Babymetal’s Moametal says she hopes the band’s single Karate helps encourage interest in Japanese culture.
The singer – aka Moa Kikuchi – explains that karate is the only martial art that doesn’t use the technique of ‘ukemi’, which loosely translates to ‘falling safely,’ and she says that fearless attitude sums up Babymetal’s drive.
Moametal tells Music Choice: “We would be thrilled if people across the world would embrace Japanese culture through this song.
“Karate is the only Japanese martial art which doesn’t have ukemi. And we, Babymetal, are always looking ahead and forward without ukemi. I believe this song captures the essence of Babymetal.”
Meanwhile, Babymetal have been incorporated into Nintendo Wii U game Super Mario Maker. From today (April 28), the trio’s image can be downloaded as a Mystery Mushroom costume. In the game, when Mario grabs the mushroom, he changes into Babymetal and their voices can be heard during gameplay.
A video of the game footage can be viewed below.
Karate is taken from Babymetal’s second album Metal Resistance, released earlier this year. The band continue their world tour next month, after their April 2 appearance at Wembley Arena broke merchandise sales records.
Babymetal World Tour 2016
May 04: New York Playstation Theater, NY
May 05: Boston House Of Blues, MA
May 07: Philadelphia Electric Factory, PA
May 08: Concord Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion, MC
May 10: Silver Spring The Fillmore, MD
May 11: Detroit The Fillmore, MI
May 13: Chicago House Of Blues, IL
May 14: Somerset Northern Invasion, WI
Jun 02: Pratteln Z7, Switzerland
Jun 03: Vienna Rock In Vienna, Austria
Jun 05: Nijmegen Forta Rock, Netherlands
Jun 07: Cologne Live Music Hall, Germany
Jun 08: Stuttgart Longhorn, Germany
Jun 11: Paris Download Festival, France
Jul 12: Seattle Showbox Soho, WA
Jul 14: San Francisco Regency Ballroom, CA
Jul 15: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Jul 17: Bridgeview Chicago Open Air Festival, IL
Jul 24: Niigata Fuji Rock, Japan
Aug 6-7: Rock In Japan, Japan
Aug 12-13: Rising Sun Rock Festival, Japan
Aug 13-14: Rock In Japan, Japan
Aug 21: Osaka Summer Sonic, Japan
Sep 19: Tokyo Dome, Japan
