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() is a song by Japanese band
Sakanaction are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, Emi Okazaki, and Keiichi ...
from their seventh studio album, '' 834.194'' (2019). It was released as a single in January 2014, as a
double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
single with the song " Eureka". A rock ballad primarily based around non-electronic instruments, the song was composed by the band's vocalist Ichiro Yamaguchi about his mental state while physically unwell and mentally frustrated, after being unable to finish writing the song " Sayonara wa Emotion". In January 2014, a remix of the song was used in the
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
documentary program ''Next World: Watashi-tachi no Mirai'', later to be included on the band's compilation album '' Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works'' (2015). The physical single debuted at number two on
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 ...
's weekly singles chart, while "Good-Bye" outperformed "Eureka" on the ''
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''
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, also reaching number two. Critics received the song well, praising the song for its simple band sound that developed with the additional of guitar feedback, and believed that the song was an expression of a musician reaffirming their identity and their desire to continue into uncharted musical territory.


Background and development

In March 2013, Sakanaction released their sixth studio album ''
Sakanaction are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, Emi Okazaki, and Keiichi ...
''. The album was a result of the band's vocalist and songwriter Ichiro Yamaguchi felt a new resolution to create music that would resonate with a general pop music audience, and featured several songs with high-profile commercial tie-ups. The first of these was the band's single "
Boku to Hana () is a song by Japanese band Sakanaction. The theme song for the Tsuyoshi Kusanagi-starring medical drama ''37-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku: Kenshui Junjō Monogatari'', it was released as a single by the band in May 2012, the first from their sixt ...
", released in May 2012, which was used as the theme song for the
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is a Japanese actor, singer, television host, and a former member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. Early life Kusanagi grew up in Kasukabe, Saitama, Japan. Career Music In 1987, at age 13, Kusanagi auditioned to enter John ...
drama ''37-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku: Kenshui Junjō Monogatari'', Three months later, the band followed this with the single " Yoru no Odoriko", a song that had been featured in commercials for the design school Mode Gakuen from April 2013. A month and a half before the album's release, the band released the single "
Music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
", a song used as the theme song for the
Yōsuke Eguchi is a Japanese actor and singer. Since 1986, he has appeared in a number of television series and movies. Personal life He is married to the singer-songwriter Chisato Moritaka (born 11 April 1969) is a Japanese pop singer who also is ...
-starring
Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...
drama ''Dinner''. Another song found on the album, " Aoi", was commissioned by the Japanese national broadcaster
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
for a theme song for them to use for their 2013 broadcast of soccer events. The band wanted to balance these songs created for a wide audience with songs that they personally wanted to create, so gave the album a
Möbius strip In mathematics, a Möbius strip, Möbius band, or Möbius loop is a Surface (topology), surface that can be formed by attaching the ends of a strip of paper together with a half-twist. As a mathematical object, it was discovered by Johann Bened ...
theme to illustrate this. The album debuted at number one on
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 ...
's weekly albums chart, after selling 83,000 copies. This was a record for the band, both in terms of the number of copies that they had sold in one week of a release, as well as the fact that they had never reached number one on an Oricon chart before. The release is currently the band's most successful album, in terms of physical copies sold. From March to June, the band performed a tour to promote the album, Sakanaquarium 2013. This tour included 19 performances, including two dates at the
Makuhari Messe is a convention center in Chiba (city), Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, located just outside of Tokyo. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Transportation in Greater Tokyo#Railway and subway, Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuha ...
hall, and their first solo-billed overseas performance in
Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...
,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
. The band were invited to the 64th ''
Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...
'',
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
's annual New Year's music contest, where they performed the album's final single "Music". The band had set themselves a goal to perform two dates at Makuhari Messe, after achieving their goal of performing there once for their previous album, '' Documentaly'' (2011). Though the two concerts and their appearance at the ''Kōhaku Uta Gassen'' were milestones for the band, the members of Sakanaction did not personally feel that these were achievements, and left Yamaguchi feeling that he wanted to leave a greater impression on the world of music. After the release of ''Sakanaction'', Yamaguchi wanted to take an extended break, however because of the strongly positive response that the band had for the album, he felt that he needed to keep on releasing music. Soon after the band finished touring, Yamaguchi worked on a jingle for the
yobikō The are privately-run schools marketed to students who are taking examinations held each year in Japan from January to March to determine college admissions. The students generally graduated from high school but failed to enter the school of the ...
Tōshin High School, a song that would grow to become " Sayonara wa Emotion". Yamaguchi felt exhausted from the tour and was only able to develop the song's chorus. While he was working on this song, he was contacted to write the ending theme song for the film ''Judge!'', which he accepted. He shelved "Sayonara wa Emotion" to focus on writing this song, "Eureka", and intended to release "Sayonara wa Emotion" and "Eureka" together as a double A-side single. While he wrote "Eureka", Yamaguchi became sick both physically and mentally, developing
hives Hives, also known as urticaria, is a kind of skin rash with red or flesh-colored, raised, itchy bumps. Hives may burn or sting. The patches of rash may appear on different body parts, with variable duration from minutes to days, and typically ...
and becoming disillusioned with the idea of writing music for other entities. The "Good-Bye" / "Eureka" double A-side single was announced on November 25, when the band were still recording "Good-Bye".


Writing and inspiration

After finishing the recording sessions for "Eureka", he returned to the recording studio to work on the rest of "Sayonara wa Emotion". During these sessions, Yamaguchi improvised an entirely different song, purely using musical techniques that he personally wanted to explore. The composition, "Good-Bye", reminded Yamaguchi of the period when he first started making music. Originally he saw the song as an album track or a B-side, but found the melody had consumed him, and his confidence in the song grew. Yamaguchi felt distressed that he could not complete "Sayonara wa Emotion" during his sickness and exhaustion, and instead developed a strong desire to release "Good-Bye" in its place. Yamaguchi felt embarrassed at this, seeing it as selfishness as a musician. While talking to Tatsuya Nomura (the band's executive producer) about the situation, Nomura reassured him that although suddenly changing plans were not a good thing, it was necessary for him to address his feelings about releasing "Good-Bye". Yamaguchi asked
Victor Entertainment is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...
's management to liaise with Tōshin High School, to see if they would accept "Good-Bye" in the place of the already submitted chorus of "Sayonara wa Emotion". Though they liked the song, the commercial had already been completed, so they were unable to replace the song, and began airing the commercials with the original song in September 2013. While creating "Good-Bye", the words and melody came to Yamaguchi at the same time, while he was improvising. The lyrics were directly inspired by conversations that Yamaguchi had with staff, his bandmates, and his friend and fellow musician
Gen Hoshino is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and writer. Career Music From its formation in 2000 until its disbandment in 2015, Hoshino led the instrumental band Sakerock, where he played marimba and guitar. They released over ten albums. ...
; expressing how he felt in that moment frankly. The title was chosen by Yamaguchi to link with Japanese author
Osamu Dazai , known by his pen name , was a Japanese novelist and author. A number of his most popular works, such as ''The Setting Sun'' (斜陽, ''Shayō'') and '' No Longer Human'' (人間失格, ''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern classics. Hi ...
's 1940s unpublished story ''Good-Bye''. Thematically, the song was written about Yamaguchi's decision to continue to make music in
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, linking to the single's other leading song "Eureka", which was written about living in Tokyo. While recording the song, Yamaguchi considered how an audience would react to the song as it was unveiled, especially the audience of his regular segment on the
Tokyo FM (abbreviation:TFM) is a radio station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flagship station of the Japan FM Network (JFN). Timeline The station's forerunner, FM Tokai (FM東海, abbreviated FMT), owned by Tokai University, was launched on ...
radio show on ''School of Lock!''. Yamaguchi's desire to release music was revitalized when he thought of an idea to stream footage of the band during their recording sessions for the song on
Ustream IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to the IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest office ...
. At one point, the song had developed a hip-hop style arrangement, which made Yamaguchi wonder if the song could be finished by adding a rapper. They band asked Tamaki Roy to collaborate with them during these sessions because of how impressed they were in his freestyle rap skills, which they saw when he sampled Sakanaction's "Eiga" for one of his songs. The day after they asked Tamaki Roy to collaborate with them, the band recorded their collaboration live, and released it as an unannounced guerrilla broadcast uploaded to their Ustream account on November 28, 2013.


Composition

"Good-Bye" is a medium-tempo ballad with a simple rock band sound. It begins with an acoustic guitar-based rock sound, which dramatically progresses into a sound strongly featuring "emotional" guitar feedback.


Promotion and release

On November 14, 2013, it was revealed that Sakanaction's song "
Identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...
" would be used as the theme song of the film ''Judge!'', while a yet to be released song "Eureka" would be the film's ending credits theme. A week and a half later, it was announced that "Eureka" would be released as a double A-side single with "Good-Bye". On January 15, 2014, two physical editions of "Good-Bye" / "Eureka" were released: a CD-only edition and a CD/DVD edition. Both editions featured a remix of the song "Eiga" from ''Sakanaction'' created by electronic musician
Aoki Takamasa (sometimes stylized as AOKI takamasa) (born 1976), is a Japanese people, Japanese electronic musician and producer. Biography Aoki Takamasa was born in Osaka in 1976. He began experimenting as a musician in 1993 when he was 17, when he rec ...
. The DVD featured the music video for "Eureka", plus a behind-the-scenes documentary of the recording for their live tour video album ''Sakanaquarium 2013 Sakanaction: Live at Makuhari Messe''. Sakanaction performed "Good-Bye" during a two-hour special episode of ''
Music Station , stylised in all caps, is a Japanese music television program. Broadcasting live weekly on TV Asahi since October 24, 1986, it currently airs from 9PM-10PM on Fridays. The program is also colloquially known as , , and . The show is currently sy ...
'', on January 17, 2014. The next day, the band embarked on their Sakanaquarium 2014 Sakanatribe tour, a 22 date Japanese tour featuring performances at
Zepp The Zepp music halls are a group of Japanese music venues covering every area of the country. They play host to many international tours and are a popular stop among Japanese musicians. Each venue takes the Zepp name, along with the city in whic ...
live houses and two dates at the
Tokyo Dome City Hall The Tokyo Dome City Hall (TDC Hall) is a facility for sports, fashion shows, circuses, and live music, located inside Tokyo Dome City in Tokyo, Japan. It is on the opposite corner of the Tokyo Dome, and hosts a variety of events at any given t ...
, between January and March 2014. Footage from the tour final at Tokyo Dome City Hall on March 16 was released as a video album ''Sakanatribe 2014: Live at Tokyo Dome City Hall'', which featured a performance of "Good-Bye". The band's recording session for the song featuring Tamaki Roy that was broadcast in November 2013 was included in the DVD for their single " Sayonara wa Emotion" / "
Hasu no Hana () is a song by Japanese band Sakanaction from their seventh studio album, '' 834.194'' (2019). The song was used as the theme song of the film '' Close Range Love'' (2014) starring Tomohisa Yamashita and Nana Komatsu. The version used in the fi ...
", released in October 2014. The band remixed the song for the
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
documentary special in January and February 2015. The remixed was compiled onto the band's compilation album '' Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works'' in August 2015.


Music video

The music video for "Good-Bye" was directed by Yukihiro Shoda, who had never worked with the band before, while the band's stylist Hisashi "Momo" Kitazawa served as the creative director of the video. After Shoda discussed the meaning of the word ''good-bye'' with Yamaguchi, Shoda and Kitazawa worked together to create the music video without any direct input by the band members. The video was recorded in December 2013, and was unveiled on
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on the day of the physical single's release, January 15. The video features Yamaguchi in the role of a black shawled ferryman, transporting a woman played by Ayami Nakajō across a darkened lake. As they progress across the lake, there are flashbacks to a "painful story" between her and a man, played by Akira Kameyama. Later in the video, the woman is shown embracing the man as he lies collapsed on a skating rink. He appears on the boat, and she reaches out and touches him, but he is no longer there. She sees him standing on the edge of the lake, and smiles at him. The video was one of the five songs nominated for Best Rock Video at the
2014 MTV Video Music Awards Japan The 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Japan was held on June 14, 2014 at the Maihama Amphitheater in Chiba. Hosted by Sayumi Michishige, T.M.Revolution, and W-inds, the ceremony honored the best Japanese and Western music and music videos released in J ...
, and was one of the fifty videos shortlisted for the Best Video award at the 2015
Space Shower Music Video Awards Space Shower Music Awards (formerly Space Shower Music Video Awards) are an annual set of music awards sponsored by Japanese Space Shower TV. The prizes have been awarded since 1996. Winners in main categories Best Video of the Year Best ...
.


Reception


Critical reception

Takushi Yamaguchi of ''
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Japan'' felt "Good-Bye" was a high-quality song, praising Yamaguchi's emotional vocals. He called the piece a "straight-forward" ballad, and felt that no aspect of Sakanaction was excluded from the song. ''CDJournal'' praised the song's "simple band sound" and their "primitively honed" melody and performance. Aki Ito of ''EMTG'' thought very highly of the song's "melancholic melody", also praising the "bold progression" of the song's second half. She believed that it added even more strength to the pressing nature of the song's lyrics, and felt that the melody and the lyrics worked together to create something that left a strong impression and memories. She felt that the driving force behind "Good-Bye" was its "subtle guitar". Dai Onojima of '' Rockin' On Japan'' noted that both "Good-Bye" and "Eureka" had definite pop song structures, as opposed to songs that focused on an "instrumental groove" such as on their previous album, ''Sakanaction''. He felt like the song was the story of a musician reaffirming their identity. Tomoyuki Mori of ''What's In?'' had a similar opinion, feeling that the "nostalgic" song was an expression of the band's desire to continue into uncharted musical territory. Reviewing "Good-Bye (Next World Remix)", Yuichi Hirayama of ''EMTG'' felt that the remix was "impressive" and tied in well with the NHK documentary's technological focus.


Commercial reception

Both "Good-Bye" and "Eureka" debuted on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' Adult Contemporary Airplay chart on the same week in early January, with "Eureka" out-performing "Good-Bye" to be the second most played song on adult contemporary radio stations, while "Good-Bye" was only the fifteenth most played song. During this week, "Good-Bye" was exclusively played on adult contemporary radio stations, as it did not enter the top 100 for ''Billboards general radio chart, despite "Eureka" being the second most played song. In the next week, "Good-Bye" had overtaken "Eureka" in terms of radio airplay. Over the songs' charting course, "Good-Bye" saw consistently stronger sales and radio airplay. Five weeks after first charting, "Good-Bye" and "Eureka" were no longer noticeably selling or receiving airplay. As a physical single, "Good-Bye" / "Eureka" reached number two on
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 ...
's weekly singles chart, underneath boyband
Kanjani Eight , previously known as is a five-member Japanese boy band from Japan's Kansai region. They are managed by the multimedia talent agency Starto Entertainment (formerly Johnny & Associates) and signed to Infinity Records. The group was formed in ...
's single " Hibiki". Oricon tracked 22,000 physical copies being sold in its first week, with a two-week total of 27,000, while the sales tracking agency '' SoundScan Japan'' tracked 21,000 copies in the single's first week, with a total of 25,000 copies tracked over two weeks. The single quickly fell out of the top twenty, charting in the top 100 singles for five weeks, and the top 200 singles for eight weeks.


Track listing


Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from "Good-Bye" / "Eureka"'s liner notes booklet. Music video personnel information was sourced from Sakanction's official
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channel. Sakanaction *All members – arrangement, production *Keiichi Ejima – drums *Motoharu Iwadera – guitar *Ami Kusakari – bass guitar *Emi Okazaki – keyboards *Ichiro Yamaguchi – vocals, guitar, lyrics, composition Music video *Akira Kameyama – cast member *Hisashi "Momo" Kitazawa – stylist *Yusuke Kobayashi – stylist *Shinji Konishi – hair, make-up *Chihiro Matsumoto – art, production designer *Mazri – production company * Ayami Nakajō – cast member *Masaru Nakamura – marine coordination (Total Aquatic's) *Ryoken Okamura – cameraman *Takanobu Oki – production manager *Takahiro Sakamoto – key grip *Yukihiro Shoda – director *Atsutoshi Ueno – lighting, gaffer


Chart rankings


Sales


Release history


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Good-Bye Sakanaction song 2014 singles 2014 songs Songs in Japanese Rock ballads 2010s ballads Sakanaction songs Songs about Tokyo Songs written by Ichiro Yamaguchi Victor Entertainment singles