JAM Project

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Don't touch that picture, it might just burn your finger off.

JAM Project is a music Supergroup composed of some of the best and most Hot-Blooded musicians in the universe. It was founded in 2000 by Ichirou Mizuki (Mazinger Z [!],Great Mazinger, Devilman, ...), Hironobu Kageyama ("Cha-la Head Cha-la", "Soldier Dream"), Masaaki Endoh ("Yuusha-Oh Tanjou"), Eizo Sakamoto (lead singer of heavy metal bands Anthem and Animetal), and Rica Matsumoto ("Mezase Pokemon Master", "Rival", "OK!", ..., and voice of Satoshi).

Currently, the band is composed of Kageyama, Endoh, Masami Okui ("Rinbu -Revolution-", "Shuffle"), Hiroshi Kitadani ("We Are", "Madan Senki Ryukendo") and Yoshiki Fukuyama (Singing voice of Nekki Basara and his single "Makkana Chikai", the OP to Busou Renkin). Mizuki reduced his status to "part-time member" after the group got off the ground, Sakamoto "graduated" from the group and rejoined Anthem, and Matsumoto left in April 2008 to pursue solo work. They are occasionally joined by Ricardo Cruz, Brazilian manga translator and Promoted Fanboy, on various recordings and in concerts in Brazil.

See also Super Robot Wars, Awesome Music. Not to be confused with the antagonist aliens in Yukikaze known as the JAM.

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This band has performed songs for:

• Super Robot Wars. A LOT:
  • Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden ("Hagane no Messiah") and ("Power")
  • Super Robot Wars Impact ("GO!!") and ("Departure")
  • Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 ("SKILL") and ("Forever & Ever")
  • Super Robot Wars MX ("VICTORY") and ("Yakusoku no Chi")
  • Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 ("GONG") and ("Brother in Faith")
  • Super Robot Wars Original Generations ("ROCKS") and ("Portal")
    • Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation ("Meikyuu no Prisoner" and "Neppu! Shippu! Cybuster!"))
    • Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars ("Break Out" and "Rising Force")
    • Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector ("MAX ON" and "Ryuusei Lovers")
  • Super Robot Wars Z ("Crest of Z's" and "Cosmic Dance")
  • Super Robot Wars Z 2 Part 1 Hakai-Hen ("Noah" and "Negai")
  • Super Robot Wars Z 2 Part 2 Saisei-Hen ("Hagane no Resistance" and "The advent of Genesis")
• Mazinkaiser ("Fire Wars")(Mainly Kageyama with the rest of the group handling background support) and Mazinkaiser: Ankoku Daishogun ("The Gate of the Hell" and "Majin Kenzan!") (Again, mainly Kageyama with the rest in the background)
• New Getter Robo ("DRAGON", "No Serenity"), Shin vs Neo ("STORM")(Mostly a duet between Kageyama and Mizuki)
• Scrapped Princess ("Little Wing")
• Garo ("GARO ~SAVIOR IN THE DARK~", "Fencer of GOLD", "Waga Na wa GARO", "Predestination", "PROMISE ~without you~")
• Gravion ("Nageki no Rosario", "Gasshin! God Gravion") and Gravion Zwei ("Kurenai no Kiba", "Enou Gasshin! Sol Gravion!")
  • There's also the theme to the Gravion pachislot game, "Dangai no Tsurugi".
• Koutetsushin Jeeg ("STORMBRINGER" (Ricardo Cruz's first time performing with the band on an official song, rather than concert performances), "Dead or Alive")
• Lucky Star (the awesomest remix of "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" ever)
• Mega Man (indirectly. They did their own version of Omoide wa Okkusenman! Yes, really.)
• Panda Z ("Voyager")
• The SoulTaker ("SOULTAKER")
• Yu-Gi-Oh GX ("Genkai Battle")
• Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds ("BELIEVE IN NEXUS", is the 4th Opening soloed by Masaaki Endoh along with "CLEAR MIND" as well as "Going My Way!!", the fifth)
• éX-Driver ("Kaze ni Nare"- One of the earliest songs from the band, plus several insert songs and openings for the movie and Danger Zone)
• Keroro Gunsou ("Hello Darwin! ~Koukishin on Demand~", "Ha-llelujah!!", "Space Roller Coaster GO! GO!")
• Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo (BGM. Hopefully an insert song or second OP at some point, too)
• Tomica Hero Rescue Fire ("Rescue Fire", "Three Souls", "Bakuchin Kanryo! Rescue Fire", "Ide yo Gaia Leon" [Endoh solo])
• Shin Mazinger ("Kanjite Knight" with members of Kageyama's old band Lazy as ULTIMATE LAZY for MAZINGER, "Shugoshin - The Guardian" as themselves)
• Blaz Blue ("Omae no Tettsui ni Kugi wo Ute", roughly translated as "Beat A Nail With Your Hammer")
• Dragon Gate Professional Wrestling ("Dragon Storm 2007")
• Bionic Commando: Rearmed (The Japanese Opening Theme)
• Digimon Adventure (remix of "Butter-fly", done almost a decade later)
• Animelo Summer Live 2009 (Re:BRIDGE, lyrics by Okui Masami)
• Transformers Animated, Japanese release ("TRANSFORMERS EVO.")
  • Praise be to Decepticon. That Soundwave is a fucking rock star.
• Sortie! Machine Robo Rescue, ("Go! Go! Rescue", "March of Rescue Hero")
• Saint Beast: Kouin Jojishi Tenshi Tan ("Divine Love" also featuring Kitadani Hiroshi)
• Muv-Luv Alternative (the openings for the three versions: "Asu e no Houkou", "NAME ~Kimi no Na wa~" and "Metamorphose"; Hironobu Kageyama and Masaaki Endoh also sing the insert songs "Tsubasa" and "Carry on", respectively, while Endoh sings the ED of The Day After "Sora wo Yuukuu Tomoshibi no Uta")
• Cardfight Vanguard Both opening themes, 1st "VANGUARD" and 2nd "Believe in My Existence". "FINAL TUUUUURN!"
• Mobile Suit Gundam (Indirectly, as a part of the tribute album from Lantis Records.)
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Ai Senshi (The band together)
  • After War Gundam X: Dreams (Masami Ouki) and Resolution (Maasaki Endoh)

And released these albums:

• BEST Project (2002)
• FREEDOM (2003)
• JAM-ISM (2004)
• Olympia (2006)
• Big Bang (2007)
• Get Over the Border (2008)
• SEVENTH EXPLOSION (2009)
• MAXIMIZER ~Decade of Evolution~ (2010)
• Victoria Cross (2011)
• GOING (2011)

And for some tidbits, Ichiro Mizuki lends his voice to voice Super Robot Wars Alpha 3's Big Bad Keisar Ephes. Also, due to some Executive Meddling regarding licenses, Hironobu Kageyama Darrins Yoshiki Fukuyama for the vocals of Macross 7's songs in Alpha 3.

Tropes used in JAM Project include:

• Anime Theme Song (the name of the band is Japan Animation song Makers)
• Ascended Extra: Ricardo Cruz. He started off as a concert-exclusive singer for when the band toured in Brazil, and then moved on to help out on some of the band's big songs like "Stormbringer" and "Transformers EVO.".
• Cool Old Guys: They are at least in their early 40s (with Mizuki being in his 60s), and they still can rock out like people half their ages. To be fair, their age can show at times during live shows, but does that stop them? Hell No.
• Crowd Song: SKILL has a habit of invoking this in concerts. MOTTO MOTTO!. Many of their songs seem to be made for this trope.
  • Heats (Link) tends to invoke this as well.
    • Rescue Fire: MOTTO MOTTO!
• Dream Team
• Even the Guys Want Him (Masaaki Endo)
• Gaia's Vengeance (Hi no Tori [Phoenix] from MAXIMIZER)
• Gratuitous English (many of their songs, including VICTORY, Voyager and the opening of SKILL)
  • And here they are singing an 80's medley.
• Great Balls of Fire (used to punctuate the instrumental openings in concert)
• Hot-Blooded. Yes.
  • Speaking of Heats... not only is it a hotblooded song, but it is a song about being hotblooded. AWESOME.
• Large Ham. YES, YES, YES.
  • The members even acknowledge this, to the point where Masaaki Endoh, Hironobu Kageyama and Ricardo Cruz compete on-stage to see who's the hammiest!!
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: JAM is a fixture at the Animelo Summer Live anime music concerts, which could easily take up a page of their own.
  • If you have never seen/heard anything from the aforementioned concerts, get thyself to Youtube IMMEDIATELY or go to iTunes and look up "Re:bridge." Your mind will be blown.
  • Here's the Youtube version of both performances (it was a two-day event) edited together. Now sit down and brace for awesome.
• Older Than They Look: Especially when some of them look like Masami Okui or Masaaki Endoh.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: "The Gate of Hell", "Crest Of Z's"
• One-Woman Wail: Rocks
• Rated "M" for Manly: Oh, HELL YES.
• Rearrange the Song: Although more a case of lyric recycling, for some reason the hook for the song "GONG" "Gongu wo narase" appears in a lot of their songs before their song "GONG" was even written. Also, parts of "SKILL" show up in "Rescue Fire" (Motto! Motto!) and "Bakuchin Kanryo! Rescue Fire" (I can fly! You can fly! We can fly!).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni / Tomboy and Girly Girl (Matsumoto and Okui, before the former left. Matsumoto is consistently more energetic, has a more boyish voice (voicing hotblooded shounen heroes), even has shorter hair and is nicknamed Satoshi, and Makkun is more about feminine appeal and writes softer, more emotional songs like Peaceful One)
• Scarf of Asskicking: Doesn't look out of place around Mizuki Ichiro's neck at all.
• Softer and Slower Cover: Rescue Fire!. Most of the content of Victoria Cross is like this, although a bit subtler.
• Spelling Song ("V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, 3 2 1 0 Never give up! Oh yeaaahhhhh!")
• Testosterone Poisoning: FU-RIN-KA-ZAN!
  • Break Out is essentially a long string of hotblooded buzzwords with very little coherence and a catchy chorus.
• The Power of Rock (On at least three distinct occasions, music by the group or members has been a canon, in-show force to be reckoned with)
• Theme Music Power-Up (any time you hear one of their songs play in an anime, it usually always means something awesome is about to happen)
• Up to Eleven: What they did to Okkusenman. They took an awesome song and made it even more awesome.
  • Serial Escalation: They did it to the Lucky Star OP, too.
  • Masaaki did it to the Hidamari Sketch OP.
  • Though, not Okkusenman, Endoh did a remix of Sorairo Days from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's enough to bring a man to tears OF AWESOME.
  • WITH A FULL SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA as part of their 10th anniversary tour.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: JAM Project can make anything awesome. This video tests confirms the theory.
  • With that theory tested, the next question is "Can JAM Project make anything even more awesome?" This video tests this new theory.
  • And while we're at it, another theory is asked: Can JAM Project make anything terrible awesome? You be the judge.
  • Tropers and tropettes, GONGCAT and SKILLCAT.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Masami Okui sometimes.