Music I enjoy #2: Toshiki Masuda (増田俊樹)

#2 Toshiki Masuda (増田俊樹)
Today's Topic is about Toshiki Masuda I thought today would be a good day to do this since the 8th of March is his Birthday. What I am gonna be talking about is his original music, Not stuff from his character roles. But maybe one day I'll talk about that if you're interested. Now lets get Started.

Spotify
Apple Music

Toshiki Masuda is a Seiyuu born in Kure, Hiroshima and he has been interested in acting since he was young. he began his voice acting career in 2009 and his music career 10 years later in 2019. he began by being a stage actor before actually getting into voice acting roles. In 2011 he gained his debut role as Ryouga Kamishiro or as English fans know the character as Reginald Kastle or "Shark" to put it simply from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

Some of Masuda's popular roles are Eijiro Kirishima from My Hero Academia, Rei Sakuma from Ensemble Stars!!, Iori Izumi from IDOLiSH7, Kashuu Kyomitsu from Touken Ranbu, and Masahiro Setogawa from Hitorijime My Hero just to name a few. Currently, he is in an ongoing anime named High Card as the charming red playboy Chris Redgrave. And obviously, there's way more series he's in if you wanna look into it yourself!

Finally we get onto his music! Now he has a bunch of music that are in a variety of series and an album with Yoshimasa Hosoya named Maxboys. But that's a story for another day. What I'm gonna be focusing on is the music that's come out from him. Masuda has 2 Albumsn 1 Single and an EP. His first songs were on his first EP named "This One" which came out March 6th 2019 and contained 3 songs. Kaze ni Fukarete, Natsuzora no Ame and Phraze. The album is what Google would describe as J-Rock and J-Pop which is an interesting description but I see it a more Rock and Jazz feel. On January 8th 2020 he came out with his first album named "Diver" which will end up containing 2 songs from This One. Diver is another Rock album with a few jazzy sounds in some of its songs. After Diver was "Origin" which was released on September 29th 2021. I think as you can guess it is another rock-based album! And Finally we reach January 26th 2022 and he comes out with his first single named "Midnight Dancer" which contained 2 songs. But the camera is focused on Midnight Dancer. The song is actually the opening for the anime Love of Kill. And the song is a fun jazzy song that just goes off!

Chi's Words
As much as I'd love to keep gushing about Masuda and his career I should probably put in my own words and talk about my opinions on his music. It actually took a lot of the songs a while to actually grow on me in the end. But now I really love his music. My favourite album is Diver and I just genuinely love the feel of the whole album and my favourite song from it is "Here, There". I do also love a lot of the songs on Origin and the other CDs, I mean I absolutely LOVED Midnight Dancer when I first heard it. It absolutely fucking slapped!! It just doesn't give me the same feel that Diver does. When I first found his music his albums weren't on Spotify so I actually spent real money on iTunes just so I had the songs only for it to be available on Spotify about a month or 2 later T-T. But it's okay!! Coz now I have a good hard copy of the albums. I'm gonna get a little personal here but Masuda's music became such a huge comfort for me. At the time I was going through a lot and my mindset was super unhealthy in obsession. Especially in the start of my endeavor of liking Masuda. But I calmed down and sometimes listen to him when I wanna relax. I mean I've literally calmed myself from breakdowns and panic attacks with his music. He's a huge inspiration to me and i look up to him a lot. So he means a lot to me. But that's enough about my personal wishy washy bs. Back to my review! 

It's hard to determine who would really like this. I suppose If you like J-Rock music I may enjoy it. The rock sound is a real mix but a lot of it is softer rock and even some jazzy sounds. Maybe if you happen to be a Seiyuu fan and you wanna widen your range in music you can give it a listen. Maybe you're a fan of some of his characters so it could be interesting to hear him singing if you've ever wondered! and your not into the idol series he's in. It's not easy to put out a recommendation for who would like this. But I wanted to share something I genuinely love. So if you want something new to listen to give it a try!

Until next time!! Happy Birthday Toshiki Masuda ^_^

P.S. I actually own the CDs physically and I love them to bits!!