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The story
Kiyoharu, a musician known for his work with Kuroyume and SADS, invited Yosuke Kubozuka as a guest on his YouTube channel for a conversation revealing how the theme song for the hit 2000 TBS drama ‘Ikebukuro West Gate Park’ came to be. The talk was held at Ikebukuro’s Hyper Lane, considered a "sacred site" for the show. The thread’s discussion branched out from this topic into anecdotes about contemporaries Blankey Jet City and L’Arc~en~Ciel, with many commenters waxing nostalgic about the music scene of that era and the culture of iconic drama theme songs.
Kiyoharu: “There was pressure, so there were some revisions…” — Rock musician bares all on the secret origin of a smash-hit drama’s theme song! “That song did a lot for me”
Rock musician Kiyoharu (58), known for his work in “Kuroyume” and “SADS,” updated his YouTube channel “Okiru Neru Kiyoharu” as of the 14th, revealing the secret story behind the birth of a smash-hit drama’s theme song.
For this episode, he invited Yosuke Kubozuka as a guest for a conversation at Ikebukuro Hyper Lane, which also serves as a “sacred site” for the 2000 hit TBS drama “Ikebukuro West Gate Park (IWGP).”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Back then you could still sort of tell what he was singing about.
Blankey Jet City was too much of a genius, totally one-of-a-kind.
I've never once thought they sounded like Kiyoharu.
They're actually both from the Chukyo region (greater Nagoya area).
L'Arc~en~Ciel is a genuine collective of geniuses.
They're not even on the same level, let alone comparable.
A clip of L'Arc~en~Ciel's band rehearsal showed up in my recommendations and I cracked up.
Hyde is speaking in this barely-there voice like he's facing a public execution, going "I think it'd be better if we did ~ this way,"
and this guy named Tetsu just fires back a single condescending "yeah, sure" in response.
Such a tense, cutthroat vibe — if I were actually in that band my stomach would be in knots.
I heard they begged Hyde, who was in a different band at the time, to come join.
Probably that same Tetsu guy you mentioned —
apparently whoever's acting as the leader kept inviting him because he was just too good-looking to pass up.
It's wild that the band's most popular, most famous, best-looking frontman is more deferential to the other members than anyone.
It's like Freddie Mercury bowing and scraping to Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Just bizarre lol
He can actually hit higher notes now than he could back in the day.
Well, the looks are, uh…
Their theme song for Re: #19, "Dandelion," is exactly that case, and they didn't quit over it.
There was a stretch where they wouldn't even make eye contact — playing shows with zero conversation, not even a greeting.
IWGP (same acronym as their heavyweight title)
Kiyoharu was totally in the zone and gave us encore after encore.
Brings back memories.
A bit earlier than this, but stuff like Rebecca's "Friends" or Dreams Come True's "LOVE LOVE LOVE,"
"Tokyo Love Story"…
I could go on forever.
Seriously, there were tons of artists back then who could really sing a great song.
Their last single, "SATURDAY NIGHT," might've fit the bill (though for some reason it ended up as the ending theme for HEY!HEY!HEY! instead…).
Not bad, but I'm just not a fan of his voice.
Maidens' Road Scout Hunt
Ikebukuro West Gate Park 22
Ira Ishida
Release date: September 11, 2026
Table of Contents
North Exit Zombie Cigarettes
Saikyo Line Scramble
Nishi-Ikebukuro Paradise Apartments
Maidens' Road Scout Hunt
Though these days he seems like a total has-been.
You young guys should take this as a cautionary tale and watch yourselves.
Don't worry! I'm just as much of an old man as you are.
(￣ー￣)b Thumbs up!
What a lame lineup lol
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
‘Ikebukuro West Gate Park’ is a drama based on the novels by Ira Ishida that aired on TBS in 2000, and it’s also a work often credited to the skill of producer Akira Isoyama, who cast future stars like Yosuke Kubozuka and Tomoya Nagase early in their careers. The theme song was “Under the Velvet Sky” by SADS (the band Kiyoharu formed after Kuroyume broke up), and as noted in the thread, there’s testimony that it was commonly heard as a ringtone around Ikebukuro’s shopping district at the time. The thread’s focus on this one song’s fame led some posters to frame Kiyoharu as a “one-hit wonder,” but it’s worth noting he’s had a long career spanning Kuroyume, SADS, and solo work, so it’s easy to conflate praise for this one piece of work with an assessment of his entire career. The conversation also branched out into anecdotes about contemporaries Blankey Jet City and L’Arc~en~Ciel — a tangent driven by nostalgia for the ’90s band scene in general rather than anything to do with IWGP itself, and it’s best read as a separate strand of reaction distinct from the article’s actual subject: the Kiyoharu–Kubozuka conversation.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Geinou Sokuhou+) thread “[Entertainment] Kiyoharu bares all on the secret origin of the theme song for the smash-hit drama ‘Ikebukuro West Gate Park’! “That song did a lot for me” — talks with Yosuke Kubozuka.”
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