Summary
If it weren’t obviousfrom the fanfare for its opening and ending themes, music is a huge part of anime’s culture, and the Japanese pop duoEgoistis one of the most iconic of the 2010s. With the recent announcement that they will be disbanding after two more concerts, now is the perfect time to reflect on why the band became so electrifying.
Egoist is the collaboration between musician and songwriter Ryo of the J-pop group Supercell and vocalist Chelly, who initially were unitedto create music for a fictional bandin an anime. Ryo was tasked with finding a vocalist and Chelly won her audition out of approximately 2,000 other candidates, taking on the persona of Inori Yuzuriha, one of the characters in 2011’sGuilty Crown.
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The DNA of Egoist
Understanding the core appeal - and furthermore, the thought put into the branding - of Egoist, really warrants looking at the history of Supercell. The band began self-publishing in 2007, born of the phenomenon that was Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid. By 2009, the group signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Ryo is the sole musician, whereas the other members are primarily illustrators and designers who provide artwork for the albums and music videos.
As a result of this aesthetic prioritization at the forefront of the group’s identity, Supercell’s artists became huge, such asHuke (Black Rock Shooter,Steins;Gate)or Redjuice (Guilty Crown,Project Itoh). The singers themselves are guest vocalists who have changed with the times, beginning with Nagi Yanagi, then Koeda in the early 2010s, and now Ann and Gaku.
Supercell didn’t just feel like a band, but rather an aesthetic that inspired numerous other works and became a tastemaker for an entire generation of young otaku. This same intersection of artwork, sentimental songwriting, and thoughtful pop vocals is what made Egoist so powerful, albeit initially within the confines of a single show.
Just asYoko Kanno created The Seatbelts forCowboy Bebop, Ryo created Egoist for Production I.G.‘sGuilty Crown, and while the latter series might not have been a huge success, the band certainly was. Inori, as a symbol of this band, has been immortalized through 12 years of albums, EPs, and singles, with artwork illustrated by Redjuice among others.
Beyond Guilty Crown
The band’s first album afterGuilty Crownwas 2012’sExtra Terrestrial Biological Entities, comprised of the band’s themes from the TV series, in addition to a host of new songs. It wasn’t long before they moved on to another new and promising sci-fi series:Psycho-Pass. Egoist performed the two ending themes to Season 1, “Namae no Nai Kaibutsu” and “All Alone With You,” and has been a frequent artistacross the entirePsycho-Passseries.
Egoist’s sound is as versatile as anything in Ryo’s repertoire, which is to say that it tackled various flavors of pop. It can deliver very fast futuristic dance music, but also somber ballads in which Chelly’s vocal delivery shines. Listen to 2015’sReloaded, which features all three themes from the Project Itoh film project, to get a solid idea of the band’s versatility. “Door,” fromThe Empire of Corpses, is especially beautiful.
The best way to describe their work is cinematic, contributing a certain grandiosity to the works in which their songs are featured. Even if one only hears their music during the end credits, there’s something powerful about the sound that makes it feel as vital to the work as the story itself. WhileGuilty Crownwas not a perfect series, “Departures” can still evoke quite poignant nostalgia for the idea of the series, no matter its imperfections.
Given the above examples, it’s easy to associate the band’s sound and aesthetic with sci-fi, but they have also provided the themes for shows likeWIT Studio’sKabaneri of the Iron Fortress. It’s impressive how the opening of Kabaneri evokes the feel of composer Hiroyuki Sawano if only slightly, to better fit with the show surrounding it. A similarly epic and warlike feel permeates Egoist’s opening for 2017’sFate/Apocrypha.
What’s Next
Egoist will perform two more concerts: one on September 23 in Osaka, titled “The Crescendo,” and a second on October 9 in Kanagawa, titled “Echoes of Everlasting.” Chelly will continue to perform under the name Reche, as she has been since 2021. As for Ryo, they continue to be the songwriter for Supercell in addition to creating themes under their own name, such asthe ending theme forGundam: Witch from Mercury.
Considering the above, it’s hard to remain too distraught over the end ofEgoist, as its individual members will continue to create more music. However, given the collaborative magic that was this group, it’s just as hard to imagine any endeavor by the individual members being quite the same as what they created together. Still, all good things must come to an end and this closes the book on one of anime’s most iconic bands of the 2010s.
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