Blue Encount is a four-member alternative rock band led by Tanabe Shunichi who stars as lead vocalist with some guitar. Eguchi Yuuya is lead guitarist, Tsujimura Yuuta serves as bassist, and Takamura Toshihide jams on the drums.

The group got its start all the way back in 2003 when Tanabe, Eguchi, and Takamura met at the college they were attending. As time went on, Tsujimura was intent on joining the tennis club and went to visit it—but the club members were gone on vacation. Tanabe, Eguchi, and Takamura had been using the club’s room for practice and Tsujimura, who just so happened to be a bassist, really liked their music. He wound up joining the group and Blue Encount was born. Their name comes from two aspects: firstly, they wanted a color to be in the  name of the band because they felt that bands with colors in their names performed better on the charts, and secondly, they all happened to be fans of the Hong Kong film Blue Encounter. 

Blue Encount has a propensity to write songs with a high intensity that takes the listener on a wondrous journey. The powerful vocals of Tanabe combined with the sick riffs of Eguchi and slamming drums of Takamura just synergize in this awesome sense of wonder. A good example of this can be heard in “Survivor” which was featured as the first ending theme to Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (listen below).

Blue Encount was around the indie scene for a long time before they signed onto a major label and their first major studio album, Nearly Equal, was released July 22 of 2015. Since then the band has gone on to drop two more studio albums, their last released March 21 of last year (Vector). They recently announced their upcoming single “Bad Paradox” which will be the band’s tenth single since going major. Posted below you can check out Blue Encount’s “Survivor” along with their latest single “FREEDOM” which dropped last November. You can find Blue Encount’s personal website here and be sure to follow them on both Twitter and Facebook.