J-Pop singer-songwriter and music producer Kenshi Yonezu, released a new single “M87,” a theme song to the new Shin Ultraman (New Ultraman) film, on May 18 (Wed.). Ranked #1 on the Billboard JAPAN HOT 100, #69 on the Billboard Global 200, and #16 on Billboard Global Excl. US on May 25.
Yonezu released the music video for “M87” which skyrocketed to 3M views in less than a day, and it currently sits at 10M. This single is blasting in at #1 for downloads for two consecutive weeks with 82,000 downloads (82,343DL) on the Oricon Weekly Streaming Ranking [Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly]. It is Yonezu’s 10th single to rank #1 — more than any other performing act in Japan.
The movie “Shin Ultraman,” was No. 1 for two weeks in a row in the nationwide movie ranking, already drawing 1.34 million viewers, and grossing over 2 billion yen at the box office. This movie is helmed by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno as writer and planner and Shinji Higuchi as director and is the spiritual successor to 2016’s Shin Godzilla.
Kenshi Yonezu is no stranger to breaking records and making history; he became the first Asian artist ever, for a virtual 2020 Event / STRAY SHEEP in Fortnite. Released 5th album “STRAY SHEEP” on August 5th of the same year, a million units were shipped on the day before the release and a million sales were achieved on August 13th. Sales of the album reached 1.5 million sales and recorded 2 million sales on the Oricon Cumulative album chart which led him to the top 46 year-end charts of 2020.