is the 6th single by Zard released on 27 January 1993 under B-Gram Records label.

Background

According to the song's composer

Tetsurō Oda is a Japanese composer, record producer, and singer-songwriter. Oda gained prominence as a songwriter in Japan during the late 1980s. He composed over 50 top-ten hit singles on the Japanese Oricon chart during the 1990s, including 12 that have ...

Izumi Sakai , known professionally as , was a female Japanese pop singer, songwriter, and member of the group Zard. As Sakai was the only member who stayed in the group while others joined and left regularly, Zard and Sakai may be referred to interchangeably. ...

was singing "strangely," but it proved to be good. The single reached #1 rank first week. It charted for 18 weeks and it sold over 1.64 million copies and became the highest-selling song for Zard. When she died, it was elected as the best song by Zard on the Oricon polls. It was a song that greatly appealed to the Japanese public. Released at a time that is now seen as the beginning of Japan's post economic bubble era when the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...

Index had shrunk in value by a third in only three years, "Makenaide" (Don't Give Up) became known as the theme song of the country's " Lost Decade." While Sakai commented on the television show ''Music Station'' that it would encourage men taking examinations, many people said this song helped them cope with difficult issues such as school bullying. Zard fans’ favorite phrase, "Run through until the End," was originally "Do Not Give Up until the End." "Makenaide" has been used as a theme song for the

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

program ''24-hour TV'', an annual charity program hosted live by celebrities for a day. Sakai said that she was honored and looked forward to watching ''24-hour TV.'' The song was also adopted by

high school baseball in Japan High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

Track list

All songs are written by Izumi Sakai # #*composer:

/arrangement:

Takeshi Hayama is a Japanese musical arranger and guitarist under Being Inc. records. Biography In 1978, he debuted with his own blues band under Trio Records. In 1990s he entered to Being recording agency. Takeshi becomes the main arranger of Japanese sing ...

#Stray Love #*composer:

Daria Kawashima , known before as Miki Kawashima, is a Japanese musical composer, singer-songwriter, lyricist under Being Inc. records. Biography In 1986, she debuted as ''Miki Kawashima'' with the single Silk no Kuchibiru under CBS Sony label. Three years, she ...

/arrangement:

Masao Akashi is a Japanese musical arranger in distributors Being Inc., mainly in their label B-Gram Records. In 1988, he debuted as arranger in debut single " Dakara Sono Te o Hanashite" by Japanese hard-rock band B'z. Until 1998 his arrangement work has ...

# (original karaoke) #Stray Love (original karaoke)

Cover

The song was covered by

Emiri Katō is a Japanese voice actress and singer. At the 2nd Seiyu Awards, she won Best New Actress with her roles in ''Powerpuff Girls Z'' as Momoko Akatsutsumi/Hyper Blossom and '' Lucky Star'' as Kagami Hiiragi. She also shared a Best Singing Award wi ...

as the ending song to episode 12 of the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation of ''

Lucky Star Lucky Star, The Lucky Star or Lucky Starr may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Anime and manga * ''Lucky Star'' (manga), a manga, anime, and video game series * "Lucky Star", one of the Angel Frames from the anime and manga series ''Galaxy ...

'', in a tribute to the late

. Junior from the same music company,

Mai Kuraki (born October 28, 1982) is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. After releasing her US debut single " Baby I Like" in 1999, Kuraki signed with Giza Studio and released her Japanese debut single " Love, Day After Tomorro ...

performed the cover on 1 February 2019 on music television program

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 ...

. The duet received positive feedbacks from both the Mai Kuraki and Zard fans, the recording will be included in limited edition of studio album '' Let's Goal!: Barairo no Jinsei''. The cover has been produced and arranged by

Hiroshi Asai (born 26 April 1978) is a Japanese arranger, musician and composer for the Giza Studio label. He is a former member of band ''The★tambourines''. Since 2012 he is a member of the instrumental band ''Sensation''.First headline news"Opened home ...

from instrumental fusion band Sensation.

References

{{authority control 1993 singles Zard songs Songs written by Tetsurō Oda Oricon Weekly number-one singles Japanese-language songs Japanese television drama theme songs Songs written by Izumi Sakai 1993 songs Song recordings produced by Daiko Nagato