L'Arc~en~Ciel

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L'Arc~en~Ciel (ラルク アン シエル), also known as L'Arc or Laruku (ラルク) to their fans, is a popular J-Rock quartet. L'Arc en Ciel literally translates from the French language as The Arc in the Sky, more commonly known as a rainbow. They have sold over 25 million copies of singles and albums in Japan alone.

Contents

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History

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Formation

In February of 1991, bassist Tetsuya Ogawa (tetsu), later band leader, recruited vocalist Hideto Takarai (hyde) along with guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero, and formed a band under the name of L'Arc~en~Ciel, inspired by a French movie of the same name. After a year of gaining notoriety in their hometown of Osaka, hiro left the band on June 12 1992. pero soon followed on December 30 of the same year, supposedly to join up with his friend hiro again. To replace the two, tetsu convinced his friend Ken Kitamura (ken) to quit his university studies in architectural design and join the band as the guitarist. Later, a new drummer, Yasunori Sakurazawa (sakura), was recruited after tetsu saw him perform in a few shows.

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Debut album and subsequent albums

On April 1 1993, the band released their debut album Dune under the indie label Danger Crue. The album was met with plenty of success and rose to number one on the Oricon indies charts, catching the attention of some major labels. In 1994, L'Arc~en~Ciel signed on with Sony's Ki/oon division, releasing their second album, Tierra (Spanish for "Earth") that same year. heavenly followed in 1995, and True, their first platinum seller, was released in 1996.

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Sakura's arrest

As they were enjoying their success, Sakura was arrested for heroin possession, and officially quit the band on October 4 1997. This was the lowest point in the band's history. When news of Sakura's arrest became public, there was a decline in their popularity. Just as they had reached a peak in their career, CDs were being removed from the shelves and any of their songs that were used as theme songs were quickly replaced. There was no evidence of the band's existence, and their next single The Fourth Avenue Cafe was indefinitely postponed and has never been released. Many believe that the whole incident was blown tremendously out of proportion.

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Break and comeback

L'Arc~en~Ciel took a break for a few months. They continued to be featured in magazines, but only as a trio. Then, they created their own Laruku cover band, "The Zombies", and poked fun at their own songs. They also covered artists such as Marilyn Manson and Nirvana. The return from their break was marked by the appropriately named Reincarnation 97 Live in Tokyo Dome, with their new drummer, yukihiro (former drummer with ZI:KILL and DIE IN CRIES). The first concert had an attendance of 56,000, which sold out in a still-standing Tokyo Dome record of four minutes. Their next album was Heart, in 1998, which, like their second major album "heavenly" is seen as a transitional album: trying to forget the past, but also trying to maintain their originality and success.

In 1997, 「虹」 (Niji — Rainbow), the first single since sakura's departure, was released. yukihiro was the drummer for this release, but was only listed as a supporting member. Not long after the release of the single, yukihiro was signed on as the official drummer for L'Arc~en~Ciel and the band was finally whole again.

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1999–2000 projects

L'Arc~en~Ciel released three more albums of new material during the next few years. ark and ray were released simultaneously on July 1,1999, and became the first Japanese albums to be released simultaneously in many other Asian countries. Both topped the Oricon music charts, with ark occupying number one and ray at number two. The release of ark and ray marked the high point of the band's career, with each selling over two million copies. REAL followed in 2000, which was the last CD of new material for some time, although many more compilation and remix albums would follow. L'Arc~en~Ciel also composed several theme songs for various anime series, including DNA², Rurouni Kenshin, Great Teacher Onizuka, and Fullmetal Alchemist. L'Arc~en~Ciel's last new song before their hiatus, "Spirit dreams inside", was the closing theme song to the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

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Solo projects

After "Spirit dreams inside", the band went on a hiatus as the members began working on various solo projects. hyde released two solo albums (Roentgen and 666 as HYDE) and starred in the movie Moon Child with popular J-Rock soloist, Gackt. hyde also played the part of Adam in the movie Kagen no Tsuki, based on the manga by the same title. ken founded Sons of All Pussys with L'Arc~en~Ciel's former drummer sakura. tetsu started TETSU69 and yukihiro sang with Acid Android. The popular compilation, Clicked Singles Best 13 was released in 2001, with twelve favorites chosen by fans online and an additional thirteenth song, "Anemone", the band's only new material during this span of years. The members' various solo projects fueled speculation that L'Arc~en~Ciel was going to disband.

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Second comeback

In June 2003, L'Arc~en~Ciel surprised the world with a series of seven concerts in Tokyo called the "Shibuya Seven Days", during which they announced a new album for release the following year. The band came out with "READY STEADY GO" In February 2004, its first single in more than three years. It topped Oricon charts and was used as an opening for popular anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist. The single was followed by another chart-topper, "瞳の住人" ("Hitomi no juunin"), in early March. Finally, the long-awaited new album, SMILE, was released on March 31.

Shortly afterwards, on June 2 2004, the single 自由への招待　("Jiyuu e no Shoutai") introduced "P'unk~en~Ciel", a partial change, for the first time on CD with "Milky Way". In the past, the band also played a P'unk version of "Round and Round" live.

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U.S concert debut

On July 31 2004, L'Arc~en~Ciel made their North American concert debut at anime convention Otakon, held annually in Baltimore, Maryland. Approximately 12,000 people attended the concert, which was held at an outside venue for the first time in Otakon's musical guest history, at 1st Mariner Arena located near the Baltimore Convention Center where the convention is held.

On May 31, 2005, Tofu Records, Sony Music Japan's U.S. label, released the much-anticipated DVD of the Otakon 2004 concert "Live in U.S.A"

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AWAKE, 2005 release

In 2005, the band released various singles, including "Killing Me" , "New World", and "Jojoushi". These were later featured on their latest album, AWAKE, which was released on June 22 with twelve tracks, including "LOST HEAVEN", the closing theme for the Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala movie. The band's latest single, "Link", released on July 20,2005, was also featured in the movie as the opening theme, but has not appeared on an album yet.

In August of 2005, the band went on their AWAKE tour, which was limited to Japan. The tour featured displays of anti-war sentiment, reflecting similar lyrics of the songs of the album. A particularly memorable moment was the unfurling of a giant white flag decorated with the universal symbol for peace.

hyde's costuming for the concerts raised some controversy among fans, as it was much removed from L'Arc~en~Ciel's earlier visual kei days. The neo-Nazi uniform and the papal robes were blatant social commentaries not seen before in the band's concerts. One theory is that the band was commenting on the election of German Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) to the head of the Roman Catholic church amid inquiries into his involvement with Nazi Germany and the Hitler Youth.

This was followed by "ASIA LIVE" tour, with performances in Korea (Seoul) and China (Shanghai), closing with concerts in Japan. Japan's two concerts took place at the famed Tokyo Dome.

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Late 2005 and 2006

Following the AWAKE and ASIALIVE tours, L'Arc~en~Ciel members temporarily returned to their solo projects. tetsu is recording with a new band Creature Creature. yukihiro rejoins acid android, which released their newest single "Let's Dance" on 2006/04/05. acid android will join MUCC, another Japanese rock band, to perform two concerts in China (Shanghai) in April of 2006.

HYDE composed the music for "Glamorous Sky", theme song to the much anticipated, manga-adapted film, NANA which stars Mika Nakashima, a j-pop singer (released 2005/08/31). This was the first time that hyde had composed music for another artist. His most recent solo singles are "COUNTDOWN", the ending song for the Japanese release of American movie Stealth (released 2005/10/05), and "SEASON'S CALL", the opening song of new hit anime [[Blood+]] (released 2006/02/22). Both singles topped at #1 on the Oricon chart. HYDE's next solo album "FAITH" is due for release on 2006/04/26. He will be making the five month "FAITH" tour throughout Japan between April and August, 2006. After signing on with Tofu Records, two small concerts were scheduled in San Francisco and Anaheim, California in the United States. HYDE will make his U.S. debut in July of 2006, the first of L'Arc~en~Ciel's solo projects to extend internationally.

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Line-up

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Current

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Former

  • sakura (drums 1992-1997)
  • hiro (guitar 1991-1992)
  • pero (drums 1991-1992)
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D'Ark-en-Ciel

  • DARK TETSU (vocal)
  • HYDE Dark (guitar)
  • Suck-D'Ark-La (bass)
  • Ken D'Ark (drums)
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P'UNK~EN~CIEL

  • TETSU P'UNK (Vocal & Guitar)
  • HYDE P'UNK (Guitar)
  • YUKI P'UNK (Bass)
  • KEN P'UNK (Drums)
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Discography

Highest chart positions and units sold:

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Albums

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Compilations & remixes

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Singles

  • 1992
    • "Floods of tears" c/w 夜想花 ("Yasouka") (indie single) 1,000 (limited edition)
  • 1994
    • "Blurry Eyes" c/w "Wind of Gold (Many Kind of Percussion Mix)" (major debut single) #22 - 52,000
  • 1995 (featured on Japanese television show DNA2 as the opening theme).
    • "Vivid Colors c/w Brilliant Years #16 - 118,000
    • "夏の憂鬱 [time to say good-bye]" ("Natsu no yuuutsu") c/w "あなたのために" ("Anata no tame ni") #15 - 67,000
  • 1996
    • "風にきえないで　" ("Kaze ni kienaide") c/w "I'm So Happy" #4 - 196,000
    • "flower" c/w "さようなら" ("Sayounara") #5 - 320,000
    • "Lies and Truth" c/w "　賽は投げられた" ("Sai wa nagarareta") #6 - 285,000
  • 1997
    • "虹" ("Niji") c/w "THE GHOST IN MY ROOM" #3 - 708,000
  • 1998
    • "winter fall" c/w "metropolis" #1 - 835,000
    • "Dive to Blue" c/w "Peeping Tom" #1 - 845,000
    • "Honey" #1 - 1,224,000
    • "花葬" ("Kasou") #4 - 1,036,000
    • "浸食～lose control～ " ("Shinshoku") c/w "浸食～lose control～ -control experiment mix-"
    • "snow drop" c/w "a swell in the sun" #1 - 1,132,000
    • "forbidden lover" c/w "花葬 -1014 mix-" ("Kasou") #1 - 826,000
  • 1999
    • "HEAVEN'S DRIVE" c/w "metropolis -android goes to sleep mix-" #1 - 1,124,000
    • "Pieces" c/w "fate -fake fate mix-" #1 - 735,000
    • "Driver's High" c/w "Cradle-down to the earth mix-" #2 - 340,000
    • "LOVE FLIES" c/w "真実と幻想と -out of the reality mix-" ("Shinjitsu to gensou to") #1 - 514,000
  • 2000
    • "NEO UNIVERSE/finale" c/w "hole"/"trick -new wave of japanese heavy metal mix-" (double A-side single) #1 - 1,104,000
    • "STAY AWAY" c/w "get out from the shell"/"STAY AWAY -Jazz Poo Mix-"/"-Truly Barbie Forest Ver.-" #2 - 734,000 (video)
  • 2001
    • "Spirit dreams inside — another dream" c/w "Spirit dreams inside" #1 - 340,770
  • 2004
    • "READY STEADY GO" #1 (featured on the Anime Fullmetal Alchemist as the second opening theme (Episodes 14-25)).- 365,500
    • "瞳の住人" ("Hitomi no Jyuunin") #1 - 194,600
    • "自由への招待" ("Jiyuu e no Shoutai") c/w "milky way" by P'UNK-EN-CIEL #1 - 232,900
  • 2005
    • "Killing Me" c/w "Round and Round 2005" by P'UNK-EN-CIEL #1 - 193,772 (as of 11/21/05)
    • "New World" c/w "花葬 平成十七年" ("Kasou heisei 17 nen") by P'UNK-EN-CIEL #1 - 183,181 (as of 11/21/05)
    • "叙情詩" ("Jojoushi") c/w "HEAVEN'S DRIVE 2005" by P'UNK-EN-CIEL #1 - 145,718 (as of 11/21/05)
    • "Link" c/w "Promised Land 2005" by P'UNK-EN-CIEL #2 - 235,751 (as of 11/21/05)
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Videos

  • 1992
    • L'Arc-en-Ciel (VHS/concert)
  • 1993
    • Touch of Dune (VHS)
  • 1994
    • 眠りによせて (VHS/video single)
    • Siesta ~ Film of Dreams (VHS)
  • 1995
    • and She Said (VHS/video single)
  • 1996
    • heavenly ~films~ (VHS/concert)
  • 1998
    • A PIECE OF REINCARNATION (VHS/concert)
    • ハートに火をつけろ！ Light My Fire (VHS/concert)
  • 1999
    • CHRONICLE (VHS+DVD/PV collection)
    • ハートに火をつけろ！ Light My Fire (DVD/concert)
    • A PIECE OF REINCARNATION (DVD/concert)
    • 1999 GRAND CROSS CONCLUSION (VHS+DVD/concert)
  • 2001
    • CHRONICLE 2 (VHS+DVD/PV collection)
    • CLUB CIRCUIT 2000 REALIVE - NO CUT - (VHS+DVD/concert)
  • 2003
    • havenly ~films~ (DVD/concert)
    • and She Said (DVD/video single)
    • Siesta ~Film of Dreams~ (DVD)
    • 眠りによせて (DVD/video single)
    • 7 (DVD/concert)
  • 2004
    • LIVE IN USA ~at 1st Mariner Arena July 31, 2004~ (DVD/concert)
  • 2005
    • SMILE TOUR 2004 ～全国編～ (DVD/concert)
    • AWAKE TOUR 2005 (DVD/concert)
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External links

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Official Sites

* Denotes sites with content available in English. For the most up-to-date information, the first site (their official site) is suggested. Sony's site has recently removed their English language option and the Tofu Records page, although official, is often out-of-date.

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Fan sites

es:L'Arc~en~Ciel fr:L'Arc-en-Ciel ko:라르크 앙 시엘 id:L'Arc~en~Ciel ja:L'Arc～en～Ciel pt:L'Arc~en~Ciel zh:彩虹乐队

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