Related Articles
Japanese rock band Man With a Mission have their sights set on big goals — or even bigger ones, at least. In the latest installment of the Green Room, Rolling Stone caught up with member Jean-Ken Johnny backstage ahead of their headlining performance at Irving Plaza in New York to discuss their recent animation crossover collaborations and planning even bigger live shows to accommodate their ever-growing audience.
“Animation, it’s a really well-known culture and entertainment all over the world. And I believe that creation and promotion is different, but you have to balance between those two,” Johnny explained from beneath his signature wolf mask. Man With a Mission recently released “Kizuna no Kiseki,” their collaboration with Milet that served as the opener for the popular anime seriesDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc. “It’s a great opportunity for us,” he continued. “You know, animation is really huge worldwide, so the song gets to be listened to because of that. I believe it’s a big opportunity for us.”
Striking that careful balance between creation and promotion has proven to be an easier task for Man With a Mission because they’ve leaned into working on projects they’re already a fan of. Back in 2018, they created the theme for G1 Climax 28, a special pro-wrestling tournament. “All the events that we’ve been collaborating with, we are truly fans of — you know, pro-wrestling, animation, stuff like that,” Johnny explained. “And that makes it a lot easier to devote our music and to collaborate and cling to those kinds of events.”
The band has been sharing music for well over a decade now and have built a reputation for putting on high-energy, animalistic live shows to accompany their releases. As they’ve grown as artists, the crowds have increased in size and passion.
“The excitement and the anticipation for us, it never changes. It was always a dream for me to travel all over the world, like the US and just play in front of the guys that really don’t know us that much,” Johnny added. “But seeing how they react to that, it’s always a pleasure and honor to do that. And it hasn’t changed much, but the one thing that’s probably changed is a lot more people come now these’s days.” MAN WITH A MISSION’smusic can be found on the Crunchyroll platform.
