(Photography by James Chen)
With over twenty years of significant contributions to the world of anime music, there is no doubt that FLOW has legendary status within this niche of Japanese music. They were the perfect choice to headline Anime Expo 2025’s J-POP SOUND CAPSULE event on July 3 at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, marking the return of Anisong World Matsuri.
Perhaps most recognized for their association with the “Naruto” franchise, FLOW’s energetic sound blending rock, pop punk, and hip-hop has resulted in the creation of a large volume of beloved theme songs for various series including “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion”, “Eureka Seven”, and “The Seven Deadly Sins”.
FLOW are:
    KOHSHI and KEIGO on vocals
    TAKE on guitar
    GOT’S on bass
    IWASAKI on drums
For this J-POP SOUND CAPSULE appearance, GOT’S was not able to be present and so the band was joined by Isamu Takita as support on bass.
As the headlining set came closer to its conclusion, FLOW were joined onstage by GRANRODEO who had performed earlier in the evening. The two bands performed together leading up to the grand finale, “GO!!!”, for which all performers from the evening reappeared on stage to cheer on FLOW ✕ GRANRODEO (I still insist it was a missed opportunity to not go with “GRAN-FLOW-DEO”) culminating in a final grand leap, bringing this wonderful celebration of anime music to a close.
