The latest video uploads feature TEEDA and KENJI03 giving us a quick commentary of Hello World in Japanese, English (TEEDA) and Mandarin Chinese (KENJI03)! I have to say that they are all brilliant! I don’t want to spoil his message, as it’s better to hear the man out himself, but this is what TEEDA said – and I quote:

Hello World, this is TEEDA and KENJI03 and you’re watching BACK-ON channel!
On February 16th we’re going to release the new album “Hello World”! It’s going to be the best J-Rock sound you’ve ever heard – no doubt! The first and second track  ’”Beginning” and “ROCKSTAR ANTHEM” is crazy because I rap so sexxxy, you know what I’m saying?  And this year we’re going to go more worldwide, so hope to see you at your country. Anywayz, please check out our homepage, blog, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, blah blah blah for more information. Thanks… See ya!

Once you’ve heard him say that, I swear you’ll <3 him forever! (I know I do… and so does Sesshy!)

KENJI03‘s spoken Chinese has improved leaps and bounds, so for any BACK-ON fans that understand Mandarin, this video is a real treat ~~ He says:

你好,我們是BACK-ON! 我是主唱KENJI還有TEEDA! 在2月16號,我們BACK-ON要發行我們的第二張的全新專輯: Hello World! 請台灣大家一定要聽喔! OK?! 然後-在台灣只要上日本Amazon網站就可以聽到我們的新專輯 Hello World. 請多多指教!

which roughly translates as:

Hello, we are BACK-ON! I am the lead vocalist KENJI03 and this is TEEDA! We will be releasing our 2nd brand new album: “Hello World” on February 16th and hope everyone in Taiwan will listen to it! OK?!
If you’re in Taiwan, you can visit Amazon Japan and listen to our new album “Hello World”. Please look after us!

In addition to these 3 videos, BACK-ON have uploaded 5 other videos, which we’ll try and post about separately, including:

• A mini documentary about their T-shirt project (6:35) – TEEDA and KENJI03 design and spray-paint t-shirts by hand for fans to buy at their forthcoming PUBLIC THEATER live
• BACK-ON group commentary on Hello World (5:18)
• BACK to the Future 1 [爆 to the Future 1] (4:53) – Documentary video of BACK-ON’s trip to Canada in 2007 – surely the title is a homage to the film Back to the Future?
• BACK to the SP [爆つべ SP] (2:11)
• BACK to the vol.4 [爆つべ vol 4] (4:28)

The official Youtube channel was registered on January 23rd 2011, but as this BACKONNETCHANNEL account was registered on the much earlier date of January 5th 2011, it shows that this project has been at least a month in the making!

There is a short (and primarily audio) video called album CM 18 26 25 2 which might be some sort of promo for Hello World? We’re not sure really so would welcome any comments or thoughts.

But going back to the main topic: the official Youtube channel is definitely a feather in BACK-ON‘s cap when it comes to their recent international social media campaign, which already includes Twitter and Facebook, as pictures speak a thousand words and videos can offer so much more, and all this means that we can interact with BACK-ON the band directly via mediums we fans are already comfortable with.

Out of the uploads so far, the most exciting video me is really the recent video commentaries by TEEDA and KENJI03, as they reiterate the band’s plans for going more ‘worldwide’ in 2011 – Japan and (we believe) America are already on their list, so I’m hoping that they’ll visit Europe again, as well as the rest of Asia and even the South Americas, as there are brigades of fans in Taiwan, SE Asia, China and Brazil etc.

If you are a fan, give us a shout here! We’ll try and feature some of the international fan brigades over the course of the next few weeks, and hope this will give BACK-ON more reasons to go to even more countries!

The DVD version is on the left (with members of the band) and the CD version is on the right:

The album will feature 12 songs in total, of which 7 (yes, 7!) are brand new! What this means is that we have never seen them on any other BACK-ON single, album or compilation releases to date, and the tracklisting is below:

1. Beginning
2. ROCKSTAR ANTHEM
3. with you feat.Me
4. Apologize
5. twenty four / 7
6. TELL ME
7. flyaway
8. HERO
9. Tomorrow never knows -album ver.-
10. We are…
11. ONE STEP! feat.mini
12. hare days

I love the names of the new songs so far, and according to TEEDA’S blog entry (which mentions that he really likes the first two tracks called “Beginning” and “ROCKSTAR ANTHEM”) the album is BACK-ON way of saying a huge ‘hello’ to the world!

The band DO want to do a world tour, which they are kick-starting in Japan, as they have already released dates for their “Hello World” tour around Japan and there may already be plans for America!

The CD version will retail at ¥ 2,500, but the DVD version will cost ¥ 3,200. For the extra ¥ 700, the album will come with a special DVD with lots of videos:

• with you feat.Me
• TELL ME
• ONE STEP! feat.mini
• flyaway
• Sands of Time
• flower
• BLAZE LINE
• a day dreaming…
• BAReeeeeeeeeeN/足跡
• Anime Matsuri 2010 in TEXAS Documentary

Are you excited? I know I am! It’s hard to believe this is only their second ever full-length album (as we know, BACK-ON do love releasing singles) but the real bonus for fans imho is that we get 7 new and unique songs on this one massive compilation, not to mention the lure of the DVD of high quality videos (name dropping Sesshy here).

For international fans, you can already pre-order the DVD (and/or CD) version on online retail websites such as those listed below and we have also listed the prices for the DVD version for your reference (correct at time of this post) excluding shipping:

• CDJapan $36.67 USD
• YesAsia $38.25 USD
• CDBanq $38.98 USD

Let us know what you think! We are having a super fun and active discussion on our Fan Forums as well, so join us here: http://www.backon-online.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=853

Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year break. In case you hadn’t already caught the news on the redesigned BACK-ON.com (screenshot below) or even on their official Twitter, you can now watch the official PV for TELL ME on Youtube!

Click here to watch it (and add it to your Favourites of course) or click on ‘Read more’ below to view it on BOO.

Do I like the song? The answer is: I *absolutely* love it! It reminds me of the time I first heard Chain, as it is so memorable, even though the style of music is slightly different. One of the main highlights has to be TEEDA‘s rapping over the heavy guitar riffs(?) between 0:37 – 0:47 but if you’re after some great verses, a super catchy chorus and bridge, then I reckon you’ll definitely like TELL ME, as KENJI03‘s vocals are just so good.

As for the PV: fans who attended BACK-ON‘s Anime Matsuri concert in 2010 will be in for a treat, as the band decided to go down the BLAZE LINE route and feature clips from their trip to the USA; and from what I recall on the Forums (posts by IchiI think!), they actually performed this song during the concert, so if you catch yourself in the PV, please do let us know~ :)

So without further ado (and don’t forget to tell us if you like it) the PV:

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You can watch the video by visiting The Anime Network at:

http://www.theanimenetwork.com/animeaccess/index.php?access_num=8

Update 27th June 2009: As the video is no longer available at the original link above, we have decided to upload the clips relating to BACK-ON to our Youtube account. You can watch the video below or by visiting this link:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XzPa0wqQP8

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but if you want to take a peek at the contents, we’ve taken a few screenshots from the video of scenes with Back-on. Take a look below (there are 12)!

Teeda is alittle cheeky during the interview ( :D) but it is a really great clip to watch, as they’re all smiling at one point or another, and we also get to watch their full performance of Chain! Thanks Akari and Ichiban!

Our main focus is on the T-shirts (Merchandise) that were announced at the end of last month, because the latest news post features Icchan and the T-shirts! Yup, he models all 4 colours of the latest design, and looks so sweet when he smiles. :) Take a look below, especially at the pink t-shirt, as the website says it is particularly recommended by Icchan!

If you want to see how the t-shirt fares under colourful spotlights, Back-on.com also provides a photo of Shu with the new-t-shirt as well~

It seems that the band have also made an executive decision to reprint the New World t-shirt that was apparently sold at Anime Matsuri 2007, since it was so popular! If you haven’t already seen it before, Icchan models it again:

I have to say I really like the design for this shirt, since the skulls/chains/guns combo does seem quite morbid, but I do love the 2017-2018 venue list at the back of the new shirt! All the shirts are set to retail at ¥2,500, which is about £10 GBP or $20 USD. Except, I’m not sure where. >_< If you do know, please get in touch!

Back-on‘s other news updates involve new dates for their live gigs (August and September), which we’ve updated on the band’s Schedule page. Their diary looks very packed, and to highlight one gig: They will be performing with bands from both Japan (such as Uzumaki and Yamaarashi) and the US (Phunk Junkeez and Supe) on September 2nd 2007 at Club Asia in Shibuya. However, the most significant date is probably their second solo live gig Code002 “flower” on October 13th 2007 at BOXX in Shibuya! :)

p/s: We haven’t forgotten about Back-on‘s debut solo gig Code001 “BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming…” on July 4th 2007. It’s taking a little time to collate info for the news post, so please do check back again for the full report.

The tracklisting includes:

1. BLAZE LINE
2. a day dreaming…
3. EYES

where the first two songs are the OP AND ED (respectively) of the anime, Eyeshield 21. With reference to the interview featured in the most recent issue of pam! magazine, although the two songs are very different musical styles, they both convey the same message of:

honest “feelings of gratitude (appreciation) that are usually forgotten”

The collective thoughts of Back-on at the time were about acknowledging the people who have helped them to get where they are now, including family and friends as well as the band management team from Japan. In addition, they have also extended their thanks to the people from Houston, Texas during their trip to America for Anime Matsuri.

This is evident in their latest PVs for the single, especially in a day dreaming…, where the ending credits in particular for the ‘extended’ version features a running list of thanks as well as specially recorded video messages!

In BLAZE LINE, we get to see more footage from Anime Matsuri, where the main part of the video is the live performance of the song itself! For a bit of a previously unknown trivia, both PVs have been directed by Kats ☆ Mori, who also directed the promotional videos for Gaku-Ten, Flydom and New World.

So where can you buy this single? I can easily recommend the online shops below (each link will take you to the info page for the single) particularly Play-asia and Yesasia as they offer more competitive shipping rates for international buyers:

• Play-asia.com
• Yesasia.com
• HMV.co.jp
• Amazon.co.jp

If you have the fortune to be living in Japan, according to Back-on‘s official blog, the CDs were delivered to the stores yesterday to prepare for today’s release. The author (one of Back-on‘s management team) actually paid a visit to the Tsutaya and Hmv store near Shibuya Station, and listened to Back-on‘s music on the sample music kiosks (an example is provided below).

Alas, I still have to wait for mine to be delivered from Play-asia.com and can hardly wait! :) I will definitely take some photos so please check back for further updates! Hope you are as excited about the release as I am!

You can watch the video by visiting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbUJ6VXSRrA

or (as usual) you can watch the video below:

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A big thanks to gangangan03 for uploading the video!

UPDATE 31/07/2009: Video link updated. With thanks to stdark912 for the new video.

You can watch it by going straight to Back-on‘s Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/backonjapan! Alternatively, you can also watch it below:

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Thanks again to Koutarou for the breaking news! :D

It’s already been mentioned before that Back-on were particularly keen on hamburgers and Gori in particular seems to adore them! He writes:

I recall that on day one, I ate a hamburger the size of my hand in a bar!

On day two, for lunch, I ate a hamburger from the hotel.

On day three, I ate a hamburger from a takeout(?)/or outside.

On day four…

Gori stops at this point… where he says the memory of eating burgers everyday keeps popping up! :D

He obviously enjoyed being in America, and has posted a group picture which you can see above! Like Teeda and Kenji03, Gori thanks the people in America for being so good to them. He is also very much looking forward to Canada, so to all the Canadians – please do make an effort to support them at Anime Evolution if you’re around the area!

On another note, active forum users will most likely already know this video, but during Anime Matsuri 2007, one very lucky person by the name of Fabio was ‘serenaded’ by Back-on! The video has been uploaded by buehrer on Youtube, and Fabio has kindly allowed us to post it here:

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We get to see Kenji03 strumming on his guitar singing Fabio, fabio, fabio… with the rest of Back-on joining in at the end of each sentence with Fabio! At the end, Gori says the sweetest thing.. I love you!

Click on the pictures below to visit the gallery and view the rest of the pictures!

There are some great shots of Teeda and Kenji03, as well as two taken from the other side of Back-on‘s crowd shot! :D

p/s: The gallery doesn’t support sub-albums fully yet so it’s a little disorganised, but everything will be reorganised when this feature becomes available. Gomen!