Oshi-Katsu Chronicle 1997: Princess Mononoke and FFVII, Japan's First World Cup Berth, and the First Fuji Rock

1997 was the year the film Princess Mononoke and the game Final Fantasy VII arrived, and ONE PIECE began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump.

In music, Morning Musume hand-sold 50,000 indie CDs to earn a major debut, while X JAPAN announced their breakup. In November, Japan’s national soccer team clinched its first-ever World Cup berth.

Morning Musume Sells 50,000 Copies of “Ai no Tane” and Heads for Their Debut

Morning Musume was born on the TV Tokyo audition program ASAYAN. The group brought together five finalists who had fallen short in the band Sharam Q’s female rock vocalist audition: Yuko Nakazawa, Aya Ishiguro, Kaori Iida, Natsumi Abe and Asuka Fukuda. On the September 14 broadcast, producer Tsunku announced the group’s name. Hello! Project official site (in Japanese)

Tsunku’s condition for a major debut was that the five sell 50,000 copies of their indie single “Ai no Tane” (“Seed of Love”) by hand across five designated sales days. Weekly broadcasts followed their rehearsals and sales stops, inspiring viewers to head to the venues in person. Hello! Project official site (in Japanese)

50,000

CDs to sell by hand

5

Members selling

5

Scheduled sales days

Source: Hello! Project official site

1. Nov. 3

   Sales begin in Osaka

   The five sell the CD themselves. Sales followed in Fukuoka and Sapporo.

2. Nov. 30

   50,000 reached on the fourth date, in Nagoya

   Sold out at Nagoya Stadium. They met the condition without waiting for the planned sales in Tokyo.

3. Next Jan.

   Major debut

   In January 1998, they released "Morning Coffee."

On the first day, November 3, they sold 15,723 copies at HMV Shinsaibashi in Osaka. After stops in Fukuoka and Sapporo, they sold out the 50,000th copy on day four—November 30 at Nagoya Stadium—completing the challenge ahead of the planned final stop in Tokyo and earning their January 1998 major debut. Hello! Project official site (in Japanese)

GLAY’s Best-Of, KinKi Kids’ Debut, and the Dawn of the Major Dome Tour Era

GLAY earned their first No. 1 single in May with “Kuchibiru” and their first million-selling single in August with “HOWEVER.” Their first best-of album, REVIEW - BEST OF GLAY, released October 1, topped 3 million copies in its opening week and reached 4.87 million cumulative sales, setting an all-time Japanese album sales record at the time. GLAY official site (in Japanese)

On July 21, the duo KinKi Kids—Koichi Domoto and Tsuyoshi Domoto—made a simultaneous debut with the single “Garasu no Shonen” (“Glass Boy”) and the album A album. Written by Takashi Matsumoto and composed and arranged by Tatsuro Yamashita, “Garasu no Shonen” and A album both became million sellers and debuted at No. 1 on Oricon. ELOV-Label (in Japanese)

At the 39th Japan Record Awards at year’s end, Namie Amuro won her second consecutive grand prize with “CAN YOU CELEBRATE?”, which sold 2.29 million copies and became a wedding standard. The Album Grand Prize went to GLAY’s BELOVED, released the previous year. Japan Composers Association (in Japanese)

In March 1997, Osaka Dome (now Kyocera Dome Osaka) and Nagoya Dome opened in quick succession. Joining Tokyo Dome and Fukuoka Dome—and followed by Sapporo Dome in 2001—they established the nationwide dome tour circuit. Kyocera Dome Osaka (in Japanese)

Finding New Bands on TV, and the First Fuji Rock in Summer

TV Asahi’s music program Break Out dubbed La’cryma Christi, MALICE MIZER, FANATIC◇CRISIS and SHAZNA the “Big Four of visual kei.” All four made their major debuts between May and August 1997, with SHAZNA’s million-selling “Melty Love” and MALICE MIZER’s theatrical concerts drawing nationwide attention. JBpress (in Japanese)

Coined by the program rather than fans, the label accompanied the bands’ rapid-fire major debuts starting with La’cryma Christi on May 8 and concluding with SHAZNA on August 27. JBpress (in Japanese)

On July 26, the first Fuji Rock Festival took place at Fuji Tenjinyama Ski Resort in Yamanashi Prefecture, bringing together Japanese and international rock and electronic acts for Japan’s first large-scale outdoor rock festival. Fuji Rock official site (in Japanese)

Overseas performers

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine and others.

Japanese performers

THE YELLOW MONKEY, THE HIGH-LOWS, Denki Groove and others.

A powerful typhoon hit on the opening day, and 30,000 fans braved torrential rain and wind as headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers played on despite a band member’s broken arm. The second day was canceled, and lessons learned about rain gear, cold-weather preparation and transport shaped outdoor festival operations in Japan for decades. Fuji Rock official site (in Japanese)

X JAPAN Announces Their Breakup, and a Final Show at Year’s End

On September 22, X JAPAN held a press conference in Tokyo to announce their breakup following vocalist Toshl’s decision in April to leave the band. On December 31, they played their farewell concert, “THE LAST LIVE: Saigo no Yoru,” at Tokyo Dome. Imidas (in Japanese) / Tokyo Dome (in Japanese)

Immediately after finishing the Tokyo Dome concert, the members traveled to NHK Hall to perform “Forever Love” at the 48th Kohaku Uta Gassen, closing out the chapter that had begun with their 1989 major debut. Real Sound (in Japanese)

Princess Mononoke, the Evangelion Films, and Prime-Time TV Dramas

On July 12, Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature Princess Mononoke opened in theaters. With producer Toshio Suzuki’s “Live.” (Ikiro.) copywritten tagline, Joe Hisaishi’s symphonic score and countertenor Yoshikazu Mera’s theme song, the story of Ashitaka and San earned ¥11.76 billion in distribution revenue (¥19.3 billion at the box office) and drew 14.2 million theatergoers, surpassing E.T. to set a new all-time box-office record in Japan. Studio Ghibli (in Japanese) / Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (in Japanese)

Behind No. 2 Shitsurakuen (A Lost Paradise, ¥2.3 billion, adapted from Junichi Watanabe’s bestselling novel and starring Koji Yakusho and Hitomi Kuroki), the No. 3 and No. 4 domestic films of the year were the two theatrical Evangelion features: March’s Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (¥1.87 billion) and July’s The End of Evangelion (¥1.45 billion), which drew overnight lines outside theaters across Japan for theatrical programs and limited goods. Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (in Japanese)

No. 1: Princess Mononoke

¥11.76 billion

No. 2: Shitsurakuen (A Lost Paradise)

¥2.3 billion. The No. 1 film took in more than five times as much.

On television, the police ensemble drama Bayside Shakedown (Odoru Daisosasen), starring Yuji Oda as Detective Shunsaku Aoshima in Tokyo’s waterfront Wangan precinct, aired from January to March on Fuji TV and grew by word of mouth into a long-running movie franchise. In Fuji TV’s Monday 9 p.m. slot, the summer drama Beach Boys (starring Takashi Sorimachi and Yutaka Takenouchi at a seaside guesthouse) and the autumn romance Love Generation (starring Takuya Kimura and Takako Matsu, with Eiichi Ohtaki’s million-selling theme song “Shiawase na Ketsumatsu” and its crystal apple motif) recorded average ratings above 30%.

FFVII and ONE PIECE Begins Serialization; the Pokémon Anime and Comiket

On January 31, Square released Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation. Moving the series to three CD-ROM discs with 3D polygon environments and pre-rendered CG cutscenes, the story of Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Sephiroth shipped over 3.28 million copies in Japan alone and drove hardware sales of the PlayStation console. On December 23, Sony Computer Entertainment released the real driving simulator Gran Turismo. Square Enix (in Japanese) / Sony Interactive Entertainment (in Japanese)

In issue No. 34 of Weekly Shonen Jump, on sale July 22, Eiichiro Oda’s pirate adventure manga ONE PIECE began serialization, launching Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates’ quest for the ultimate treasure. Shueisha corporate history (in Japanese)

In television anime, director Kunihiko Ikuhara’s Revolutionary Girl Utena and the game adaptation Pocket Monsters both premiered in April. On December 16, however, intense red-and-blue strobe flashes in episode 38 of Pocket Monsters (“Dennou Senshi Porygon”) caused viewers across Japan to feel ill, suspending the broadcast until April 1998 and prompting industry-wide broadcast safety guidelines and the now-familiar on-screen message advising viewers to watch in a well-lit room and sit back from the TV set. King Records (in Japanese) / TV Tokyo’s efforts (in Japanese) / Chugoku Broadcasting’s announcement from the time (in Japanese)

In its second year at Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Comic Market drew a combined 400,000 attendees over three days at summer’s Comiket 52 and 300,000 over two days at winter’s Comiket 53. Comic Market Preparation Committee (in Japanese)

400,000

Summer 52nd

300,000

Winter 53rd

Source: Comic Market Preparation Committee

Japan Qualifies for Its First World Cup

On November 16, at Larkin Stadium in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Japan’s national soccer team coached by Takeshi Okada faced Iran in the Asian third-place playoff with a berth at the 1998 World Cup in France on the line.

With 20-year-old midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata setting up all three goals, substitute Masayuki Okano (“The Wild Horse”) slid in to score the sudden-death golden goal in the second half of extra time to break a 2-2 tie. Remembered as the “Joy of Johor Bahru” four years after the “Agony of Doha,” the late-night broadcast drew a 47.9% household rating in the Kanto region—second only to NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen (50.7%) among all television broadcasts in 1997. Japan Football Association (in Japanese) / Video Research (in Japanese)

47.9%

Household viewership rating

Source: Video Research

Key Events of the Year

1. Jan. 31"Final Fantasy VII" is released (PlayStation)Games
2. Apr. 1TV anime "Pocket Monsters" begins airingAnime
3. May 8La'cryma Christi makes its major debutMusic
4. July 12"Princess Mononoke" opens (distribution revenue of 11.76 billion yen, No. 1 among Japanese films)Film
5. July 21KinKi Kids debut with "Garasu no Shonen"Music
6. July 26The first Fuji Rock is held; the next day is cancelled because of a typhoonMusic
7. Aug. 15–17Comic Market 52 (400,000 total visits over 3 days)Fan works
8. Sept. 14The group name Morning Musume. is announcedIdols
9. Sept. 22X JAPAN announces its breakup at a press conferenceMusic
10. Oct. 1GLAY releases "REVIEW" (No. 1 on Oricon's 1997 annual chart)Music
11. Nov. 3Morning Musume. begins hand-selling "Ai no Tane"Idols
12. Nov. 16In Johor Bahru, Japan beats Iran and qualifies for its first World CupSports
13. Nov. 24Yamaichi Securities announces it is suspending business ahead of a voluntary closureEconomy
14. Nov. 30Morning Musume.'s "Ai no Tane" reaches its sales goal of 50,000 copiesIdols
15. Dec. 16The Pokemon anime makes viewers ill, and broadcasts are suspendedAnime
16. Dec. 31The 39th Japan Record Awards (Namie Amuro wins the grand prize for the second year running)Music
17. Dec. 31X JAPAN holds "THE LAST LIVE: The Final Night" at the Tokyo DomeMusic
18. Year-endThe 14th Buzzwords of the Year awards ("Tamagotchi" and "Mononoke (hime)" make the top ten)Media

1. Jan 31Final Fantasy VIIReleased for PlayStation
2. Jul 12Princess MononokeOpens in theaters
3. Jul 22ONE PIECE beginsSerialized in Weekly Shonen Jump
4. Jul 26First Fuji RockHeld in Yamanashi
5. Sep 22X JAPAN's breakupAnnounced
6. Nov 16Japan qualifiesBeats Iran in extra time
7. Dec 31X JAPAN's last showAt Tokyo Dome

A year of milestones that fans saw through to the end.

The Year’s Buzzword Awards

Grand PrizeShitsurakuen (suru) ("Paradise Lost," from the novel about an affair; "to have a Shitsurakuen")

Jun'ichi Watanabe, Hitomi Kuroki

Top 10Tamagotchi (virtual pet toy)

Aki Maita

Top 10Toki no asesu ("time assessment," a review of public works projects after years)

Tatsuya Hori

Top 10Gardening (gaadeningu)

Hanako Yagi

Top 10Nihon-ban Big Bang ("Japanese-style Big Bang," financial deregulation)

Michio Matsui

Top 10Tomei na sonzai ("transparent existence," a description of alienated youth)

Kazumasa Tajima

Top 10Mononoke (hime) (Princess Mononoke)

Hayao Miyazaki

Top 10Paparazzi

—

Top 10My boom

Jun Miura

Top 10Yusei san-jigyo (the "three postal services" privatization issue)

Junichiro Koizumi

The grand prize went to Shitsurakuen, while the top ten included “Tamagotchi,” “Mononoke (hime),” “My Boom,” “Gerdening” and “Paparazzi.” Coined by illustrator Jun Miura, “My Boom” became the everyday phrase for a personal obsession apart from society-wide trends. Jiyu Kokuminsha (in Japanese)

In 1998, CD production value reaches its statistical peak, and Ayumi Hamasaki, Ringo Sheena, aiko, MISIA and Hikaru Utada make their debuts.