Music / Hyadain

Best best friend! Everything in great harmony! nananananana!

Hyadain (born July 4, 1980) is a Japanese singer, arranger, composer and music producer, well known for his work on game music, with often very liberal (and frequently hilarious) interpretations of characters in the games. He posts all his work on both Nicovideo and Youtube.

His most famous works are probably the various songs he did for Mega Man 2 (6 out of 8 Robot Masters, so far), where each Robot Master sings a song basically professing their love to Mega Man (except for Bubbleman, who's just incredibly lonely, and Heatman... who seems to be a giant man-slut). He also has a large number of songs that are arrangements of various Dragon Quest songs (and as a bit of trivia, his nickname is derived from the Japanese spell name of "Kacrack"). He also sang a good number of covers of old anime songs. He does all the voices himself, using computer editing to make the female voices.

He eventually revealed on his blog that he is in fact Kenichi Maeyamada, a professional composer in the Japanese music industry, which was suspected by a good many of us due to the incredible quality of his work. He signed under the management Stardust Promotion, which also the home of Natsuko Aso and Momoiro Clover Z, sources of his main works and his biggest hits. Because of his distinct happy upbeat musical style, his works often involves various Idol Singer, such as the two mentioned above, AKB48, YuiKaori and Koharu Kusumi of Hello! Project, 9nine, Dempagumi Inc. and Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku. He has worked on a LOT of Japanese anime theme songs, including the 10th opening for One Piece, "Share the World", and remarkably Nichijou's theme where he actually made his name known among foreign fans. He switches between a good number of styles, though the majority of his songs are intended to be funny or cutesy, with lots of puns everywhere else. he can also do heart-wrenching ballads and darker-themed songs.

His professional website lists his complete discography outside of his game music arrangements.

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His work provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Hyadain has only done 6 out of 8 of the Robot Masters, with the last one being Heat Man in 2010. Since Air Man has an infamous song associated with his difficulty made by a completely different artist, that leaves Wood Man out (although keep in mind Air Man ga Taosenai has verses dedicated to Wood Man too). Many years later, Man on the Internet and Juno Songs both made lyrical covers on Wood Man's Smash Ultimate theme, but those are in English as opposed to Japanese like the mentioned tracks above.
• Album Intro Track: 20112012 is opened by a track titled "19802011", it's all Spoken Word in Music and delivered in the style of Opening Narration, describing Hyadain's biography.
• Alter-Ego Acting: The name "Hyadain" is only used when Maeyamada both creates and writes the song and for his internet pseudonym; when he only composes or writes the song, he uses his real name.
  • The female vocals that are often heard in many of his songs are provided by "Hyadaruko". Although she is portrayed by actresses (such as Natsuko Aso in "Kakakata kataomoi-C" and Akari Hayami of Momoiro Clover Z in "Jyojyo Yuujo") in music videos, "Hyadaruko" is actually Hyadain, by altering his voice pitch.
• Anime Theme Song:
  • As a professional composer and writer even before his viral YouTube hits, he has actually a lot of anime themes under his belt. To name a few examples, "Don't Go Baby" from Initial D, "Tan Tan Taan!" and "Happy Happy Sunday" from Kirarin☆Revolution, and "Perfect-area Complete!" from Baka And Test.
  • And then, he has his other hits when he managed to debut as a professional singer in Nichijou for "Hyadain no Kakakata kataomoi-C", such as "Start it right away" for Kuroko's Basketball.
• Anti-Christmas Song: "Xmas? I don't know such a thing!!" is mainly the singer complaining about various aspects of Christmas.

• Auto-Tune: He's a god at this stuff.
• Big Brother Mentor: He happens to be a faithful music mentor figure for Natsuko Aso, Momoiro Clover Z, and Ebichu, in a friendly way as if they were companions. There were an instance when a member jokingly punched him and complained "I want more singing parts!". He even wrote several songs based on their life and their gimmicks.
  • He also helped them to do their school homework.
  • During a live concert of Momoclo, he shed tears when his song was being performed.

• Black Comedy Rape: “Crash!!! Let’s Do It” is an upbeat, quirky song about Crash Man having sex with Mega Man without the latter’s consent; the lyrics mention him using Flash Man’s Time Stopper to keep him frozen in place.
• Call-Back:
  • Each of the Mega Man 2 songs (excluding the first, for reasons about to be made fairly obvious) contains a brief sample of the song that came before it towards the end of them, with varying degrees of subtlety.
  • Almost all of his songs for Momoiro Clover Z features call backs to each other and other works as well. Apparently he loves doing stuff like this.
• Child Prodigy: He is a true music genius. He began playing the piano at age four, he first composed a song with a synthetsizer in middle school, and only needed a single day to complete a song.
• Chiptune: Maeyamada loves retro gaming, no one has to wonder why he features a lot of chiptune in many of his songs' arrangements.
  • "Ano Hi no Boku He" opens with a chiptune.
  • The track "Hyadain Quest" is a chiptune medley-song from his hits.
  • His opening song for the Japanese dub of Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. Not surprising since it's for, well, a show based on Pac-Man.
• Christmas Songs: As mentioned above, "Xmas? I don't know such a thing!!" and Momoclo's "Santa-San". Bonus points are that both songs share many public domain Christmas carols all over the place, as the latter is recycled from the former and filled with many Mythology Gags. To add the hilarity, the music video for the 2011's version of "Xmas?" features many Momoclo's props.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Many of his post-2012 songs are very noticeable to feature downer lyrics and drastic arrangement changes from his usual style, such as "Start It Right Away" and "23:40".
  • Taken to the extreme in Momoclo's Hai to Diamond. It's a heavy ballad, with partly despaired lyrics and misplaced vocals, if you compare it to his earlier songs back then (when the fans called it "Hyadain-Era Momoclo"). Many people even think " is this seriously a song by Hyadain?".
• Don't Look At Me: He doesn't like to be looked at when he is doing the recording.
• Epic Instrumental Opener: Momoclo's "Overture" and Ebichu's "Ebichure"
• Gratuitous English: His English sounds pretty good, but that's not saying a whole lot.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Sliding into Ho Yay, a good number of his songs (particularly his series of Mega Man songs, but also his Goemon and Final Fantasy IV tracks) displays many (if not all) of the characters involved as gay or bisexual.
  • He also has done a song (sequel to "Hyadain no Kakakata kataomoi-C") about two good friends, one of whom has just gotten a girlfriend (but seems to be only complaining about her) while the other doesn't seem to be just jealous of him...
• Hurricane of Puns: He loves to make tons of puns, that are almost everywhere in his songs, making them part of his trademarks.
• I Minored in Tropology: He is a major... in sociology.
• In Love with Looks: In Super Mario World Western Show, Princess Peach isn't interested in either Mario or Bowser because of their looks.
• Intercourse with You: Two of his Mega Man 2 songs are this- HEAT!!!, and Crash!!! Let's Do It.
• Larynx Dissonance
• Let's Duet: While doing a song with Hyadaruko isn't exactly a duet, a number of the songs that are also featured in 20112012 are duet songs with several musicians (like VERBAL from m-flo) and Hiro Shimono.
• Lucky Charms Title: Many of Hyadain's songs feature a "☆" star symbol somewhere else, to name a few, "Hyadain no Kakakata☆kataomoi-C", "Koko☆Natsu", "Shooting☆Smile" and "Happy☆Happy Sunday!".
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Justified as he uses a digital voice modifier.
• Medley: His "Hyadain Quest" song. He also composed "Momoiro Kohaku Da Z!", a medley song for Momoiro Clover Z that was performed in Kohaku 2012.
• Never Trust a Title: "Samba De Toriko" isn't a samba, and has nothing to do with Toriko...
• Pop-Star Composer
• Rail Enthusiast: He's a founder of "Stardust Train Club", a community of train lovers from his agency.
• Record Producer: More specific, he is an Idol producer. He was also the producer for Natsuko Aso and Momoiro Clover Z and was the responsible for bringing their untarnished energetic and cheerful reputation. Now, he is handling Dempagumi Inc. and is the main producer for Takoyaki Rainbow.
• Sequel Song: The boy that suffers unrequited love in "Hyadain no Kakakata kataomoi-C" finally gets a girlfriend in "Riajutte Konna Mon Dakke?".... and it looks like he is not completely happy about it.
• Shout-Out:
  • As a Youtube commenter puts it:
    "I still love the fact that even after Hyadain got into the anime business, he still abuses the Yaranaika meme to no end."
  • He once began a song with "Are you ready? I'm...MAN!"
  • In Dhalsim's portion of the "World Warrior" song, you can clearly hear the lyric "Gomu Gomu no Mi". Also, Zangief's section borrows one of the original Tetris background melodies.
  • The video for "Riajutte Konna Mon Dakke?" uses also a reference to Pokémon and One Piece.
  • A very common part of his video game parody lyrics. Listing all of the times he has referenced and namedropped various shows and their memes would probably take years.
• Singer Namedrop: His artistic name is even dropped in the songs' titles.
• Song Style Shift: This is how most of his works become distinctively fun, Momoiro Clover Z's ""Mirai Bowl" is a good example.
• Song Parody: "Hyadain no Kakakata kataomoi-C" is self parodied two times. "Hyadain no Kakakata kataomoi-F", which is the B-side of the main song's single is basically a Truck Driver's Gear Change vocals from C (Hyadain) to F (Hyadaruko). And "Kataomoi-Bon" is sung by a drunk man in Karaoke outlet, which is included in 20112012.
• Spoken Word in Music: Also one of his trademarks.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: A lot of people ignore that the "sexy female vocals" in many of Hyadain's songs are actually just him using a voice program to alter his voice's pitch (likely to be Melodyne).
• Stop and Go: "Xmas? I don't know such a thing!!".
• Summon Backup Dancers: Many of his music videos.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Hamigaki".
• Take That!: Maeyamada is currently producing another six color-coded idol group called Dempagumi.Inc, and he is composing most of their singles. The reason he did that was because he quit from producing Momoiro Clover Z after he had a couple of problems with their management. Hilariously, he's recently gotten back with Stardust producing for their newer idol group and fellow Kansai residents Takoyaki Rainbow, who are very much like Momoclo but without any red member.
• Title by Number: His first album is titled 20112012, a reference to many of his major works that started in 2011. And the first track that it has, is called "19802011".
• Title Theme Tune:
  • He is responsible for the main theme songs for many of the idols he produced, that the listeners would unlikely forget. The lyrics tend to describe what kind of idols they are and they even list the members. Primary examples are Momoclo's "Kaitou Shojo" and "Z Densetsu" (the latter being an updated version after the group's lineup changed), Ebichu's "Ebizori Diamond", Takoniji's "Zesshou!", and Dempagumi's "W.W.D".
  • This is a practice that has also been carried out throughout since his YouTube mixing days. Almost all of his remixes' lyrics are expository.
  • He wrote Sphere's "Ding Dong! Ding Dong!" for their fourth album, where each member get to showcase their respective preferred solo genre (rock, J-pop, pop, and opera), all in the same song. Not surprisingly, it became the only song from that album that was voted and submitted by Sphere's fans to their Greatest Hits collection, only a few months later.

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