Remembering NoB, a Great Singer of Anime, Tokusatsu Songs

By MIshio Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:00 JST, September 12, 2025

Singer NoB, known for singing “Pegasus Fantasy,” the theme song of TV anime “Saint Seiya,” and songs of many Super Sentai superhero shows on TV, died on Aug. 9. He was 61.

In 2018, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and told he had only five years to live. Yet he continued to sing as he fought the disease. He kept singing on stage until the end of June, and he was apparently discussing song arrangements and future concert plans until the day before his death.

It was after he sang the theme songs of two Super Sentai dramas, “Gogo Sentai Bokenger” and “Tenso Sentai Goseiger,” that I got to know NoB.

In 2010, I interviewed him for a newspaper column titled “Suteki Kazoku” (Wonderful families), which featured well-known people talking about their families. I was a bit scared of NoB before the interview because so much about him, from the way he swung his custom-made microphone stand while singing to the accessories he wore, gave off the impression that he was a major rock-and-roller. He was too wild and too cool, and he seemed inapproachable. I was even worried he might not answer me if I asked him questions about anything other than music.

But NoB laughed and said, “I don’t mind at all,” and told me about his life with his two sons.

“From now on, they’ll have more opportunities to meet people from overseas, so I hope they’ll grow up to be able to give consideration to people with different cultural backgrounds,” he told me with a fatherly look. With a kindness that seemed to envelop me, he was the polar opposite of what I had presumed.

From that point on, I had the honor of being on good terms with NoB, who was kind enough to frequently appear in talk and music events I organized, such as Tokuuta Matsuri, a concert mainly featuring songs from tokusatsu TV dramas and films.

One of my most unforgettable memories of him is from the Tokuuta Matsuri concert which was held at a Tokyo club on March 25, 2011, shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake — only two weeks after the disaster, to be precise. To save electricity, heating at the venue was turned off and the lighting was kept to a minimum. And yet, the house was packed with an audience who was fearing for the uncertain future. In this dimly lit room, NoB sang the theme song from “Tenso Sentai Goseiger,” whose lyrics include the line, “Kibo ga kimi no mirai o tsukuru” (Hope makes your future). I cannot describe how much courage hearing him sing that song at that time gave to everyone at the venue — the audience, the club staff and those on stage, including myself, who were all stricken with fear from the quake and the nuclear disaster. It was as if a gleaming light of hope were descending on us.

Of course, the song itself was great. But greater than everything else was NoB’s singing, how he gave wings to the lyrics and endowed them with the power to sway the hearts of those who heard them. It was the kind of song that could strike your soul and make you understand the true power of a vocalist.

NoB was a one-of-a-kind vocalist who could record a song perfectly in just one take. He was a busy, sought-after singer even outside Japan, who repeatedly received invitations not only from various countries and regions in Asia and Europe but from places as far away as Brazil. He sang songs and enchanted fans all over the world.

At his wake in Tokyo, NoB lay in a coffin with his eyes closed, wearing his usual cool attire and accessories. His hands were not clasped but lightly placed on his body, one above the other, as if he were holding a microphone. It was very much the NoB we always knew. He almost looked like he was going to walk out onto a stage at any moment.

NoB, you did well in your long fight with your illness. Thank you very much for the time we spent together and for the many great songs you sang.