Pentagon has announced that they will, unfortunately, disband in February 2020. The official statement doesn’t say much⁠—but from the member’s comments, we gain a greater understanding of the situation at hand.

The band engaged in talks with management about disbanding during winter of 2017 and this continued until the end of 2018. They were planning to disband during their Culture Shock tour of spring this year and also wanted to announce their disbandment before the release of their recent single Yume Kara Sameta Hi. However, it didn’t go as planned with no particular explanation as to why.

Pentagon assures us that the reason behind this decision isn’t because of differences in musical direction, health issues, or conflicts between the members.

Pentagon formed from the ashes of limited-time unit Call Me, consisting of vocalist Chizuru and bassist Minpha, with guitarist Taku and drummer Atsuki as support. This unit became a band at the end of 2014 with the support members becoming official members as well as former METEOROID guitarist Yutori joining them to complete the lineup. The band released three albums, one mini-album, seven singles and one compilation song, Fumikiri Maigo.

We have condensed and summarized their comments below.

Vocalist Chizuru statement tells us of a time when he was around 19 or 20 where his only thought was to become famous. During that time, many encouraged and supported them, and with their popularity increasing, it allowed them to move onto bigger venues. However, this wasn’t without feeling a sense of unease and impatience.

There was a point where Chizuru “noticed the value of people around me surpassed my own”, and at that point, he felt like he “had to put more strength into performing”. However, live performances became unenjoyable and all he could think about was doing better even though he expressed that he “loved music and singing more than before”.

The doubts continued to pile up and thoughts about his way of living, music, and music genre changed and that the other members’ feelings were quite similar in that aspect.

Guitarist Yutori takes a poetic approach—he’s sure Pentagon’s music will live on forever and hopes that it—along with their philosophies, will continue to bring joy to many people. He mentions that he is “invincible on stage, just like a little child becoming a monster, erasing worries and doubts just like if they were lies”. Thinking about the disbandment makes his heart colder, but it left something to cherish, and that it would be a huge mistake to feel like it was worthless.

Guitarist Taku is grateful and says that by meeting the members and fans, he grew to truly love music. Music took him to places he had never been to before and had the chance to see new worlds, dragging him out of a dark place that showed him tons of dreams but also darkness.

The words he and the other members lived by were “We love it so let’s do our best” and those same words were like a drug to him. “We love the band, we dreamt like fools so we were able to do our best, no matter what happened.” However, the words paralyzed him and he thought that “working hard would pay off” but repeating it again and again, he’s unsure if it was the best thing to do.

It’s apparent that he started to lose his sense of self with questions such as “What did I want to become?” and “At the end of this road, is there a goal?” without an answer. The end result is a road where Pentagon is no more.

He also felt guilty, that he was lying to everyone as “live performances, cheering voices and letters of support increased” but his heart feels a little lighter now the announcement has been made.

Bassist Minpha, similar to Chizuru, also wanted to become famous and that dream came true little by little. He left his hometown in the countryside and “was very happy when his mother and little brother attended his shows and met up with him”. He also had many wonderful experiences such as meeting friends, youngers, and elders, going around Japan, and even appearing on TV.

However, as they advanced and stages grew bigger, the more he was asking himself “Did I really want to perform in such a huge place like Tokyo?” and “felt uncomfortable about it”.

The willingness to become famous became the will to share Pentagon’s music with as many people as possible in 2017 and even now, he “still believes in the strength of the songs created”. He confidently states that Pentagon is the coolest and wants to end on a good note so they can live on without regrets.

Drummer Atsuki is running after things he really wants to do with music but he doesn’t know when he started to feel like he “didn’t belong in this place anymore”. The place in question isn’t specified. He also mentions that there wasn’t a particular problem but goes on to say that he’s gotten too comfortable, doesn’t want to feel satisfied and was getting nervous because of it.

He says that were good and bad times, that he was able to see a lot of places and experiences lots of things, made wonderful memories with live performances and tours and he’s grateful about it all. He also loves the members and the music they created which was both an enjoyable and painful time.

Finally, he mentions fans may have seen him as a difficult and impudent person, but he saw himself as a clumsy guy who closed himself off from the world. There were “many things I didn’t do well in and I feel guilty about it” but tried his best regardless even though he thinks he failed. However, he was passionate about getting out his own sound and managed to express that through Pentagon’s songs.

I cannot speak for the entirety of Pentagon’s career but there was clearly a change in their visuals around the CRAZY TRIBE era, taking a more casual approach to their costumes for their venture into the party rock genre. Even from reading about select performances or seeing what they had to say on Instagram at times, it was apparent that something wasn’t quite right.

They also started to perform with bands completely unrelated to visual kei and I loved that because it meant they were going their own path, not following the rules, and branching out. Was that part of a bigger plan? Who knows. Regardless, it feels like something positive will definitely come out of this so stay tuned!

Update 2020-01-10: The article replaced its top image from the “Yume Kara Sameta Hi” look with the band’s last band photo which Pentagon revealed in November 2019.

More info:

Official Website

YouTube

Twitter (Staff)

Twitter (Chizuru) (千吊)

Twitter (Yutori) (ゆとり)

Twitter (Taku) (拓)

Twitter (Minpha) (みんふぁ)

Twitter (Atsuki) (篤輝)

Instagram (Chizuru) (千吊)

Instagram (Yutori) (ゆとり)

Instagram (Minpha) (みんふぁ)

Instagram (Atsuki) (篤輝)

Blog (Staff)