Anime Song Veteran Takayuki Miyauchi Belts Out 70 Songs in a Row at 70th Birthday Concert

By Mishio Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

12:00 JST, April 11, 2025

A song is sung from the heart.

I rediscovered this principle at a recent concert by anison (anime song) singer Takayuki Miyauchi. He celebrated his 70th birthday in February, and to commemorate the occasion, two concerts were planned for him to sing 70 songs in one day.

The concerts were held in Tokyo on March 8, one during daytime and the other in the evening. They were titled Miya Matsuri — miya comes from Miyauchi’s name as well as one of the Japanese readings of 3 and 8, taken from the concert date, and matsuri, which means festival. I had the honor of serving as the emcee for the evening performance.

I just casually wrote “sing 70 songs in one day,” but that is an extraordinary feat. I asked my acquaintances who are young singers of what they thought, and they all commented things such as, “Incredible,” or, “I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Technically, Miyauchi did not sing every song in its entirety. Some songs were included as a medley but still counted toward the total. That said, it is still very challenging to sing 70 songs, each coming from different perspectives. Being on stage for an extended time is also physically taxing.

I arrived at the venue around the time the day concert ended. Miyauchi, who had just sung 35 songs on stage, looked surprisingly fit and was happily eating custard pudding. After suffering from a serious illness more than 10 years ago, he stopped eating sweets. But today he allowed himself to break the rule, he told me.

“My throat is fine even after singing 35 songs,” he said. “But it hurts my leg [especially around the knee] that I fractured a while ago, when I stand for so long on stage.”

We decided that he could sit while singing during the evening concert. And the performance began.

Miyauchi sang songs from a wide variety of anime and tokusatsu live-action superhero TV shows. From powerful robot songs to nostalgic superhero songs and more recent anison, he poured his heart out in each one. Robot songs, which feature robots appearing in Super Sentai series tokusatsu dramas, are full of energy. Singers can burn a lot of calories by singing just one of them. Miyauchi did three nonstop. The lyrics of these types of songs often include many of the same words, such as “gattai” (combine), “ike” (go) and “tatakae” (fight).

“Don’t you ever get confused when you sing many of those songs?” I asked him.

“Singing is not about memorizing lyrics. I memorize the pictures the lyrics describe, so I never get confused,” he replied.

Miyauchi also sang many popular ballads, such as “Tsuwamonotachi” (Warriors) and “Subete wa Kimi o Aisuru tameni” (Everything is for loving you). In fact, after he fell ill, Miyauchi stopped singing ballads for some time. He could not sing them because he could not recall how he sang them.

“I learned them again, one by one, as if it was my first time,” he said on stage. “But it was a nice experience because I got to study them afresh.”

I think he was able to make a remarkable comeback because he has such a relentless spirit and forward-looking mindset.

Toward the end, he was joined by actors Masaru Yamashita, who played Fire in “Tokkei Winspector,” Sumiko Tanaka (Yellow Four in “Chodenshi Bioman”), Michiko Makino (Pink Five in “Chodenshi Bioman”) and Yuki Nagata (Yellow Mask in Hikari Sentai Maskman). They all added even more brilliance to the concert.

When Miyauchi sang the 70th song, “Biomic Soldier,” together with the guests, the crowd erupted into enthusiastic applause. Miyauchi’s voice not only sounded ageless, but the more he sang, the more brightness his voice seemed to gain. He achieved the feat of singing 70 songs in one day in a fantastic style.

Of course, I would not deny that his performance was still somewhat affected by his illness. However, his 70 songs moved the hearts of the audience, eclipsing technical details. I think those songs surely told us something very important about living. Here I would like to write once again: A song is sung from the heart.