Luna Sea is a Japanese rock band. It was formed in 1989 by Ryuichi Kawamura, Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara, Shinobu "Inoran" Inoue, Jun "J." Onose and Shinya Yamada, a lineup that remained consistent until the band's breakup in 2000. They released seven studio albums and several singles and VHS/DVD releases throughout the 90s.
History
1989-90: The Origin
The band was formed in August 1989 by J and Inoran when they were in high school, using the name "Lunacy." Together with some senior members, they played at occasional live houses and radio music contests. When the senior members were graduated from school in 1989, Lunacy recruited Sugizo and Shinya from the band Pinoccio to be guitarist and drummer, respectively. After searching for a few months, the band recruited Ryuichi from the band Slaughter to be the lead vocalist.
That year, Lunacy debuted on stage at the 100-seat capacity Machida Playhouse on May 29. They released their first demo including "Time Is Dead" and "Nightmare" for the sold out 100 copies. The band's second demo would be released three months later including "Suspicious," "Shade," and "Search for reason," which again sold out for 1,000 copies. On December 17, the band played their first official live concert at Machida Playhouse with all 150 tickets being sold out.
In 1990, Lunacy played a handful concerts with other popular bands such as Wood Pecker, Dools, Billy & the Sluts, Jooly Pickels, and Tokyo Yankees. They released their third demo, "Lastly," and played an additional live at Machida Playhouse.
1991: Luna Sea
Lunacy were discovered by the late Hideto Matsumoto (then lead guitarist of X Japan), and then signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki Hayashi to his independent label Extasy Records, on which they released their self-titled debut album in 1991. Upon their first album release, the band's name Lunacy was changed to Luna Sea. After signing with Sweet Child label, Luna Sea held bigger live performances throughout the year with their first tour, "Under the New Moon Episode I-III" The band's popularity started looming when they played at the Nippon Budokan for the Exstasy Summit concert among other same-labeled bands including X Japan, Virus, Gilles de Rais, and Tokyo Yankees. At the end of the year, Luna Sea announced they had signed with MCA Victor.
1992: Image
After the official fanclub "Slave" was set up in January. Luna Sea released their first official MCA Victor-labeled album "Image" on May 21. It reachd No.9 best selling album in Oricon Chart. Luna Sea then held the concert "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1992 Image or Real" for 7 nights, where one of the events was taped and released in a VDO format, which reached No.1 in Oricon Chart. Correspondent to the looming popularity, the concert "After The Image Tour" would be held during October. Luna Sea closed the year with another Exstasy Summit concert at Nippon Budokan.
1993: Eden
During the band's short break, Inoran, J, and Sugizo helped collaborate in the new album "Dance 2 Noise 4". The song "Revive~walts for reminiscence of mind" was produced by Sugizo. Inoran and J joined Hide to set up a temporary unit called "MxAxSxS" to produce the song, "Frozen Bug", which was later put in the album "Hide Your Face". On February 24, Luna Sea's first single "Believe" was released, reaching No.11 in Oricon Chart with the total sale of 200,000 copies.
The band started working on its second album and held the album premier concert since April 16, "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1993 Search for My Eden" throughout the country. Their second album, "Eden" was released on April 21 where it reached No.5 best selling album in Oricon Chart. The band then released next single, "In My Dream (with Shiver)" on July 21, reaching No.9 in Oricon Chart. The concert "Luna Sea Concert Tour 1993 Search for My Eden Encore" was then held during August, with the final performance on August 30 was taped and released in the VDO format. Luna Sea then released "Sin After Sin" VDO which included performances from smaller venues during the year.
1994: Mother
Luna Sea held various live tours since late previous year until February titled "Luna Sea Concert Tour '93-'94 The Garden of Sinners". On February 12, they were supposed to play the final concert on time but had to delay for an hour due to massive blizzard nearby. This was the third time the band experienced this phenomenon, thus some media joked that Luna Sea were "the natural disaster" In any event, Luna Sea released their next single, "Rosier" which reached No.3 in Oricon Chart and sold more than 400,000 copies in its first week release. After a handful of live performances, the band released fourth single, "True Blue" which topped the Oricon Chart with more than 450,000 sales during its first week. Responding to the popularity, Luna Sea released their third album, "Mother" on October 26. The album sold 700,000 copies in the opening week and was No.2 in Oricon Chart. The release of album 'Mother' led the band into a more progressive rock approach with songs like 'Genesis of Mind', 'Face to Face', and 'Mother'. In any event, the video "Rosier" was awarded "The Best Music Video" from Nippon Award Taisho (Japan's record award) on December 31.
1995: First Live In Tokyo Dome
In January, Luna Sea went to Ireland to film the video "Mother". The single was then released in the following month, reaching No.2 in Oricon Chart with total sales of 300,000 copies. Between March to May, the band had performed in the concert "Mother of Love, Mother of Hate" to promote the album. On May 24, the first video collection release was out with the title, "Eclipse I" which reached No.1 in Oricon Chart. The same thing would happen to their next single, "Desire" on November 13. This year, the popularity had reached the point at which it would headline the Tokyo Dome, Japan's largest indoor live venue titled "Lunatic Tokyo". More than 55,000 tickets were sold out prior to the event.
1996: Style
The new single, "End of Sorrow" was released on March 25, reaching No.1 in Oricon Chart. The same thing would happen to their fourth album release, "Style" in May. On July 15, the single "In Silence" together with the Lunatic Tokyo live VHS were released. Luna Sea had performed in the tour "Unending Style" later that year, with the encore live being held on December 23 titled "Unending Style Tour Final Christmas Stadium ~ Mafuyu No Yagai~" from an outdoor Yokohama Stadium. Luna Sea made an announcement during the concert that the band would plan for a temporary year break in 1997 for each member to pursue solo careers.
1998: Shine
Luna Sea returned with the releases of singles "Storm" and "Shine", both of which went to No.1 in Oricon Chart. In July, it was followed by additional single "I for you", which was the ending theme of the popular Japanese drama "Kamisama mō Sukoshi dake" (神様 もう少しだけ) (Precious Time) starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada. The fifth studio album, "Shine" was then released and went to No.1 in Oricon Chart. The song "Breathe" was used in the Japanese release of Walt Disney's Mulan animated movie. They started making frequent appearances on popular music television shows including Heyx3, CDTV, and Music Station. The band appeared at the Music Station's Super Live 1998 during Christmas following their concert from Yokohama Stadium titled "Manatsu no Yagai".
1999: 10th Anniversary
Luna Sea's popularity had reached overseas to neighboring countries in Asia, including Hong Kong ,Taiwan and China. They held their first Asian tour in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively. To celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the band, Luna Sea released their first live album 'Never Sold Out' along with the concert 'Luna Sea 10th Anniversary Gig ∞'. The concert was attended by approximately 100,000 people.
2000: The Final Act
After releasing nothing for 1.8 year, Luna Sea came back with a new single "Gravity", which topped the Oricon Chart. Some of their songs were used in the movie including "My Lover", which was used in the movie Another Heaven. The song "Sweetest Coma Again" was also used in the Japanese release of the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. Following the release of singles "Tonight", Luna Sea released the sixth studio album 'Lunacy' in July. The album mixed the elements of progressive rock, hard rock, and metal. They held two concerts titled "Luna Sea Concert Tour 2000 The Brand New Chaos". During the latter concert, the band made the announcement they were "dropping the curtains" at the end of the year to pursue solo careers. The last single "Love Song" and album "Period" were then released. Luna Sea held their two-day farewell concerts at Tokyo Dome on December 26-27.
Solo Careers
Since then, the members have either pursued solo careers (Ryuichi and J), new bands (Inoran with Fake?) or collaborations with other musicians (such as the short-lived The Flare by Sugizo and Lazy Knack vocalist Yuna). Shinya, marrying Aya Ishiguro of the pop girl group Morning Musume, has been playing drums for other musicians such as Nanase Aikawa, Maki Ohguro, and Miyavi. More recently, Inoran has left Fake? and reunited with Ryuichi to form Tourbillon in 2005, while Sugizo has joined the supergroup Skin in 2007, which also features pop/rock artists Gackt and Miyavi, as well as Yoshiki.
2007-08: The Reunion
Luna Sea reunited for a concert on December 24, 2007. The concert was aired live on Japan's NHK BS Hi-vision Satellite channel, with a few songs cut from the track list. The full-length DVD version of the concert was released on March 26, 2008. Luna Sea now only performs occasionally on live shows because they thought the reunion shouldn't be permanent.
Luna Sea performed at the "Hide Memorial Summit" on May 4, 2008. During their respective oversea tours in Hong Kong, both Inoran and Ryuichi teased in their interviews regarding the possible reunion of the band.
Luna Sea celebrated their 20th year anniversary on May 29, 2009. According to the band's official website, they are planning to sell music worldwide via iTunes.
Members
As with numerous other Japanese bands, the members of Luna Sea were usually credited with their given or stage name.
- Ryuichi Kawamura (河村隆一 Kawamura Ryuichi) – Vocals
- Yasuhiro "Sugizo" Sugihara (杉原有音 Sugihara Yuune) – Lead guitar and violin
- Shinobu "Inoran" Inoue (井上清信 Inoue Shinobu) – Rhythm guitar
- Jun "J" Onose (小野瀬潤 Onose Jun) – Bass
- Shinya Yamada (山田真矢 Yamada Shinya) – Drums
Discography
- Albums
- Luna Sea (April 21, 1991)
- Image (May 21, 1992)
- Eden (April 21, 1993)
- Mother (October 26, 1994)
- Style (April 22, 1996)
- Shine (July 23, 1998)
- Lunacy (July 12, 2000)
- Singles
- "Believe" (February 24, 1993)
- "In My Dream (With Shiver)" (July 21, 1993)
- "Rosier" (July 21, 1994)
- "True Blue" (September 21, 1994)
- "Mother" (February 22, 1995)
- "Desire" (November 13, 1995)
- "End of Sorrow" (March 25, 1996)
- "In Silence" (July 15, 1996)
- "Storm" (April 15, 1998)
- "Shine" (June 3, 1998)
- "I For You" (July 1, 1998)
- "Gravity" (March 29, 2000)
- "Tonight" (May 17, 2000)
- "Love Song" (November 8, 2000)
- Compilations
- NUCLER FUSION (March 10, 1991)
- Singles (December 17, 1997)
- Tribute Spirits (1 May 1999)
- Never Sold Out (May 29, 1999)
- Period ~The Best Selection~ (December 23, 2000)
- Guitar Solo Instruments 1 & 2 (December 19, 2001)
- Piano Solo Instruments 1 - 4 (December 19, 2001)
- Another Side of SINGLES II (March 6, 2002)
- Slow (March 23, 2005)
- Rock Nippon Noriko Shoji Selection (January 24, 2007)
- Memorial Cover Album -Re.birth- (December 19, 2007)
- Complete Best (March 26, 2008)
- Videos
- Image Or Real (July 22, 1992)
- Sin After Sin (December 16, 1993)
- Eclipse I (May 24, 1995)
- Lunatic Tokyo 1995.12.23 Tokyo Dome (July 15, 1996)
- Rew (May 21, 1997)
- 10th Anniversary Gig [Never Sold Out] Capacity ∞ Live! (September 29, 1999)
- The Final Act Tokyo Dome (May 29, 2001)
- Eclipse II (November 28, 2001)
- Eclipse I+II (November 28, 2001)
- LUNA SEA 1998 Revive [Manatsu no Yagai] (May 29, 2003)
- God Bless You ~One Night Dejavu~ Tokyo Dome 2007.12.24 (March 26, 2008)
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