is the major-label debut EP 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 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 ...

, released on November 25, 2002 on Under Flower Records.

Background

After six years since its inception and three independent releases,

contributed to the Under Flower compilation album, ''What You Gonna Do?'', before dropping their first major-label EP. The critically acclaimed mini-album topped the High Line Records weekly chart for two weeks straight and peaked at number thirty-five 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 ...

indies sales chart. Due to its success, ''Hōkai Amplifier'' was re-released by Ki/oon Records on April 23, 2003. Although the mini-album didn't release any singles, the intro track "Haruka Kanata" enjoyed immense domestic and international popularity after it came to be used as the second opening theme for the anime series '' Naruto''. In 2014, the album was released again as a 12-inch analog record.

Track listing

Personnel

* Masafumi Gotoh – lead vocals, guitar, lyrics *

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 – drums *Kumiko Ishikawa – additional vocals *

/Katsuhisa Ogawa – producer *Jun-ya Iwata – engineering, mixing *Masato Wantanabe – mixing *Kazuhiro Yamagata – mastering *Kenichi Nakamura – recording *Kanetsugu "Kan" Tanaka – directing *Yusuke Nakamura/KAN – art direction

Chart positions

References

CDJapan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hokai Amplifier Asian Kung-Fu Generation EPs 2002 debut EPs Japanese-language EPs 2000s Japanese-language albums