An Cafe

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LIVE CAFE 2010 KING OF HARAJUKU DANCE ROCK IKINARI NYAPPY LEGEND available from now on

With An Cafe’s recently announced break, fans all over the world found themselves left in grieving their absence, sadly waiting indefinitely until their return return. But the latest Gan Shin release will brighten them up: The farewell concert, which took place in January 2010 at Nippon Budokan Hall, has been captured on three DVD’s, accompanied by hours of never seen before footage and documentations. Now this masterpiece is ready for it’s European release to delight every An Café fan out there!

All Japanese speaking has been subtitled to ensure that European fans can participate in the emotional highlights of the show as well as possible. From the very beginning it had been clear that this concert would not be a regular show, but a truly special event, with An Café and especially Miku keeping up the pace for the duration like never before, with emotional and wistful speeches to the audience. Without a doubt: This DVD-Box is a total “must-have” for every An Cafe fan and a great goodbye gift so far!

Photos

Biography

An Cafe – short for Antic Cafe – is a Japanese Visual-Kei rock band by miku (Vocal), takuya (Guitar), kanon (Bass), yu-ki (Keyboard) and teruki (Drums). The band was formed in 2003 by miku, kanon, and bou, then teruki joined a few months later. In 2007, bou left the band for pursuit of his own career, and the band had two new members, takuya and yu-ki, and has become a quintet now.

An Cafe is extremely popular amongst teenagers for the lyrics that fans can easily relate to, and the band’s kickin’ rock sound inspires their young audiences to dance and shout. Their songs appeal to ALL J-POP fans not just limited to the Visual-Kei crowd. More often than not the band attracts audiences that aren’t even familiar with the Visual-kei genre. These non-VK fans are drawn to the fun, raw energy of An Cafe’s live performance, where each member expresses a unique distinct personality on stage.

Their first release in 2005, “Amedama Rock” was a concept album, which compiled their earlier limited released singles. It was then followed by a series of singles collectively called “a trilogy of HARAJUKU” (including the releases “TEKESUTA KOUSEN”, “ESCAPISM”, and “MERRYMAKING”). They had three live performances that took place at three different venues within the HARAJUKU fashion district of Tokyo. These events were instantly Sold-out. At the end of 2005, An Cafe released their first full length album, “SHIKISAI MOMENT”.

Early in 2006, they began their nation-wide tour of Japan, “LIVE CAFE TOUR’06 – NYAPPY GO AROUND”. After this tour, they had another show entitled, “9 DANCE WAR” in June. Booked at Tokyo Kudan Kaikan, this was the show where An Cafe built a strong connection and bonded with the fans. This event was followed by a free outdoor show “YAGAI DE NYAPPY” in August, which gathered over 7,000 screaming fans. Those fans, who follow An Cafe are pleasantly referred to as “CAFE-KKO”

In the fall of 2006 along with releasing 2 singles, An Cafe debuted their 2nd smash hit album, “Magnya Carta”. Much of their success is thanks to the band developing a private mobile social networking community, named as “State of Nyappy”. This mobile phone community allowed CAFE-KKO to connect to each other via their cell phones.

At the beginning of 2007, An Cafe rang in the new year with new band members takyua and yu-ki. Later that　June, the band performed in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya alongside their new members. Fans first skeptical were quickly won over by the end of each performance.

2007 also marked the band’s first international performance. Headlining the Japanese rock festival, “J-Shock 2007” in Cologne, Germany, they rocked the local German fans and media and in turn they gave rave reviews. After the high of this performance the band completed a Japanese nationwide tour in addition to a show in Korea. Their tour was capped with a free outdoor event in Osaka, attracting over 10,000 screaming fans.

In August 2007, the band released a single “Kakusei Heroism”, which became the theme song of a Japanese Anime series “Darker Than Black”. The following single “Ryusei Rocket” also was released having a tie-in with a manga-originated TV drama “Fuuma no Kojiro”, and right after its release, the band started nation wide tour entitled “LIVE CAFE TOUR ’07-’08 – NYAPPY GO AROUND FEVER-“.

Subsequent single “Cherry Saku Yuuki” was released in February 2008, and their much anticipated 3rd album “GOKU-TAMA ROCK CAFE” then hit the street on April 9th in Japan (on March 14th in Europe / November 11th in USA), achieving No.8 on the Oricon’s daily chart. (*Oricon chart – Japanese national chart similar to the Billboard’s) Simultaneously, they have started “LIVE CAFE TOUR ’08 – NYAPPY GO AROUND THE WORLD”, which is their first-ever intercontinental tour starting in Europe (6 countries, 10 venues) followed by the nationwide tour in Japan, concert at Fanimecon (San Jose, USA), and the concert in Seoul, Korea. Fans everywhere were crazy about their performance, and the tour scored a great success.

This year, 2008, is eventually the 5th anniversary of the band. To commemorate this special year, An Cafe had an outdoor live “SUMMERDIVE” in August. The venue was set up with various food stalls, merchandising booth, the stage cloth exhibition to amuse fans, and was in a pleasant festival mood. A single “SUMMERDIVE” was released at the venue only, and the following release “Koakuma USAGI no Koibumi to Machine Gun e.p.” was made in October.

Early 2009, they will begin a world tour which will include performance in Europe, South American, and North America.

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