Kenshi Yonezu has released the music video for ‘Yodaka’, the theme song for the film Kingdom: The Decisive Battle of the Soul. The track was digitally released on July 13th, ahead of the film’s Japanese cinema release on July 17th.
Video artist and film director Oudai Kojima, working with Yonezu for the first time, casts him as an artefact come to life, cracking out of a petrified crust to walk among the museum exhibits. “Thinking of ourselves 2,000 years from now, when we too will one day become museum exhibits”, he said in a comment accompanying the release.
‘Yodaka’ was written specifically for the film, the fifth in the live-action Kingdom series, which adapts Yasuhisa Hara’s manga about a war orphan rising through the ranks of Qin during China’s Warring States period. Yonezu saw a reflection of himself in the ambition of protagonist Shin, played by Kento Yamazaki, who aims to become a Great General Under the Heavens despite starting from nothing.
The result is a large-scale rock number, opening on breakbeats and layering in East Asian instrumentation including shinobue flute. Yonezu, an illustrator as well as a musician, drew the single’s cover artwork himself, as he has for most of his releases.
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Alongside the release, a special website titled Karasu × Yodaka: Wild Bird Watching has launched, pairing ‘Yodaka’ with ‘Karasu’ (‘Raven’), Yonezu’s 2026 NHK soccer theme. He has described the two songs as “spiritual twins”. Visitors can play either track through the site’s player, sending their chosen bird into a sky connected in real time with listeners around the world. Users can also save an image of the sky at that moment and share it with the hashtag #野鳥観察リスニング (#WildBirdWatchingListening).
Kenshi Yonezu
Yodaka
Release Date: 13/07/2026
Label: Sony Music Labels
Stream: Links
