Anipike interviews Back-on at Anime Evolution 2007

Anipike or Anime Web Turnpike is undoubtedly one of the most well known anime sites from the 90s, where in its hey day, the site was the central database (or mecca) for fans, providing links to a mind-boggling number of anime sites that sprung up almost daily, usually hosted on sites such as Tripod, Geocities and Angelfire. I remember being one of those avid fans who visited daily, in the days of dialup when the best anime content was not necessarily found by search engines, and one had to reference the encyclopedia that was Anipike.

However, it’s been several years since then (the site was acquired by a commercial company in 2000) and the site has become less prominent, so imagine my surprise when a random search came up with an interview by Anipike with Back-on! :)

The interviewer, Carlos Pardo, one of the main article contributors of Anipike, met Back-on during the Anime Evolution convention (2007) in Canada the day after their concert.

He started off the article by introducing the band (always a good thing!) and talking about some of the band’s activities at the convention, before moving to give a glowing review (with plenty of detail and enthusiasm) of their concert performance, and a brief excerpt is provided below:

BACK-ON whipped the crowd into a jumping mass of bodies with their first song “Chain,” a particular favorite of mine. Teeda the MC or rapper of the group, stomped around gushing out the lyrics, and then guitarist/vocalist Kenji stepped in to sing the melodic chorus of the song. Kenji03 definitely was a favorite among the females in the audience, with plenty of screams each time he came up to the microphone. With Shu supplying more guitar riffs, his long hair shaking to the rhythms of Icchan on drums, and Gori creating a path of blazing bass tones, you can clearly see a band comfortable with themselves, synchronized together to make an impressive quintet.

Later on, Carlos (or Hkaddict as he is probably better known as) then launched into the interview (or chat) session with Back-on, where they covered a range of topics, including (predictably) anime and music, with some really interesting (and new) answers, such as:

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New release - “BLAZE LINE/A day dreaming…”

The news about Back-on’s latest release also arrived on March 26th 2007! Their new single “BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming…” - due out on June 6th 2007 - will be a 3 song compilation featuring BLAZE LINE, and A day dreaming retailing at ￥1000 ( CTCR-4025).

Both songs will be used for the new season of Eyeshield 21, an anime series currently on its 100th episode. BLAZE LINE will feature as the opening theme from May 2nd 2007, and A day dreaming as the ending theme from the earlier date of April 11th 2007 or Episode 101. Watch a preview clip of episode 100 below (courtesy of TV Tokyo) :

The announcement was also made in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, Issue 17 (March 26th 2007) which features Eyeshield 21 as one of its long-running manga series, along with the likes of Naruto and Gintama.

On the left is Page 126 of Shonen Jump which features Back-on (source), and the cover of this issue is featured on the right.

Kenji03 said in his blog (if I’ve intepreted it correctly) that the songs were to give people dreams and hope… which I personally think is also an apt description for New World, Chain and Hikari Sasuhou - these are all my favourites so I’m really looking forward to the new release!

p/s: Back-on’s web-team have uploaded two better quality clips of Chain and New World on their Back-on (Japan) Myspace.com profile. Take a look! :)

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