The dreamlike production of the recently-released music video for the Japanese version of TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You),” featuring Ikuta Lilas, finds the five boys in a fantasy world unique to that particular version and even received a shoutout from anime director Makoto Shinkai. The song appears as the lead single on the group’s first Japanese EP, Chaotic Wonderland, an album that possesses all the persuasive power of the unique worldbuilding releases TOMORROW X TOGETHER has continuously put out since their debut. One need look no further than their ubiquity on the Japanese music charts, including their climb to the top of the weekly Oricon Albums Chart, to glean their level of popularity. In light of the release of their first Japanese EP, we asked TAEHYUN and HUENINGKAI, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s youngest members, about songs the group has worked on for animated works and TV dramas—like “Force,” “Everlasting Shine,” “Ito” and “EYES”—old animated shows and movies they like and the songs they’ve made.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s OST work 

HUENINGKAI: Doing songs for anime OSTs was a little difficult. “Everlasting Shine” was our first exclusively Japanese song so the pronunciation was really hard and there was some level of difficulty to the singing itself, as I recall. By the time we did “Force” I had become more used to Japanese so I was able to pronounce it somewhat better but the song’s too fast. (laughs) I remember I had a hard time with it because of having to sing in Japanese that fast, but the song ended up sounding really cool.

TAEHYUN: If we’re doing a song for a dinosaur show OST, we’re not necessarily singing from the dinosaur’s perspective (laughs) but if I had to pick out something a little different when we sing on for OSTs—our fans listen to our studio albums, right? But for OSTs, people who don’t know us but watch the show get a chance to hear our music, so I think it’s important to show them what our voices and style are like. I look at it as though I’m introducing myself to people who don’t know me, so I try to sing like myself while remaining within the intention behind the work.
 

HUENINGKAI: I’m used to singing on our albums now and know what kind of feeling to put into them, but I think I pay a little extra attention on OSTs since they’re something different. “EYES,” for example, is the opening song to the show Armored Saurus, so I sang it more intensely than I normally would. I remember how I sang it very strong, not emotionally, and really enthusiastically as the producer guided me.

The “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You)” feat. Ikuta Lilas [Japanese Ver.] music video

TAEHYUN: I had no idea it would end up looking like that. People might think of a lot of different things when they see that scene with the falling meteor but I think it ends up looking like anime because it’s the Japanese version of the music video and also because of the warm colors on screen. At first I paid more attention to things like how the group dance turned out, but I did a lot of interpretation around the video’s story after MOA watched it. In fact, it feels like we’re figuring it out, too, when we watch it from MOA’s eyes. I think guessing what it means and talking about it is more fun than knowing for sure.

HUENINGKAI: I loved it. It’s so cool. It was my kind of style. (laughs) Our group’s music videos and album concepts seem to have some kind of really dreamy, fairytale-like vibe in general. I think that’s just our style.

TAEHYUN: I think the members’ appearances plays a big part of it, actually. BEOMGYU looks like he walked right out of a visual novel, for one, which I think fans like. “The boys look like they’re comic book characters and they’re working with animation, too.” (laughs) We’re glad they feel that way.

Why they like animation

HUENINGKAI: There’s a variety of genres and so I feel like the stories that all the writers think of are original and unusually immersive. I watch different kinds of animation the same way people who like movies watch different kinds of movies. I guess I’m destined to feel this way since I’ve loved animation ever since I was young. (laughs) I was too busy to watch any once I became a trainee but I started to watch them again here and there after debuting whenever I had time. I think that’s when I started to watch more serious animated works. (laughs)
 

TAEHYUN: Compared to HUENINGKAI, I’m just a muggle. (laughs) I don’t watch animation that often. I loved Pokémon when I started elementary school and up until around fifth grade, before I boxed. I guess Pokémon takes up a really big part of my memories. I played the games a ton. (laughs) So I think back to that time whenever I hear the background music from Pokémon. Actually, the reason I still think about Pokémon now isn’t because it’s so crazily good but because it’s a medium that stirs up nostalgia for that time.

Animation that’s left an impression

TAEHYUN: The Simpsons has the kind of humor I’m into. They parody a lot of movies in the show and a lot of clever jokes about areas like the economy and politics, and it’s really funny when you know what they’re satirizing or parodying. It feels like they wrap up the storylines really well by using jokes that lead to a lesson in the end. The stories resolve in fun ways and at the end Homer often says some iconic line, and when I watch it, it makes me think, “Ah, that’s a great point.” As a kid I just liked looking at the art style but now that I understand the point that the jokes are getting at that I couldn’t before, it’s even more enjoyable, so I keep on watching it.

HUENINGKAI: I recommended an anime called Clannad on Weverse before. It was the first time I ever cried while watching something animated. It was so sad, I sobbed uncontrollably. The theme of it is family. It’s got everything from action scenes and more but it was the story about family that was moving, and sad at the same time. It kept making me think about my own family. People who watch it say “Clannad is life.” (laughs) I couldn’t agree more, and I want to strongly recommend it, but some might find it a little boring at the beginning, and the kids’ eyes are kind of big. (laughs) But if you watch it to the end, you’ll see why it’s so powerful. (laughs)

Pokémon: TAEHYUN and HUENINGKAI’s common denominator

TAEHYUN: I have so much to say about Pokémon. It's seriously a classic. I think it’s not so much a classic as just that it’s really amazing the way the world is designed. It’s cool the way they keep developing it over generations after the initial worldbuilding. Cartoons usually carry over between the first and second seasons but Pokémon is separated by generations. So I think the whole reason I can judge it like, “Some generations are classic, and some are a letdown”, because Pokémon has such a strong foothold.
 

HUENINGKAI: And they’re up to generation eight now. But the stories in generation one to generation eight are all connected, so there must be a lot of adult fans even now.
 

TAEHYUN: I think everything up to generation four is a masterpiece.
 

HUENINGKAI: No way! Gen five was phenomenal! I say up to generation five are classics. (laughs) The way I see it, gen five has the best storyline of all the generations.

The Yumeiro Patissiere OST and dreams of becoming a singer

HUENINGKAI: I was amazed and also glad that an old anime like Yumeiro Patissiere was trending again. I really liked it when I was a kid. I was secretly there watching from behind my sisters when they watched it and there was no way I could ever talk with my friends at school about it. (laughs) People were talking about the theme song for the show recently and I thought, “Yeah, everybody should know about this theme song.” (laughs) IU was the first singer I liked after moving to Korea, after all. And I was so happy that IU sang the theme song. (laughs)
 

TAEHYUN: I like the Yumeiro Patissiere theme song more than I do the show itself. The melody really suits the animation. It’s just so uplifting and nice. And I think the lyrics fit the idea behind the show really well, too.
 

HUENINGKAI: I think it was after watching Kirarin Revolution that I started to think about wanting to become a singer. It's about an ordinary girl who wants to be a singer, so I think that made me think, Wow, it looks so fun being a singer—I want to sing for a bunch of people, too. Lots of things influenced me to become a singer that way, and I think that was one of them.

Falling for the power of J-pop

HUENINGKAI: Thanks to animation, I’ve been listening to bands since I was little, so I fell in love with J-pop at some point. I imagine it’ll have an effect on my music later on as well. There are lots of other things I should try, too, but I feel like I want to put a lot of band-type songs on our albums.

TAEHYUN: I definitely think it’s helpful to keep an ear out for whatever music’s popular in different markets. Producer Bang is always saying that the minute an artist stops listening, they’re finished, which I absolutely agree with. So, while I used to be obsessed exclusively with the American music market, I’ve since broadened my horizons to listen to Japanese music, too, and now I can write different kinds of melodies as a result. I actually found the lyrics the most groundbreaking when I first listened to J-pop, more than the melodies or overall sound. If you look at the themes of the music on the big charts in each country, you can see the themes they embrace there overall. In Japan, they have a philosophical way about their words that’s different from other countries. I thought maybe I could work that into TOMORROW X TOGETHER.

The Star Seekers: TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s collaborative original story

HUENINGKAI: I really enjoyed it. (laughs) Each of the characters matched up with the five of us, they navigated that tough situation and the way the story was fleshed out was great. I really liked how it seemed like there was a really solid plot. It feels like The Doom’s Night was only the prologue so I’ll be sure to watch it all to see how the whole story comes together. (laughs) I’m curious how it’ll all unfold.

TAEHYUN: There are people who like us and people who watch animation, so it makes sense there could be people who like both. I think it must feel just like a gift to them. Like Huening said, they must love to be able to say, “My favorite artist did the music for this animation I like.” So if they can say someone’s making these animations with characters based on their favorite artists, the fans must love that.

The inimitable quality of TOMORROW X TOGETHER

HUENINGKAI: I think people will like us even better if they watch our music videos or other original stories together with our music. I hope everyone will stay tuned because we’re going to keep making different songs and video content for everyone.

TAEHYUN: I think it’s more important to be a unique artist than to be a good one. For example, I can’t imagine anyone other than Justin Bieber doing “Peaches.” And I can’t imagine anyone else singing “Dynamite.” We’ve done covers, too, but there’s definitely something to the artists who sing the original songs that we can’t capture. I hope we can make that kind of inimitable music, too.