Twelve Short-Lived Musical Acts That Hit Hard with Their Only Anime Part 2

In music there's the concept of the "one-hit wonder", which is a musical act that is known primarily for only one song that wound up becoming a big hit in a major region (usually North America), but it's a concept that really is purely regional. Many "one-hit wonders" are, in fact, simply acts that were big in the region they came from (mostly Europe, in these examples) & remained relatively popular there, but only had that one fleeting moment of being a true worldwide smash. In the cases of these "one-hit anime wonders", as I called them at the end of Part 1, I wanted to make sure I avoided that technicality, as there are Japanese musical acts that have been around for a long time but only ever had their music officially matched to an anime a single time, or maybe they only had one anime for a long time but eventually wound up getting a second one. Examples of the latter would be Masatoshi Ono & Diamond Yukai, both of which had songs attached to the Rokudenashi Blues movies Toei made back in the early 90s, only to never get another anime attached to their name until the 2010s, namely with the Hunter x Hunter anime reboot & Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal II, respectively; Ono would later perform other anime theme songs. Even if they only had one anime to their respective names, though, I still wouldn't consider either Ono or Yukai for this list due to their longevity.

No, this is a list about those musical acts that truly had short lives, and only one anime to their respective names, so let's see what examples from the first decade of the 21st Century I could find.

When it comes to something like the music industry, it's sometimes just as important to have a memorable name as it is to produce memorable music, and it's arguably even more so when it's not a solo act. Group names are imperative, and there have been some especially unique & memorable ones throughout history. I bring this up because we start off with a duo who went with a name whose readability depends on how good someone is at reading phonetics. Formed in 1999, the duo of vocalist Kyou Kodama & guitarist/producer Rei Kimura decided to name their group "Exceed"... but not in that simplistic fashion. Sure, in Japanese the group's name is written in katakana (イクシード), but officially the proper spelling was [iksí:d], which is technically the way the word is written phonetically... maybe. According to the Cambridge dictionary the phonetic spelling for the word "exceed" is "/ɪkˈsiːd/", but at this point I think that'd be splitting hairs, so let's get to the actual musical duo.

As stated, [iksí:d] debuted in 1999, releasing its first single that October & for the next two years the duo would release another six singles, before releasing its one & only album, Recovery and Reload, on October 9, 2002. Interestingly enough, only five of the fifteen songs from the singles actually were included on the album, so 2/3 of the songs there were 100% brand new. During that time [iksí:d] would see some "tie-up" uses of its songs, with shows like Eien no Ko, Mokugeki! Dokyun, & ZZZ D-Today "Ren'ai Saiban" throughout 2000 & 2001, before the duo would get their one & only anime, 2002's Tokyo Underground. Based on the Monthly Shonen GanGan manga of the same name by Akinobu Uraku, the anime today is maybe "best" known for being the anime that Studio Pierrot & director Hayato Date made directly before the debut of the Naruto anime. However, regardless of what one might think of the Tokyo Underground anime itself, there's no doubt that it came packing heat with a pair of outstanding OP themes, both of which done by [iksí:d]. OP1 "Jounetsu" is an excellent song that starts off pretty slick & calm before building into an amazing crescendo of a chorus that gets you all sorts of excited for the coming episode of the anime. Meanwhile, OP2 "HEY YOU!! ~Ushinatte wa Naranaimono~" is a bit more traditional of a shonen action opening theme when compared to "Jounetsu", but is still a very strong & memorable song in its own right. It's with this second OP theme that [iksí:d] saw its greatest success, as the single for "HEY YOU!!" would make it all the way up to #20 on the Oricon single charts. Unfortunately, Tokyo Underground would also mark the end of [iksí:d] as a proper musical act, as after the release of Recovery and Reload, which came out after the anime had finished airing, there would be no more singles or albums from [iksí:d], and in 2003 the dissolution of the duo became official.

After [iksí:d] was no more both Kyou Kodama & Rei Kimura seemed to effectively leave the music industry, as I can't find anything about either one after their heyday as a duo. Rei Kimura, in particular, is impossible to find info for, as there's an actress with the same exact name & kanji, plus one more character afterwards, so searching Kimura's name in kanji gives you the actress, no matter what. Still, if the rest of their catalog is anything like their Tokyo Underground songs, then [iksí:d] was definitely a strong duo for the handful of years they were around.

This next entry was a bit of a touchy one for me to include originally, because I initially wanted to enforce a hard "no more than five years" restriction, but this band was a weird one in that regard because it had two short lives, in essence, via two completely different names. In the end, I decided to up the lifespan restriction slightly, if only so that this entry could be kept. Anyway, the band Milkrun formed in Kyoto in 1999 & was made up of guitarist Hironaga Masuda, bassist Koshirou Honda, guitarist Kentaro Akizuki, & drummer Hiroshi Arakawa; all four sang vocals, though Masuda sang lead. However, Milkrun (named after the idea of a milkman's familiar route) wouldn't make their "major" debut until November 2002 with their first single, followed by two more singles & one album up through mid-2003; four of their songs would be used for a variety of TV shows in 2002 & 2003. In March of 2004, though, the band would change its name to Audio Rulez, with the idea being that they would "spread their antennae in all directions & dominate music from A to Z", as well as simply saying that "Music Rules!!".

2004, in general, would wind up being the newly-deemed Audio Rulez' big year, as the band would release three singles, across which five of their songs would be used as theme songs for various pieces of Japanese TV programming. One of which would be the sole anime appearance for Audio Rulez, which was Zipang, Studio Deen's adaptation of Kaiji Kawaguchi's epic time slip historical/political thriller manga about a modern-day JSDF naval force, & the Aegis warship they're on, finding themselves flung back in time to World War II, namely just prior to the Battle of Midway. Understandably, a series like this could be a tricky one for most songs to properly match the feel & mood of for an opening theme, but "Rashinban" actually manages to do just that, delivering a slow & mostly acoustic sound for the first half, coming off as reflective. Things then build up for the more rock/orchestral chorus, though still maintaining a sense of hope, perfectly matching the feeling of the SDF crew & their hope to possibly find a way to not just return to their time period but also not potentially interfere with history so that the "present" they knew of no longer existed. Seriously, the Zipang anime remains one of the absolute best titles I've ever covered over here, and "Rashinban" by Audio Rulez is one of my personal favorite anime OPs ever.

Unfortunately, Audio Rulez would disband on April 1, 2005 after one last live performance, just barely over a month after releasing their second album (& the only one under their new name); to be fair, according to Oricon chart performances, "Audio Rulez" performed worse than "Milkrun" ever did. Of the members, Koshirou Honda looks to be the only who stuck with the industry in any notable fashion, becoming part of the duo Magic Party between 2010 & 2012 before finding work as a composer & arranger for various other acts. However, in 2016 the band got back together for a one-off live performance at Shibuya eggman under the name Milkrun×Audio Rulez, complete with a seventh & final single sold exclusively at that event that contained two new songs, fittingly titled "Start Over" & "Live Again".

Our third entry for this second half of the list in an interesting one, because this is an example of a short-lived act that did way more than just make a theme song for an anime. Also, much like ROmatic Mode last time, this is an example of the individual members themselves actually having long & fruitful careers, but their time as a combined act being short-lived. If you're a fan of Japanese music then you've likely at least heard of m-flo, a multinational hip-hop group made up of the Japanese Taku Takahashi, the third-gen Zainichi Korean Verbal, & the Colombian-Japanese Lisa. m-flo's been around since 1997, is considered one of the biggest names in Japanese hip-hop, & have provided theme songs for the 2003 Astro Boy anime & Black Clover, produced insert songs for Hypnosis Mic, & even composed the score for Appleseed: Ex Machina & the "Global Astroliner Number" section of Amazing Nuts!. Unsurprisingly, each member of m-flo has also made their own music outside of the group, and for this entry we'll be focusing on Verbal.

In 2002 Verbal teamed up with fellow rapper/producer Georgio "13" Cancemi from the groups Delighted Mint & So' Fly, himself Italian-Japanese, to form the duo called Toss & Turn. Beyond that there's really no other information regarding Toss & Turn, especially since there was also a Eurodance group of the same exact name in the late 90s, outside of a sole single released on May 22, 2002 for their song "Off the Chains", which was also the first OP theme for Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002, the second entry in the long-running anime franchise that promotes Takara's titular line of battling tops. However, unlike any other entry across both parts of this list, Toss & Turn didn't simply provide a theme song for Beyblade 2002... they provided the entire score for the show! Not just that, but Georgio Cancemi also composed, arranged, & co-wrote the first ED theme, "Urban Love" by Shiori, as well as co-composed the score for the accompanying movie, Beyblade: Fierce Battle! Takao vs. Daichi, alongside Mitsuru Shimada. Without a doubt, it really does look like Toss & Turn was formed specifically for the purposes of making music for Beyblade 2002, likely giving the show a hip-hop/R&B fusion sound to it that definitely would have made it sound pretty unique when compared to other kids anime scores at the time.

I say "likely", though, mainly because there doesn't look to have ever been a standalone OST released for Beyblade 2002, so it's tough to really come across clean versions of the show's score in any major way. What little I can find of the score itself does sound like a mix of hip-hop and R&B, which would track considering the people involved, while "Off the Chains" is a fun & enjoyable hip-hop song that, for the anime, does feature some exclusive lyrics to better reflect the series, like the line "Spinning like a Beyblade"; even "Urban Love" is a really soothing & smooth R&B song. In comparison, Nelvana's English dub of the show, Beyblade V-Force, went with a very different musical score, one with a heavier rock style to it, and I'd love to be able to properly compare the two & see which one I would prefer, in the end. As it is, though, Toss & Turn was seemingly only around for a single year, but I'd argue that they more than made their mark.

Last time we went over NiNa, a supergroup made up of talent from America, Europe, & Japan that was around for only one year. For this latter half we have another example of some international flair but this time around it's just one member of the band, though this example managed to stay around for slightly longer. Founded in 2002, 03 (pronounced "Zero San") was a rock band signed to Avex Trax made up of vocalist Ayako Furuichi, guitarist Tomoe Akiyama, drummer Soul Toul, & on bass was legendary session musician T.M. "Shaka Zulu" Stevens, who only recently passed away at age 72 this past March. While Stevens' involvement with 03 initially sounds a bit out nowhere, he had prior experience working with Japanese artists, like Yoshiaki Masuo in 1979 & hide in 1994, and his wife was Japanese, with Stevens even being known to speak the language very well when MC-ing. 03 would put out two singles in 2002 across consecutive months (October & November), before putting out their first (self-titled) album on January 1, 2003. Unlike every other entry across both parts of this list, though, which had at least one of their anime songs initially released via a single, 03's sole anime song was only ever released via that initial album.

Debuting on February 23, 2003 (nearly two whole months after 03's first album), Beast Fighter: The Apocalypse was an alternate sequel to Ken Ishikawa's wild & crazy manga (which, in hindsight, sounds redundant when we're talking about Ishikawa manga) about the looming apocalypse and how it was up to a young man who wanted vengeance on his father for the sick & twisted experiments performed on him & his mother to prevent the end of the world from happening. Therefore, this anime needed an OP theme that would fit the manic & insane world that played host to the violent & bloody battles between human/animal hybrids, godlike creatures, & literal clones of God (yes, I mean plural!)... and 03 had the perfect song for it. Simply put, "Kaigenrei no Yoru" was the best possible song to open up every episode of Beast Fighter, with its hard-hitting guitar & drums instantly setting up the conflicted world viewers would be looking at, while the bridge offered a slight reprieve of inner reflection before it returns to rock for the chorus, all with T.M. Stevens' funk-influenced bass giving it all a unique flavor all its own. This song in particular was also co-arranged by Satoru Hiraide, who would later produce & arrange music for UVERworld from their debut in 2005 up through 2014, including their iconic themes for Bleach, Toward the Terra, D.Gray-man, Gundam 00, & Blue Exorcist. So, yeah, it's not surprising that "Kaigenrei no Yoru" absolutely rocks.

Alas, 03 would only release one more album in 2004, which included a song literally titled "Devil=Man", a seeming cover of "I Shot the Sheriff", & even a song featuring Marty Friedman, before the band would break up for good in 2005. For the longest time "Kaigenrei no Yoru" was considered nigh-impossible to find a full version of online, since it was only available via 03's first album & the band was only around for a few years, but eventually people came across the album & have since shared the full version via YouTube.

All of the prior entries in this list, across both parts, have been about bands and groups, and that was mainly by design. Simply put, a band/group is tougher to keep together for a variety of reasons, while an individual performer can stay around for a while on their own, essentially. However, I did find one example of a solo act that truly only stuck around for a handful of years, yet also managed to get one of their songs attached to an anime. Born on October 16, 1981, Jun Manaka made her debut in music on December 14, 2005 when her first album, Sky High, came out initially as a mail-order exclusive via indie label Zazzy; in fact, Manaka was Zazzy's very first artist. Sky High would then get a traditional release the following month on January 18, 2006, and then a second album, Unity, would come out on September 13; the song "Sky High" itself would also be used as the ED theme for TV Saitama's Audition.TV program in January 2006. After those two albums, though, Manaka got moved from an "indie" lebel to a "major" one, getting upgraded from Zazzy to Zain Records, both of which are owned by the B Zone Group, best known for providing the Detective Conan anime with its metric ton of theme songs.

While it sounds a bit backwards, getting moved to a "major" label like Zain now meant that Jun Manaka would finally see her first ever single on February 21, 2007, with the lead song there being "Kissing til i die", which by this point had already been first heard on late-night TV as the second ED theme for the TV anime adaptation of Fist of the Blue Sky. This was the prequel to the iconic Fist of the North Star that told the story of Kenshiro Kasumi, 62nd successor of Hokuto Shinken (two prior to his adopted nephew, the "original" Kenshiro), as he fights against injustice in Shanghai. By this point in time musical acts tended to try to make their songs being used as anime theme songs better fit the actual title they're attached to, & Manaka herself admitted that the song's title represented the "Ultimate Love" between Kenshiro & his beloved, Pān Yùlíng. While the first Blue Sky anime itself is a bit of an infamous one due to its troubled production history, resulting in some rather stiff & downright poor animation at points (even in the extended home video version), its music is generally well regarded, and that applies to its OP theme & two ED themes. With the story eventually establishing itself as a bit of a Chinese mafia war mixed with ancient martial arts, "Kissing til i die" matches well with that vibe, going for a strong mix of hard rock & pop that honestly fits the anime extremely well in its second half.

Sadly, that single would wind up being Jun Manaka's final release, as while there was apparently talk later that May about moving her over to Northern Music, another B Zone label that's since become "Mai Kuraki's private label", the move never actually happened & Manaka instead pretty much disappeared from the industry by 2008. We'll likely never know what exactly happened that resulted in Jun Manaka's career being so short-lived, but I imagine she's happy with the life she's lived in the following two decades since she first made her indie debut, and at least she gave anime fans a really cool ending theme to remember her by.

Finally, we end with a musical act with a name that, surprisingly, is associated with more acts than you'd think! First off, this is NOT the Rockwell you might be thinking of, which would be the stage name of Kenneth Gordy, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy; amusingly enough, though, that Rockwell was also a short-lived act, only active between 1983 & 1986. Also, for those who might know of them, this is also NOT the Rockwell that's a Japanese songwriter, arranger, & guitarist & has been active since 2010; amusingly enough, though, this Rockwell has also arranged & composed music for a couple of  anime. No, what I'm covering is rockwell (notice the lack of uppercase "R"), a rock band made up primarily of vocalist Manabu Kuroda & guitarist Seigo Shishikura, who initially came together in 2005 as simply "Seigo & Manabu", during Kuroda's time as a solo artist (after previously debuting in 2000 as part of the band COATZ) & Shishikura's time as a studio musician, & performed mainly at live houses; Shishikura also worked as the touring guitarist for male idol group V6 at this time. It was in 2006 that they two started using the "rockwell" moniker & signed with Dreamusic, though unlike Kenneth Gordy it was in homage to legendary painter Norman Rockwell (not because they felt they... "rocked well"), & the two singles they released that same year were both headlined by cover songs, namely one for class' "Natsu no Hi no 1993" & Badfingers' "Without You".

However, it would be with their third single, released as a digital-exclusive on February 7, 2007, that rockwell would get their one & only anime song. Airing from January to July of that year, GR -Giant Robo- was a new TV anime version of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's titular giant robot manga from 1967, which itself was the basis for a tokustatsu TV series later that same year that's best known abroad as Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot. However, unlike the iconic 90s OVA directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, which wound up being a celebration of Yokoyama's entire catalog of works due to restrictions, the GR TV anime was actually based in large part on Yokoyama's original manga story, though with numerous changes of its own, and even paid homage to the tokusatsu series via a certain character. A major factor of GR -Giant Robo- was the mystery behind Giant Robo itself, and its fellow "GR" robots, & the song that was used for the OP theme, rockwell's "Answer", definitely matched that vibe well. However, there are two versions of "Answer" out there, and though one is technically labeled the "-440 Ver.-" I can't definitively tell which one that is. The version used for the anime is both more ethereal sounding during the verse & more harsh in its rock sound during the bridge & chorus, whereas the other version sounds more like a mix of rock & orchestral; regardless, Kuroda's voice really helps sell the song as perfectly matching the mystery of the GRs. Is GR -Giant Robo- as good as Imagawa's cherished OVA? No, but I do feel that GR has been unfairly dismissed by anime fans simply because it wasn't more of Imagawa's vision, as the show that we did get is still really good.

As for rockwell, they'd release one more single in September 2007 before Kuroda announced on March 11, 2008 that he'd be taking a hiatus from music, and with that put an end to rockwell. As of last year Manabu Kuroda is a director & member of the board for Bandai Namco Music Live, the company that now handles both video labels like Bandai Visual & Emotion as well as music labels like Lantis, while Seigo Shishikura still works as a freelance guitarist. The chances of them reuniting as rockwell at this point look very slim, but they'll at least continue to exist in memory as the duo who gave GR -Giant Robo- an honestly kickass OP theme.

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Without a doubt, the music industry (in any country, I'm sure) is a tough, harsh, & unforgiving one that has resulted in many acts that simply couldn't cut the mustard & were left to the wayside in relatively short fashion. However, over in Japan it can at least give an opportunity for short-lived acts to live on well after their respective disbandments if they can get at least one anime to feature a song of theirs as a theme song, of some sort. The twelve examples I included in this list is likely only a small portion of examples where short-lived musical acts were still able to hit hard with the only anime they had to their name, and I only hope that reading both parts has maybe reminded you of some other examples, maybe even some more recent ones from the 2010s that I simply wasn't aware of.