Music Corner Week 10: Kishidan

For this week’s Music Corner we cover the ever-cool rock band Kishidan. Kishidan started back in 1997 as a four-member group; Show Ayanocozey is the group’s frontman and the main vocalist for the group, who also happens to be DJ Ozma. Hikaru Saotome provides the dance moves for the group along with his screaming talents when needed. Hitomi Saionji and Hoshi Grandmarnier—the latter who joined the group in 1999—serve as guitarists while the last member to join—also in 1999—was Shouchikubai Shiratori, the bass guitarist.

Kishidan is a well-oiled machine full of personality led by the dragon-like vocals of Show Ayanocozey whose ability to match his tone to the music is unparalleled. Both guitarists write fun riffs that are a blast to listen to. Their music videos are fun to watch as well; each video is full of energy and usually features a crazy scenario like in their music video for “The Weekend Bancho” in which they wind up fighting a robot that’s gone crazy. Each member of Kishidan sports a huge pompadour and wear old styled school uniforms. Everything that Kishidan does is done with a touch of humor and a fondness of the gangs and values of yesterday. They tend to have appeal toward the younger generations because their songs are mostly about motorcycles, being with one’s gang, conflicts with school, and adolescent love.

Kishidan is under Avex Trax for their record label and are managed under Sony Music Artists. Since Kishidan’s formation they have released fourteen albums, their latest 万謡集 (Manyoshu), which was out August 9 of 2017. They have also released twenty singles, many of which featured in anime and dramas. Kishidan’s last single was “Running Man” which dropped August 30 of 2017. You can follow Kishidan on Twitter and give their official site a look.