Japanese band Arukara (アルカラ) has announced that their upcoming single “Chao Fan MUSIC” (a Chinese pronunciation of “炒飯MUSIC” or “Fried Rice Music”) will take over as the sixth ending theme song for the Dragon Ball Super TV series beginning in October.

A CD single release will follow 23 November 2016, which will also contain the song “Phantom Thief Miracle Boy 2” (the latest opening theme for the third and fourth seasons of the Mysterious Joker anime television series), along with the song “LET・IT・DIE” (used in promotion for the upcoming PlayStation 4 video game of the same name by Grasshopper and GungHo). Karaoke versions of all three songs round out the CD single:

1. “Chao Fan MUSIC”
2. “Phantom Thief Miracle Boy 2”
3. “LET・IT・DIE”
4. “Chao Fan MUSIC” (Karaoke)
5. “Phantom Thief Miracle Boy 2” (Karaoke)
6. “LET・IT・DIE” (Karaoke)

The standard edition of the CD single (VICL-37235) will retail for ¥1,200 + tax. A “Limited Edition” version of the CD single (VIZL-1085) will also be available for ¥1,800, which will come packed with a bonus DVD featuring footage from Nekofes 2016.

Both editions are available for pre-order on CDJapan.

Vocalist Taisuke Inamura provided a comment about the song alongside its announcement:

おっす！オラ、アルカラのボーカル稲村太佑ですー！
この度は「ドラゴンボール超」のエンディングに我々アルカラを選んでいただき誠に光栄です。

僕自身が小学生時代アニメで見てた時の事を思い出して作らせていただきました。
思い起こせば、ドラゴンボールの主題歌やエンディングは幼なながらも常に不思議とワクワクで一杯だったなぁ。

掴もうぜ！の「摩訶不思議アドベンチャー」に出てくる歌詞「世界で一途」の「一途」を「いっと」と読ませたり、意味も分からず歌ってましたが。Zシリーズになってからの影山ヒロノブさんの「CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA」は歌声も曲名も何から何まで衝撃だったし。
エンディングの「でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー！」では曲の始めに不思議な声が入ってて「何やろこれ??」って思ってたら、大人になって「逆再生」という手法でメッセージが隠されてることを知り驚きました。

今回、ドラゴンボールといえば、やはり悟空の大食いシーン！ってことで何か食べ物がいいなって思い「炒飯MUSIC」というタイトルにさせていただきました。当時はよく「ドラ」の音が使われてたと思いますし、衝撃の「逆再生」とやはり「一途」の歌詞に取り入れて制作したので、アルカラのドラゴンボール愛が詰まった作品となっております。
逆再生部分は実は「すべてのドラ○○○○○○○に捧ぐ」というメッセージが隠されているので、ぜひとも逆再生をさらに逆再生してみてもらいたい。

もうちょっと言うと、僕の同世代はちょうど小学生くらいのお子さんがいる方も多く、親子でドラゴンボールを見ているという連れもいます。この曲で僕ら世代に何か懐かしさみたいなのを感じてもらって、世代を超えた作品ドラゴンボールを通して親子で会話とかが弾んでくれたらなって思っております。

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Heya! I’m Arukara’s vocalist, Taisuke Inamura! It’s an honor that we’ve been selected for the next Dragon Ball Super ending.

I wrote this song while reminiscing about when I used to watch anime back in elementary school. Thinking about it now, even to my young mind the Dragon Ball opening and ending themes were always full of excitement and mystery.

In the lyrics for “Mystical Adventure!” (the one with “grab them!”), I read 一途 as “itto” [translated as “most” in this context] and sang it without even knowing what it meant. When the Z series came around, Hironobu Kageyama-san‘s “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA” was electrifying; the singing, the title, everything.

There are these strange voices at the start of the ending theme “Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power!” and I wondered what the heck they were. When I grew up, I was surprised to learn that these voices concealed a hidden message through a process called “back-masking”.

This time around, when people think of Dragon Ball they think of scenes of Goku pigging out, so I figured some kind of food would be good, and so titled it “Chao Fan Music”. I think at the time “dra” sounds were used a lot, and I made it to include that amazing back-masking and “itto” in the lyrics, so it ended up being a work with Arukara’s Dragon Ball love wrapped up in it.

The back-masked portion actually hides a message saying “give the dra——-“, so please trying playing it backwards again and again.

To say just a bit more, many people of my generation now have kids in elementary school, so they watch Dragon Ball together with their kids. I hope that with this song I can make people of our generation feel nostalgic and stimulate parents and children talking through this generation-spanning Dragon Ball series.

The vocalist references the garbled words at the beginning of “Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power!” (the first closing theme to the Dragon Ball Z TV series), which is actually a back-masking tribute to some of the musical production staff.

CD singles for the show’s first five ending themes — “Hello Hello Hello” by Good Morning America, “Starring Star” by KEYTALK, “Light Pink” by LACCO TOWER, “Forever Dreaming” by Czecho no Republic, and “Easy-Going Dance” by Batten Showjo Tai — have been released. A CD single for the show’s opening theme — “Chōzetsu ☆ Dynamic!” by Kazuya Yoshii — was released 07 October 2015.