fripSide

fripSide is a Japanese pop band. Started in 2002, fripSide is made up of two members, Yoshino Nanjo (vocal, lyrics) and sat, a.k.a. Satoshi Yaginuma (lyrics, synthesizers, composer, arrangement) Former vocalist Nao graduated from fripSide March 2009.

The name “fripSide” comes from the word “flipside.” It’s a direct reference to when one had to flip records to side B. Since Flipside was already taken by a foreign artist, Sat coined the word “fripSide.” The capital S comes from Satoshi’s name.

fripSide had a very successful start on the indie community muzie. All three of their first albums topped their muzie’s monthly shop ranking, and many of their songs had thousands of downloads. fripSide performed live for the first time for two shows in March 2005 and one in December 2005. In 2006, fripSide became a part of Japanese gaming company Visual Art’s and started releasing under elseena-music entertainment. They released a few albums with Visual Art’s and were featured in other non-fripSide releases such as the RADIO Twinkle☆Crusaders albums. fripSide NAO project!, fripSide’s denpa subgroup, began during this time in April 2007. fripSide performed live once again December 25, 2007.

A new anime called Koihime†Musou began airing in the summer of 2008. fripSide performed the anime’s theme song flower of bravery and released the song coupled with a new version of their 2004 hit sky called sky-version 2008- on the single flower of bravery. This release was fripSide’s first major release and the first time they appeared on the Oricon charts, debuting at #26 on the weekly charts.