is a song by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Asian Kung-Fu Generation (stylized as ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION) is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama in 1996. For its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotoh, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada, and drummer Kiyo ...

. It was released as the lead single of their fifth studio album, '' World World World'', on November 29, 2006. The song was conceived on tour when the director of the then-upcoming anime film, ''

Tekkonkinkreet , also known as ''Black & White'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Taiyō Matsumoto, originally serialized from 1993 to 1994 in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Big Comic Spirits''. The story takes place in the ...

'', approached the band and requested a theme song for his film. AKFG proceeded to compose the track and released it as a single a month prior to the film's December 23 debut. The single peaked at number four on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

charts and sold over 50,000 copies in 2006 alone, becoming the 199th single of the year. The song was ranked 5th on fans request for band's 10th anniversary live setlist on September 14, 2013.

Music video

The music video for "Aru Machi no Gunjō" was directed by Hideaki Sunaga. Beginning with a sunrise, the PV alternates from an outer view of a city, the band playing the song in a garage, a raven inside a birdcage, and a fishtank holding a jellyfish before finally concluding with a sunset. The video was nominated for Best Rock Video at

MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2007 Hosted by Misaki Ito and Hidehiko Ishizuka, the awards show took place at the Saitama Super Arena before a live audience of 12,000 screaming music fans. The 6th annual show premiered live on MTV, Saturday May 26 to over 6.6 million homes in Japan ...

Track listing

Personnel

Masafumi Gotō (December 2, 1976) is the lead vocalist, main songwriter and rhythm guitarist of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Masafumi met fellow band members Kensuke Kita and Takahiro Yamada while attending a music club of Kanto Gakuin Univ ...

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar *

Kensuke Kita (January 24, 1977) is the lead guitarist and backing singer of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Kensuke met fellow band members Masafumi Gotō and Takahiro Yamada while attending a music club of Kanto Gakuin University. The three ...

– lead guitar, background vocals * Takahiro Yamada – bass, background vocals *

Kiyoshi Ijichi (born September 25, 1977) is the drummer of the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Ijichi credits the origin of his drumming ability to playing in marching bands in junior high. He met fellow band members Masafumi Gotō, Kensuke Kita, ...

– drums *

– producer *Yusuke Nakamura – single cover art

Charts

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aru Machi No Gunjo Asian Kung-Fu Generation songs 2006 singles Songs written by Masafumi Gotoh 2006 songs Ki/oon Music singles Songs written for animated films Anime songs