Growing up beside Japan's huge animation industry, a music scene based on creating and performing the theme tunes and hit songs of popular anime works has come a long way in the past few decades, becoming a mainstream phenomenon at home and arousing growing interest abroad.
For a veteran group of "anison" musicians who did more than any other to create the genre, a planned concert tour last year for their 20th anniversary — later canceled due to the pandemic — was expected to mark the end of the road: They were simply out of inspiration.
"Looking back now, I was unable to get out of a rut, unable to come up with good music or ideas, and music written by other members was also the same," says Hironobu Kageyama, the 60-year-old leader of JAM Project — JAM being an acronym of Japan Animationsong Makers. "It was like our role, frankly, was over."