasa makes some "fixes", like changing "dawn" to "damn" (as likely intended), & he replaces some of the most blatant broken English with proper English, but the cover shows just how good the original song by rub-down really was.

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And with that we come the end of this first part of 12 musical acts that only had one anime to their names before they all quickly died off, but they more than made their impact with the songs they did have associated to said respective anime. Next week we'll have Part 2, where we move into the 2000s & see some more examples of what I guess one could call "one-hit anime wonders", including one that literally did the entire soundtrack for a TV anime!