
In 2023, very few new music projects were launched, some long-running 2D music projects bid goodbye while others went on hiatus. This is an episode all about the new 2D music projects that took the spotlight but also the ones that faded away.
2023 may have been a quiet year, one in which there was neither a focus on innovation nor a focus on enhancing the quality of the already ongoing 2D music projects out there.
Still, there were a couple of warriors that made their way through in a year to forget for fans of 2D music projects.
Let’s go over some of the 2D music projects that were launched and active in 2023.

Although the project was first announced in late 2022, URADOL only started its promotions – releasing music and focusing on attracting attention to the group – in 2023.
At the moment of writing this feature, the franchise only has the idol group SPYAIM in its lineup and has released 3 CDs that include drama tracks and songs.
This project is all about the idols, part of the group SPYAIM, who are hiding a big secret that they are protecting until they make their dreams come true.
The project has a star-studded cast and according to eternal voyage, fans will influence the story through voting. As such, the story of SPYAIM and whether they achieve their dream will be in their hands.
At the moment I am writing this feature, I’ve already checked some of the songs by this group and honestly, if you are a fan of pop music, you will certainly enjoy this group.
I feel like SPYAIM may bring something interesting with the story as well as the unusual choice of a main cast filled with veterans – KENN, Wataru Hatano, and Tomoaki Maeno – but the music did little to me. It doesn’t sound groundbreaking or that different from every single generic 2D pop idol group despite having a really good lineup at their disposal.
Only time will tell if there are any changes or surprising turns in their sound that will, at least, hook me in.

Another visual-kei project joined the 2D music scene, following the steps of FlyMe Project, VISUAL PRISON, MAGATSU NOTE, and even VISUAL KARMA. In this case, Executioner brought a mix of experienced – and extremely technical – singers and newcomers – both to music and the voice acting scene.
This is a unique project with a wacky dark fantasy concept blending battle action, apocalyptic thinking (endless loop of the end of the century), Sentai heroes, and visual-kei rock.
The project features 3 bands with vocalists Masaaki Mizunaka, Jin Ogasawara, and Shunichi Toki and let me tell you, they more than impressed me!
The music in this franchise features original songs created by Japanese visual-kei rock artists – such as the visual-kei band PENICILLIN -, and the members’ stories unfold around the powerful and refined music that each band will release.
The project has big ambitions and I hope they will be around longer than most visual-kei projects that launched in the past couple of years.
“V-kei Sentai Executioner” is, easily, one of the best songs released in 2023 by a 2D group. Impressive performance on top of a hard-hitting instrumental.
At the moment I am writing this feature, the franchise has started to release songs per band with each of the frontmen taking over. This is a good sign of things to come in the future, especially as the story is now also starting to be unveiled through drama tracks.
This is, easily, the best 2D music project to launch in 2023.

Close to the end of the year, MAGES., announced the launch of a new project, Gray Sheep. With a star-studded lineup and two unique groups, this franchise was announced in a year in which there was very little activity when it came to announcing new 2D groups.
With a cast including Makoto Furukawa, Kent Ito, Shunichi Toki, and Seiichiro Yamashita, just to name a few, it sounds like this project – if handled correctly – may be one of the biggest surprises in 2024.
At the moment there is an announcement of a CD to be released in 2024 – Gray Sheep EP01 – but there is still very little to talk about it at the moment.
The downlights in the 2D music industry
And on a contrary note, some projects faded away silently, others that announced their hiatus and others that simply couldn’t find their footing. Let’s talk a bit about those.

In 2023, the Dear Vocalist franchise was in radio silence for the first time since its launch in 2015. Fans don’t know what is happening to this awesome 2D rock franchise and why the long silence after a successful 7th season of CDs that wrapped up in 2022.
While it may not have been directly connected, all projects at Rejet stopped in 2023 due to Daisuke Iwasaki’s hospitalization early in the year. For those that don’t know, Iwasaki is the CEO of Rejet and usually, the projects under Rejet move when he moves. This year, Dear Vocalist, Pythagoras Production, CARNELIAN BLOOD, and many other projects came to a complete halt, with no news or details about when they will return.
At the same time, the FABULOUS NIGHT franchise was active but then again that is a joint project with Marvelous so it was able to continue to release music and be active in 2023, contrary to those exclusively Rejet projects.
I would love to have Dear Vocalist back as it is one of the best 2D music projects out there. The rock music is innovative, the stories are unique and gripping, the cast is unbelievably good and there is still a lot of potential for more storytelling beats to be explored and further developed.

In 2023, VISUAL KARMA, a 2D visual-kei franchise continued to try to leave a mark and attract new fans to its music and concept however, much to their frustration, nothing worked.
The bands barely released any new music, and activity on social media was not engaging and thus, did not attract fans to interact with the project. It seems that there is a detachment between the creators and the project itself as it looks like it is drifting away without any clear direction.
In my opinion, this franchise may never return after what fans got in 2023 – sparse communication and all of a sudden, the announcement that all story updates were coming to a stop. While not officially announced, the project is more likely shelved silently.
VISUAL KARMA was riddled with problems starting from its name being similar to VISUAL PRISON as well as the story being underwhelming and not refreshing. The fact that the cast pretty much consisted of newcomer seiyuu wasn’t necessarily an issue, at least, nowadays, it’s more frequent for projects with popular seiyuu to fail than those that feature newcomers, rookies, or underrated seiyuu.
Still, for most people looking for familiar faces and voices in a 2D music project to have a connection with it, VISUAL KARMA also didn’t provide that.
All things considered, this project – unless something drastically happens – seems to have doomed itself right from the start and unfortunately met its end in 2023.

2023 was a rough year for the franchise which came out of a disastrous debut CD with “Welcome to the Deadlight City”. 2023 saw the project going radio silent soon after the CD bombed on the Oricon charts, barely selling enough copies to cover its costs with the cast and music video production. While the concept was exciting – and I am saying this as a metalhead, its execution was poor from start to finish.
The focus on wanting to reach fans but then focusing too much on putting on the spotlight, not the seiyuu but the star guitarists from the 80s was odd and a bad step.
While I am all for giving credit and spotlight to those behind the music our favorite 2D groups and bands perform I also know that most fans don’t care about that.
Much less when you mention that the project is about authentic metal music and then you put seiyuu on a live music video – a cool one – but after that the focus shifts completely to the star guitarists working on the music and honestly, no one was interested in that, especially as most fans were born in the 2000s and don’t even know how important those composers and guitarists are and were in the 80s.
This was, in fact, poorly executed. You can have amazing music and put the spotlight almost entirely on the characters and seiyuu instead of the composition team. If the compositions are good, I bet with you people will want to know more.
Then, the marketing strategy was all over the place. While bringing an interesting seiyuu lineup, those seiyuu were barely talking about the project, there was no interesting video content diving into the behind-the-scenes of the compositions of their songs, which would be an interesting way to introduce the guitarists and composers to the fans.
As a fan of rock music, THE LAST METAL was the project I was the most excited about in early 2023 but soon it turned into an absolute nightmare quality-wise to the point that it put me off completely.
I feel that, for this project to revive itself, it needs a different focus and mindset. Rock fans deserve quality rock music from a purist project such as this one. We just need the execution to be done right.

In 2023, the TOKIMEKI RESTAURANT project celebrated its 10th anniversary and announced its end.
XIP and 3 Majesty bid goodbye to their fans after a series of exciting pop releases and awesome performances.
I’ve been following this project since the smartphone game was launched and I was really into XIP for a long time. Their music was bold and sexy, which was rare back then. Yes, by now, almost all 2D music projects have a sexy group – from the cheesy ones even down to those that make you blush with how mature they are – but back then, when this project started, only XIP had that for them.
At the same time, 3 Majesty was all about its regal concept, and their music and performances more than illustrated that gentle, caring side to the group’s vibe.
While the project was really big back in 2013, with the boom of 2D music projects in 2015, people started to pay more attention to the new projects appearing in the scene.
At the same time, Universal Music Japan was not investing enough in the project, not holding any live shows – music or talk – with the seiyuu cast, something that made the group exclusively 2D.
While this was a good strategy that eventually led to live shows with the 3D CGI characters, it took away some of the excitement that other 2D music projects brought with the separation made between the seiyuu cast and their characters, holding events in which fans get to engage with both sides.
For me, the biggest mistake this project made was not releasing music more frequently. The game was fun – but had close to nothing to do with music – and even when the game was closed, the franchise continued to release music spaced between each other.
In a competitive industry such as 2D music – as of late it is virtually impossible for a new 2D music project to make a big impact -, Tokimeki Restaurant was another victim.
A pity really, because I love this project to bits and I still hold a soft spot for many of both groups’ songs.
No matter how much I dig and analyze 2023, the more I get the feeling that this was an odd year. Very few new 2D music projects were launched, and some long-running projects ended up announcing their end or went on a weird hiatus that is yet to be explained.
On my end, I love Executioner’s music and I want more from the 3 bands. Visual-kei rock music is one of my favorite sub-genres and as a concept, it has limitless opportunities to be unique and leave a mark. Also, the lineup is quite amazing and talented.
As for the 2D music projects that went under the radar in 2023, I have yet to understand why Dear Vocalist and CARNELIAN BLOOD went absolutely radio silent this year.
There is some speculation that, with Daisuke Iwasaki’s hospitalization early in the year, every new CD series for their 2D music projects was kept on hold because the decision-maker was not able to give his feedback. For those who don’t know, Iwasaki is the CEO of Rejet and an important figure at the company when it comes to the creative direction of its 2D music projects.
Still, it feels weird that a new CD season for each of those projects wasn’t approved before 2023 started – especially since budgets for such things need to be approved before the new year.
2023 felt weird without Dear Vocalist after 7 years of releasing new music and stories nonstop. Such a character and story-driven series being radio silent left a massive empty spot this year. At the same time, while EROSION was active early in the year, after releasing its 2nd album, the band went radio silent following the same pattern as Dear Vocalist.
All in all, 2023, was a rather quiet year for fans of 2D music projects, with very few joining in and with some goodbyes to projects that were, once, quite important in the 2D music scene.
Which were your favorite 2D music projects launched in 2023? Share those in the comments!
You can find all the content in this feature on episode 175 of SEIYUU LOUNGE, The Hand That Feeds HQ’s official weekly podcast in video format.
If you prefer content on the go, you can also find the content in this feature in the sound-only version of SEIYUU LOUNGE.
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