How HANABIE. Took on the International Market: The Future of this New Sensational Hybrid Girl Band

HANABIE.

From left to right, Chika (drums), Matsuri (guitar and vocals), Yukina (vocals), and Hettsu (bass guitar and backing vocals). A "new sensational hybrid girl band," HANABIE. is rooted in its own original and self-styled "HARAJUKU CORE" genre, which evolved from metal core and hard core music together with Akihabara culture. The group expanded an international fan base through YouTube and TikTok. HANABIE. marked their major record label debut with their release on July 26, 2023. In the following month, they launched a world tour, playing at venues in Europe, the United States, Oceania and Asia through December. They have gigged in many venues in Japan and abroad in 2024. Their song, “Tasty Survivor” will be featured as the opening theme song for “MOMENTARY LILY” an anime TV series set to air in January 2025.

Click here to view the first part of this article:How HANABIE. Took on the International Market: The History of this New Sensational Hybrid Girl Band

The theme is Japanese subculture: Why HANABIE. does not sing in English

HANABIE. perfected their free-spirited “HARAJUKU CORE” style by naturally combining what they liked, rather than by a strategic design, and it ended up capturing the hearts of overseas listeners.

“I think that girls with anime-like looks in an all-girl band with a colorful appearance and poppish sound are the image of the Japanese culture that is in demand, after all,” Hettsu said. “So that aspect may have appealed to overseas listeners, perhaps.”

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And HANABIE. has won over a segment of fans that even the members had never imagined they would have.

“Many of our fans are children,” Yukina said. “We had a kid who came to see our show with their parents for their first show at an overseas festival. We’ve seen kids who emulated our fashion at our shows, as well as kids trying hard to raise signboards with messages in Japanese for us.”

“They reminded me that music is not the only thing we can do, but that we can also make people happy with our fashion and our overall image as well. It almost brings tears to my eyes when I see kids enjoying HANABIE.’s shows among the adults,” she said.

“I’m in tears whenever I see such kids from the stage,” Hettsu said.

Who, in general, are the kinds of people who show up at HANABIE.’s shows overseas?

“There are really all types of people coming to our shows,” Yukina said. “We’ve seen, just as in our audiences in Japan, people who bring in glow sticks and use them to do the ‘otagei’ dance thing [a kind of dance that features movements using glow sticks] on the floor. There are also many people who love Japanese anime and games and regard themselves as ‘otaku,’ just as we do. By contrast, we’ve played venues filled with long-haired metalheads wearing band T-shirts.”

“So we have all types of fans that vary in age and appearance, which I think is great,” Yukina said.

“There are also couples, like married couples, that come to our shows,” Hettsu said. “So if you ask me what HANABIE.’s fans are like, I can’t give you a generalized answer.”

The diversity of their fans is another “strength” the band was only able to achieve because of their love of Japanese culture. The songs they write are packed unabashedly with their passion for diversity and what they love.

“In the first place, we ourselves have, for instance, an admiration for the mindset and fashion of the ‘gyaru,’ [a Japanese fashion subculture that features girls with dyed hair, makeup and flashy clothing] and we are real-life ‘otaku’ on the inside,” Matsuri said. “I think that people from overseas enjoy our shows because they are themed on what they naturally love and admire, as well as Japanese subculture.”

But the situation overseas, as observed by Matsuri, only happened as a result of doing what they loved to do, and the members have no intention of changing their style, either musically or in appearance, to suit the preference of overseas fans just because they have grown larger in number.

“We have no intention of increasing lyrics written in English just because we have many overseas fans,” Matsuri said. “I think we should properly sing in Japanese exactly because we now have more opportunities to perform overseas. Many of HANABIE.’s fans are also fans of Japanese games and anime, and they come to our shows or listen to our music because they want to experience Japanese culture. I think we are fortunate to have songs with concepts that appeal to such fans.”

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“That said, I try to communicate better with the audience in our shows by speaking English and learning some words in local languages, although it’s never easy for me to speak fluently in English (laughs),” Yukina said. “But I don’t think words are the only thing that matter. Our performance, and our expressions and movements when we are in the groove on stage is especially important in overseas shows in which we cannot rely on words, so these are aspects we attach importance to.

The Confidence of having accomplished extended overseas tours

Photo by Janine Albrecht

Last year, HANABIE. completed a world tour with 45 shows in 17 countries and territories. In June and July this year, the band toured Europe for shows they performed as the headliner even while performing nearly every day in a number of festivals. In August, they appeared in large festivals in Japan and overseas and joined JINJER, a Ukrainian metal core band, on a U.S. tour. So they have traveled between Japan and overseas locations, hardly taking rests in-between.

“Last year, we toured Europe and the United States nonstop without having much time to even think, and I think, having accomplished this, we have developed confidence,” Yukina said. “I was very nervous about how the audiences may have reacted, but we had an experience that far exceeded our expectations. I was moved when witnessing the degree of eagerness with which the audience had been awaiting our shows. I also saw people from diverse generations in different countries and regions who were singing our songs in Japanese. The whole experience gave me the realization that we were doing something so huge, which made me so emotional.”

“I think this is the feeling shared by all of us, but I feel I’m stronger after completing the overseas tours,” Matsuri said. “Before I would tend to strain my voice easily, but it got stronger after I sang in so many gigs.”

Live gigs are never free of troubles, and HANABIE. did suffer a major problem during one of their shows while touring Europe. While performing at MYSTIC FESTIVAL 2024 in their first show of this past June’s European tour, all the speakers went dead.

“I was wearing inner-ear monitors and had no idea what was going on, and I climbed down from the stage while singing and went into the audience, only slightly aware there was something wrong,” Yukina said. “It was only then that I realized the speakers were dead. But the audience of course was aware of what had happened, but still was singing their heart out with me.”

“Yeah, all they were hearing was the raw sound of the drums and Yukina’s bare voice,” Hettsu said. “So that was the situation, but no one left the venue and everybody was trying to be supportive, singing with Yukina. I was like, ‘Poland, you’re the best!’”

Leading nonrock listeners to listen to rock

Listening to the members talk makes it easy to realize that each one of them carries themselves with the right attitude as professionals, and all the while taking care to do the things they love to do. Even after they made their major label debut, the members of HANABIE. have all made decisions on the band’s concepts.

“The staff at our label and management office have never forced their ideas on us,” Matsuri said.

“Maybe they already know we’d never listen if they did,” Yukina added, laughing.

They are also given free reign over their music. Their music ranges widely, including an aggressive rock sound, which features Yukina's screamo-oriented vocals together with humorous and playful lyrics. They also have poppish songs which bring Matsuri’s vocals to the forefront, and EDM-oriented danceable songs. However, loud rock remains the backbone of the band. It may seem like an inaccessible genre at first, but the girls are confident in HANABIE.’s music.

“These days, there isn’t just one genre of music that everyone listens to, which means that so many different genres can become popular. It can be rap, or it can be K-POP, for example,” Hettsu said. “To be sure, loud rock may not be such a familiar genre for Japanese people, but I think it’s good for us to have an environment in which we can listen to different types of music. Who knows, everybody may be listening to loud rock on a daily basis in the future.”

“HANABIE. has loud, intense songs, but they also incorporate poppish elements and they sing about funny things, so I think it would be great if people find this subtle aspect interesting,” Yukina said. “And I hope people who don’t usually listen to rock will find our music somehow funny and interesting. It would be great if HANABIE. can serve as an entry way that leads more people to listen to loud music.”

Photo by Sophia Weigand

I want to continue with this band with the same members until we are old and gray

Just one year after its major label recording debut, HANABIE. has already been successful in diverse areas, and has traveled around the world, but the members are set to take on more new challenges still. The band has for the first time been chosen to write a theme song for a TV anime with “MOMENTARY LILY” which will begin airing in January 2025. “Tasty Survivor” which they wrote for the anime, will be the opening theme song.

It is a dream come true for all of the HANABIE. members, who claim to be anime-loving “otaku,” with individual favorites ranging from “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” and “MAGICAL DOREMI” for Yukina, “NEON GENESIS EVANGELION” for Matsuri, and “Sword Art Online” for Hettsu, to “Crayon Shin-chan” for Chika.

“All of us are anime fans, so we were so glad when we received the offer,” Matsuri said.

“We have long wished to do something related to anime, so we put so much effort into the song,” Yukina said. “I’m honored to be part of this amazing work which blends well with our song. I would welcome more opportunities to do anime theme songs in the future.”

The anime deal will be an auspicious start to 2025, which marks the band’s 10th anniversary. What are the goals for the members of HANABIE., whose motto is “do what you want to do”?

“I love Sanrio [the company behind characters such as Hello Kitty] characters, so I hope to realize my dream of having a live show at the Sanrio Puroland theme park some day,” Yukina said. “It’ll be also great if HANABIE. can work with Sanrio on a collaborative project.”

“Fashion has been a huge interest of mine for a long time. In our early video clips, we were actually wearing the costumes I designed. So my dream is to eventually launch a fashion brand of my own,” Hettsu said. “I also want to launch a fashion brand of the band. I really want to have an apparel brand featuring my designs.”

“I don’t think this is what you may call a specific goal, but I have always loved to play with other musicians in a band, since I was little,” Chika said. “I love sitting behind a drum kit while performing on stage and watching the other members’ backs, occasionally exchanging glances. I really think this is what I want to do. So, I think it would be great if we could continue to play as HANABIE. with the same four members even when I grow old with a bent back.”

Photo by Sophia Weigand

“This, I think relates to Chika’s wish to continue the band even when we grow old, but my wish is to continue creating new genres, or new things and new songs,” Matsuri said. “When we were an indie band, we were writing lyrics and songs that were possible only within our mindset as students. Likewise, today, we have the support of a major record label, and we were able to create something only possible with their support, with our first album, ‘Reborn Superstar!’ So, I want to create what we can create with the mindset we currently have at this point in time. And I want to continue to do this for decades into the future.”

“That’s why I think our next album may be a radical departure from what we did in the past, but I also think that’s what makes us HANABIE.,” she added.

When the topic turned to their visions for the future, the members went into a freewheeling chat mode about the HANABIE. in the decades to come.

“When we grow old, we should change the band name to something that suits the old age,” someone suggested. “What would it be?” “I don’t know....” “You know, if we want to keep the HANABIE. element somehow, it should be ‘OBABIE.,’ [“oba” being a Japanese word for old lady] shouldn’t it?” “That’s it!”

Loud laughter followed.

“I want the band to always be on the cutting edge of fashion and remain a band that can become a hot topic even among people in my generation,” Matsuri said. “And it would be very cool if we eventually become a band that can make young girls say, ‘I want to be a cool grandma like these HANABIE. members!’ Our goal should be to become a HANABIE. that inspires young girls who have formed or are trying to form a band of their own and to have a dream!”

Photo by Sophia Weigand

Click here to view the first part of this article:How HANABIE. Took on the International Market: The History of this New Sensational Hybrid Girl Band

Text by Mika Abe
Translated by Atsushi Kodera