Takanori Nishikawa

Takanori Nishikawa (西川 貴教) is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, voice actor, radio personality, and businessman.

He performs under the stage name T.M.Revolution (T.M.R.), which stands for "Takanori Makes Revolution" (貴教が革命を起こす), stemming from the famous 1980s pop electronic band TM Network.

Despite most of his songs being written by Akio Inoue and composed/arranged by Daisuke Asakura (also TMR's former producer), T.M.Revolution is considered Nishikawa's solo project.

Nishikawa is also known for contributions of ending and opening themes to many notable anime and game series.

Nishikawa joined the visual kei rock band Luis-Mary in 1990 as the vocalist.

His band nickname Haine (灰猫) and his appearance at the time would eventually become the inspiration for Nishikawa's character in Gundam SEED Destiny (Heine Westenfluss).

Luis-Mary released three singles; "Rainy Blue", "Whisper(In Your Eyes)" and "Drive Me Mad".

The band broke up in 1993.

In 1995, Daisuke Asakura signed on with Nishikawa under the FunHouse label, now owned by BMG Japan.

They released one single, Black or White?, under the name '''Daisuke Asakura expd.

Takanori Nishikawa'''.

Nishikawa participated in a mini three-band event in November 1995.

His fan club, turbo, was established shortly afterwards, in December 1995.

After three years as vocalist of the visual kei rock band Luis-Mary, Nishikawa debuted as TMR with the release of his first solo single "Dokusai (Monopolize)" (独裁 -monopolize-) in May 1996.

Later that year, his third single "Heart of Sword (Yoake Mae)" (HEART OF SWORD ～夜明け前～) was used as the third ending song for the anime series Rurouni Kenshin, further expanding his fan base.

He also contributed six songs to the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED franchise – three for Gundam SEED and three for Gundam SEED Destiny.

Nishikawa has guest starred as a minor character in each of those anime series that featured his songs.

The original “Black or White?” song also appears as the third track on TMR's first album Makes Revolution (1996).

In early 1996, Nishikawa made several radio appearances announcing the debut of his solo project.

On March 22, 1996, the project was given the name T.M.Revolution, with Asakura named as TMR's producer.

Dokusai -monopolize- was released on May 13, 1996, under the Antinos Records label.

It reached #28 on the Oricon charts.

Nishikawa's performance on NHK's music variety show Pop Jam (which he would, later in his career, cohost for eleven months) helped boost sales, eventually selling out all first press copies of the single.

This song was rerecorded in 1997 and also rearranged in 2000 as TMR's twelfth single (Black or White? version 3).

Takanori was also married to Yumi Yoshimura of Puffy AmiYumi from 1999 to 2002.

Tofu released three of his studio albums: coordinate (2003), Seventh Heaven (2004), and vertical infinity (2005).

Nishikawa made his North American live debut at Otakon, a large anime convention in 2003.

He has also performed at Pacific Media Expo in 2004 and at the New York Comic Con in 2008.

In 2005, Nishikawa formed the rock band Abingdon Boys School.

T.M.Revolution was the first artist to be signed to Tofu Records, a record label (affiliated with Sony Music Japan) promoting Japanese artists in North America.

In 2010, his single "Save the One, Save the All" was used as the ending theme song for the movie Bleach: Hell Verse.

Several of Nishikawa's songs, such as "Crosswise" and "Flags", have been used by Capcom's Sengoku Basara video game series and media franchise.

Nishikawa revisited his 2003 US performance at the Asian culture convention Otakon by performing at Otakon's 20th Anniversary on August 10, 2013.

Nishikawa was born to a government worker (father, Yasuhiro) and a dental hygienist (mother, Kazuko) in Hikone, Shiga and moved to Yasu, Shiga.

He attended Mikami Elementary School (三上小学校) as a child.

Nishikawa was close to his grandfather (a retired policeman), whom he visited every day after school, since his parents were always working.

Under the encouragement of his grandfather, Takanori studied kendo until age ten, when his grandfather died due to illness.

Nishikawa also attended Yasu Junior High School (野洲中学校) and Yasu High School (滋賀県立野洲高等学校).

While in junior high, Takanori began to consider a career in music.

He dropped out of high school and left Shiga to pursue his dream.