"Gurenge" (紅蓮華, Red Lotus) is a song by Japanese pop singer LiSA. It was released as her fifteenth single digitally on April 22, 2019,[1] and received a physical release on July 3, 2019.[2] It reached number 3 on Oricon, number 2 on Japan Hot 100 and number 1 on Japan Hot Animation. It was used as the opening theme song for the anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.[3]
On 24 March 2019, the official website of the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba revealed the opening theme song "Gurenge" that would be sung by LiSA.[3] The song was released digitally on 22 April 2019,[1] and received a physical single on 3 July 2019 on three edition; Regular edition, Limited edition and Limited anime edition.[2] The single reached number 3 on Oricon, 2 on Japan Hot 100, and 1 on Japan Hot Animation.[4][5] In May 2019, "Gurenge" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for 100,000 full-track digital music downloads.[6] And in July 2020, "Gurenge" was certified Million by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for 1,000,000 full-track digital music downloads.,[7] become the first single by female artist to surpass 1 million downloads in the history of Oricon's digital single ranking chart. The single also become the third overall single in the chart's history to do so, after Kenshi Yonezu's 2018 single "Lemon", and his 2019 single "Uma to Shika".[8]
The song won a Newtype Anime Awards for 2019 best theme song,[9] and won on 34th Japan Gold Disc Award for Best 5 Songs by Download.[10] The song was featured live on YouTube channel "The First Take" and also on 2019 Kōhaku Uta Gassen.[11][12] The song will be featured in her fifth album Leo-Nine.[13]
The song has been covered by people across the world on YouTube. One of them was the Japanese duo Garnidelia, who made a self cover of the song in their official YouTube; the cover is part of their official cover, titled GARNiDELiA Cover Collection.[14]
Music video[]
The music video for "Gurenge" was directed by Masakazu Fukatsu.[15] and produced by Hiroshi Takayama.[16] The video features LiSA using red scarf & black cloth as motifs, wearing a white sleeveless shirt and red shorts, dancing alongside two demons. Sometimes the scenes would show the demons with black and red effect.[17] The video ends with LiSA donning a demon mask. The demons are played by Shinji Kanazawa and Mai Shimizu.