Yoasobi

Both members of Yoasobi has active music careers before forming the duo. Ayase, a producer, songwriter, and former vocalist of rock band Davici,[1] began using Vocaloid to produce a song. He uploaded his first song, "Sentensei Assault Girl", on the video hosting website Niconico in 2018 and gained a popularity with his 2019 song "Last Resort". Then, he released his debut extended play (EP) Ghost City Tokyo in December 2019.[2][3] Lilas Ikuta,[4] performing under the stage name Ikura in Yoasobi, is a singer-songwriter and a then-member of the cover group Plusonica, which she departed in August 2021.[5] She was released her solo demo EP: 15 no Omoi,[6] and two official EPs: Rerise (2017) and Jukebox (2019).[7]

In 2019, Ayase received an offer from Monogatary.com, a novel website operated by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, to collaborate on a project to produce songs inspired by novels written on the website. After discussion about vocalists, he found Ikura on Instagram, where she had uploaded some of her music, and formed the superduo.[1][8] The duo's name Yoasobi originates from the Japanese word 夜遊び (yoasobi), which means "nightlife", as a wish that they could take on various playful challenges by comparing their individual career as daytime and their Yoasobi career as a nighttime.[9] The duo uses the slogan "novel into music" to represent themselves.[10][11]

The first song released by Yoasobi is "Yoru ni Kakeru", based on Mayo Hoshino's short story Thanatos no Yūwaku hosted on Monogatary.com. The music video was uploaded via YouTube first on November 16, 2019, before subsequently released to digital music platform on December 15.[12] During COVID-19 pandemic in Japan began, the song went viral on social media,[13][8] as well as the performance on the YouTube channel The First Take.[14] bringing it to top several music streaming service charts in Japan.[15] Five months after its release, the song peaked at number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks[16] and spent six weeks atop the chart.[17] The single finished 2020 as the year's top Japan Hot 100 song, making it the first non-CD single to top the year-end chart.[18] It became the first ever diamond-certified song for streaming in Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) history,[19] as well as was certified double platinum for downloads.[20] "Yoru ni Kakeru" won the Song of the Year at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards Japan[21] and the 2021 Space Shower Music Awards.[22]

Following the debut single, Yoasobi released their second single, "Ano Yume o Nazotte" on January 18, 2020, based on Sōta Ishiki's Yume no Shizuku to Hoshi no Hana.[23] "Halzion", based on Shunki Hashizume's Soredemo, Happy End, was released on May 11, marked it the first song that Yoasobi collaborated with a professional novelist, whereas the first two were amateur writers.[24] as a promotional project by Suntory to advertise their new energy drink named Zone.[25] In the second half of the year, they released the single, "Tabun", on July 20. The song was based on the short story of the same name by Shinano.[26] "Gunjō" was released September 1, collaborated with the manga Blue Period for Bourbon's Alfort Mini Chocolate advertisement and based on Alfort's television advertisement story text Ao o Mikata ni.[27] On December 18, the duo released "Haruka", a song based on Osamu Suzuki's novel, Tsuki Ōji.[28]

On December 31, 2020, New Year's Eve, Yoasobi concluded the year at 71st NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen and performed "Yoru ni Kakeru", which was also their debut live performance for a year after the debut single release.[29] The duo released their debut EP and first physical release, The Book, on January 6, 2021, consisting of their six previous-release singles in 2019–2020, and three new tracks, including its promotional single "Encore".[30] The EP debuted at number two on both the Oricon Albums Chart,[31] and Billboard Japan Hot Albums,[32] selling over 150,000 copies as of 2021.[33] It topped the Oricon Digital Albums Chart for five consecutive weeks and the year-end chart with 100,000 downloads in 2021 alone, making it the only album to reach this milestone in the year.[34][35] The Book received a gold certification for physical release by RIAJ.[36] All tracks of the EP except the intro and outro are also certified platinum or higher for streaming by RIAJ.[37]

"Kaibutsu" and "Yasashii Suisei" featured as themes of the season 2 of Beastars (logo illustrated).

Yoasobi handles singing the theme songs of the second season of the anime television series Beastars.[38] "Kaibutsu", the opening theme, was released as a digital single on January 6, 2021, the same date as The Book,[39] while its ending theme, "Yasashii Suisei", was released on January 20.[40] Both songs were based on the anime's writer Paru Itagaki's short stories Jibun no Mune ni Jibun no Mimi o Oshi Atete, and Shishiza Ryūseigun no Mama ni, respectively.[41][40] Afterwards, a double A-side CD single of the themes was released on March 24,[42] landing at number two on the Oricon Singles Chart.[43] Their first livestream concert, Keep Out Theater, was held on February 14 at the inside of the building under construction at the former site of Shinjuku Milano for online audiences of 40,000 people.[44][45][46] "Kaibutsu" won four awards, including Song of the Year (Japan) at the 36th Japan Gold Disc Award.[47]

The duo released a theme song for the Fuji TV's morning show Mezamashi TV, titled "Mō Sukoshi Dake", on May 10, based on the novel Meguru, which won the Yoasobi Contest Vol.3 with Mezamashi TV by Chiharu.[48] "Sangenshoku", the background song for the NTT Docomo's mobile service Ahamo advertisement, based on RGB, written by scriptwriter Yūichirō Komikado.[49] It was released on July 2,[50] as well as the stand-alone version of "Encore".[51] The single "Loveletter" was released on August 9, collaborated with Tokyo FM's radio show owned by Japan Post Service, Sunday's Post, and based on Hatsune's letter Ongaku-san e.[52] The duo released "Taishō Roman" on September 15, based on Natsumi's novel Taishō Romance, winning Yoasobi Contest Vol.2.[53] "Tsubame", featuring five elementary school student special group Midories,[54] for the NHK's SDGs children program series, Hirogare! Irotoridori,[55] was released on October 25.[56] All singles released in 2021 reached the top-5 of the Billboard Japan Hot 100, except "Yasashii Suisei", and "Tsubame", which peaked at the top 20.[57]

The duo's second EP, The Book 2, was released on December 1, including the release of their singles in 2021, and the promotional single "Moshi mo Inochi ga Egaketara",[58] a theme song for the stage of the same name.[59] The EP debuted at number two on the Oricon Albums Chart,[60] and atop the Billboard Japan Hot Albums.[61] Additionally, it topped the Oricon Digital Albums Chart.[62] The EP was certified gold for physical release by the RIAJ, surpassing 100,000 copies.[63] The duo held their first face-to-face one-off concert, Nice to Meet You, at Nippon Budokan on December 4–5 for 14,000 audiences[58][64] and participated in the 72nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen on December 31,[65] to perform "Gunjō", and "Tsubame".[66][67] Yoasobi won Artist of the Year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards Japan[68] and the 2022 Space Shower Music Awards,[69] and a Special Achievement Award at the 63rd Japan Record Awards.[70]

Furthermore, Yoasobi has started releasing English-language songs in 2021. The first English song, "Into the Night", translated from "Yoru ni Kakeru", was released on July 2, the same date as "Sangenshoku".[50] After that, they also released other three English-version tracks: "RGB"[71] and "Monster" in July,[72] and "Blue" in October.[73] All tracks are combined for release as the group's debut English-language digital EP E-Side on November 12, including four new English tracks, "Haven't", "Comet", "Encore", and "Tracing a Dream", which all are translated from their previous-released songs.[74] It debuted atop the Oricon Digital Albums Chart,[62] and number nine on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums.[75]

Yoasobi announced a collaboration with four Naoki Prize-winning novelists to write and sing four songs based on the novelists' stories under the theme of "a story to read when you first did": Rio Shimamoto's Watashi Dake no Shoyūsha, Mizuki Tsujimura's Yūrei, Miyuki Miyabe's Iro Chigai no Trump, and Eto Mori's Hikari no Tane. All novels were combined and published as a book, titled Hajimete no, on February 16, 2022, by Suirinsha.[76][77] The first single of the project, "Mr.", based on Shimamoto's story, was released on the same day as the book.[78][79]

Additionally, Yoasobi was release their first video album, The Film, on March 23, containing the duo's three 2021 concerts–Keep Out Theater, Sing Your World, and Nice to Meet You (day 2); and the enlarged version and unreleased footage from the MBS TV's documentary program Jōnetsu Tairiku, starring Yoasobi, broadcast in December 2021.[80][81] The ballade version of "Ano Yume o Nazotte" was released on March 30, which accompanied the Otsuka Pharmaceutical's CalorieMate television advertisement, Midnight Express, and the Smash live action movie based on the song's based novel, Yume no Shizuku to Hoshi no Hana.[82][83]

In June 2021, Yoasobi collaborated with Uniqlo's T-shirt brand UT to make a T-shirt with patterns inspired by Yoasobi's songs.[84][85] The duo and the brand held and broadcast the free livestream concert to promote the collaboration at Uniqlo City Tokyo, titled Sing Your World, via the duo's official YouTube channel on July 4, with 280,000 online audiences.[86] In September, the duo was chosen to be a mascot for the 59th Sendenkaigi Award, an advertising award held by Sendenkaigi.[87]