Written by: Jei Beltrano | Published on: February 02, 2020 at 9:57 AM PHT (GMT+8)
Music charts Billboard Japan has revealed on Tuesday that Japanese boy group SNOW MAN's “Grandeur” grabs the first spot on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100 dated January 18 to 24, 2021. The album sold over 800,398 copies in its first week after release. The song is currently being used as the 13th opening theme for the TV anime series adaptation of Yuuki Tabata's "Black Clover" manga series.
The popular nine-member group has announced last year that they will be revealing a brand new single, “Grandeur” on January 20, 2021 and will be the second song of the group to be used as the opening theme for the Black Clover series. The first was the their hit-song "Stories" that was used as the 11th opening theme for Black Clover's episodes 129 to 140 in April 2020.
Snow Man, the Japanese idol boy band formed by Johnny & Associates in 2012 was previously a sub-unit of Johnny & Associates' pre-debut trainee group, Johnny's Jr. The group's activities focused on acrobats and stage play. Along with SixTONES, Snow Man made their official debut on 22 January 2020. The group's simultaneous debut marks the first time for two groups to debut on the same day in Johnny's history.
On February 1, 2020, the group marked their first overseas appearance in Japan Expo Thailand 2020. Their Asia tour titled Snow Man ASIA TOUR 2D.2D in Kanagawa Prefecture, Osaka, and Tokyo, as well as overseas live in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, and Taipei had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. In March, the group received their own television show titled Sore Snow Man ni Yarasete Kudasai
The group consists of current members Hikaru Iwamoto, Tatsuya Fukazawa, Raul, Shota Watanabe, Koji Mukai, Ryohei Abe, Ren Meguro, Ryota Miyadate and Daisuke Sakuma.
The Black Clover TV anime series has now entered the Dark Triad Arc since the series' first episode for 2021 aired January 5.
The TV anime series is produced by Studio Pierrot, which started airing from October 2017 until the present with the first two seasons each consisted of 51 episodes. The third season premiered on October 1, 2019. It is directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu writing scripts, Itsuko Takeda doing character designs, and Minako Seki composing the music.
The series is based on the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since February 2015, and has been collected into 25 tankōbon volumes as of July 2020.
The story centers around Asta, a young boy seemingly born without any magic power, something that is unknown in the world he lives in. With his fellow mages from the Black Bulls, Asta plans to become the next Wizard King.
Source: Billboard Japan
