Returning to this space framed the final performance like a completed circle: not a repetition, but a reaffirmation. Weeks of travel, thirteen shows including in China, and all the colors of a passing season had gathered into one last night. Past and present came together, creating something new and hinting toward the future.
INORAN’s TOUR Determine 2025 came to its conclusion on November 15th at SHIBUYA CLUB QUATTRO — the same venue that had hosted the tour’s opening night on September 27 (full report here). Returning to this space framed the final performance like a completed circle: not a repetition, but a reaffirmation. Weeks of travel, thirteen shows including in China, and all the colors of a passing season had gathered into one last night. Past and present came together, creating something new and hinting toward the future.
Even before the house lights dimmed, the room had already transformed. The premium ticket T-shirts, designed by INORAN himself, released in three shades of blue across the tour, culminated tonight in a pale turquoise. Under the low amber lighting, the audience looked like a rippling lagoon — an homage to Niraikanai, the mythical ocean paradise that inspired the album’s re-recording (full interview here). The turquoise glow established a warm, unified landscape long before the music began. The stage was arranged as it had been on opening night: framing lights, soft floor lamps, a rug stretching under the amps. But the atmosphere felt different. Where the tour’s first show carried anticipation, tonight held familiarity — the relaxed intimacy of a band and audience who had matured together over more than a dozen performances.
To the instrumental track Discus, the album’s opener, guitarist Yukio Murata (my way my love), bassist u:zo, and drummer Ryo Yamagata entered the stage — the bandmates INORAN trusts deeply, bound to him by an unshakable musical connection. Amid roaring applause and cheers, INORAN walked on and took center stage. The instant the sharp intro of Determine rang out, the room was filled with a rush of exhilaration, like watching the sun rise over the horizon. “Are you ready to have fun? Let’s go all out!” he shouted. Dressed in his own brand Four Hydrangea, he moved constantly, stepping up onto the small platform to meet the eyes of the rear rows, making eye contact with the audience, leaning into the rhythm with an ease sharpened by the tour’s long arc. His presence was immediate and unforced; the room connected with him before the first chorus.
The concert went on.
Tension rose with the tracks raize, Cloudiness and Walk Along. The cohesion among the musicians was unmistakable: tighter, freer, and more instinctive than at the start of the tour. Their movements aligned not by rehearsal, but by accumulated trust. Reflecting on the tour, which began in late summer and continued into early winter, INORAN said: “It wasn’t just about the weather — you all showed me different seasons, different colors.” Leading into I miss you, the performance became one of the standout moments of the entire night. The song’s lyrics, contrasting passing time with unchanging feelings, carried new meaning 18 years later — no longer simply a love song, but something that seemed to foresee the path of life itself, with its cycles of loss and renewal.
When the nostalgic piano intro of Sonzai no Kakera echoed out, a glowing blue sphere descended from above. As it shifted to white, INORAN reached out and played with it. On a dimly lit stage, he held it close to his face, pressed it to his chest, then swung it like a pendulum as he sang, which held the audience enthralled.
After he left the stage briefly, the three band members launched into an instrumental session. Even though the arrangement had already evolved during the re-recording process, they pushed it further still — a raw, almost untamed performance that showcased how much the song had grown over the tour. When INORAN returned, the mood shifted again. He asked the audience to keep their energy high and “create a Genki Dama together.” The phrase, repeated throughout the night, carried quiet emotional weight: it followed the recent announcement, made around the album’s release, that LUNA SEA drummer Shinya is currently battling illness. “Being able to create this Genki Dama with you makes me incredibly happy. It’s the strength that supports someone you love — it’s love itself,” he said, before moving into Toki no Iro with palpable sincerity. Yet the show never stayed in a single emotional register.
One of INORAN’s strengths as a performer is his ability to shift naturally between depth and humor, and the MCs that followed demonstrated just how relaxed he had become by the tour’s end. Looser, funnier, and completely unguarded, they revealed a performer enjoying the moment as much as the audience. Scanning the turquoise crowd, he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed the short sleeves everywhere.
“Why are you all wearing half sleeves?”
“It’s hot!” – the crowd shouted back.
“Then remove it all.” – He responded.
The whole venue laughed.
The seriousness of the earlier moment giving way to an eruptive and collective warmth.
The final stretch of the set unfolded like a release of accumulated energy. As always on this tour, INORAN invited phones only for the track Unstoppable, creating a brief constellation of screens that somehow enhanced, rather than distracted from, the atmosphere. The sequence, Beautiful Now, Rise again and Thank you expanded the room in warmth. The unity reached its peak: turquoise shirts moving in unison, voices merging into a confident “Yeah, yeah,” and the final chorus landing like an embrace. Musically, the performance carried the imprint of thirteen nights’ worth of refinement. The band shifted fluidly between tension and softness: riffs snapping into place, drums pushing the dynamics upward, the bass grounding everything in warm low-end force.
As the final song All We Are began, the elegant guitar phrase INORAN played carried emotions deeper than any words spoken that night. This was, unmistakably, the embodiment of “connecting through music.” After repeated call-and-response exchanges with the crowd, INORAN faced Murata, u:zo, and Ryo playing with each of them. In the end, all three gathered at the front of Ryo’s kit to strike the last powerful notes together.
Introducing each band member, INORAN then made an announcement:
“Important notice! Niraikanai isn’t ending here. It’s not over yet”. He revealed that a follow-up is planned for 2026. “We’ll be back in front of you with this same team and staff. You’re the best. Thank you so much!” he said, shouting off-mic, before the four musicians linked shoulders and bowed deeply.
What defined this final night of the year 2025 was not its setlist — which remained largely unchanged from the opener — but its chemistry. The familiarity. The shared in-jokes. The sense that every stop of the tour had added a color, a temperature, a small shift in timing, and that all of those details aligned tonight. Despite a demanding schedule that included LUNATIC FEST. 2025 (November 8th and 9th) and two shows in China, INORAN completed all 13 performances. The result was a rare rock concert that balanced dynamic power with the artistic expression of a musician navigating the emotional landscapes of past, present, and future. Niraikanai – Rerecorded began as a return to a 2007 album — a conversation with an older self. But it ended as something completely alive: a living ecosystem created between INORAN, his band, and the audience, glowing in turquoise, warm with laughter, charged with sound. A story that began in September closed here — only to open again in whatever follows in 2026. Stay tuned for more!
─────────────
Mandah FRÉNOT
(c) VMJ
⩺ OFFICIAL WEBSITE | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL FACEBOOK | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL INSTAGRAM | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL X (ex-TWITTER) | HERE
⩺ OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | HERE
