King Gnu -- Hakujitsu（白日）

When I saw the name King Gnu for the first time as I was checking the lineup for the Kohaku Utagassen last month, I went "Okayyyyyy....". Wasn't quite sure what to make of this band but then again, a good chunk of 1960s Group Sounds bands adopted animals for their monikers, too. And to be honest, the first thing I imagined when I saw that name was the comic Animal Crackers that I used to read in the newspapers as a kid because that was where I found out the existence of the African animal, the gnu. Apparently, the comic was adapted into a cartoon decades later.

Earlier today, I met up with fellow KKP contributor Larry Chan for a ramen lunch at Kinton where I had a rather spicy bowl of garlic ramen (and my gastrointestinal tract is getting some vengeance on me right now), and the two of us talked quite engagingly on the Kohaku. We both agreed that King Gnu's performance was one of the revelatory standouts in the 4.5 hours of the special.

From the name, I figured beforehand that this had to have been some sort of rock band, and as it turns out, they've been categorized as a mixture rock group. Furthermore, as the category implies, such a group mixes in its own blender a number of genres such as rock, metal, R&B, funk and what-have-you. As was the case with the music video, King Gnu performed "Hakujitsu" (Broad Daylight) that doesn't start out with crashing guitars and drums, but with Daiki Tsuneta's（常田大希）whispery and butter-soft voice and a melancholy piano that had me thinking of the higher registers of Freddie Mercury as he sang about some fellow trying to let go of a rather unfortunate past and making some efforts at redemption.

Then, some syn-drums made their presence known before things got rather groovy in a soul and/or jazz way before the rock guitar finally entered the scene. All that variety...all that mixture made for a fun, interesting and body-moving experience (in a good way, not the garlic ramen way). And Tsuneta, who wrote and composed "Hakujitsu", wove his voice through the fabric at a high enough speed that made me think that the karaoke fans probably have worked up a good sweat pacing themselves at Big Echo.

"Hakujitsu" was released as King Gnu's second digital download single in February 2019, and it was also their first single under a major label, Ariola Japan. Plus, it was also used as the theme song for the NTV drama, "Innocence ~ Enzai Bengoshi"（イノセンス 冤罪弁護士...Lawyer for the Falsely Accused）about a super lawyer (of course) who has the incredible ability to get the falsely accused found innocent through miraculous means. Quite the elegant fit between premise and theme song. The song itself went Platinum and hit No. 4 on the Billboard Japan Top 100. It would also end up as the 4th-ranked single of the year on the same chart. It was a track on King Gnu's 3rd full album "Ceremony" which is due out in a few weeks on January 15th.

I have to say that I was interested in how the band got its name, though. It first started up in 2015 under the name Srv.Vinci (according to J-Wiki, the first part is pronounced "saava") with the name change to King Gnu happening in 2017. Apparently, according to an interview by the website Entertainment Station, Tsuneta explained that supposedly like the gnu, he wanted to eventually have the popularity or the feeling around the band grow from one animal into a huge herd, incorporating men and women of all ages. In another article, it's mentioned that with the members each having influences from different kinds of music, the band has described their brand of music as Tokyo New Mixture Style. If that is indeed the case, then I will be looking forward to King Gnu's music along with any other bands or singers that want to follow along.

Speaking of the members, along with Tsuneta, there is also drummer Yuu Seki（勢喜遊）, bassist Kazuki Arai（新井和輝）, and keyboardist Satoru Iguchi（井口理）.