Antic Cafe

Antic Cafe (??????-???-, nicknamed An Cafe) are a pop rock band formed in 2003 in Tokyo, Japan and signed to the indie label LOOP ASH RECORDS, as well as Gan-Shin for European distribution. They are an oshare kei band but also a self-described "Harajuku Dance Rock" band. They have released five full-length albums and three EPs. They announced after their live on January 4, 2010 at the Nippon Budokan that they would suspend activities and put the band on hiatus. They stated that they however will not disband.

An Cafe formed in May of 2003 when vocalist ?? (Miku), newcomer guitarist ? (Bou), and bassist ??? (Kanon), who all hail from the Kantou area of Japan, met each other on an unnamed Internet message board while searching for other individuals with interest similar to their own, specifically people looking for musicians. Still without a drummer, the band held their first demonstration at Akasaka L@N on June 6 with their second demonstration at Urawa NARCISS on June 17. Antic Cafe distributed 50 copies of their first demo, "Ope?ng," in MiniDisc format at the second live.

At their debut live at Ikebukuro CYBER on July 2, the group sold their second demo MD "Uzumaki Senshokutai / Hatsukoi." The two demos were self-released and their last releases without a label. At their Ikebukuro CYBER live on August 10, they announced their new drummer ??-? (Teruki), ex-drummer for the band feathers-blue. His first concert with the group was on September 22 at Urawa NARCISS.

In December 2003, An Cafe announced that they signed with indie label LOOP ASH RECORDS and released their debut single ????????? on March 24, 2004. It reached #2 on the Oricon indies charts, and #75 on the overall charts where it charted for two weeks.

The band released their first album, ???????, on November 9, 2005. It peaked at #39 on the Oricon albums chart. They released their next album, ???????, on November 29, 2006. This album was also released in South Korea on May 21, 2007, and there was also a limited edition version of the album released containing a DVD with several music videos. This album would be guitarist Bou's last recording appearance in An Cafe as he left the band following their live on April 30, 2007. After his departure, two new members were announced: guitarist ??? (Takuya) would replace Bou and they now had a keyboardist, ??? (Yu-ki). The first single with the new lineup was ????????THE HERO WITHOUT A "NAME"?. The title track is the second opening theme of the anime series "Darker than Black." The song peaked at #13 on the Japanese singles chart and is their highest selling single. Also, at the end of 2007, An Cafe announced their first overseas tour, taking place in Europe in 2008.

An Cafe released their third album, ??ROCK CAFE, on April 9, 2008 in Japan, but it was first released in Europe on March 14. The European release of the album featured three bonus tracks which were previously only available as b-sides on their last three singles for this album. The album debuted at #10 on the Swedish album chart, and at #26 on the Finnish album chart. It also peaked at #13 on the Japanese album charts.

The band's fourth album, BB????????, was released on September 9, 2009 in Japan and October 2, 2009 in Europe. The album peaked at #20 on the Japanese albums chart.

An Cafe has gained great success in Japan, as well as moderate success in Europe, mainland Asia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Canada, and the United States. In 2008, the band visited Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, the UK, Spain, the US, and Korea on their first overseas tour, LIVE CAFE TOUR'08 ?NYAPPY GO AROUND THE WORLD?. They played a total of twelve concerts in eight countries. They went on another overseas tour, LIVE CAFE TOUR'09 "NYAPPY GO AROUND THE WORLD II" -Harajuku Dance Rock Night-, in March and April, playing a total of 17 dates. It encompassed twelve countries: Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and the USA.

An Cafe announced on their official homepage that they would be taking a break from activities, stating, "after the Budokan show, each member will concentrate on their own activity to be prepared for the band to restart in the future." In the wake of the hiatus, several members are now involved in other projects. Kanon is heading a mobile phone game called Pinky?Distortion, which was released in July 2010. He was also a guest at Otakon 2010 as a panelist and guest DJ, as well as pairing up with ???? to form a duo act kanon×kanon. Miku is vocalist for the new visual kei band Lc5 formed in June 2010. Teruki is playing as a support drummer for the band DOGinThe??????????????.

They are back in 2012, releasing album Amazing Blue and having WORLD TOUR: LIVE CAFE TOUR 2012 NYAPPY GO AROUND THE WORLD III ?TADAIMA o(???)o OKAERI o(???)o?.

The correct tag to this band is ??????-???-. Vote to merge!