Orange Range (オレンジレンジ, Orenji Renji) are a Japanese rock band known for their strong Okinawan identity.
[3] Before they were signed by a major label, Orange Range played mostly in small art houses and clubs until they were found by a record agent.
This is attributed to their hometown being Okinawa, a well-known station for American military bases and, thus, cultures and different styles often blend.
Due to high sales of their works, Orange Range's singles are often attached to various movies, shows or Japanese products.
Between the time that Yamato joined and the band being signed to Spice Music's Japanese division, Orange Range mainly did covers of already famous singers and bands, like Glay and Mr. Children, for school concerts and for small art houses.
In early 2002, the band was signed to Spice Music and released their first official commercial work, the mini-album Orange Ball, which contained the single Michishirube.
[6] It was around this time that the band finally left their home of Okinawa and began touring across the country and opening for various Japanese acts such as Do As Infinity.
This was seen as a large feat for the band as the single had almost no promotion due to the low sales of Kirikirimai.
"Michishirube" was used as the ending theme to the popular J-Drama, Fire Boys: Megumi no Daigo, this version of the single went straight to No.
At first it was reported by the Japanese media that he left the band due to tendinitis that had increased in severity.
[17] Orange Range performed at Music Station Super Live 2006 on December 22.
This was the band's lowest selling and charting single in years, only staying in the top five for one week.
Two weeks later, the albums would go on to obtain the top two spots in the United World Music charts.
[19][20] Their next single, "Ikenai Taiyō", was used as the opening theme to the J-Drama adaptation of the popular manga series Hana-Kimi.
The band also performed the opening and ending themes to the Sunrise anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2.
[21][22] The DVD version of the album also included an Orange Range Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 commercial, along with the music videos for its single releases.
Shortly after, a B-sides double album entitled Ura Shopping was released on December 3.
The DVD features footage from the final day of their concert performance at Nippon Budokan.
"Hitomi no Saki ni" (瞳の先に), Orange Range's newest single after approximately 8 months was released on July 8 in CD and CD+DVD formats.
On February 20 at the Saitama Super Arena, Orange Range performed Carnival - Haru no Saiten Special; the band released the concert footage on DVD on June 9 of the same year.
Following the change in record label, Orange Range released the singles Uturusanu (July 28) and Ya-Ya-Ya (September 22).
Five days later, Orange Range held their first free live concert in five years when they performed Onegai!
In response to the song release, Orange Range left this message on their page: "What we can do is to deliver music.
A week after spark was released, Oricon charts indicated that the album had only managed to reach the 18th spot before falling from the Top 30.
This indication makes "spark" Orange Range's lowest ranking studio album on the Oricon charts since "1st Contact".
In July, Naoto Hiroyama and Hiroki Hokama formed a separate group from the band as a side project called NaotoHiroki & Karatesystems.
The side project was headed by Naoto and Hiroki, and the premise behind it is an international collaboration on a series of songs.
After working with many international artists on the album "Travel Sounds", Naoto commented "I want to collaborate with more people for a unique worldview.
Beginning in 2014, Orange Range announced for the first time a tour of Asian countries.
A showcase concert took place on August 23, and a 30-concert tour supporting the new album commenced on September 28 in Taiwan at the Legacy Taipei.