Last December, Japanese pop band Ikimonogakari appeared on THE FIRST TAKE to perform their hit song “Blue Bird” and now the audio from that video is available across multiple digital platforms.
Fans will easily recognize the tune as the third opening to the Naruto Shippuden anime way back in 2008. It was released outside of a studio album as a single on July 9th, 2008.
THE FIRST TAKE is a YouTube channel that records videos of musicians performing their hits in a single take, without any cuts, pauses or restarts.
The band was created on February 1st, 1999 by students Yoshiki Mizuno and Hotaka Yamashita. They settled on the name “Ikimonogakari” which roughly translates as “Team Responsible Living Things”, a result of their work together caring for their elementary class goldfish.
Starting out busking on the streets of towns in the Kanagawa prefecture, they were quickly joined by fellow classmate Kiyoe Yoshioka, and eventually released their first studio album SAKURA on March 15th, 2006. They returned to Naruto Shippuden with “Hotaru no Hikari” as the fifth opening theme, followed by the sequel anime Boruto: Naruto Next Generation where “Baku” was selected as the eighth opening.
Ikimonogakari reverted back to a duo with just Kiyoe Yoshioka and Yoshiki Mizuno in 2021, returning to the studio for a tenth album ○ (pronounced “maru”) which went on sale December 13th, 2023.
Source: Japanese Culture PR press release
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