Minako Kotobuki released her new album "emotion!　She wrote lyrics for all new songs on this "miraculous" album!

Minako Kotobuki, a voice actress artist, will release her third album in about three and a half years. The title is straight forward: "emoiton. Literally, the album is filled with her passion for music. It is noteworthy that she herself wrote the lyrics for the six new songs on the album. Despite the fact that this is her first time writing lyrics, the quality of the songs is said to have been surprisingly high to the staff.
The album is rich in variety in terms of sound, ranging from light pop, intense rock, and stylish EDM. Vocally and visually, the album shows off a new Minako Kotobuki with a more mature look!

The jacket photo was taken on Izu Oshima Island.

─ ─ The jacket of your new album has a chic look, doesn't it?

Kotobuki: This is my third album, and I have reached a more mature age, so I decided on this design. The art director, Tsuyoshi Matsuda, has been helping me for more than 7 years since the time of my debut single, and we decided to do something a little different this time, so we took the photos on Izu Oshima. The first pressing limited edition has a pitch black background, but it's actually the ocean.

─ What is the flower you are holding in your hand called?

Kotobuki: It is a flower called "Gloriosa," which is called "Flame Lily" in English. For the jacket photo, Mr. Matsuda suggested that I hold a flower that looks like a flame, because he wanted the photo to have a sense of dynamism and emotion.

───The photo of the limited first pressing looks like a firefly.

Kotobuki That's right. It is not a gloriosa, but I shot it with red petals flying. The flurries look like flames, don't they?

───The black outfit is also very mature.

Kotobuki: I have never shot any of my previous jackets wearing black. Moreover, the costume designer was an interesting person this time and prepared a black vintage dress for me, but he said, "It might be cuter if you wear it back to front" (laughs). (Laughs) I think both the clothes and the background give a feeling of an atmosphere that you would not find in Japan.

─ Is the background of the jacket of the standard edition also the sea?

Kotobuki: This is a desert. There is an area called "Ura-Desert," which is said to be the only desert in Japan, and it is covered with black volcanic rocks that flew in from Mount Mihara. I was able to take some spectacular photos with this area as a backdrop. But because it was an open area, the wind was strong and it was cold. My hair was blown away, and I accidentally ended up with this kind of hair parted in thirds (laughs).

(laughs) ─ So you didn't style your hair on purpose, but it was a product of nature.

Kotobuki: That's right. It was blown off and I had to fix it by hand as I shot, and this shot was born. And since it was shot on film this time, it became an even more precious shot.

─ I think the photos are as emotional as the album title suggests.

Kotobuki: The album title had not yet been decided when we took the photos, but "emotion" was the keyword for this album from the beginning. The music, lyrics, and visuals were all created accordingly. The limited first edition comes with a photo book, and I wrote a poem for the photo book, and I think that is one of the "emotions" of the album.

───Does the photo book contain your "poems" that are different from the lyrics?

Kotobuki: Yes. I thought about what kind of poem I would add to the photos taken on Izu Oshima Island. I put into words what I felt there.

─ How did you come up with the keyword "emotion" in the first place?

Kotobuki: This album contains singles from "black hole" (released on April 8, 2015), and this song is an intense rock song that goes beyond the worldview of our second album "Tick". A new path was created here again. Each of the singles after that became more intense, so I wanted the new songs on the album to express emotions in a straightforward manner. That's where the keyword "emotion" came from, and I asked the director if I could write the lyrics for the new songs myself in order to bring the emotions more to the surface.