<figure id="attachment_347582" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-347582" style="width: 4546px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7771b9e0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/294c41e69aaa785e49873d68afe80638-rotated.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-347582" class="wp-caption-text">Members at the time of the interview. From left: tetsuya, ken, SAKURA, and hyde (photo taken in 1993)</figcaption></figure>
 What did &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? Playback Friday&#8221; takes a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we present &#8220;L&#8217;Arc en Ciel,&#8221; the second &#8220;X&#8221; of the ultra-beautiful &#8220;L&#8217;Arc en Ciel,&#8221; which appeared in the December 10, 1993 issue 30 years ago.
 The article introduced &#8220;L&#8217;Arc~en~Ciel,&#8221; which at the time had not yet made its major label debut, but was overwhelmingly popular. The article is presented in the same style as it was written at the time.
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 If &#8220;X&#8221; was black, &#8220;L&#8217;Arc&#8221; was white.
 The music scene is now in a frenzy over this four-member group. They are gracing the covers of music magazines across the board, and when they release an album, it sells 30,000 copies.
 Their first hall concert on November 7 at the Nippon Seinenkan in Tokyo was a sellout, with fans in their hometown of Osaka buying tickets in droves. But to my surprise, they are still amateurs.
 Isn&#8217;t this somewhat similar to the debut of &#8220;X&#8221;?　 But the concert was the exact opposite. If &#8220;X&#8221; was powerful black, this &#8220;L&#8217;Arc en Ciel&#8221; was quiet and pure white. The stage was pure white, with the beautiful vocalist hyde standing on a white stage in a white costume, and the fans listening to the performance in silence.
 One of the members, SAKURA, said, &#8220;You can tell that the fans are feeling the music not physically, but mentally.&#8221; The group&#8217;s agency added, &#8220;At first they are surprised that this is a rock concert, but once they get used to it, they seem to like the dreamlike atmosphere.
 The &#8220;second &#8216;X'&#8221; is scheduled to make its major label debut next year. Now is the time to buy!
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 Lark, formed in 1991, was already quite popular at the time, as mentioned in the article. The band&#8217;s unique branding strategy, which included not selling demo tapes and not playing many live shows opposite each other, as well as their musicality and visuals, also proved to be a hit. Their first album, &#8220;DUNE,&#8221; was released in April 1993 and reached No. 1 on the Oricon indies chart, and at this point, their popularity as an indie band was already unshakable.
 Later, on July 1, 1994, they made their major label debut with the video single &#8220;Nemuri ni yosete. Their album &#8220;True,&#8221; released in December 1996, became a million-seller, and they frequently appeared on music programs such as &#8220;M-Station.
 In 1997, member SAKURA was arrested for violating the Stimulant Drug Control Law, and the band was forced to suspend its activities for a time. However, the band restarted with a new member, Yukihiro, and released three singles simultaneously in July 1998: &#8220;Honey&#8221;, &#8220;Hanafuneral&#8221;, and &#8220;Erosion -lose control-&#8220;. In July 1998, Lark released three singles at the same time: &#8220;Honey&#8221;, &#8220;Hana Sou&#8221;, and &#8220;Erosion -lose control-&#8220;.
 They were sometimes called the &#8220;second X&#8221; and became a one-of-a-kind band.

 Hiroaki Fujiuchi

 In this issue of "Playback," we take a look back at what this magazine reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. This time, from the December 10, 1993 issue, we take a look at "L'Arc~en~Ciel," which was already very popular even though it had not yet made its major debut.

Playback] When “L’Arc~en~Ciel” was “the second ‘X'” before its debut

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