TOUGEN ANKI flips the story of Momotaro on its head, asking, “What if Momotaro was the bad guy?” in this season’s modern-day interpretation of the classic Japanese folktale. Hard-rock band BAND-MAID performs the show’s ending theme “What is justice?” Anime Trending had the opportunity to talk with guitarist MIKU Kobato to discuss the creation of the song, her musical influences, and future collaboration and performance goals.
Anime Trending: Thank you so much for your time! Could you please introduce yourself and your role in BAND-MAID?
MIKU Kobato: Okaeri nasaimase, Goshujin-sama, Ojo-sama! Welcome back home, masters and princesses, we are BAND-MAID. I’m MIKU Kobato of BAND-MAID, nice to meet you, po!
You’re here at Anime Expo for TOUGEN ANKI. Since the panel is tomorrow and we will publish the article after the panel, what can fans expect from you and BAND-MAID at the panel?
MIKU Kobato: It is an opportunity for me to meet and speak to masters, princesses, and TOUGEN ANKI fans, so I am really looking forward to it. And there are some surprises too, po. There is going to be a chance for me to talk about the song as well, so I hope to share how we made the songs with you, po.
What was your reaction when you heard you’d be working on ending the theme song? How did the opportunity come about?
MIKU Kobato: The anime side approached us, saying they wanted BAND-MAID to write the ending song, and that’s when we started working on it. When we were first approached, I hadn’t read the original manga yet, but I knew about it, so I was really honored to be asked, and was very happy, po.
You kind of mentioned it already, but how familiar were you with the series before being asked to do the ending theme song? How did they describe this to you?
MIKU Kobato: It was a very popular manga in Japan, so even before this came about, I knew of the title and the covers, etc, and what the manga looked like. However, I only read the original after this came about, so I did not know too much about the story, po. The anime team had a request for the lyrics, which was that, even though there are Momotaro and the Oni in the story, they wanted me to write the lyrics from Momotaro side’s point of view. I read the entire original series with that in mind, po.
Could you talk a little bit about the reason and meaning behind the ending theme song name “What is justice?”
MIKU Kobato: Just like the title implies, the theme for this song is to question “what is justice”, po. In the Japanese fable, Momotaro, Momotaro and Oni are the main characters, and in it, Oni is the ultimate evil while Momotaro is the protagonist who terminates Oni. However, in TOUGEN ANKI, justice for Momotaro is not justice for the Oni, and even Momotaro himself questions if it is in fact justice. There is a conflict within himself, the mismatch of what he thinks justice should be, but he continues to fight. I strongly felt his agony when reading the manga, and so I wanted to emphasize that in the lyrics. By repeating this uncertainty in the chorus with the lyrics “What is justice,” I wanted to make that point come across, po.
The album art has a lot of “easter eggs.” Could you talk a bit about the art and why it was chosen?
MIKU Kobato: We are grateful that we have been offered to do tie-in songs for anime three seasons in a row. We always want our masters and princesses to enjoy our songs, as well as get excited about our songs. Even before announcing it, we wanted them to be excited about what was coming up next, so by placing some clues in the artwork, we wanted them to look forward to the next one, po. For example, for “Zen,” which was a song for ZENSHU that evolved around the story of isekai reincarnation, we had an image of it being in the year 20XX — an image of the faraway future, in Tokyo. SAIKI, the vocalist, had an image of the Tozai Line train, and that is why the artwork is that of inside the train, and hoped that even in the far distant future, BAND-MAID music will continue to reach many people, po. If you look closely, you will notice a guitar pick on the floor, which secretly leads up to “Ready to Rock,” po. “Ready to Rock” was [a song for a] music anime, and so a music room is on the cover. There is a music performance in the anime, so there are pictures of our instruments, like the drums, on the cover.
If you look really closely, you will see stickers of a peach and Oni, which is an easter egg for TOUGEN ANKI and “What is justice?” The cover for “What is justice?” is based on the story of TOUGEN ANKI. There is a skeleton of the Oni, and the smoke represents Momotaro. The red fruit signifies the Oni with its color of blood, po. Also, there is a scale to question what justice is, po. There is a common thread throughout these three covers — they are all newspaper advertisements. This will lead to the EP, so I hope you will look forward to that, po.
Oh! Very clever!
You are one of the BAND-MAID’s two vocalists, as well as the guitar player. How does your approach to a song change when you are the lead vocalist versus when Saiki is the lead vocalist and you are focused more on guitar?
MIKU Kobato: Let’s see, po. It’s all up to the song, but many BAND-MAID songs require me, and also SAIKI, to sing differently, even within one song. When SAIKI changes her way of singing, I change the way I sing the chorus. I am really conscious of how she sings when she is the main vocalist and I sing the chorus, po. As for my songs, I am conscious about what the song needs, so the approach is different for every song, po.
We are going to do a throwback to the beginning. What was your first guitar, and can you tell us a little bit about how you got it?
MIKU Kobato: The very first guitar I purchased was Rickenbacker, po. I started playing the guitar after BAND-MAID, so I did not own a guitar before that, nor have I ever played one before that. I didn’t know anything, so I asked the band members what I should get, and they told me I should rely on my instinct. I went to different guitar shops, and the one that clicked was Rickenbacker. When I went to the studio with it, they were all surprised, like, “Why that one!?”, po. They all thought I would choose more mainstream ones like a Fender, but what I bought was Rickenbacker, so they were really surprised, po.
Speaking of being inspired, do you have any musical inspirations? Maybe someone with a killer guitar technique, or someone whose musical style is one you admire?
MIKU Kobato: Let’s see, po. Before BAND-MAID, I didn’t really listen to hard rock . I started liking bands and felt rock was cool after listening to Japanese band Tokyo Jihen. I felt that Ringo Sheena’s vocals and her lyrics were very rock, and that is where my love for rock began, po. After starting BAND-MAID, I listened to lots of different hard rock music, like Korn, po.
You mentioned that you hadn’t listened to a whole lot of hard rock before you started working as part of BAND-MAID. I guess a similar question along that line is, What kind of music do you like to listen to in your free time?
MIKU Kobato: Ever since I can remember, I loved listening to all types of music, no matter what genre. I listen to Japanese pop, music that are considered anime songs, and also songs with EDM, as well as hard rock, of course. I try to listen to the music that is popular at that particular moment, trying out different music, po.
Is there a genre that you are not too familiar with that you might want to get into?
MIKU Kobato: Hmmm. Let’s see, po. What would it be? Come to think of it, I might not listen to alternative music as much, po. What else? Latin and jazz. I’ve been thinking about listening to jazz recently, but hadn’t had a chance, so I would like to, po.
I will speak in support of jazz. I was in a jazz band in high school and college for eight years, so I like the style a lot.
MIKU Kobato: My image of jazz is that you have to be skillful with your instrument to play jazz, so you must be good, po.
I was OK. (laughs)
You’ve done a few international tours in the last six years. Do you have any dream venues or locations that you really like to perform in that you haven’t visited yet? Is there a place that was so good that you’d like to perform there again?
MIKU Kobato: This is my personal opinion, and not that of BAND-MAID, but because our ultimate goal is WORLD DOMINATION, we want to go to every single country on Earth, but one country we have not been to and would love to go to is Australia, po. As for a country that we’ve been to, but would like to go again, is Holland, po.
BAND-MAID has done some collaborations recently with Mike Einzinger of Incubus, as well as the Mexican band The Warning. Is there anyone or a group that you would like to collaborate with?
MIKU Kobato: Let’s see, po. When we collaborate with others, we feel that they pull things out of us that are not possible on our own. We collaborated with Mikey (Mike Einziger) of Incubus, but we haven’t collaborated with the band Incubus, so I would love to do that next time. If we could tour with them, it would be amazing, po.
That sounds amazing! I’d love to come to one of those shows.
That’s all the questions that I have for now. Could you please share a message for your fans? Something to encourage them to listen to your music or something like that.
MIKU Kobato: Goshujin-sama, Ojo-sama, masters and princesses, BAND-MAID is working hard to reach our goal: WORLD DOMINATION. I hope masters and princesses all over the world will listen to our music, and let us know you would like for us to come to your country, because BAND-MAID would love to go, po. Our newest song, “What is justice?” sings about the meaning of justice, and it’s a really cool song. I hope you will listen to BAND-MAID’s “What is justice?” a lot, together with watching the anime, po!
TOUGEN ANKI is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
Interview questions written and conducted by James Mizutani. Special thanks to Pony Canyon for the interview opportunity.
