"The Beginning" is the seventh single released by Japanese rock band

One Ok Rock (stylized in all caps as ONE OK ROCK) is a Japanese rock band, formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2005. Originally five members, the band currently consists of vocalist Takahiro Moriuchi, guitarist and bandleader Toru Yamashita, bassist Ryota Kohama, a ...

. The title track was used as the theme song for the live-action movie of ''Rurouni Kenshin''. The first pressing comes with a sticker. It received a digital download single certification of Gold from the

Recording Industry Association of Japan The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include pr ...

for sales of 100,000. It peaked at #2 on the ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100 and stayed for 45 weeks. The song also reached 5th place 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 ...

chart and charted for 20 weeks.

Composition and lyrics

According to vocalist

Taka The Bangladeshi taka ( bn, টাকা, sign: , code: BDT, short form: Tk) is the currency of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of bank notes 10 and larger is controlled by Bangladesh Bank, while ...

, the demo of "The Beginning" was made on a piano before '' Zankyo Reference'' was released. The lyrics then written in mid-2012 after they were asked to make a song for a new live adaption of the popular

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Rurouni Kenshin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins during the 11th year of the Meiji period in Japan (1878) and follows a former assassin from the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work ...

'' that his friend,

Takeru Satoh is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his leading role as Ryotaro Nogami in the ''Kamen Rider Den-O'' franchise, and as Himura Kenshin in the live-action ''Rurouni Kenshin'' film and its sequels. Satoh was born on 21 March 1989 in Iwatsuki ...

, was the lead actor. "The Beginning" is an emotional track with a powerful and loud sound, tells about a person's struggle to never give up and change for the better for the loved ones and risk everything to stay together in any situation and condition. The second track "Ketsuraku Automation" begins with two string melodies open up the song, brings melancholic mood to the track. The tempo of the song then increases as the drum beats kick in, guitar melody takes on a heavier, fuller tone while the bass delivers quick jabs. "Ketsuraku Automation" means "automatic disappearance", telling about someone who is lost and doesn't understand all the events in the world which are just fakes. The last track "Notes n' Words" is an all-English

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

. The song gives a romantic feel with an acoustic touch at the beginning of the song, then gentle bass, soft drums and breezy strings comes in the middle. This song tells about someone's feelings of love that may be difficult to express directly and freely, a kind of love that is restrained and can only be expressed through this song.

Music video

The music video for the title track was directed by Maxilla, released before the single on August 14, 2012. The video begins showing vocalist Taka starting to sing melancholy as the camera zooms out while giving glimpses of the other members playing their instruments. It then focuses on a young man holding what appears to be a diamond, as the song takes an intense drop while showing key frames of the phrases 'Take my hand' & 'And bring me back". The band starts playing inside an extant empty dark room, a young woman then is shown briefly waiting in a desolated beach while the man starts walking slowly. The whole video is recorded with a gloomy filter and bright brief gleams. Vocalist Taka passionately keeps on singing while drummer Tomoya is often shown from a back perspective with the camera occasionally focusing on guitarist Toru and bassist Ryota. All the band members move in slow motion at first showing they are in sync with their movements while performing. Eventually the phrases 'Stand up stand up', 'Wake up wake up', 'Never give up' and 'Just tell me why baby' take over the screen and then leave a wide perspective of the band playing with quick focuses on Taka and the unnamed young man who keeps walking while limping. The room where the band is playing keeps getting darker and somehow foggy. When the man finally shows up in the beach the songs reaches its climax and most intense and heavy part with the guitar and bass getting louder as a countdown begins, the young man then gives the diamond to the girl and then blacks out. The song reaches its lowest part right after this and the man seems to have died as the girl softly closes his eyes while crying then walks away, with Taka singing softly and saddening the moment more. The girl walks away and then the band enters the last chorus while headbanging to the melancholic melody accompanied by a subtle piano beat that indicates the close end then Taka sings out 'It finally begins' as the end, the noise of the guitar fades out and the band members stand still looking down while the image fades out. The song title "The Beginning" is shown at the end sparkling then fading out too.

Track listing

The single was released in a regular edition. All songs were written and composed by

Regular Edition

Personnel

;One Ok Rock * Takahiro "Taka" Moriuchi —

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

Toru Yamashita , better known by his stage name Toru, is a guitarist and the leader of the Japanese rock band One Ok Rock. He was in the hip-hop dance group Heads along with Ryota Kohama from One Ok Rock before they disbanded in 2002. Personal life Toru w ...

—

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

Ryota Kohama , better known by his stage name Ryota, is a Japanese musician who is best known for being the bassist of the rock band One Ok Rock. He was in the hip-hop dance group Heads along with Toru Yamashita (guitarist of One Ok Rock) before they disband ...

—

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Tomoya Kanki — Drum kit, drums, Percussion instrument, percussion ;Additional musicians * Makoto Minagawa — additional piano ;Production * Akkin — arranger * Kenichi Arai — Audio engineering, engineering * Takashi Kagami — engineering * Tue Madsen — Audio mixing (recorded music), mixing * Kazutaka Minemori — bass technician * Yoshiro "Masuo" Arimatsu — drum technician, guitar

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Awards

;MTV Video Music Awards Japan , - , rowspan="2", 2013 , rowspan="2", "The Beginning" , 2013 MTV Video Music Awards Japan#Best Rock Video, Best Rock Video , , - , MTV Video Music Award Japan for Best Video from a Film#2010s, Best Video from a Film , ;Space Shower Music Video Awards , - , 2013 , "The Beginning" , Space Shower Music Video Awards#Best Your Choice, Best Your Choice ,

References

External links

ONE OK ROCK official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beginning 2012 songs 2012 singles One Ok Rock songs Songs written by Takahiro Moriuchi Japanese-language songs Japanese film songs A-Sketch singles