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\n\tOn July 18, you released your new song, \u201cWhat is justice?\u201d<\/strong> It\u2019s the ending theme to the TV anime <\/strong>TOUGEN ANKI.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKANAMI (guitar): When I read the manga, the fighting scenes made a huge impression on me. I wanted to express that through music, so I play a ton of riffs in the song. In the second verse, I play riffs almost the entire time from the intro to the bridge. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever played such a long run of riffs, so it\u2019s another fun song for my repertoire. As for the melody, I always picture SAIKI singing at an OKYUJI (live show). I love letting SAIKI put it all out there. I wanted the song to have a melody where SAIKI had to put all her power into it, which is why the melody in the chorus turned out to be so hard.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI (vocals): Yeah. The whole chorus is pretty high-pitched, so at first I got mad about it. I was like \u201cWhat the hell are you trying to do?!\u201d (laughs) But KANAMI explained what she was thinking when she wrote the song, and I was like, \u201cOkay, I guess the chorus really does have to be high-pitched then,\u201d so I just put my all into singing it. I feel like it\u2019s the culmination of all I\u2019ve been doing so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe drums and bass go all in from the very start of the song, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tMISA (bass): For everything except the chorus, I put in a rock-solid bass foundation, but for the chorus I wanted to bring out all the qualities of SAIKI\u2019s singing, so in that section, the bass line follows the vocals.<\/p>\n
\n\tKANAMI: When we were recording, MISA was giving direction and demonstrating how to play, like \u201cSorry, one more time! Play it again, like this!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMISA: It\u2019s a really simple phrase, it\u2019s just the same sound over and over again, but that\u2019s what makes it hard.<\/p>\n
\n\tKANAMI: That simplicity makes it hard, but MISA pushed through it. I think she evolved a lot as a bassist with this song.<\/p>\n
\n\tDo you think that each song presents you all with new challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKANAMI: With MISA, she just makes things hard for herself. (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tMISA: (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tKANAMI: I always feel bad for AKANE.<\/p>\n
\n\tAKANE (drums): I keep getting all these hard requests on every single song. On our last song, \u201cReady to Rock,\u201d I went wild, but this time, the drum arrangement is like the bass, setting down a solid foundation with a four-on-the-floor beat. But four-on-the-floor can tend to feel too light. I really dedicated myself to investigating what kind of sound production we could use to keep the drums heavy. Also, when we were recording, I focused on making it build up little by little and then explode during the chorus. I avoided the snare drum for the verse, instead using the floor tom to create the beat. Then I gradually started adding in the snare drum. I think this progression feels intuitive for listeners. I also used a lot of hooks to keep it from being too simple. There are a surprising number of little details, which I hope listeners catch.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis new song is your third anime tie-up this year. Were you working on all of these songs at the same time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKobato (guitar\/vocals): We started working on this way back in early 2024, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: Of the three songs we\u2019ve released this year, this was the one we finished first. We recorded it between recordings of the songs on the album (Epic Narratives<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\tI didn\u2019t realize you\u2019d been recording it at the same time as the album.<\/strong> How did you write the lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKobato: While the anime is about Momotaro, the main character is actually an \u201cOni\u201d (an ogre, which Momotaro fought in the traditional Japanese fairy tale). The team producing the anime asked us to make the lyrics for the ending theme be from the Momotaro side\u2019s point of view, po. I read the manga that the anime is based on, and it depicts a world in which people are divided into onis and Momotaros at birth, based on their lineage. The story explores the concept of justice, presenting the dilemma of Momotaros, for whom justice doesn\u2019t simply consist of wiping out the Onis, yet who, by their nature, have to fight with and defeat Onis. It presents the struggles and tensions of having so much to protect, and having to fight for justice. So when I started writing the lyrics, those are the ideas I wanted to convey, po. That\u2019s why we titled the song \u201cWhat is justice?\u201d I had this mental image of screaming out your emotions as you fight, so first off I wanted to repeat and emphasize the word \u201cjustice. But then I wanted to kind of negate it, like with \u201cI have no idea.\u201d I wanted to write about that aspect of the story about lying to yourself about your own feelings, which is how I came up with these lyrics, po. The story is fascinating, and it\u2019s so easy to get sucked into that you can binge it all in one go. I think that allowed me to really think about the story\u2019s themes and densely pack them into the lyrics despite having little time to work on them.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: I remember Kobato saying that she didn\u2019t get bogged down trying to think about it, but was able to take a more head-on writing approach.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: Right. At the time, Momotaro was the only thing I could think about, po. (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI, what did it feel like singing these lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSAIKI: When we recorded, I made sure you could get into the rhythm of the song even through the vocals alone. The hardest part was that the key of the song is so high, so it took some time to get ready for recording. Normally, there\u2019d be some vocal direction, but we were working with a tight timeline and our schedules didn\u2019t match up, so we went into recording without any vocal direction, for maybe the first time ever. I was also thinking about our live shows, so it was really a battle against my own limitations.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: We took on all kinds of battles, po. (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: A lot of the parts of the songs were recorded in a single take. It was like we were focusing on momentum.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019ve seen the video for \u201cWhat is justice?\u201d Where was that filmed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSAIKI: It was a quarry that got turned into a cave. When we finished the song and heard that we\u2019d be filming a music video, we made a request: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do this in a cave!\u201d When I watched the anime, one thing that stood out were the transformation scenes.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: Parts of the characters\u2019 bodies turn into weapons, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: There are these \u201cblossoming\u201d scenes, and we wanted to reproduce them in the music video, so we did that using CG.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs KANAMI mentioned, SAIKI, you really put yourself all out there in the video, opening your eyes wide with this crazed look.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSAIKI: Hahahahaha! (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: That cool part where she opens her eyes wide, po? I don\u2019t even know how many times she shouted \u201cWhat is justice? I have no idea,\u201d po. (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: I went at it full-throttle. For Kobato, the lyrics were pretty aggressive. That\u2019s something I hope people notice. I tried to sing in really expressive way, even in my facial expressions as I sang.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato, you took part in Anime Expo 2025, in Los Angeles, appearing as a guest at the first US screening of the first episode of TOUGEN ANKI, and the discussion panel that followed, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKobato: Right, I was representing the whole band, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: TOUGEN ANKI is already popular around the world.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: There are already people tweeting \u201cTOUGEN ANKI\u201d in English, and there are a lot of fans. It also has a lot of fans that have loved it since its manga days. I think expectations are really high, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019re going to be performing at SUMMER SONIC BANGKOK 2025 on August 23 and 24.<\/strong> This will be your first time holding an OKYUJI in Thailand, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tKobato: That\u2019s right, po!<\/p>\n
\n\tKANAMI: I\u2019m so hyped!!<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: We\u2019ve gone there for filming before, but it\u2019ll be our first time doing an OKYUJI there. And, to think, going to Bangkok as part of Summer Sonic! The week after we play at Summer Sonic in Tokyo, we\u2019ll be going to Bangkok.<\/p>\n
\n\tAKANE: I\u2019m looking so forward to it!<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: We\u2019ve received so many messages from Masters and Princesses in Thailand asking for us to perform OKYUJI there, and now we\u2019ll finally be able to, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: An incredible number of people have been asking us when we\u2019ll come perform there. While it won\u2019t be a solo show, we\u2019ll be performing as part of Summer Sonic, and we\u2019ll be sharing billing with some incredible artists.<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: I want to show the crowd what it means to be a Japanese girl band, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tMISA: This\u2019ll be our first overseas OKYUJI in two years. It feels so fresh after such a long time, and I\u2019m so excited. Also, I love Thai food so I\u2019m looking forward to it. (laughs)<\/p>\n
\n\tKobato: Yeah, you do like Thai food, po. (laughs) I\u2019m looking forward to it, too, po. When we filmed in Thailand, there were a lot of local extras, and they were all saying that they wanted to see more of us, po.<\/p>\n
\n\tSAIKI: There were a lot of people who already knew BAND-MAID and a lot of people who spoke Japanese, so I talked a lot with the locals. They made a great impression on me. I\u2019m really looking forward to this OKYUJI.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u2014This interview by Takayuki Okamoto first appeared on Billboard Japan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 18, BAND-MAID digitally released their latest track, \u201cWhat is justice?\u201d the ending theme for the anime TOUGEN ANKI. Marking their third release of 2025 and their third consecutive anime tie-in, the song showcases the band\u2019s evolving sound. Blending nu-metal aggression with piercing vocals and introspective lyrics, \u201cWhat is justice?\u201d dives deep into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1968890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[349508,42097,26630,21932],"class_list":["post-1968889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-billboard-japan","tag-global","tag-japan","tag-music-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/On-Powerful-New-Song-\u2018What-is-justice.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}