Asian Kung-fu Generation

A group of college students who met and started small, Asian Kung-fu Generation right now is making it to the Japanese Music industry, and just recently, made it to the top.

Origins
The band started off with Kensuke Kita (Lead Guitar and Background Vocalist), Takahiro Yamada (Basist and Vocalist), and Masafumi Gotou (Vocalist and Guitars) as founding members of Asian Kung-fu Generation, all of which are members of Kanto Gakuin University's music circle. Kiyoshi Ijichi (Drummer) was then recruited shortly after. They have been performing in small events for quite sometime until the year 2000 marked the creation of their first extended play, which contained six English cover songs. A popular radio DJ picked their first single Kona Yuki and was played heavily because of listener demands. Later in 2001 they released another indie CD which contained songs in Japanese lyrics. Houkai Amplifier, their first mini-album, was then released in 2003 which surprisingly reached 35 in the Oricon charts.

Fame
Asian Kung-fu Generation's two released singles, Mirai no Kakera and Kimi to Iu Hana, boomed them to fame in 2003. The band then released their first full album, Kimi Tsunagi Five M, which landed number 5 on the Oricon charts in the first week of release. The album also sold 25,000 copies, a surprising amount for a starting band. Because of their increasing fame, fans had been calling then Ajikan, a shortened version of their name.

The following year the band was awarded Best New Artist and Best Music Video (for their video Kimi to Iu Hana) in 2004. At the same year, the band released four singles, including Rewrite which was used as the fourth opening song of the popular anime Full Metal Alchemist, and their second album Sol-fa and reached number one in the Oricon charts for two weeks and sold 600,000 copies.

Continuing
Asian Kung-fu Generation released a DVD of their songs which was on the Oricon DVD charts for a month. The band also played multiple sold out concerts, including the Re:Re: tour and Nano-Mugen Festival 2005. They released a new single, Blue Train, on the same year.

Currently
In 2006 the band released two albums, Fanclub and their B-side compilation Feedback Files which again made it to the charts. They performed in the Nano-Mugen Festival sequel and released three new singles Blue Train, World Apart and Aru Machi no Gunjo. World Apart made it as their first number one single.

Trivia
Rewrite and N.G.S. are at the songs list of Konami's popular arcade game GuitarFreaks and Drummania.

Recommended
Haruka Kanata - single, second opening song for Naruto
Rewrite - single, fourth opening song for Full Metal Alchemist

Videos


Haruka Kanata LIVE at Five Nano Seconds 2004


Rewrite LIVE at Nippon Budoukan