May 6th, 2026
The Gerogerigegege had released two EPs and a split and had a compilation appearance in the early 2000s. Juntaro was responding via email, tried to sell reissues with handmade artwork, and had multiple announced releases. Nothing really suggested that Juntaro Yamanouchi would quit music, and then… he just vanished. The planned releases also didn’t come out for whatever reason. You can speculate about why he quit and what he did during his hiatus, but I’m here to do a quick rundown on what he did before Moenai Hai was announced. Here we go!
2013
Juntaro hadn’t completely stepped out of the shadows just yet, but some people (like his friend Hironari Iwata) had heard that he wanted to return to music. One person apparently even got a phone call from Juntaro, saying that he finished an album and is planning to do live shows. It’s 2014, where the return really begins.
2014
February 24th, 2014. The first-ever image of Juntaro post-hiatus. Left: Juntaro Yamanouchi, Right: Hironari Iwata
This year he appeared multiple times at live shows. In August he was a guest performer at two Toukaseibunshi (alias of Hironari Iwata) shows: the August 16th one at nu things and the August 17th one at Gallery Nomart. He also performed at GRIM’s August 30th show at Sakuradai POOL.
April 19th, 2014. From left to right: Tomo Kuwahara, Jun Konagaya, Hironari Iwata, and Juntaro Yamanouchi.
August 31st, 2014. From left to right: Hidekazu Miyahara (Brian Gero), Okite Porsche, Juntaro Yamanouchi
One month later, he performed with GRIM yet again during HovH’s (GRIM + Vasilisk) September 12th performance at Nishi-Azabu Shinsekai.
September 12th, 2014. Juntaro is on the right in the middle. Another guest is Ungeziefer.
The same year he began work on Moenai Hai, finishing it in 2015. There’s only one known track from this period that didn’t appear on the album, the planned Moenai Hai title track (recorded on November 23rd, 2014; featured on Too Much Rare Tracks We Are Over).
On December 28th at Shinokubo Suizokukan, The Gerogerigegege had its first post-hiatus live performance! It was part of Dr. Euro’s year-end party; the main attractions were performances by Dr. Euro himself and his band, Green Moon On The Water. The Gerogerigegege only played one song: Sexual Behavior In The Human Male. The lineup was:
- Juntaro Yamanouchi on guitar
- Dr. Euro on drums (also played them on Moenai Hai)
- Toshihisa Hirano on bass (usually masters post-hiatus Gero releases, also a member of Green Moon On The Water)
Presumably taken after the show. From left to right: Juntaro Yamanouchi, Toshihisa Hirano, and Dr. Euro
A recording of this show doesn’t exist (at least publicly), but a rehearsal of Sexual Behavior In The Human Male recorded the day prior at Studio Noah Shibuya 2 was included with pre-orders of Uguisudani Apocalypse’s 2nd pressing.
2015
A split with the New Blockaders was planned to be released on Steinklang Industries in early 2015: 150 copies of the regular LP and 100 copies of a box featuring an additional 10“. But that didn’t happen. The only thing that remains are the liner notes, included with the gatefold vinyl edition of >(decrescendo).
In April, Juntaro was interviewed by comedy duo Harisenbon for the NTV show Hirunandesu. He was eating at Spaghetti no Pancho in Shibuya after a studio session for Moenai Hai. This wasn’t anything Gero-related; they must’ve asked him about the food and stuff. I wonder if they knew who they were talking to. Sadly no footage of this appearance can be found.
Air date: April 3rd, 2015. Still from the show shared by Juntaro himself.
2016
Last but not least (including truly everything, like each time Juntaro hung out with a friend seems pointless), Juntaro and Dr. Euro rehearsed The Gerogerigegege for the last time on April 17th, three days before Moenai Hai’s release.
BONUS: From Saiga to…
Okay, I really needed to get this info out, and you might still feel a bit hungry, so here’s a bonus round of a few things that happened in 2016 after the release of Moenai Hai. Maybe I’ll do a fuller rundown of what happened from 2016 to now another time.
Here’s Juntaro Yamanouchi in a bag:
Okay, I’m fairly sure this happened before Moenai Hai released, but he shared this on September 14th. I assume the Yoko Ono exhibition he went to was the one at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, running from November 8th, 2015, to February 14th, 2016. There’s no way to make sure it’s him in the bag, but hey, he says “Bag Piece by Juntaro” in the Facebook post.
In October Juntaro advertised a smaller-sized replica of This Is A Shaking Box Music / You Are Noise Maker and ultimately sent it out in the middle of 2017 (not everyone got a copy). It included 15 Gero badges, an instructional CD-R, and a T-shirt.
In November Juntaro was interviewed for the first time since 2002. The interview appeared in Bessatsu Shonen Champion; the interviewer was Okite Porsche. Also, it looks like they were running a giveaway for Juntaro’s autograph (3 winners).
The same month he released ART IS (C)OVER Vol. 1. It’s a Gero tribute CD containing 26 tracks, which Juntaro took from the internet (part of it comes from the Art Is Over compilation by Ontregeld Geluid Records). A few tracks are short excerpts of bootlegs instead. A second volume might’ve been planned, but it ultimately didn’t happen.
November is closed out by a live performance on the 27th! Yet another Yuro Ujie/Green Moon On The Water show at the Suizokukan, the same lineup as before. They only played two songs: The Gerogerigegege and Sexual Behavior In The Human Male. Other guests were Cullcanecho, SEX PENCILS, and Nekomachi. A cassette of this show exists, but it’s an item only given out to friends. Only one known copy exists, and it belongs to Bobuo Sakai of HAIGAN.
There’s also a possibility that parts of this show (and/or others) have wound up on one of the cassettes included with the Die Hard edition of Turn It Into Love.
Also sometime in the year Juntaro played guitar at a GRIM show and cut his face; I couldn’t figure out when this happened. He might’ve also played another show on September 17th, 2016, at Asagaya Yellow Vision as Toukaseibunshi α (Hironari Iwata, Ken Matsutani, and Juntaro Yamanouchi). Iwata has reported them recording under this name since May, but nothing has seen the light of day.
And that’s all I got; see you next time!