waterweed: Osaka Melodic Hardcore With a British Label and an Anime Theme

There are two ways a Japanese punk band usually reaches a wider audience: a foreign label, or an anime. waterweed has done both, and it took the band the best part of twenty years to get there.

The Band

waterweed formed in Osaka in 2003. It plays melodic hardcore, with a strong streak of post-hardcore in it. It is a three-piece: Tomohiro Ohga on bass and lead vocals, Hiroshi Sakamoto on guitar and backing vocals, and Shigeo Matsubara on drums.

The band has not always been a trio. It slimmed down to three along the way, and an interview from that period described the result as a new waterweed.

The Records

There are four full-length albums, among them Brightest (2017) and Departures (2024), along with a long list of EPs and split releases. In Japan the band is on the label maximum10, the early home of SHADOWS, and it was a guest on that band’s national tour in 2016.

Britain

waterweed is also signed to Lockjaw Records, a British punk label. That deal led to a European tour through five countries, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Germany, including an appearance at Manchester Punk Festival.

The band went back. In April 2025 it returned to Britain and played the main stage at Manchester Punk Festival.

For a melodic hardcore band from Osaka, that is a long way to carry a set.

The Anime

In 2024, waterweed’s song “Cure” was used as the opening theme of the television anime The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic. The title of the song fits the show almost too neatly.

It was not the band’s first anime credit. An earlier song, “Deep inside,” had been used as an ending theme for the anime Kingdom.

“Cure” arrived in the same year as Departures, and put a twenty-year-old band in front of a new audience.

In July 2025 the band contributed two new songs, “Refuse” and “Frontier,” to a compilation released by its Japanese label.

Why It Matters

Twenty years is a long time to keep a punk band going with no guarantee of anything. waterweed’s reward came late and from two directions at once.

Start with “Cure,” then Departures.