The redesign and coding has been the brainchild and work of Sesshy, and is inspired by the cover of Back-on‘s latest single Sands of time. I really like this new design, as it looks very sleek and clean, and is extremely easy to navigate, so kudos to Sesshy for doing such a great job! I am very glad she decided to retain the grungy font from the original site as well :)

In addition to this makeover, a new intro flash to the website has also been released, featuring photos of Back-on from their latest photo shoot and Sands of time playing in the background. Unfortunately (as before) we haven’t been able to include screenshots of the flash animation on their front page, and so it is best enjoyed by visiting the Sound EX website yourself!

If you like the relaunch of Sound EX, why not write a comment on their guestbook and let Nao and Sesshy know? :)

Lots of websites are started up every day, and just a little over a year ago, BOO was started and joined very shortly by BOO Forums. With the upcoming release of Back-on‘s new song, Sands of Time, it seemed like a great opportunity for us to celebrate our very first birthday and also their new work at the same time!

After some discussion, we’ve opted for April 6th 2008 as our official birthday, and we’ve already started planning a number of things to mark the occasion! As BOO+Forums is fundamentally a fan community built for Back-on fans by fans, one of the major areas that we are focusing on is the:

Fanwork donation request!

This is where we would humbly like to ask everyone for their contribution! And what we are looking for, as ookami, one of our forum moderators (who came up with the idea) so excellently put it: (everyone’s) own little tidbits of Back-on goodness!

So, it can be art, writing, sketches, music, singing, covers, wallpapers, videos, literally just anything that you’ve made as a fan of Back-on. Please don’t hesitate to submit your work, as they will be appreciated, since you have spent time on it!

In addition to this, we are also going to do a:

Banner Rotation

To celebrate this event, and for the forseeable future, we will be randomly rotating the forum banner (the large image at the top!) using member-contributed work! The idea is with thanks to Sesshy, and I really hope everyone will be kind enough to submit their work!

The current banner featuring flower and Butterfly was kindly created for us by Sound-Ex/Nao, which I think is a fantastic example! Simple yet so very effective. So long as the banner is less than 850px in width and has a suitable height (minimum 150px) then please send them in! The minimum criteria (of course) is that it should say the forum name somewhere.

Another thing that we will be doing includes:

The New BACK-ON Dictionary in WIKI format

Originally a concept started by ichiban (forum moderator) as a forum thread where users contributed their definitions and collaborated to form the content. We’ve decided it’s time to make it ‘official’ and neat and tidy by making it like a WIKI! This will form part of the main site and will be editable only by forum members. The original forum thread will still remain though!

And as with every website, the time comes for a new fresh look, so we will be introducing:

New website and forum theme

This is still very much in the works, and we will/are working with some members to ensure this goes well and on-time! At the moment the new forum theme has already been approved by Sowon (co-admin of the BOO Forums) but the site theme is progressing a bit more slowly, so on that note, we would be very grateful if you could let us know what you would personally like to see on Back-on Online! This can be done by commenting at the end of this post, or by getting in touch via the Contact Form.

We also have other ideas in the works that are coming along, but our focus is primarily on donated fanworks, so if you do have something that you’ve done with Back-on’s music, pictures – literally anything – please do let us know! Any work can be submitted to us by emailing:

submissions(AT)backon-online.com

This is a big event for us, and we very much hope you can join us in celebrating our first birthday! :) Thanks!

This time, a day dreaming… and Kodou were the top favourites of our voters, and as usual, we have also put up two extra downloads for just one week only, including the much-requested Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) as well as the runner up from the previous polls, forward.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the latest polls, and if possible, it would be great if you could vote again in the next one, where:

• Butterfly (Butterfly single)
• DRIVE (New World album)
• Believer (Chain single)
• Grab (Survive compliation album)
• Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock album)
• RAIN (New World album)

are all up for selection. It might be a bit more difficult to choose this time! :)

More updates will be forthcoming throughout the site, as well as more content from various contributors! And before I forget, we have updated the affiliate link with Sound EX from their Myspace to their official new website! The people behind the website are Nao and Sesshy, and I would encourage everyone to pay a visit, particularly as the graphics used for the site design really are fantastic! I’ve included a screenshot of the new site design below as a taster, but look out for the flash movie on the splash page – it’s worth the wait – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually take a second glance at splash pages.

Of course, the video is included in this post as well, and it seems that this is a special version of the PV with extra ending credits! The info comes courtesy of Koutarou, and you can find out a little more below the video.

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It seems almost every single member of Back-on got quite tanned during their stay in Houston, America, as they have t-shirt tan marks on their arms! I also think it’s very sweet of Back-on to go the extra mile and give their thanks to e.g. JohnP, Nao (SoundEX) and Fabio amongst others by recording their messages.

We also get to find out the identity of the lucky man arm wrestling with Icchan in the PV! He is known as Nick and you can visit his Myspace profile by clicking on his name!

p/s: Two versions have been uploaded, the first one has a lower pitch than the other, and I think the latter is closer to the original so I’ve included the new version above.

SoundEx Youtube Channel

With reference to the video captions by Nao, in the first 50 second clip, the translator Tomo runs through the list of the questions to ‘prep’ the band. I’ve taken the executive decision to use a picture of Tomo (and Nao‘s head?) for the screenshot, since by all accounts on the Forums (ok, I meant Ichi), the official translator is meant to be very cute! Click on the picture to go straight to the video.

 In the second interview clip (with a running time of 4:02 minutes) we get to see/hear each Back-on member give a brief account of their “typical day“, which was the opening question so there are presumably more coming up! (I’ll try and find out more about the answers either from the Forums or by listening to the clip again.)

This is the video that highlights that all the band members look incredibly cute when they’re smiling (smile more!) and Gori definitely struck me as a very happy man, because he was smiling from the start of the clip! Hence we have his picture for the screenshot below. :) As before, you can click on the picture to watch the clip.

There are also more videos (in sequence) of the Post Autograph session which are worth watching too, so do pay a visit to the SoundEx Youtube Channel! Apparently it’s already one of the top 100 most watched channels in the Musicians category today. ^^

I’ve taken the liberty of taking screenshots of the two videos where:

Teeda is waving his hand in the air

and Kenji03 and Gori look bemused!

You can view the individual clips by clicking on the links above or by visiting the:

Official SoundEX Youtube Channel.

First up is a video posted by SoundEX (Nao) on Youtube titled “Kenji’s drinking contest” and features the group (and presumably Anime Matsuri staff) Alas embedding has been turned off (understandably) so to watch the video, please visit the official channel directly by clicking the link below:

Official Back-on Street Team – Youtube channel

More videos after the read more…

The next video has been kindly provided by Ichiban (yes, the same Ichi who has shared her pictures in the earlier news posts :D, thanks!) and is a fabulous clip of Kenji03 waving at the camera and giving a little smile *the effect on a fangirl is quite catastrophic actually* :p

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Also, also… following on from the concert videos posted by happysky, a new user mineralblue, has kindly posted longer videos of Back-on‘s rendition of Chain and New World on Youtube as well! Watch the two videos below or visit mineralblue (organicraver)’s Youtube channel :)

The first video is Chain:

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and the second is New World:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Last but not least, instead of a video… we have a shot of a short newspaper article from Japan with the photo that Back-on took with the crowd and some introductory text – havea look below, courtesy of the G-F-S blog. (Find out more about it in the next news post where we tell you more about G-F-S)

I’ll update this post at a later time with more info about the content as well as hopefully an embedded video! :)

Anime Matsuri Pictures and such…

The captions underneath each picture are pretty self-explanatory but they are really awesome pictures with great closeups of the band! :D Everyone in the band (especially TEEDA and KENJI03 looked even more gorgeous in these photos! This is what I’ve stayed up for! No really… the other pictures are brilliant too (I must ask about the camera) – they won the Ramune Cosplay Contest as Pocky Boxes that they worked very hard on.

Miyu-chan (a brand new member!) has also kindly shared her photos with everyone from Anime Matsuri as well! :) You can see a few of them below but again, check the link to the thread above for more pictures!

• New Back-on Forum – http://www.backon-online.com/forums/
  The original idea for the forums was conceived by Sowon, the new Forum-Supermoderator. :) You can find out more about him by clicking on Site Staff but this is the first forum dedicated to Back-on by fans for fans. Please do signup and participate in the discussions where possible! Its still work-in-progress so feedback and activity really help!
• New Staff – Please welcome Sowon to the Back-on Online Team! Sowon hails from France and has stepped into the role of Forum Supermoderator. He has already made an impact by triggering alot of forum activity!
• New Affiliate – I would also like to welcome Sound Ex as our brand new affiliate! Sound Ex is the official Back-on US street team and you can find their current website here: http://www.myspace.com/backon_soundex Nao runs Sound Ex, and Back-on Online look forward to working with her to promote Back-on as much as possible.
• Site Navigation Change – The top navigation bar was becoming a little bit clogged up so, taking inspiration from JaME (who will feature in a later news post) I’m starting to re-organise the static site content. Hopefully it will also make it easier for users to find more information.I am very keen to hear feedback with regards to how easy it is for you to find what you’re looking for on Back-on Online, but in case you weren’t already aware of it – the Search function at the top of each page is usually very good, as well as the Related Posts found on the left of each full article.

I am currently considering creating a special page for each anime that features Back-on‘s music ie. Murder Princess OVA as well as Air Gear and Eyeshield 21. Each page would introduce the anime as well as Back-on‘s actual song and links to any media available on the site. Please do let me know if you think this will make your user experience of Back-on Online much better!

p/s: One of the forthcoming news updates will be something extra special – *hint* its to do with new lyrics!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Other Back-on MVs that you can find on Youtube are from blueblueblue include:

• Flydom from ‘Baby Rock‘, Back-on’s 3rd mini-album

  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

• Gaku Ten also from ‘Baby Rock‘ featuring (Nao Oikawa)

  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

• Baby Rock CM where CM stands for ‘Commercial Message’.

  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]