Luna Sea

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Luna Sea was a visual kei band, originally formed under the name of Lunacy in 1989 by Ryuichi Kawamura, Yasuhiro Sugihara, Shinobu Inoue, Jun Onose and Shinya Yamada. The band broke up in 2000.

The roots of the band lay in 1986 when Onose and Inoue decided to form their own band. They played on local radio, and after graduation, the rest of the band left to go to college. They were joined by Sugihara and Yamada and shortly afterward by Kawamura. In 1989, they started playing at a live house in Tokyo Machida.

On August 1989, they made their first demo tape Lunacy, which completely sold out. In November 1990, the band changed their name into Luna Sea. They had built a following around Tokyo and were discovered by the late Hideto Matsumoto and then signed by X Japan co-founder Yoshiki Hayashi to his independent label Extasy Records. They released their debut album Luna Sea in 1991. After touring almost constantly, they released their major label debut Image on MCA Victor.

The band gradually dropped its original visual kei look in favor of something more casual.

By 1996, they were able to fill the Tokyo Dome, Japan's largest live venue. The following year, they took a year long break while band members pursued solo projects.

They returned in 1998 with a double best of, another side of SINGLES II and played summer festivals. In 1999, the band embarked on their first overseas shows in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2000, they announced their break up and played farewell concerts at the Tokyo Dome.

Kawamura developed a strong solo career, doing films and commercials and writing for other artists. Sugizo now produces artists such as Miyu Sakamotos well as performing. Inoue formed a band called Fake? Onose has produced and also released solo material. Yamada married Aya Ishiguro from the idol group Morning Musume, and has become a TV celebrity.