This group amazes me. Kimi ga ita monogatari is one of my favorite songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRwtPl6cPwE

Chiaki Ishikawa's solo work is also amazing. I recommend her album Boku wa mada nani mo shiranai.

Any fans?

I like them.

I only know of their compositions for .hack/sign, but fantastic they were. I'd like to hear more. That is easily my favorite opening sequence for any tv show ever.

This group is great! Thanks for reminding me of them. I used to listen to their stuff for .Hack, and never bothered to download more, but I really need to.

Get [i]Dream Field[/i]. Pure win.

Aside from the fantastic vocals, the impressive compositions, and the brilliant vocal and instrumental arrangements, there's the "learning how to speak English before trying to sing in it" thing that is just truly amazing.

Yeah, I like them.

I don't find them all that special. Japan's music scene has so many bands that are way better, so I can't get into something as standard-good as this.

This may be a useless subjectivist disagreement, but might you link to a YouTube video of one of these "better" bands?

Edit: You lose points if they try to speak English and fail miserably. I am also rating on polyphony in vocal arrangements, instrumental arrangement, and compositional quality, as well as vocal talent, of course.

I only know See-Saw from .Hack, but I'm positive that Yasashii Yoake is much better than the song in the first post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_arSJYZ9cis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti9bVYFNgkwf

A really tight indie band, the Darars. Not the greatest vocals, but the instrumentation kicks the shit out of this see-saw crap.

An even more awesome band is The Jetzejohnson. Their single "Dancetek" is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IB70Q2bcUc

[quote="Marekenshin"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti9bVYFNgkwf

A really tight indie band, the Darars. Not the greatest vocals, but the instrumentation kicks the shit out of this see-saw crap.[/quote]

Correct, working link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti9bVYFNgkw

You're joking me. Sounded like wannabe Zazen Bo, with Salon Music vocals, then transition into boring, but pleasant pop rock. How can you see this "instrumentation" beats the instrumentation in Yasashii Yoake? Check it again.

More like somewhere between People in the Box (awesome) and Zazen Boys's jam stuff (decent).

Speaking of People in the Box:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWw0fACVpc

tacica is fantastic as well, probably even better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RhmWRqKI0g

I got to see both of these two bands live, and tacica blew me the fuck away. Definitely one of the best things Japan's indie scene has to offer.

Mare, you're kidding, right? [i]Right?[/i]

The first link had good instrumentation? You mean two guitars, a bass, and drums playing a monophonic riff? There was nothing compositionally complex in that at all. Don't mistake technical complexity with compositional complexity. Same thing with the second video, which was straight pop. Also, vocally, you didn't even land in the same area code. Maybe I'm being more harsh than those videos warrant, but if you're going to put down See-Saw, you better be right in at least some manner.

I might not have been clear, but I was asking for music in a similar style (i.e. not indie rock bands). You get one more try, and I offer for comparison "Key of the Twilight" and "In the Land of Twilight, Under the Moon," two of my favorite songs (I trust you can search YouTube yourself).

I prefer the bands I linked. Most of the stuff by See-Saw that I've heard has been a little on the boring side, to me at least. Your request was not to have something in the same style, just to bands that I thought were better.

People in the Box sounds amazing. Thanks, Mare!