The setting was the giant ballroom of the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The time was 3:30PM Saturday, August 9th. To a sizeable crowd of four thousand screaming fangirls (and boys), TM Revolution sang his heart out. His first American audience then returned his energy, getting louder and louder. To put it simply, the joint was hot. Not bad for a soft-spoken Japanese man who is relatively unknown in America.

Mr. Takanori Nishihata is the first artist that startup record company Tofu Records (a Sony company) has had a chance to promote in the US. His stage name is TM Revolution, which stands for "Takanori Makes Revolution." His unique sound can be heard in the second Rurouni Kenshin TV series ending song, "Heart of Sword - Yoake Mae," as well as in the more recent first Gundam SEED opening song, "Invoke." He has a new album out in Japan and the United States, titled Coordinate (Japan: ESCL-9103, US: TOF-002).

In an August 8 press conference, the artist revealed that he is a huge manga fan and has an entire room in his house devoted to it. Along those lines, he found it interesting that the word "otaku" has seemingly taken on a different meaning in America (the difference being that it's generally acceptable to be "otaku" in America, but has negative connotations in Japan). He expressed that he was thrilled to be invited to perform at Otakon, and that he was enjoying his stay in America - which, through his eyes, seemed a more relaxed environment than Japan.

Mr. Nishihata also discussed with the press some of the other differences between Japan and America. He said that the comradery between cosplayers in the United States seems greater, and was happy about the fact that conventions such as Otakon were dispeling the cultural stereotype that Japan has nothing but samurai and ninja. Conversely, he feels that the Japanese view of Americans is fairly accurate.

For his music, TM Revolution prefers the sound of real instruments, but also acknowledges the benefits of digitized sound - such as added convenience. For his American audiences, he wishes to convey the "sound of Japanese," so he will not likely be rewriting any of his lyrics in English as some foreign artists do. He is very enthusiastic, however, about the possibility of releasing more of his albums in the United States.

Perhaps one of the best ways to describe the music of TMR is raw energy. He has a rocker's voice, and his band knows the meaning of rock'n roll as well. His energy flows into all his music, from the rock tunes to the dance numbers and ballads. TM Revolution mentioned that he loves to play live, and would love to perform in America again. Those of us who had the great privilege of seeing him perform would love for him to return as well.

On behalf of Anime Dream, I would like to thank Otakon for inviting this great artist to the United States, and Mr. Nishihata and Tofu Records for accepting that invitation. We look forward to hearing more from TM Revolution and the many other talented Japanese artists in the future.

Editor's note (04/11/08):

This page originally contained links to Tofu Records for information about TMR. The site for Tofu Records no longer exists, but information about TMR can be found at his official site.