Pictured: The greatest case of Older Than They Look in recorded history. note
Takanori Nishikawa, born September 19, 1970 in Hikone, Japan, is a Japanese singer, better known as T.M.Revolution. Despite most of his songs being written by Akio Inoue and composed/arranged by Daisuke Asakura, TMR is considered Nishikawa's solo project.
Nishikawa got his start in music as the vocalist of the Visual Kei band Luis-Mary from 1990 until they disbanded in 1993, during which time he operated under the Stage Name "Haine". Nishikawa first worked with Daisuke Asakura in 1995, providing the vocals for the A-side of Asakura's third solo single which was released under the alias of "Daisuke Asakura expd. Takanori Nishikawa" (expd. meaning expanded and designating Nishikawa as a guest vocalist). Asakura liked his voice so much that he decided he wanted to continue working with him. The act T.M.Revolution (Takanori Makes Revolution) debuted the next year with his first official single "dokusai -monopolize-".
In 1999, it was announced that the T.M.Revolution project was over, as Nishikawa and Asakura had agreed it would be upon meeting three specific goals: hold a live at the Tokyo Dome, reach #1 on the Oricon charts and sell a million copies of a single release. Nishikawa and Asakura then created a sequel project to T.M.Revolution called (and hold onto your hats for this one) "the end of genesis T.M.R.evolution Turbo Type D"...or "TMR-e" for short. They released three singles under the name but Nishikawa and Asakura began to grow distant around the turn of the millennium and Nishikawa decided to go back to performing as T.M.Revolution in early 2000.
In 1999, Nishakawa married Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi fame, though the pair divorced in 2002 after it emerged Yoshimura was having an affair. On August 2020, he got married to someone outside the entertainment industry.
Takanori Nishikawa is also co-founder and vocalist of rock band abingdon boys school. He's also received his own Nendoroid.
In 2017, he began to perform music under his own name as a solo artist rather than as "T.M.Revolution".
Tropes associated with T.M.Revolution's music and videos, and Takanori Nishikawa himself include:
- Album Filler: Especially in his earlier albums.
- Anime Theme Song: T.M.Revolution has contributed theme songs to Rurouni Kenshin, B't X note , Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, D.Gray-Man, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Sengoku Basara, Bleach, Thunderbolt Fantasy, Fate/Extra Last Encore and formed part of a duet with Nana Mizuki for the opening theme of Valvrave the Liberator.
- Arm Cannon / Rocket Punch: The PV for madan~Der Freischutz~ features an overprotective dad who converts his arm into an Arm Cannon, and Nishikawa responds with a Rocket Punch.
- Author Appeal: Nishikawa's clothing brand, DEFROCK, among other things. During the first few years of the project, T.M.Revolution's sound was this for Daisuke Asakura.
- Camp Straight
- Chronological Album Title: Many of his album titles reference where they fall chronologically.
- Triple Joker (Third album)
- The Force (Fourth album. The English words "fourth" and "force" are written and pronounced the same way when rendered in katakana.)
- SEVENTH HEAVEN (Seventh album)
- Vertical Infinity (Eighth album, because a numeral 8 has a superficial resemblance to infinity symbol turned on its side)
- CLOUD NINE (Ninth album)
- TEN (Tenth album)
- Concept Video: Several, including madan~Der Frieschutz~, INVOKE and Meteor. Out Of Orbit~Triple ZERO~ manages to combine this with Three Minutes of Writhing.
- Cover Album: A self-cover album, to be precise. UNDER:COVER features straight rock arrangements of many of his songs, with the tracklist having been chosen through online voting by fans.
- Darker and Edgier: There was a noticeable shift in overall tone when he went back to being a solo artist after TMR-e ended.
- Displaced Origin: While T.M.Revolution officially started in 1996 with the release of dokusai-monopolize-, Nishikawa actually started working with Daisuke Asakura in 1995, with a single released under Asakura's name (with a sub-credit to Nishikawa), BLACK or WHITE?. An album mix was created for MAKES REVOLUTION, and as such is generally considered to be part of the T.M.Revolution canon despite its origins.
- Engrish: Not always his fault, since the majority of his lyrics are written by dedicated lyricist Akio Inoue.
- Epic Instrumental Opener: All the damn time, and always a form of Author Appeal for Daisuke Asakura. Albireo, Zips, madan~Der Freischutz~, LOVE SAVER, CHASE/THE THRILL... the list goes on. Asakura really loves long opening riffs.
- Epic Rocking: CHASE/THE TRILL clocks in at 7:07, and is some of the most gratuitous Author Appeal from Asakura in T.M.Revolution's entire discography. The intro alone is almost a minute long.
- Fun Size: He's 161 cm tall (about 5'3") due to malnourishment as a child.
- Fun with Acronyms: T.M.Revolution stands for "Takanori Makes Revolution".
- Genre-Busting: Shifts back and forth between pop and rock. He also does electronic, punk and, occasionally, heavy metal. Each and every song can differ between any combination of the aforementioned genres, which makes his musical style quite difficult to classify.
- Genre Shift: It's more apparent in his live performances than in his recordings, but beginning with progress, his sound has gotten heavier, with increasingly consistent use of traditional instruments as opposed to being primarily keyboards and programming. His more recent material leans more towards J-metal than any other genre.
- Gratuitous German: "Madan ~Der Freischütz~".
- Greatest Hits Album: Four so far: B☆E☆S☆T, UNDER:COVER, 1000000000000 and UNDER:COVER 2.
- I Am the Band: T.M.Revolution is also a solo project. He may have a near permanent set of support musicians these days, and doesn't write any of his music or most of his lyrics, but Nishikawa is still the only permanent member in the traditional sense.
- Idiosyncratic Album Theming: Starting with Restoration Level 3, each of his albums features a song with a title that has the initials "T.M.R."
- Idol Singer: Started out as a rare male example. Totally subverted when Nishikawa took control of the project away from Daisuke Asakura.
- Ink-Suit Actor:
- Both of the characters he voiced for Gundam SEED qualify, but Heine Westenfluss takes the trope up to eleven by not only looking like him, but also being named after him (Heine is a play on the name he used in Luis~Mary and "Westenfluss" is a literal translation of his last name into German). Even the name of Heine's Gouf remake is a reference to the theme song that T.M.Revolution contributed to that season, Ignited.
- He joined the cast of Thunderbolt Fantasy as the wandering minstrel Lang Wu Yao, who was originally modeled after him for an event Pili attended to exhibit their crafting skills.
- Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: The Gundam in the Zips PV.
- Keet
- Long-Runners: He debuted 18 years ago, and his popularity still holds strong, despite the last half of that being more than a little inconsistent activity-wise.
- Lyrical Cold Open: BOARDING and gunjou-GUNJOH-.
- May–December Romance: He has a tendency to date much younger women. One was 18 years his junior.
- Metal Scream: Master Feel Sad features one. He also does a lot of high-pitched screams during live shows, which seems unusual for a pop singer.
- Mr. Fanservice: His live performances typically involve stripping off multiple layers of costuming, usually until he's at least half naked.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Meteor PV.
- Nerds Are Sexy
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Averted by his primary support bassist, Ikuo, who has a very healthy personal fandom.
- Older Than They Look: 50 YEARS OLD (in 2020)
- Overly Long Name: the end of genesis T.M.R.evolution Turbo Type D
- Rearrange the Song: In addition to the aforementioned UNDER:COVER, BLACK OR WHITE? version 3 is an overhaul of his first single. THUNDERBIRD also got this treatment for Coordinate.
- Record Producer: Daisuke Asakura, who was T.M.Revolution's "total producer" for many years, is a combination Acrimony/One Or More Trick Pony producer. He has a reputation for alienating the people he works with by being overbearing and controlling- because he also writes all of the music and plays the keyboards for everything he has ever produced. He still writes the music and plays keyboards, but Nishikawa is his own producer now, hence the deviation from DA's typical formula since Coordinate.
- Re-release the Song: BLACK OR WHITE? version 3.
- Self-Titled Album: MAKES REVOLUTION, his first album.
- Shout-Out: T.M.Revolution's name is a shout out to TM Network. Daisuke Asakura's first real gig as a professional keyboard player was a support gig with them, and is also how he met his mentor and idol, Tetsuya Komuro.
- Song Style Shift: Master Feel Sad again. Starts out sounding like a soft ballad, then suddenly HEAVY METAL.
- Spin-Off: the end of genesis T.M.R.evolution Turbo Type D (abbreviated as TMR-e), a Retool of T.M.Revolution's sound and image, that only lasted one album. Came about because of Takanori Nishikawa and Daisuke Asakura's original agreement to end T.M.Revolution after meeting three specific goals. abingdon boys school is also this.
- Stage Names: Subverted. Even though he performs his solo work under the mantle of T.M.Revolution, he actually does use his real name, and is usually addressed as such in interviews and the like.
- Synth-Pop: As per usual for any project of Daisuke Asakura's, his music is very keyboard and programming heavy. His earlier albums are straight plays of this trope while his more recent ones subvert it with the ever growing presence of traditional rock instruments.
- Textless Album Cover: 1000000000000
- Three Minutes of Writhing: Many of his PVs are this; even the ones with a plot.
- Word Salad Title: The aforementioned T.M.R. initialed songs always seem to invoke this. His other songs with English titles mostly avert this by being only one or two words long. TMR-e's full name is also this.
His costumes are the stuff of legend, and throughout his 16 years of activity have provided examples of the following tropes:
- Badass Longcoat: The IGNITED PV. Also a recurrent theme with his live performance costumes.
- Clothing Damage: Several PVs make use of this.
- Cosplay: He wore an AKB48 schoolgirl outfit for a cover of one of their songs at his 2012 new year's live.
- Costume Porn
- Crossdresser/Dude Looks Like a Lady/Attractive Bent-Gender: The costume theme for UNDER:COVER's insert featured Nishikawa in very convincing drag.
- Fluffy Fashion Feathers: One of the SEVENTH HEAVEN costumes featured a top made of feathers. And again, his live performance costumes have featured this as well.
- Fur Bikini/Animal-Eared Headband: Wild Rush PV.
- Gem-Encrusted: One of the costumes featured in SEVENTH HEAVEN's booklet is little more than rhinestones glued all over his body.
- Happy Holidays Dress: Okay so it wasn't a dress, but The Burnin' Xmas PV costumes were Happy Holidays... somethings. TMR-e's Winter Dust PV also features (an arguably more tasteful) variation.
- Iconic Outfit: HOT LIMIT. Just... HOT LIMIT.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: In recent years, most of his costumes have been outright Costume Porn.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: But not always, especially in the early years. See Rummage Sale Reject below.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: He's had loads of these.
- Painted-On Pants
- Pimp Duds: A few of his stage outfits were this on steroids.
- Pimped-Out Cape: Burnin' Xmas PV again.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Not so much in recent years, but there was a period of time when he pretty much embodied this trope.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Mostly in photoshoots.
- Shirtless Scene: Not quite frequent enough to qualify him as a Walking Shirtless Scene, but often enough to be a primary contributing factor to his status as a Mr. Fanservice.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Frequently. Tends to be combined with fingerless gloves.
- Stripperiffic: HOT LIMIT PV.
- Stylish Protection Gear: Several PVs have used variations on this.
- Zipperiffic
