Brand new BACK-ON.com – flyaway version

It appears to be a TV ‘spot’ ad that is currently playing to people across Japan (we hope!) to promote the new single, but the video was quite small, although we were all very excited to hear a clip of the chorus. However, in the meantime, it turns out that AbyssalChronicles has actually uploaded this clip for everyone to watch on Youtube!

Click on the link below to ‘watch it in high quality’ directly on Youtube!

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

Alternatively you can still watch the ‘normal’ version at the end of this post. For the sake of better graphics in particular, I would really recommend watching it on Youtube directly!

And on a quick side note, JUICE magazine did a quick preview for the new BACK-ON single, and the author seems to say that the theme of this single was:

Friendship & Courage (友情や勇気)

Hope you all enjoy watching the preview! :) Like some others, I am very excited by how good the songs sounds from the clip, and aside from the surprise that the lyrics for the single might already be available online, I can’t wait till we hear the song in full!

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The images we have all been waiting since the news hint of the new single, flyaway, were the CD covers for both the standard or normal flyaway single cover (shown first) AND the limited edition ‘Tales‘ version:

As the news update from Sound Ex put it:

“Even though it’s not “Back-On’s style, I REALLY love the covers.“

I would have to agree wholeheartedly with the latter statement, especially as I also love the covers too (why are the images so tantalisingly small!?) and I am sure you feel the same too (especially fans of the PSP series: Tales of the World – if you weren’t already aware of the news, BACK-ON is writing the OP and ED theme music for the brand new game Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2) although if I were to really ‘look’ for any similarities to BACK-ON‘s previous CD cover designs, I would say that the cursive writing reminds me of Chain, one of BACK-ON‘s earliest singles, which features that nice italic-cursive-style as well.

Anyway, before I digress further, let us move on to the tracklisting. The question we were all (at least several of us?) dying to know was whether the limited/Tales edition of the CD would include anything extra – Chain, for instance, did not – but as the official BACK-ON website confirmed (screenshot), there is an additional track called: flyaway 『テイルズ オブ』Remix or flyaway (Tales of) Remix!

So the official tracklisting is as follows (with the Remix version only available with the limited/Tales edition):

1. flyaway
2. where is the future?
3. Re:Start
4. (flyaway 『テイルズ オブ』Remix)

And if it wasn’t clear before,

flyaway is the OP and
where is the future? is the ED

for the game, although it’s a little beyond me at the moment why the remix version is called flyaway (Tales of) Remix rather than just flyaway (Tales) Remix , but according to the info on BACK-ON.com, the remix is a:

スペシャルヴァージョン (Special version) as it involves the voice cast behind the main characters of the game and also some of the background music (BGM) that features during the battles!

You can watch some of the trailer videos at the official Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 website but seeing as the musical styles of the BGM and BACK-ON‘s usual musical style is really quite different, it will be VERY interesting to hear this remix imho! Of course, one mustn’t lose sight of the fact there are 3 brand new songs by BACK-ON on this single, where the titles of all the songs seem to have connotations of creating a new beginning… I think. What are your thoughts?

I am really liking this potential ‘return’ to what appears to be themes of light and hope, as they were, I believe, something that the band were aiming for with several of their songs (more noticeable in some than others) and am very much looking forward to hearing previews of the new songs!

Before I forget… the brand new official profile photos for 2009 and to promote flyaway!
Here’s the official group photo:

And ones of each band member:

I love Gori‘s new look in particular this time round, although he looks awfully serious; Kenji03, sadly, is missing the glasses from the promotional photos of YES!!!, although Teeda is still sporting some very nice sunglasses this time round!

We might even see a new official BACK-ON website redesign – the team behind BACK-ON have a pretty good track record so far when it comes to new single releases – and with the single (both editions) out on January 28th 2009, just a day before the launch of Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2, we will hopefully have more news and song previews early into the new year, although there is time for one more message:

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2009 AND ENJOY THE CELEBRATIONS!

Thank you to everyone who has been so helpful and supportive to our site this year. It has been a great 12 months for BACK-ON and ourselves, even if the updates on our site have been a little sporadic, but the band have really gone from strength-to-strength, especially with the release of their first full album, YES!!!

We would also like to say a very special thank you to the fans who have contributed their talent, time and their energy both on our main site and on the Forums. We will see you next year with lots of BACK-ON related updates and very much hope you will all continue to support both BACK-ON and ourselves in 2009!

Although there is no hint of this on their website, the news is official, as it was included on an informational flyer with YES!!! It was quite a surprise when this small sheet of paper came fluttering out as I unfolded the CD insert, and you can see for yourself what I saw:

At that moment, I actually quite *forgot* that I was meant to be excited about YES!!! and jumped around for this instead. If you can read a bit of Katakana or are feeling resourceful enough to find one of those helpful pronunciation tables on Google Images, the blurb at the bottom of the leaflet says something like:

Bandai Namco game: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2‘s theme song “flyaway” is the title track of the 3 song (single)…

This could be better translated (please let us know in the comments or by email!) but interestingly, aside from the fact that the single will be released just a day before the actual game, like other subscribers of CDJapan’s Artist Newsmail list for BACK-ON, I received an Artist Update email listing TWO different editions of the CD. One is known as flyaway [Jacket A] and the other flyaway [Limited Pressing/Jacket B]!

For an extra 200 yen, flyaway [Limited Pressing/Jacket B] supposedly offers the magical world of First Press, which is defined by CDJapan to be:

a sticker, serial number for cell-phone ringtone and standby screen (valid only in Japan.)

for people lucky early enough to order the first batch of CDs. Now, the BACK-ON fangirl in me screams “HOLY ZOMG First Press FTW!” but from my limited experience of owning two different editions of Chain (one of my favourite singles by far by the way) if you do decide to pre-order flyaway, it will probably NOT be the end of the world if you receive flyaway [Jacket A] instead.

Besides, it’s still too early to make that decision yet imho, as we don’t even know what the CD cover looks like, but please do continue checking back here for more updates as January 28th 2009 draws nearer! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with news of what is to come:

• Fan reviews of YES!!! - 4 members of our Fan Forums have kindly volunteered to write a review of BACK-ON‘s first full length album, which we will be featuring on the site very soon!
• Random tidbits – Bits and pieces of news that we’ve meant to tell you about but haven’t quite got round to it; this includes multimedia and even a remix of Taneuma!

Last but not least, we would like to congratulate Sesshy on becoming Head Admin of Sound-Ex! You can also check out her newest wallpaper for YES!!! on our forums here, which looks professional enough to be an official promotional poster!

Sound-Ex will be launching a brand new layout for YES!!! very soon, so don’t forget to visit them as it is always worth it, although another site that you might like to visit whilst waiting might be the Facebook BACK-ON Fan Group run by Laura; there are currently 74 members and is quite a friendly community!

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? :)

Another promotion video from new single “BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming…” is completed !

It will be uploaded soon !

Please check it !

Sound Ex has said (in the same forum thread) that the PV should be released ‘in a week or so’ so keep an eye out everyone! :) I’m certainly looking forward to it’s release!

• More lyrics – practice makes perfect and the more I type out lyrics from the album sleeves the faster I can finish it. They do take up time though and with exams on the horizon I can’t promise many, but I will try my best.
• More media – this is one of the most popular areas of the site and Back-on Online will continue to provide as much content and variety as possible.
• More Interesting content – as one of the handful of English sites dedicated to Back-on (here I insert unashamed plugs about Sound EX, JaME and J!-ENT as well as Back-on’s Myspace – where backontokyo has mysteriously disappeared but thankfully we still have backonjapan) it’s important to ensure visitors don’t become bored and continue to maintain their interest in the band! I’m still researching the specifics but would welcome any feedback or even any guest articles such as reviews and others from visitors as well, so please feel to free to contact us if you’re interested!

On that note, I’d like to thank Sowon again for doing such a great job as forum super-mod on the Dedicated Back-on Forums. A special mention must go to Ichiban (or Ichi :p) for being so active as well! She currently holds the title of being top poster! :)

Sound EX and Ichiban (both are members of the Back-on forum) will be at Anime Matsuri, and Sound Ex has started a forum thread for collating questions, both for the Q&A PANEL as well the forthcoming private interview time that Sound EX has arranged with Back-on.

So if you have any burning questions – come forth and post on the forum! You can find the direct url below:

http://www.backon-online.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=34

• 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!

… help BACK-ON get more US fans so that they will be able to return to the states.

As far as I understand it, their first major event will be at Anime Matsuri, understandable as that is where Back-on will make their international debut. Visit Sound Ex’s website and show your support!