T.M.Revolution, the solo project of Takanori Nishikawa, returned to THE FIRST TAKE for the first time in around two and a half years, performing his 1998 summer anthem ‘HOT LIMIT’ in a faithful recreation of the music video’s famous outfit. The episode of the long running one-take performance series arrives as Takanori Nishikawa celebrates T.M.Revolution’s 30th anniversary this year.
Sharing THE FIRST TAKE’s teaser clip on X the day before the premiere, which showed Nishikawa coming out and flexing in the recreation of the iconic suit, he wrote:
“The internal approval process for THE FIRST TAKE is extremely strict. Even as the person directly involved, I absolutely cannot reveal what I sang this time before it is released, so I kindly ask for your understanding.”
The joke, of course, being that the outfit gave it away entirely. Fans called it instantly, and the post racked up over 65 million views before the video went live.
‘HOT LIMIT’, written by Akio Inoue and composed and arranged by Daisuke Asakura in 1998, sold over 711,000 copies with a cumulative total reported around 900,000. Its music video became a cultural landmark in its own right, arguably outliving the single it promoted. Shot off the coast of Florida because the high-voltage equipment used in the water could not be cleared in Japan, it placed Nishikawa on a star-shaped platform out at sea in the costume that would go on to be endlessly parodied and cosplayed. Decades later, it is still instantly recognisable.
Before singing, Nishikawa, no stranger to the body building scene, ran through poses of competitors he follows: “First, Shun Kaneko, then Junpei Taguchi, and finally, Jo Uezato”. He signed off the same way, ending on “one of my favorite poses from Farouq Ishimoto, another Men’s Physique pro”. Nishikawa weighed around 42kg when he first wore the outfit in 1998. He has trained for more than two decades since, and holds two Best Body Japan Model Japan national Gold Class titles, won in 2020 and 2021.
In a comment released to press, he was more reflective:
“It’s already been 28 years since June 24th, 1998, when the song was released as T.M.Revolution’s eighth single. I never imagined it would become a song that people would keep coming back to and getting so much mileage out of, for so long and so many times. My silhouette has changed quite a bit compared with when the song was released, but I sang it using exactly the same backing track as I did back then. I hope you will accept it with a laugh.”
The video passed 2 million views within roughly nine hours of release.
Nishikawa tied the appearance to T.M.Revolution’s wider 30th anniversary celebrations, including FEST. INAZUMA, formerly Inazuma Rock Fes., the Lake Biwa festival he founded in 2009 and has run since.
