Yoshiki News: X Japan Drummer Composes Theme for New Buddha Film, Launches SiriusXM Show

Kevin Scanlon

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On May 28 Tezuka Osamu no Buddha: Akai Sabaku Yo! Utsukushiku, the long-anticipated big screen adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's manga Buddha, will be released in Japan. This is a big deal for a lot of reasons, primarily that Buddha is an acclaimed work (it even won Eisner Awards in the U.S. on two different occasions) from late artist Osamu Tezuka, who revolutionized manga and anime. However, we have another reason for looking forward to this film as well. X Japan founder Yoshiki, who was featured in our "Best of L.A. People" issue just last week, composed the film's theme, "Scarlet Love Song," which is performed by X Japan.

In a recent press release, Yoshiki stated, "I am honored and blessed that I was given the amazing opportunity to write the theme song for such an influential Japanese manga writer."

Shannon Cottrell

Yoshiki on stage with X Japan at The Wiltern in Los Angeles

​That's not all Yoshiki has been doing lately. After we interviewed him for LA Weekly, he headed back to Japan, where he held the Asia Girl's Explosion fashion event and working on X Japan's first U.S. full-length. The the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hit. The musician immediately began raising funds through Yoshiki Foundation. The efforts went on to inspire others. In Los Angeles, the Addicted to Manga fan group donated proceeds from their Tomo Neko Maid Cafe event to Yoshiki's charity.

And, yes, there's still more.

Tonight, at 8 p.m. EST, Yoshiki Radio, the drummer and composer's new radio show, will launch on SiriusXM channel The Boneyard. It will move to the first Sunday of the month at 9 p.m. EST on June 5. On May 23, Yoshiki was in New York for a press conference regarding his new endeavor and our friend May S. Young took this video of it (thanks to @michaelchangesq_jp for tweeting this at us).

Finally, remember how we mentioned in "Yoshiki: The Kei Master" that the rock star was working with comic book star Stan Lee? Well, it's confirmed via Twitter that the two will be appearing together at San Diego Comic-Con.

​If you're a fan of Yoshiki, there's a lot to look forward to this year.

Follow @lizohanesian on Twitter.