is the debut single by Japanese

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

group

Lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

released on July 31, 2002, under the

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

sub-label Flight Master. The single debuted 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 ...

at #18 and remained on the charts for five weeks. The success of the single and their following single, " Show Me the Way", helped them win the Best Newcomer Award during the

44th Japan Record Awards The 44th Annual Japan Record Awards took place on December 31, 2002, starting at 6:00PM JST. The primary ceremonies were televised in Japan on TBS. Award winners *Japan Record Award: **Max Matsuura (producer), CREA + D・A・I (composer) & Ayu ...

, alongside Day After Tomorrow,

Mika Nakashima is a Japanese singer and actress. Five of her studio albums, one of her mini-albums and one of her compilation albums have reached number one in Japan's Oricon album chart. She also embarked on an acting career, most notably as Nana Osaki in th ...

and Sachika Shino.

Information

"Manatsu no Magic" debuted in the top twenty of the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard Single (music), singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track down ...

s, coming in at #18 and remaining on the charts for five consecutive weeks. The success of the single, along with their following single, " Show Me the Way", helped Lead secure the ''Best Newcomer Award'' during the 44th annual

Japan Record Awards is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Established in 1959, the Japan Record Awards are one of the oldest and most prestigious music awards in the countr ...

alongside newbie band day after tomorrow and up-and-coming soloists

and Sachika Shino. The single was only released as a standard CD, which contained the title track, the

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"No Doubt" and a remix and instrumental for "Manatsu no Magic". While the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was released for syndication to the public upon the single's release, it was not available for the public to purchase until their

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

release '' Lead Movies 1'' in September 2003. "Manatsu no Magic" was written and composed by musical composer Yasushi Sasamoto. For "No Doubt", lyricist Katsu wrote most of the lyrics, while Yasushi wrote the lyrics for the rap. As with "Manatsu no Magic", Yasushi composed and arranged the piece. The remix of "Manatsu no Magic" was reworked by famous composer

H-Wonder H-Wonder is a Japanese music arranger and composer. He debuted in 1995. In June 1998, he stopped being a solo artist and changed his name to H-Wonder and became a composer. One of his notable collaborations is with Maaya Sakamoto and BoA. Dis ...

, who has worked with the likes of

Kumi Koda , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. After debuting with the single " Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, " Real Emoti ...

BoA Boa, BoA, or BOA may refer to: Snakes * Any member of the Boidae, a family of medium to large, non-venomous, constricting snakes ** Any member of the Boinae, a subfamily of boid snakes *** Any member of ''Boa'' (genus), a group of boid snakes * ...

TVXQ TVXQ (stylized as TVXQ!; , ), known as Tohoshinki in Japan, is a South Korean pop duo formed by SM Entertainment, composed of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. Originally a five-member boy band which also consisted of members Kim Jae-joong, Hero ...

and

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

Promotional activities

To help promote their single, "Manatsu no Magic" was used as the ending theme to several

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

shows and the ending theme to the

theatrical film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

''Juunana Sai'' (十七歳 / ''Seventeen Years''). The song was used as the ending theme to several television shows, including the drama ''Romei'', the

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

''Chanoma Girls'', and the shows ''Anta ni Gurattsu~e!'' (あんたにグラッツェ！ / ''Thanks for You!'') and ''Tabi wa Higae Ritchi'' (旅は日帰リッチ / ''Travel is a rich day trip'').

Track listing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manatsu no Magic 2002 debut singles 2002 songs Pony Canyon singles J-pop songs Lead (band) songs