Special Musical Guest at Anime Central 2009!

Anime Central is excited to welcome  to ACen 2009!

Few Japanese artists have been as much part of the global anime boom as m.o.v.e. With anime soundtracks increasingly being used as a vehicle to launch Japanese artists overseas, the dance-pop group has been involved in several anime tie-ins, the most high-profile of which have been the theme songs to the series Initial D and the movie of the same name. With the rising international popularity of Japanese animation, move’s work in Initial D, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Ikki Tousen, and Monkey Robot (Asobot Senki GOKU) have made them a name known to fans across the globe.
m.o.v.e are made up of songwriter/producer t-kimura, vocalist yuri and rapper motsu. Too “rap” to be labeled J-Pop and too “J-Pop” to be considered an authentic rap act, a typical m.o.v.e song — if there is such a thing — pits yuri’s high-pitched vocals against t-kimura’s techno-rock backing and will often feature a cameo from MC motsu, in a mixture of English and Japanese.
About m.o.v.e
T-kimura started his music career in the pop duo FAVORITE BLUE in the mid-1990s. His second project with Avex Trax was the group move (only in 2005 did the group change their name to m.o.v.e). Having hooked up with motsu, t-kimura was still in search of a female vocalist. until he chanced upon a performance by yuri on TV Tokyo’s talent contest series “Asayan.”
The group’s debut single ROCK IT DOWN came out in October 1997, but it was the follow-up Around The World that made the bigger impact when it was used as the opening theme to the popular animation Initial D, a series that explores the world of street-car racing and found an audience among car fans in Japan. m.o.v.e also supplied the series’ closing theme, Rage Your Dream. The rise in profile drove move’s debut album, Electrock (1998), into the top 20. Later that year marked m.o.v.e.’s first overseas performance at the Taipei “J-Dance Festival” in front of an audience of 30,000.
Since then, the group has released several widely-acclaimed albums, going as high as #3 on Japan’s Oricon chart, and gaining fan attention with their popular tunes at home and abroad. 2008 saw the band’s 10th anniversary, celebrated with the Megalopolis Tour, and the CD/DVD release of Mega Best. In December 2008, producer and keyboard player t-kimura announced that he would abstain from performing with his band m.o.v.e in order to focus on his work as a producer. However, he will continue to create music for the group as a behind-the-scenes member.
It has been announced that on April 4th, m.o.v.e will perform their last concert as a trio at the Shibuya-AX venue in Tokyo, and from then on only Yuri and Motsu will be seen on stage.
Humanizer, m.o.v.e’s 9th original album, was released January 21, 2009.
Visit m.o.v.e’s official website for a full profile.
Recent m.o.v.e albums
A full discography is available at m.o.v.e’s official website.