Eir Aoi has released the music video for her new song Ryuusei which is currently serving as the opening theme song to the ongoing anime series Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online.

Mei Hata makes an appearance in the music video, a young actress who has performed in dramas. The video expressively captures the sensitive feelings of a girl.

Eir Aoi’s Comments:

“The music video for Ryuusei has been released. The actress Mei Hata appears in this one. The video tells the story of a girl who, despite being hurt by her daily life, still holds strong confidence in herself. This is the first music video I have done that has elements of a drama. My feelings have been put into this song, so I’d be happy if they resonated with other people.”

Mei Hata’s Comments:

“This is this first time I’ve appeared in a music video. I’m very happy to have been able to take part in Eir Aoi’s wonderful music. I don’t have any lines in the music video, I just act it out, so I was worried about how best to express everything, but after talking with the director, I was able to do it while valuing the emotions put into the song. I want lots of people to watch it.”

Director – Takashi Tadokoro’s Comments:

Eir’s performance on the day was nothing short of powerful. The composition of the performances were simple as scenes, but the power embedded in her ability to convey emotions in her eyes, as well as her facial expressions and performance had me locked on and focused while I was watching without even realising. I also felt the same power in her determination. And Hata’s power of expression in her acting is really something! At first glance she seems like a delicate girl, but her true essence is that she’s extremely strong. The two of them were the best match for the acting in this performance.”

The CD cover for Ryuusei / Yakusoku, which is set to hit shelves on June 13, has also been unveiled for the first time.

The beautiful cover with its air of exotic and the vibrant illustration make for a cool makeup.

Eir Aoi has sprung back into action with full force, so much so that it feels like she never went on hiatus.

The singer will perform a solo show at the Nippon Budokan on August 16 to set her return in stone. Pre-sale tickets are currently on sale via her fan club, so be sure to check it out if you’re interested.

J-pop singer Eir Aoi unveiled her latest artist photo for her new song Ryusei (“Meteors”) which will serve as the opening theme song for the forthcoming anime adaptation of Keiichi Sigsawa’s light novel Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online.

Eir Aoi went on hiatus from her activities in November 2016 due to health issues. Her return has sparked riotous excitement through the community.

As the song title suggests, her striking new artist visual bears a vivid resemblance to meteors, with the singer herself enveloped in countless bright, shining stars.

The next installment to the immensely popular Sword Art Online series will begin airing in Japan on April 7^th from midnight. Ryusei will also be available for digital purchase on April 22^nd via iTunes, mora, Recochoku, animelo mix, and other digital platforms.

Don’t miss out on the newest release from Eir Aoi.

Sword Art Online (SAO) is an internationally acclaimed anime series that first broadcast back in 2012. In February 2017, the movie Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale was released, which was seen by over 1.77 million people and grossed ￥200 billion at the box office.

The next story in the SAO saga, Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online, will begin airing in April. The story, written by Keiichi Sigsawa (Kino’s Journey), is noted for its battle scenes steeped in reality and intensity.

It has been announced that singer Eir Aoi will provide the opening theme for the forthcoming anime adaptation with her new song Ryuusei. A new commercial was released featuring the song.

Be sure to check out Eir Aoi‘s new song and don’t miss the new SAO.

Eir Aoi who stopped her music activities from the day she performed at Nippon Budokan in November 2016, announced that she will resume her music career starting from spring of 2018. Also, it was announced onher official website that she will release a new song called “Yakusoku” (promise).

On the 1^st of February, a blue light started to pulse on her website and her fans went into anticipation mode thinking, “new information might be announced soon!” Then on the 8^th of February (Thurs.), an official announcement was made that she will resume her music career and release her new song “Yakusoku.”

Aoi Eir “Yakusoku” (YouTube Edit)

“Yakusoku” is a song created/written by Aoi herself representing her feelings and determination and is a “prelude song” of her music activity restart.

She will go into full swing in her music activities starting from this spring. Let’s keep an eye out on her restart activities!

Eir Aoi had her last live performance on Friday 4^th and Saturday 6^th November 2016 at the Nippon Budokan. When will she spring back into action? We don’t know yet…

In the last 5 years of her musical activity, she had only announced one break. After announcing her long-term break this year in August, she stood on stage at her final live at the Nippon Budokan before a crowd filled with devoted fans. As the tension in the Budokan was rising to its peak, the live performance began and many fans could be seen crying!

As she performed her first song of the evening “Sirius”, the whole venue was wrapped in the warmth of her singing. She continued with many of her biggest hits including “AURORA” and “Cobalt Sky”. She barely took a break to talk to the audience! When she was about to perform her last two songs of the live, she finally started to talk to the audience. Her words were “I know that the performance is almost over, but please enjoy it to the very end!” She finished the live with her latest single “Wings” followed by “INNOCENCE”.

She wore red plaid clothing for her encore and entered the stage alone. She then apologised for announcing her long period break in August and began talking about the many beautiful memories she has of her 5 years as an artist. She performed “frozen eyez” — a song which she calls her “first song”, as it was released before her major debut and even made an appearance in popular magazine “LisAni”. She also performed “Tsunagaru Omoi” — the first ever song she had ever composed and wrote lyrics for by herself. As she performed, the audience could see tears rolling down her cheeks. 

Before performing her final song, she spoke to the audience once more. She directed her gratitude and feelings to the staff and fans and said; “Thank you for finding me. Thank you for loving my songs. Thank you for always supporting me.”

Her final song was “Niji no Oto” and with that, a bright light fired up at the back of the stage which she disappeared into, making everybody question whether her existence was just a dream…Her live LAST BLUE consisted of 24 songs including 3 songs for the encore. With everything that happened over these two magnificent days, the curtains finally closed.

≪ Eir Aoi LIVE summary≫

Eir Aoi 5^th Anniversary Special Live 2016 at the Nippon Budokan 〜LAST BLUE〜

4^th November 2016（Fri）OPEN:18:00 / START:19:00

5^th November 2016（Sat）OPEN:16:00 / START:17:00

Aoi Eir is a much talked about female singer who has provided tracks used as the main theme for a long string of anime series, and who performed on the national music television program “Music Station”. Celebration 5 years since her debut, we will look at her high-spirited charm and ever-increasing glow.

Carving her own path
Born in the City of Sapporo in Hokkaido, Aoi Eir’s interest in music was influenced by her parents, which led to her starting a band during her school years, spawning a never-ending love and interest for music.
But while she was living in Hokkaido, she was unable to find friends to simply go and eat with due to her passion for music, which resulted in her desire to advance on her musical journey, as well as her visible steady future, looking hazy, and those strong and sound feelings began to shake.

In the midst of her doubt, she posted a video onto a video-sharing website, which was soon to be the impetus of a huge change to her fate.

The first post was extraordinary and had a real sense of stability. She rarely uses falsetto, and is known for her natural and powerful high-pitched singing voice. It was this ability she held which had her come to meet songwriter Yasuda Fumio in Hokkaido.

She first used the name “Eir” on her track “frozen eyez” which was released in Vol.5 of the anime magazine “Lisani” in April 2011. Later than year, in October, she made her major debut with the song “MEMORIA” which was used as the ending theme for the immensely popular anime series “Fate/Zero”. The major debut track was featured in the TOP 10 for the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart which opened the doors for her to a new and spectacular start as a singer.

An unstoppable force: A new face to the world of anime songs
Aoi Eir went on to release a string of tie-up songs for various works, including “AURORA” (used as the opening track to the 2012 anime Mobile Suit Gundam AGE from ep.40 onwards), “IGNITE” (used as the opening song to the 2014 anim Sword Art Online II: Phantom Bullet) and more. She has even realised a number of her dreams, including being able to provide the ending theme for the 3rd Dragon Dragoon RPG game, which she announced publicly she is a fan of.

Aoi Eir will not be stopping producing songs for the world of anime and games any time soon, having released her new single “Accentier” recently on March 2nd, 2016. The song is used as the main theme for the game “Digimon World -next 0rder-”.

An obsession with the stage: The reasoning for Aoi Eir’s worldwide recognition
When she started out, Aoi Eir always hid the bottom half of her head, leaving her an utter mystery to everyone, but she soon desired to create chances to meet with her fans face to face ASAP. She publicly announced along with the release of her 2nd single “AURORA” that she wishes to perform live more than anything. She successfully held her first one-man live concert in 2012.

Aoi Eir went on to focus largely on her live shows each passing year, which eventually led to a Spring tour in 2015 where she toured Japan and played in 9 different cities. She subsequently made a giant leap that year and performed for the first time ever at the Budokan in November 2015 to a huge success.

Her year didn’t stop there. Aoi Eir even embarked on a world tour titled “Eir Aoi WORLD TOUR 2015 -ROCK THE WORLD!-” where she played in 10 different cities around the world. She attended various Japanese culture-themed events, including Japan Expo in Paris, as well as performing in Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong and more, all of which were one-man concerts. She received enormous and overwhelming responses for each of them.

Her popularity overseas is the real deal, as evident in “YouTube for Artist”, which shows where in the world an artists’ videos is most popular. To a huge surprise, Japan isn’t the place where her videos are most watched. That title goes to Thailand. America is in 2nd place and Japan in 3rd place.

If you look at most popular by city, the rankings are as follows: 1st place Bangkok (Thailand), 2nd place Singapore, 3rd place Jakarta (Indonesia), 4th place Mexico City (Mexico), 5th place Seoul (South Korea), 6th place Osaka (Japan), 7th place Santiago (Chile), 8th place Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), 9th place Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), and 10th place Yokohama (Japan). It is evident how loved Aoi Eir is when looking at these world ratings.

You might ask why Aoi Eir has received so much attention from people. That reason would be for the strength of every single one of her live performances. In a word, since each favourite song for people varies from place to place overseas, those fans receive information from the staff on how best to show their excitement and have fun, something which is carefully considered for each show.

Moreover, since fans differ, be it at a Japan themed event or an anime themed event, the staff are well attuned to coming up with the best set list possible. It can also be said that it’s because Aoi Eir herself also has a deep understanding of Japanese culture that the concerts are so successful.

Aoi Eir’s next objective is so set forth on an arena tour. No matter the size of the venue, she wants to express her feelings to every fan. That is the kind of stage performance Aoi Eir holds onto and treasures more than anything. Do not take your eyes away even for a minute from this unbelievable artist.

Writer: Kakoi (SHUTTER)