is a song by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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 Wale ...

band

Asian Kung-Fu Generation (stylized in all caps) 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 (musician), Takahiro Yamada, and dr ...

. 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 manga magazine '' Big Comic Spirits''. The story takes place in the fictiona ...

'', 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 Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

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.

Track listing

Personnel

Masafumi Gotō or Gotch (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 Kan ...

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar *

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

– 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, Name the Night, and instrumental band Phono Tones. Ijichi credits the origin of his drumming ability to playing in marching bands in junior high. He me ...

– drums *

– producer *Yusuke Nakamura – single cover art

Charts

Certifications

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