King Records

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

King Records Co., Ltd. is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s, and it later became part of the Otowa Group. King Records is one of Japan's largest record companies which is owned by a multinational entity, and its headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo.

1st Logo (1994?- )

Variants

Nicknames: "Boring King Records", "The Tri-Color of Boredom", "SF Studios' Japanese Brother"

Logo: We see the text "KING RECORDS" with a tri-colored (red, blue, green) line on a black background.

Variants:

  • A superimposed version exists.
  • Sometimes it's in full screen (4:3).
  • Sometimes it's a smaller or larger size.
  • A scope version has been spotted.
  • A color-tinted might prefer some music videos. Cyan in Theory of Absolute Happiness, and brown in Forbidden Resistance.
  • A rare variant that "KING RECORDS" has been replaced with "Bellwood Records" in a Times New Roman-like font.
  • A in-credit version also exists.

Music Video Variants:

  • "Orchestral Fantasia" has a slightly darker, smaller, and stretched out.
  • "Vitalization" has the transparent King Records logo glitching out in a circled-stylized background with red-orange lasers, then Nana Mizuki's face screen shuts off.
  • "Apassionato" has the logo in red.
  • "Smart Love" (Suiren) had the logo in black and white.
  • One music video has a bigger King Records logo and a VCR/VHS effect.
  • "Get up! Shout!" has the print logo appearing on a background via a glitch-like transition. After a few seconds the logo and background glitch out.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme.

Music/Sounds Variants:

  • Nana Mizuki's NEVER SURRENDER has raining and dripping sound effects, with the wind ambience on the background.
  • Similarly, Inori Minase's Catch the Rainbow! has winding-like sound effect.

Availability: Uncommon.

  • Seen on many music videos of some King Records artists, such as Nana Mizuki, Mamoru Miyano, Inori Minase, and etc.
  • This logo is omitted on some music videos, mostly from AKB48.
  • The logo made its surprise appearance on the Nana Mizuki's official YouTube version of COSMIC LOVE.
  • Inori Minase's official YouTube version of "Starry Wish" and "Ready Steady GO!" music videos had no logo.

Editor's Note: This logo is similar to the generic Svensk Filmindustri logo from 1939 to 2000. The "Vitalization" variant has even scarier than the "Get up! Shout!" variant like the Ramsay Films Combine logo from Bandh Darwaza, thanks to the frightening imagery face of Nana Mizuki.

2nd Logo (1997)

Logo: TBA

FX/SFX: Early CGI.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Rare.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (Early 2010s- )

Logo: On a black background, we see the silvery letters "KING RECORDS" flip in and zoom out, as red, blue, and green stripes streak in and fly underneath, forming the familiar tri-colored line in their logo. The company name flashes and turns to white.

FX/SFX: The letters appearing, the streaks flying, the flash.

Music/Sounds: Several whooshes, then a synth note.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen at the start of some Funimation series, such as Endro! and Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist, among others. It might plaster the Starchild logo.

Editor's Note: TBA.

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