''Fight'' (stylized as ''FIGHT'') is the fifth studio album released by the Japanese

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

Kanjani Eight is a five-member Japanese boy band from Japan's Kansai region. They are managed by the multimedia talent agency Johnny & Associates and signed to Infinity Records. The group was formed in 2002 and made their CD debut in 2004 as "Johnny's modern ...

. ''Fight'' was announced on September 8, 2011 as a new untitled album. On October 17, 2011, its release date and title were announced. There were three versions of this release: a 2 Disc regular edition and two CD+DVD limited editions. The first press release of the regular edition contains 7 trading cards while limited editions A and B contain a 48-page photo book. It was released on November 16, 2011. This album marked one year and three weeks since the release of their previous album, ''

8 Uppers is the fourth studio album released by the Japanese boy band Kanjani Eight. ''8 Uppers'' was released a year and seven months from the release of their third album, ''Puzzle (Kanjani Eight album), Puzzle''. There was three versions of this release ...

''. Production for ''Fight'' began with the announcement of a triple single release along the course of three months: " T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street", " My Home", " 365 Nichi Kazoku". These singles served as the theme songs for a movie and two television dramas. Another single, "

Tsubusa ni Koi "Tsubusa ni Koi" is a single release by the Japanese boyband Kanjani8. This release marks their 19th single. The single was used as the theme song for the Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is ...

", was released in August 2011. All, of which, were commercial successes. ''Fight'' is a

pop/rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

-oriented album that incorporates elements of

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, R&B,

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

and other genres to fill out the overall production. The album uses several instruments such as horns, drums, guitars, strings, and synthesizers. Kanjani Eight worked with several songwriters over the course of the album's production such as KenKen of

RIZE Rize (Greek language, Greek: ρίζα, Laz language, Laz: რიზინი, Georgian language, Georgian: რიზე, , Ottoman Turkish: ريزه) is the capital city of Rize Province in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Rize ...

, Yujin Kitagawa of

Yuzu Yuzu (''Citrus junos'', from Japanese or ) is a citrus fruit and plant in the family Rutaceae of East Asian origin. Yuzu has been cultivated mainly in East Asia, though recently also in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy, and France. I ...

, and Sukimaswitch. They provided their own original material for the solo disc that came with the regular edition. Commercially, ''Fight'' was a success, debuting at number one 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 ...

and

Billboard Japan ''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine ''Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence from ''Bi ...

weekly charts. The album went on to be the twenty-first top sold album of 2011 on the Oricon and twenty-third on the

charts, respectively.

Background and development

For ''Fight'', several songs from the album were penned by top artists in the Japanese songwriting world, such as KenKen of

, Yujin Kitagawa of

, Sukimaswitch and many others. Shota Yasuda, who is a member of Kanjani Eight, was also given the opportunity to write a song for the album. Takeshi, known for writing several Johnny's songs over the years, again returned to write for this album. Rock'A'Trench also returned from previously working 8Uppers to provide for the album as well. As with their previous albums, Kanjani Eight also worked on their own solo material. For this time around, the solo disc that came with the regular edition of ''Fight'' contained two unit songs and two solos.

Ryo Nishikido is a Japanese singer and actor. He was formerly under the management of Johnny & Associates as a member of Japanese boy bands Kanjani Eight and News. His first solo album was released in December 2019. Biography Ryo Nishikido was born in Hyogo ...

and

Subaru Shibutani is a Japanese singer, actor and lyricist. He was also the main vocalist of Japanese male idol group Kanjani Eight, which debuted with modern enka, before he left the group in 2018. His first solo album ''Nisai'' was released in October 2019. S ...

wrote the lyrics to their solo pieces, "Ah" and "Scarecrow", while Nishikido also composed his own music. Shibutani also took charge for a good portion of the song's overall production.

Shota Yasuda is a five-member Japanese boy band from Japan's Kansai region. They are managed by the multimedia talent agency Johnny & Associates and signed to Infinity Records. The group was formed in 2002 and made their CD debut in 2004 as "Johnny's modern ...

wrote the lyrics and composed the music for his unit piece with Tadayoshi Ohkura and

Shingo Murakami is a Japanese singer, presenter, variety ''tarento'' and actor. He is the keyboardist of the Japanese male idol group Kanjani Eight. Early life When he was in junior high school his classmate was a fan of V6. He was recommended to "receive an ...

, titled "Yoru na Yoru na ☆ Yō NIGHT". Ohkura and Murakami also helped in the production.

Ryuhei Maruyama is a Japanese idol, singer, actor and radio host. He is a member of Japanese male idol group Kanjani Eight, which is under the management of Johnny & Associates. He is also the group's bassist and one of its main rappers. He was a morning show ...

and

You Yokoyama is a Japanese idol, singer, actor, scriptwriter, radio host and lyricist. Yokoyama is also a member of Kanjani Eight, which is under the management of Johnny & Associates. His image color in the group is black. Career Yokoyama entered Johnny ...

were the only two that did not compose anything for their own song but assisted with the production. Upon wrapping up production, ''Fight'' was announced in September 2011 and song credits were released in October. The album dropped on November 14, 2011 with "Monjai Beat" becoming the support track for the album's release.

Composition

''Fight'' follows the same theme as the band's previous album by continuing a mixture of generic

Jpop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

, and R&B styles. While not as mature in sound as their last album, ''Fight'' is more upbeat and faster, following the feeling of the excitement of a sports game; which is the album's image theme. The album opens up with "Monjai Beat", a fast

song with

Ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

influences.

yells, " Eight! Home run!! ", followed by the rest of band echoing him, setting the entire 'baseball' theme for the album. The song features

Tatsuya Nakamura is a Japanese musician, drummer and actor. After performing with several prominent punk rock bands, Nakamura rose to fame as drummer of Blankey Jet City from 1987 to 2000. In 1996, he founded his solo project Losalios, where he performs every ...

, KenKen (

Rize Rize (Greek language, Greek: ρίζα, Laz language, Laz: რიზინი, Georgian language, Georgian: რიზე, , Ottoman Turkish: ريزه) is the capital city of Rize Province in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Rize ...

), and Tomoyasu Kamiharako. The second track on the album, "Uchū ni Ikitta Lion", slows the pace down just a bit with a standard

style and uses the falsettos of

and

for the repeating, "Far away", on the track. The title song and third track off of the album, "Fight for the Eight", begins with a rough guitar riff before being joined with a drum beat. Vocally, the song is carried by the harmonies of each member, having them duet within a

relative key In music, relative keys are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures ( enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of major ...

to each other. The fourth track and first single off the album, " T.W.L", is a high paced pop song that is carried by a horn section. The lyrics heavily rely on bilingual word puns, such as, " Akete meeting you/Hiraku to be loved " which, when sung, sound like " Akete mite yo/Hiraku tobira (Try opening it/Open the doors)". The fifth track, " Fly High ", is a similar up beat song, and is followed by the album's sixth track and third single, " 365 Nichi Kazoku", a slow ballad that initially starts off slow but steadily increases as more instruments are added to the overall composition.

, one of Kanjani Eight's members, writes and composes "Dye D?", the seventh track on the album. The song begins with a generic 80's hook with

, Tadayoshi Ohkura and

singing in English. The song then picks up for the main verse, which is sung in Japanese by

and

, before switching back to English for the bridge and chorus, which is carried by

. Yasuda continues into the second hook, which then Yokoyama starts the second verse in Japanese, and Nishikido and Ohkura leading into the instrumental in English. The song then promptly changes into a

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-inspired instrumental break filled with off-beat pauses before suddenly ending and the song returning to its original composition. It continues out till the end with Shibutani repeating the hook and chorus. The second half of the album breaks from the

theme and switches into a more generic,

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

, sound with songs such as: "Water Drop", "Freedom Rion", and "Kagayakeru Butai e". Singles, "

Yellow Pansy Street Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

", "

", " My Home" serve as breaks in-between the album originals before the album closes with the ballad, "wander", a lyrically heavy song that is filled emotional encouragement. " Give me the reason, I want to hold on to it/As I stand in a field I trust/I breath out as I continue on this path/Holding my head up proudly/As beautiful flowers bloom from my footprints/Where to wonder? I want to send true love ", they sing in the final chorus.

Critical reception

There were barely any critical reviews published once ''Fight'' was released due to policies set by

Johnny and Associates is a Japanese talent agency, formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which trains and promotes groups of male entertainers known as . History 1962–1989 In 1962, Kitagawa launched his first group, Johnnys. In its early days, Kitagawa's agency rent ...

, but for the reviews out there, they were generally positive. Yamadato Moko of Rooftop commented with, " Enka, Rock, Pop, Dance Tunes... There are a lot of genres packed into one disc. There's probably a lot of people out there, while noticing this piece, who turn down anything Johnny's and that's understandable, but with the number of artists providing so much to this album, even a person in the livehouse scene would like this (album). "

Chart performance

For the Oricon, ''Fight'' debuted at number one on the daily album ranking charts, with a total of 143,367 units sold dated November 15, 2011. On the album's fourth day of sales, the Oricon daily ranking charts reported that ''Fight'' had sold a total of 227,847 units, surpassing their fourth album, 8Uppers, in first week end-sales and maintaining its number one hold. For the ending week of November 14, 2011, the Oricon weekly album ranking reported that ''Fight'' was the number one album, with a total of 253,524 units sold. It earned the number two spot on the Oricon monthly album ranking for the month of November with a total of 274,590 units sold and had earned the number twenty-one spot for the Oricon album yearly ranking chart of 2011. For the Billboard Japan Top Album, ''Fight'' debuted at number one dated November 28, 2011. For its following week, the album had dropped five spots to number six. In its third week it had dropped ten more spots to number sixteen. On January 5, 2011, Fight sat at number thirty with a total of six weeks on the charts. For the Billboard Japan Year End charts, ''Fight'' had ranked at the number twenty-three spot for the year of 2011. ''Fight'' was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for selling 250,000 units.

Singles

In March 2011, it was announced that Kanjani Eight would release three singles consecutively for three months. The first single released was " T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street", a double A-side single featuring the theme songs for the '' Crayon Shin-chan'' movie '' Crayon Shin-chan: The Storm Called: Operation Golden Spy''. The single immediately shot to the top of the Oricon upon release, lasting a total of 17 weeks on the weekly charts. The music videos for the release feature Kanjani Eight singing in front of a green-screened set, interacting with Crayon Shin-chan-inspired

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

s of themselves for "T.W.L" and the band performing in a

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

-inspired get up for "Yellow Pansy Street". Following up that release was " My Home", released May 11, 2011, and " 365 Nichi Kazoku", released June 8, 2011, two singles serving as theme songs for the Japanese television dramas ''Inu wo Kau to Iu koto ~Sky to Waga ga Uchi no 180 Nichi ~'' and ''Umareru''. Both singles reached the top spots on the weekly Oricon upon release and remained on the charts for 13 weeks. The music video for "My Home" involved Kanjani Eight remodeling a home that they lived in with interspersed scenes of them playing as a band in the completed home. The music video for "365 Nichi Kazoku" had the band sing on the stage of an auditorium in front of a string orchestra with interspersed scenes of a son fighting, and eventually, making up with his mother. Two months later, on August 17, 2011, Kanjani Eight released their fourth single for the year titled "

". The song served as the ending theme for the drama, ''Zenkai Girl''. It ranked number one upon release and stayed 9 weeks on the Oricon weekly single charts. The music video for "Tsubusa ni Koi" had the band perform in a garden with interspersed scenes of each individual member singing in CGI generated scenes consisting of skies, fields, and clovers. For all the single releases this year, some of the members had either starring or supporting roles in productions that their music served as theme songs for. Tadayoshi Ohkura and Shingo Murakami made a guest appearance in ''Crayon Shin-chan: Operation Golden Spy'', Ohkura also had a role in ''Umareru''. Ryo Nishikido had the male lead in both ''Inu wo Kau to iu Koto'' and ''Zenkai Girl''.

Promotion

To promote ''Fight'', Kanjani Eight performed at several music variety programs in Japan as well as hold a concert tour. In October, the album was announced, and in November the band begun visiting several music programs such as ''

Music Station is a Japanese music television program. Broadcasting live weekly on TV Asahi since October 24, 1986, it currently airs from 9PM-10PM on Fridays. The program is also colloquially known as , , and . The show is currently syndicated throughout th ...

'' and ''Music Lovers''. On October 14, 2011, they had performed " T.W.L" and, album's support track, "Monjai Beat" on Music Station's 3 Hour Special. On October 30, they appeared on

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Television) ...

's ''Music Lovers'' to promote the album as well as performed " Life (Me no Mae no Mukou e)" and "Monjai Beat" live." The four singles off of the album were used as theme songs: " T.W.L/Yellow Pansy Street", " My Home", " 365 Nichi Kazoku", and "

". And the song, "Monjai Beat", also served as the ending theme to their weekly show, ''Janiben''. ''Fight'' received additional promotion when the band went on tour in November 2011 with their concert tour titled, '' Kanjani8: 5 Big Dome Tour Eight x Eighter: Sorry if it isn't Enjoyable Tour''. It started at

Sapporo Dome is a stadium located in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, and is primarily used for baseball and association football. It is the home field of the association football club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, and was also home to the baseball team Hokkaido Nipp ...

on November 23, 2011 and concluded at

Kyocera Dome The (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Osaka, Japan. Opened in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the mer ...

on January 1, 2012. Tickets were sold through the fanclub and on October 28, 2011, Johnny's International opened up ticket balloting for international fans to attend the Sapporo performance. Portions of their December 31 performance was also telecasted live on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

's New Years countdown, ''Johnny's Countdown Live 2011 - 2012''.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Kanjani Eight albums