TM Revolution/High And Mighty Color -- Hot Limit

Another big blast from the past. TM Revolution (aka Takanori Nishikawa/西川貴教) appeared on the latest edition of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）a couple of nights ago, and he performed one of his old hits, "Hot Limit" with a bunch of little boys dressed up in that same crazed outfit that he had worn in the music video way back when. And yep, as some of the commenters on YouTube have stated as well, I feel old.

It was more of that TM Revolution B'z-like high-energy pop-rock with "Hot Limit" when it came out in June 1998. However for me, it was that music video which took the cake. I just saw TM out in the middle of a tropical ocean on a giant plastic star wearing something that seemed to have been inspired by Bridgestone Tires while a helicopter patrolled overhead and explosions went off around the star. You couldn't get more over-the-top than that. And the TV stations knew that as well since I remember seeing excerpts from the video all the time.

I guess that outfit also came out in traffic cone orange as well. Anyways, Akio Inoue（井上秋緒）, who had been a manager for TM Network, wrote the lyrics for "Hot Limit" while Daisuke Asakura（浅倉大介）, who was behind TM Revolution's earlier hit of "White Breath" took care of the booming music. The song went Double Platinum as it hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 30th-ranked single of 1998. Unlike "White Breath", though, "Hot Limit" didn't punch another ticket to the Kohaku Utagassen for the fellow, but it did get him onto the annual FNS Song Summer Festival a few times this decade.

A decade later, the Okinawan rock band High and Mighty Color did a cover version of "Hot Limit" as its 13th single in June 2008 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the song. I knew a little bit about the band mostly through its long name but never got to know or remember its output. It had a 7-year-career from 2003 to 2010 with main female and male vocalists within its 6-7 people membership. Their "Hot Limit" got as high as No. 20 on the charts.