Kouji Wada, the singer of Digimon Adventures OP "Butter-Fly", has passed away
wadakoji.com/archives/479Posted Apr 8, 2016, 5:40 AM UTC
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For me, he wasn't just the singer of BUTTER-FLY, but he was THE Digimon singer. Having watched all seasons both in childhood and even today, it really saddens me that the singer of Digimon has passed away even before Digimon Tri was finished.
Thank you Mr Koji for making all these kickass and inspiring songs for Digimon. Your work would forever live on in the hearts of those you have impacted all over the world. May your voice live on.
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Also: Digimon 02 OP
Digimon Tamer OP: Biggest Dreamer
The golden age of Digimon right there. He also sing for Digimon Xros and Frontiers.
I didn't know he was fighting throat cancer when he was singing Digimon Tri OP. Knowing that now.. plus his final ode to the world is the original Digimon Butterfly ~Tri edition and Seven ~Tri Edition (the first digimon have 7 digi destined children)...
Goddamnit..
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Second Savers opening was also by him, so he covers all the seasons.
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Mujaki Na Mama De was the shit when I was 11 years old watching Frontier.
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he sing the biggest dreamer too? along with butterfly its arguably the 2 best digimon ost....he was really THE digimon singer
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Tamers was the shit. Excellent show
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Yeah. The roof seems to be leaky. Raining inside the room again.
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You can watch the Japanese versions on Netflix to listen to these songs.
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Really sad considering how not too long ago we had a talk with a friend about the Digimon Tri and how we can hear significant difference in the voice on the Butterfly Tri version and the original because of the cancer and huge respect to him for coming back to do Tri, which gave me maximum nostalgia feel.
RIP. :c
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There is this thing in the West called sleeping. You do know time zones exist, right?
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There is Europe, too. You know the West is not just America, right?
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Most of Europeans are at work or school at the moment.
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Who doesn't reddit at work?
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Actually, most people from are probably on Easter holiday.
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Europeans were at work or at school when news came. What now, smartass?
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People in the West may not know him as well seeing Digimon are "Americanized" to hell and they dubbed his songs with those crap.
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America had it's own stupid bad OP instead of Butter-Fly didn't they? Germany atleast had Butterfly dubbed in german
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Hey. Don't you be shit talking the American op.
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I'm just voicing the general opinion. I kinda like it
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I must say I actually really like the german butterfly (am german myself). One of the few german openings I like.
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Definitely prefer it over the jp one, both are really nice tho.
Guess it's mostly nostalgia
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D-D-Digimon. Digimon, digital monsters!
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I prefer the Japanese OP, but as I grew up with the dubbed anime, its the english OP thats nostalgia for me. Plus I prefer the english digivolution track over the japanese one.
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Yeah it's unfortunate but Butter-fly, while still a great song, holds no nostalgia for me thanks to the US dub's whitewashing.
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the West = America ?
Many people (especially from Europe) know Butterfly
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光叔走好!
补一句无限大な梦のあとの T_T
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无限大な梦のあとの...;_; 光叔一路走好！
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r/anime 居然还有不少国人
无限大な梦のあとの 何もない世の中じゃ
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Hiragana anyone?
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Lyrics to Butterfly, specifically the opening verse iirc.
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Now I remember.
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感谢您为我们童年留下的怀旧… 光叔走好。
無限大な夢のあとの (T_T)/~~~
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Just wondering, which Chinese social media is popular right now? I'm Chinese but I never used Weibo. I'm thinking about making one.
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can you show me the link to the digimon post in weibo?
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Its like asking you to show a congregate of news site reposting or Twitter exploding without the hashtags.
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He was STILL recording up until March 2016 despite the late stage throat cancer. That's some Koyama Full Moon Mitsuki shit right there.
RIP Mr. Wada. I'll never forget Butter-Fly.
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I love Kouji Wada, but he didn't record unitl this March, the last song he released (Seven tri.Version) use the vocals of the 10th memorial version he released in 2009, because he was unable to sing recently....
His last song was Butter-Fly, like it was his first.
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That's some Koyama Full Moon Mitsuki shit right there.
Full moon wo Sagashite. I recommend it to anyone that reads this comment.
It was one of the shows that got me in to Anime, I'll always have fond memories of it. And you've prompted me to rewatch it soon.
Thank you.
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It's so sad to think that he won't get to see Digimon Adventure Tri end.
Here's a video with a different version of Butter-fly along with the original - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjP3SwKZqdA
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I hope he atleast knew what was happening in the story, Like I guess it's already all planned out since the first Movie, so they could atleast tell him the story
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He was still updating his twitter as normal the day before (2nd April). And then the next day he's gone...
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Butter-fly and Brave Heart are two really amazing songs. This sucks :_(
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Actually, Ayumi Miyazaki sings Brave Heart, not Wada Kouji. It's one of the few songs not interpreted by him in the Digimon franchise.
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My bad, I watched this video at some point and it confused me. (Brave Heart rocks regardless of the version)
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Hell yeah it rocks. It's my favorite song.
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RIP. Never really had much attachment to Butter-Fly, growing up with the dub. But it was a good song, and he was a good singer. So it's a shame.
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I'm so sad right now. His music was one of the things that defined digimon for me. Digimon will not be the same without him. Thank you for your music. You will always be remembered.
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for me
for everyone
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Didn't the singer of the English one pass away recently too?
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Yeah, bad time to be a Digimon singer.....
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NONONONO, don't raise a death flag for Fred Röttcher and Frank Schindel, the german singers!
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And boy, do I love their versions. I grew up with digimon and while I am rewatching seasons 2 and 3 right now, I still remembered the songs perfectly 10+ years later, before the rewatch. I really hope that this is not their death flag as well
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His Digimon openings were fantastic. RIP :(
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Butter-fly one of the most played karaoke songs. Don't ever remember a session where this song was not played
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That's so sad to hear
His story was a great one of coming back and going through adversity to sing for us once again.
I really didn't know or expect that his state of health was still so fragile when we, the fans, got used to him back on stage.
RIP
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On April 3, 2016, he died unexpectedly from complications related to his cancer affections. His last single, "Seven〜tri. Version〜" was released only five days prior to his death.
...Why is it raining inside of my house?
I can't hold it back. It hurts.
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Man, Butter-fly was part of my childhood that listening to it makes me well up a bit. RIP :(
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Man... 5 days after his latest single ;_;
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;_;
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RIP childhood friend
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Looks like its gonna rain again today... This guy totally made the Digimon series different. No effin way would it be as good as it is without his singing. We will and we do fly on your love Kouji Wada, RIP
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Here's a video of him singing Butterfly in 2015 while suffering from throat cancer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XTNlIIy-O4
This is the video I immediately tuned into when I heard. He just tries so hard in the face of adversity, and when everyone sings along it just... ;_;7
At least we'll always have a part of him with Butter-fly. It's a legendary song for sure.
I feel like throwing a straw hat to the wind...RIP
Someone is chopping onions around here somewhere ;_;
This anime was such a big part of my childhood and this song, didn't matter when or where it was blasted, would always be followed by a loud sing-along by my friends and I.
Farewell Wada-san.
I did not know at all he had throat cancer... I wonder when he was diagnosed with the cancer, but I did thought his performance during a recent Animelo Summer Live (don't really remember if it was 2012, 13 or 14...) but knowing this, it changes quite a lot of things... The dude's got balls.
He had his cancer three times, once in 2003, he got surgery and the cancer was gone after he had it again between 2011 and 2013, he was cancer free again and it came back in 2015 before the summer because he was unable to come sing Butter Fly at the Digimon Adventure Festival because he was too weak. The video is actually one of the few recent times when he was cancer free.
Ahhhh. What a warrior. I don't have particularly strong memories with Butterfly, but I respect the man for what he's done.
Damn shame, he seemed relatively young too.
TLDR:
Fuck Cancer. Seriously.
Damn that's a hit to my childhood memories... the OP was a huge part of Digimon for me whenever it was on TV. Glues you to the screen and I ended up watching one of my favorite anime when I was a kid.
This video is just devastating. You can really see how hard he's trying to sing.
You can tell he's really a man who enjoyed what he did.
So many people got cancer it's really terrible :(
Goddamn... Fuck cancer, man.
Ain't gonna lie, I teared up.
nope.. can't deal with that :/
Holy shit, he's so young...