Hitsujibungaku closed their first European tour in London on October 24th at a sold-out O2 Academy Islington. It capped a seven-city sprint that began in Paris on October 14th and moved through Nijmegen, Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw, and Vienna before landing in the UK for the band’s first solo London date.
Over the past two years, songs like ‘more than words’ and ‘Burning’ — both tied to major anime releases — have carried the Tokyo unit, fronted by vocalist-guitarist Moeka Shiotsuka with Yurika Kawanishi on bass and touring drummer Yuna (formerly of CHAI), beyond Japan’s indie circuit and into global playlists. Weeks earlier, the band released their fifth studio album ‘Don’t Laugh It Off’, a record Moeka described as an attempt to speak more plainly, no longer hiding emotion behind an embarrassed “lol” in text messages.
This show landed just hours after the release of the album’s “Slightly Deluxe” edition, a digital reissue featuring a house remix of ‘more than words’ by London artist Miso Extra, who handled a club-minded DJ set during changeover. With the room primed, a single spotlight found Shiotsuka, who opened the set with ‘Sonotoki’, the piano-led prologue to the album, unfolding gradually into a swirling wall of distortion.
Despite Moeka’s soft-spoken voice — making some of her MC sections hard to catch over the hum of the air conditioning at the back — the breathy clarity of her singing sat light and natural in the mix, unforced and deeply expressive, never lost amid the band’s hazy guitars and tight rhythms.
‘Feel’ cut the suspense left by the opening number, its clear guitars and bright rhythm giving the night its first real lift. ‘1999’ followed with that familiar wintry shimmer and soft choral refrain that long-time fans still treat as a communal anthem, prompting the first singalongs of the evening. ‘Addiction’ delivered a jolt of power pop pushed through heavy distortion that sent the room moving. Its take on smartphone dependence wasn’t lost on the crowd, though the irony landed hardest as screens lit up to catch it.
“Thank you for coming tonight”, Moeka said in English. “This is our second time in London, and the last time was Hyper Japan. So happy to come back here”.
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Mid-set, the tempo edged higher again. ‘Runner’, one of the punchiest cuts from the new album, hit with a bright rush of pop-rock rhythm before they reached back to 2022 for ‘OOPARTS’, its hung organ opener, four-on-the-floor pulse and tight exchange between Moeka and bassist Yurika pulling the crowd along. ‘Inori’, drawn from their 2020 EP ‘Zawameki’, then shifted the mood completely, Moeka’s vocals sitting on a wall of guitar that drifted into shoegaze territory rather than straight indie pop.
The closing stretch started with back-to-back hits that pushed Hitsujibungaku onto the international stage. ‘Burning’, their Oshi no Ko season two closer, drove harder than its studio version, its shoegaze grind thick with fuzzy guitar and deep bass as the drums powered through the mix. Then the Jujutsu Kaisen breakout ‘more than words’ built from its soft opening into a glassy, swelling chorus that had the whole crowd pulled into its gentle groove.
In the run-up to the encore, ‘GO!!!’ reignited the bright pop-rock tone before ‘Map of the Future 2025’ followed with a more cinematic direction as its rolling drumbeat, piano and electronic textures carried a note of optimism. The main set closed on ‘Sabaku no Kimi e’ from their 2020 major-label debut, bringing the night back to its roots as its driving beat and prayer-like chorus filled the room before a soaring distorted guitar solo played the track out and the lights dipped for the final return.
For the encore, ‘doll’ riled up the crowd one last time with its bright, grunge-tinged melody before the room settled into ‘Hikaru Toki’, arguably the band’s first clear pitch to Western audiences. Debuting as the opening theme for Science SARU’s 2021 series The Heike Story, it remains one of Hitsujibungaku’s most beautiful cuts — a calling card that still captures everything they do best.
Overall, if ‘Don’t Laugh It Off’ is about saying things straight, the live show followed suit with an upfront, to-the-point and easy-to-feel set that landed exactly as it needed to for a headline debut.
For a band that only made their UK debut at Hyper Japan back in July, selling out the O2 Academy Islington just three months later says a lot. The room was no longer just anime fans but a mix of indie regulars and curious newcomers drawn by word of mouth. Across the set, Hitsujibungaku tied together anime themes, classics, and new album cuts into a performance that made their direction unmistakably clear. If their July set was a handshake introduction, this felt like the moment we truly met them, when their UK following started to look less like an anime-boosted flash in the pan and more like a solid cult presence.
Photos by Charles Shepherd
Hitsujibungaku
D o n’ t L a u g h I t O f f
Release Date: 08/10/2025
Label: F.C.L.S.
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
CD: Regular | Limited | Complete Limited
