[AFASG 2016] I Love Anisong – TM Revolution

Takanori Nishikawa, who came from Shiga, is a Japanese singer and actor. He performs as T.M.Revolution (TMR), which stands for “Takanori Makes Revolution”, although the name stems from the famous 80s pop electronic band TM Network. Despite most of his songs being written by Akio Inoue and composed/arranged by Daisuke Asakura (also TMR’s former producer), T.M.Revolution is considered Nishikawa’s solo project. Nishikawa is also known for contributions of ending and opening themes to many notable anime and game series.

Nishikawa debuted as TMR with the release of his first single “Dokusai (Monopolize)” in May 1996. Later that year, his third single “Heart of Sword (Yoake Mae)”  was used as the third ending song for the anime series Rurouni Kenshin, further expanding his fan base. He also contributed six songs to the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED franchise – three for Gundam SEED (Invoke, Meteor, Zips) and three for Gundam SEED Destiny (Ignited, Vestige, Zips UNDER:COVER ver) . Nishikawa has guest starred as a minor character in each of those anime series that featured his songs. In 2010, his single “Save the One, Save the All” was used as the ending theme song for the movie Bleach: Hell Verse. Nishikawa has also had a long-standing affair with Capcom’s Sengoku Basara series of video games and media franchise, with several of his songs being used for it, including Crosswise and Flags.

T.M.Revolution is the first artist to be signed to Tofu Records, a record label (affiliated with Sony Music Japan) promoting Japanese artists in North America. Tofu released three of his most recent studio albums: coordinate (2003), Seventh Heaven (2004), and vertical infinity (2005). Nishikawa made his North American live debut at Otakon, a large anime convention in 2003. He has also performed at Pacific Media Expo in 2004 and at the New York Comic Con in 2008. Nishikawa revisited his 2003 US performance at the Asian culture convention Otakon by performing at Otakon’s 20th Anniversary on August 10, 2013.

In this opportunity, Kojacon team is very happy to join TM Revolution’s interview session. We talked about his music, live, related anime, solo career, until the random things together. What that’s all about? Let’s see the interview contents!

Hi Nishikawa-san! Welcome back to Singapore! What do you missed about this country?  
Hi again! Of course the appearance of the city, what to say? I think the scenery changed a lot from the last time I came here, and I feel so nostalgic. How fast Singapore evolved, but this city is so clean and pretty as always.  I like it so much!

Thanks for coming back to South East Asia. After your performance in AFA Indonesia and Singapore, is there any other country you want to visit around here? Maybe for your next Live Tour Project? 
Thanks for your warm welcome! I’m very glad to be here again. Indeed, I want to all around the world, Asia, especially South East Asia. As we know there are also AFA Thailand since last year, I hope I could join Anisong concert there later. Actually I have a plan to come to Thailand recently, but my deepest condolences for their King who just passed away, I should postponed my plan to go there.  But hopefully I’d like to make solo concert in Indonesia next year! Indonesia is a big country, really want to go there and visit another island in Indonesia. Just wait for further info!

Tell us about your strong points in this 3rd live in Singapore! 
After 20th years journey, I hope I could present the very special show for you all tonight. I’ll come with most top anime soundtracks that everyone must be known well so we can sing together. Let’s go back to the first time from 20 years ago and enjoy tonight’s live, okay!

We suppose that you look younger and younger every year, and you always perform with full energy, is there any secret behind that?
I think I’d like to do something new, learn new experience, and try to challenge myself. Maybe that kind of thing makes me look younger! Or not? LOL Because of you all, my fans, who wait for me, expecting me, and always supporting me just turned out into my energy to make great performance. Once again thanks a lot for supporting me!

You’re so active in SNS during in your busy day and tight schedule, what do you think about SNS itself and the effect to your career? 
Basically I just want to connect with all fans, especially fans outside Japan. So overseas fans also could reach me directly anytime by that SNS updates. There’s a day or time which I cannot update my SNS properly, but I try my best to get in touch with all fans so don’t worry!

Japanese culture is getting more and more well-known as part of industry, what do you like to do to spread the culture?
Yes, I understand that Japanese culture is becoming much stronger overseas, but I realize that’s may be not enough. So I try to spread more culture, especially pop culture via you know, like anime, music, film, and another pop culture contents which now booming all over the world. I hope it’s not late, so please help me, okay?

Please give brief introduction about the latest anime you take part in producing, B-Project.
Oh! You know about it! I’m very happy! This is my first time producing idol themed anime. You know, last month, humm.. in October I went to Thunderbolt Fantasy fanmeet in Taiwan, I’m bit surprised to see that so many B-Project fans were coming to the event. So I’m happy that you are supporting B-Project, thank you very much!

As one of 2D-idol producer what do you think about “2D-idol activity” itself?
For me, about this theme which lately booming all over the world, I tried to make a timeless idol with no personal business so everyone could enjoy their activity more. So you can support them without worrying their private life, and they will don’t make any scandalous things too, of course. LOL

Nishikawa-san often come to seiyuu event, like Gundam or Sengoku Basara, right? Is there any close seiyuu friend from those works?
Oh yeah, I invited many times to seiyuu event. Really glad to come and meet you all in different occasion. Especially for Sengoku Basara, we just celebrated 10th anniversary last year, I’m so happy to get involved there for a long time. To be honest, I’m close enough to all staff and seiyuu in Gundam and Sengoku Basara. Anyway if I have to mention, maybe the closest are Nakai-san (cast of Masamune Date) and Hoshi-san (cast of Yukimura Sanada).

Kindly give a comment for your latest single “Raimei” from anime Thunderbolt Fantasy! And would you mind to share why you choose a medley titled “Special 20th Anniversary Medley” for c/w song of Raimei itself?
First of all, Japanese staff and Taiwanese staff came together created this new visual project titled “Thunderbolt Fantasy” and I’m very happy I can join this project by singing the original soundtrack. I think it’s a good song. Yeah, for c/w songs, I choose High Presure, White Breath, and Hot limit, because I think those songs are my best hits beside Heart of Sword from Rurouni Kenshin. I hope you like my decision of my fave song!

From all mentioned anime above, between B-Project, Sengoku Basara, or Thunderbolt Fantasy, is there any character you want to be?
Wow, it’s a difficult question! A lot of character for each work, and they have their own charming point which is so different with another character. Is it good to be main charater? Or just supporting cameo? What do you think? But anyway if I have to choose, maybe I want to be the character from unique collaboration visual from Taiwan and Japan, I want to be “Dān Fěi” from Thunderbolt Fantasy. Yes it’s a girl! But she is very adorable, so why not? LOL

Having so many albums, single, and other works, do you have any fave one? And why you choose that?
Quite difficult to pick one, I like most of my works. But if I should answer, for Asian fans I choose “Heart of Sword”. Because this one is my first anime-related song and I had a lot of memories with this song. I think this song made you all knew about me, rite? From Rurouni Kenshin anime, maybe?

If you not become a singer, what do you think you will do know? 
I like to draw, actually. But I don’t want to be mangaka or doujinka, even though I ever made a doujinshi before LOL. Even though my family wants me to become a government officer or prefecture representative, but I don’t like it. Maybe I want to be an arts teacher instead.

What motivates you to keep on going after 20 years of your music career?
Of course my fans, who always support me and keep giving many opportunities to perform again and again. Thanks for giving me a lot of energy. So I hope I could give another surprise works for you later. Just wait for it!

You already achieved so much in your music career, is there anything else you are aiming for?
What to say, maybe related to previous question about Japanese culture and its development overseas, I’m aiming for Olympics in Japan 4 years later, so much I want to do and I hope I could spread more Japanese stuff so more people will know about Japan.

For the last, please give a message to all fans who can’t wait to see your performance tonight!
I wish everybody will enjoy this live with me and we can sing together, right?! I still want to be keep in touch with you all and I hope I could continue my activity in Asia. So just imagine tonight is just a prequel trailer for the following surprise works in the future. Thank you so much and see you all again soon!

With a great performance closing the “I Love Anisong” stage on November 25th, we hope TM Revolution to perform solo concert soon in Indonesia. TM Revoution fans from Indonesia, please show your support and please be prepared!

Special thanks to :
SOZO Pte Ltd. ANIME FESTIVAL ASIA 2016
Asia PR Werkz Pte Ltd