(stylized as Λucifer) was a Japanese

visual kei , abbreviated , is a category of Japanese musicians that have a strong focus on extravagant stage costumes that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Koji Dejima of '' Bounce'' wrote that visual kei is not a specific sound, but rather it " ...

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, best known for contributing several of their songs to the popular

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

Kaikan Phrase is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mayu Shinjo. The manga was published by Shogakukan in ''Shōjo Comic'' between 1997 and 2000, and collected in 18 tankōbon, bound volumes. It was adapted as a 44-episode anime television ...

. The band was formed in 1999, and disbanded in early 2003. They officially debuted on 15 September 1999 with their big hit single Datenshi BLUE, and became increasingly popular thereafter.

History

Lucifer was put together for the Kaikan Phrase anime to promote it. The anime was based on the a popular shōjo

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

Mayu Shinjo is a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1994 in Shogakukan's '' Shōjo Comic'' with "Anata no Iro ni Somaritai". She continued writing for Shogakukan until 2007, with her works appearing in both ''Shōjo Comic'' and their other magazine '' Ch ...

. The band members of real life Lucifer changed their names to match with their anime/manga counterparts, except for the vocalist, who kept his name instead of changing it to Sakuya (the main character's name).
Several of Lucifer's songs were used in the anime, along with songs from other bands like

Glay Glay (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band formed in Hakodate in 1988. The core four members, vocalist Teru (singer), Teru, guitarists Takuro (musician), Takuro and Hisashi (musician), Hisashi, and bassist Jiro (musician), ...

, Feel and e.MU. However, the band decided to go on even after the anime had ended, and continued to release more music afterwards. Then finally on 25 October 2002, over two and a half years after the anime had ended, they announced that they were breaking up. Following the announcement, they did their last tour entitled "Lucifer Last Live 2002-2003 Energy" from 16 December 2002 to 10 January 2003, which included 9 shows. After that, they appeared for the last time in a TV music show, PopJam, on 11 January and then did their very last show (which was also their first show done abroad) at the

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on 19 January. On the first album, the music was written by

Takuya Asanuma , better known mononymously as Takuya (stylized in all caps as TAKUYA), is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was formerly the second guitarist of Judy and Mary. He currently works as a solo artist under the name Takuya ...

(

Judy and Mary Judy and Mary (often stylized as JUDY AND MARY) was a Japanese rock band formed in 1991 in Japan by bassist Yoshihito Onda and vocalist Yuki, with drummer Kohta Igarashi and guitarist Taiji Fujimoto completing the lineup in 1992. Guitarist Takuy ...

), Chisato (

Penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

) and Ippei and Taizo ( Feel) but after that, the members of the band started writing more. Beatrip featured one song from Atsuro and one from Santa, and the rest were by Takuya and Chisato, but by the third album, nearly all the music had been written by members of the band, save for one song by Takuya, and two of the songs Makoto did that were done as a collaboration with Masaki. The lyrics on the first two albums were all written by

Mori Yukinojo , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese lyricist, composer and poet who is affiliated with Amuse, Inc. He has written over 2,500 songs for numerous artists such as Kyosuke Himuro, Takuro Yoshida and Junichi Inagaki and theme songs fo ...

(except for one song on Beatrip, which Makoto wrote). On the third album, only the lyrics to the song by Takuya were written by Mori and the rest were done by the band members.

After the break-up of the band

* Makoto has gone on a solo career (first using his given name, then used his full name). Towa and Santa also played on his first mini-album "Vibration". * Towa is in two bands called

Olive Sunday The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

and

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and has done some solo work as well. He is also arranged many songs for J-pop idols

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and other related groups. * Santa is with Towa in

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's first mini-album "

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". Since 2007, He has been taking part in many of

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's live tours. * Yuki formed Dustar-3 with two ex-members of

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, Noisy and Himawari. He is also collaborating with

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's yasu on his solo project,

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.
In 2010, he joined Rayflower, a rock band started by Sophia (Japanese band), Sophia's keyboardist Keichii Miyako. * Atsuro has been playing session guitar for

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artists like

meg rock , also credited as Gumi and Meg Rock, is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer and musician. Biography Megumi Hinata began learning to play the piano at the age of four, and said she first became interested in music in the latter half of elemen ...

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and

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. He briefly joined a rock band Tokyo Anastasia. He also produces and arranges songs for an extraordinary number of

artists, including

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, and

Minori Chihara is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress and singer who has had roles in several anime series.Doi, Hitoshi"Chihara Minori" ''Seiyuu Database''. January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. She is well known for her voice role as Yuki ...

. They were reunited in November 2009 and signed with new label T.N.B. Entertainment.

Members

* Sakuya ( Makoto Koshinaka) - vocals * Atsuro (Daisuke Kato) - guitar * Yuki ( Masahiko Yuki) - guitar * Towa ( Taguchi Tomonori) - bass * Santa ( Abe Toru) - drums

Discography

;Studio albums *''Limit Control'' (Dec 8 1999, No. 6

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 ...

) *''Beatrip'' (Feb 21 2001, No. 10) *''Element of Love'' (Mar 13 2002, No. 17) ;Compilations *''The Best'' (Dec 5 2002, No. 15) ;Singles *"Datenshi Blue" (Sep 15 1999, No. 16) *"C no Binetsu" (Nov 3 1999, No. 8) *"Tokyo Illusion/Lucy" (Feb 16 2000 No. 11) *"Carnation Crime" (Jun 7 2000, No. 9) *"Junk City" (Aug 2 2000, No. 9) *"Tsubasa" (Nov 8 2000, No. 11) *"Hypersonic Soul" (Aug 1 2001, No. 16) *"Regret" (Feb 6 2002, No. 18) *"Realize" (Aug 7 2002, No. 15) ;DVDs *''Be-Trip Tour 2001'' (

live DVD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading fro ...

, May 30, 2001, No. 1) *''Vision File Film: Escape'' ( PV compilation DVD, Jun 28 2000, No. 4) *''Vision File Film: Escape 2'' (PV compilation DVD, Nov 7 2001) *''Last Tour 2002-2003 Energy Tour Final at Tokyo Kokusai Forum'' (live DVD, Mar 26 2003) *''10th Anniversary Live Tour Rinne 2010.09.01 AKASAKA BLITZ'' (live DVD, Dec 25 2010)

References

External links

T.N.B. Entertainment
{{Authority control Japanese hard rock musical groups Japanese alternative rock groups Visual kei musical groups Musical groups established in 1999 1999 establishments in Japan