Welcome back to Visual Kei&Anime! We’re back with a group I’m not familiar with, and unfortunately was only tapped for one anime tie in. This being none other than Megamasso. So… without further ado let’s go ahead and jump into it!
Megamasso was formed by Ryohei, the ex-guitarist of Ayabie in 2006. He recruited Gou as the bassist, Yuuta as the drummer, and then finally Inzargi as the vocalist. They were originally signed with NXSIE. For the majority of their career, even after getting a major label debut, Megamasso performed similarly to an indie artists, playing small club shows and curating a devoted fanbase.
In June 2007, original member Yuuta would withdraw from the group suddenly with no explanation. For the rest of Megamasso’s time together, they would have a various support drummers for live performances and recording sessions. The group would go on to rise in the ranks of the scene, appearing at many multiple band lives. Eventually signing to HPQ, a subsidiary label of Avex in 2009, marking Megamasso as a major label band. They regularly released music, as well as performing live throughout Japan. In December of 2015, Megamasso announced that they would go on hiatus for a year, and resumed activities in December of 2016. The group ended up disbanding November 23rd, 2017 after 11 years of activity.
In total, Megamasso released two mini-albums, eight full albums, fifteen singles, a feature on a various artist’s album, and a handful of DVD’s. Their Spotify page contains all their releases from 2009 forward, and their past stuff can be found elsewhere through unofficial means.
During their time as a group, Megamasso was tapped once for an anime ending song. Their song “Twilight Star” was used as the ending theme for the anime Major‘s sixth season, for episodes one through thirteen. While Major has a cult following in Japan, if you’re like me and don’t know anything about it aside from it being about a baseball player, here’s the quick rundown:
“Gorou Honda has regained his passion for baseball after the Baseball World Cup has concluded. He’s now on the Hornets, as a major league pitcher. However, he faces some intense conflict and hardship in the intense final season of Major!” (Paraphrased from the MAL Listing)
I feel like I need to be very honest here: I am not familiar with Megamasso’s discography as a whole. They were a band I was always aware of, but never into. Due to timing I wasn’t able to dig into their discography more thoroughly before posting either.
As far as I can tell, “Twilight Star” is by no means a bad song. It’s well structured for Megamasso’s line up at the time of recording, playing to all the members strengths. There’s a little solo here and there for nearly everyone. Aside from those elements it’s a very familiar formula that reader’s of this feature know by now – it’s a very safe anisong without a ton of personality. The lyrics especially just barely pass as being visual kei-esque, but more obviously were written with the intention of being anisong material.
I hate leaving on such an ambivalent note but, I don’t have much to say otherwise. Again since this was only a drop in the bucket of their discography – I highly encourage readers to check out their Spotify to see what the band can really do. With that I’ll see you next month with the next feature!
Phoenix Talks Pop Culture Japan 