''Gundam Song Covers'' is a cover album by

Hiroko Moriguchi (born June 13, 1968 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan), better known by her stage name is a female Japanese singer and tarento. Moriguchi is affiliated with the talent agency NoReason Inc., where she also serves as Second Production Departme ...

, released on August 7, 2019 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the

Gundam is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...

franchise. The album features Moriguchi's versions of the 10 most popular Gundam songs, as voted on

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

's . Her song "Sora no Kanata de" from '' Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin'' is also included as a bonus track. It was released in two physical CD versions: a regular release and a limited edition release with an LP-sized jacket with a booklet and stickers. The album cover, illustrated by

Tsukasa Kotobuki is a Japanese character designer for various games and anime series such as ''Saber Marionette J'', ''VS Knight Ramune & 40 Fire'', ''Cyber Team in Akihabara'' and ''Battle Arena Toshinden''. He also did the art for '' Sword of the Dark Ones''. ...

, features Moriguchi dressed in an A.E.U.G normal suit, with the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam in the background. To promote the album, Moriguchi released the music video for "Mizu no Hoshi e Ai wo Komete" in July 2019. Upon its release, ''Gundam Song Covers'' sold over 25,000 copies, peaked at No. 3 on

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 ...

's Weekly Album Chart on August 19, 2019 and charted for 57 weeks, making it Moriguchi's highest charting album in her career until ''

Gundam Song Covers 2 ''Gundam Song Covers 2'' is a cover album by Hiroko Moriguchi, released in 2020 to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Moriguchi's music career. The sequel to 2019's ''Gundam Song Covers'', the album features Moriguchi's versions of 10 popular G ...

'' hit No. 2 a year later. It was also her first top-10 album since ''Eternal Songs'' in 1991. As of September 16, 2020, the album has sold over 130,000 copies. The album was one of six recipients of the Planning Award at the

61st Japan Record Awards The was held on 30 December 2019. Presents * Tao Tsuchiya * Shinichiro Azumi (TBS Announcer) Winners Grand Prix *Foorin – Paprika ** Artist: Foorin ** Lyrics: Kenshi Yonezu ** Composition & arranger: Kenshi Yonezu ** Producer: Kenshi Yo ...

Track listing

All tracks are arranged by Kōichirō Tokinori, except 1 by Naoki Kitajima, 2 by Kotaro Oshio, 5 by Saburō Tanooka, 6 by Satoru Shionoya, 7 by Ino Hidefumi, 10 by Kentarō Akutsu, and 11 by Takayuki Hattori.

Personnel

* Naoko Terai - violin (track 1) *

Kotaro Oshio is an acoustic guitarist from Japan. Born in Suita, Osaka, on February 1, 1968, he is best known for his work on the steel string guitar. Oshio is a part of Sony Music Japan's SME Records division. Oshio was voted the second greatest Japanese gui ...

- acoustic guitar (track 2) * Saburo Tanooka - accordion (track 5) * Satoru Shionoya - piano (track 6) *

Ino Hidefumi is a Japanese jazz, and electronic musician. He releases his music solely on Innocent Record, a label he created with the concept of "One label, one artist.” Early life Ino was born in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan in 1970. He bega ...

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

& all instruments (track 7) * Tairiku (of Tsukemen) -

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

(track 10) * Suguru (of Tsukumen) - piano (track 10) * Kenta (of Tsukemen) - violin (track 10)

Charts

Sequel

On January 23, 2020, Moriguchi and King Records announced that ''Gundam Song Covers 2'' was being planned for a 2020 release. Fans had until February 16 to vote for which Gundam songs Moriguchi should cover on the new album. The official poll results were broadcast on the official Gundam YouTube channel on March 8, 2020. The album was originally planned for release on June 10, 2020, but due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the release date was pushed to September 16, 2020.

References

External links

* (Hiroko Moriguchi) * (King Records) * *
''Gundam Song Covers''
on VGMdb {{Authority control 2019 albums Hiroko Moriguchi albums Covers albums Gundam Japanese-language albums King Records (Japan) albums