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Shazna Band Breaks Up; Producer Tetsuya Komuro Arrested

IZAM, the vocalist of the visual-kei band Shazna, announced on Monday that the group is breaking up. IZAM made the announcement before 100 fans during an Tokyo bookstore event to promote the release of the group's Homeless Visual-Kei book. The group's final concert will be on March 22 in Tokyo's O-EAST hall. Shazna performed "Piece of Love," the first opening theme song for the Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne television anime series, and "Pureness," the theme song for the Crayon Shin-chan: Dengeki! Buta no Hizume Daisakusen film.

In a separate development, Tetsuya Komuro, the prolific music producer behind Namie Amuro, globe, hitomi, and dozens of other acts, was arrested for alleged fraud on Tuesday. Komuro reportedly promised to sell the copyrights to 806 songs to a private investor for 1 billion yen (about US$10 million) in 2006. The investor sent half of the payment and then discovered that Komuro did not actually own the copyrights, even though he produced the songs. A court ruled that Komuro must pay 600 million yen (US$6 million) in July, and another court ordered for the arrest of Komuro and two business associates after he did not pay. Komuro composed the soundtrack for the first Vampire Hunter D anime video. He later contributed to the soundtracks of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Street Fighter II: The Movie, Zoids: Fuzors, and several other anime.

Source: Sports Nippon, Sports Hochi via Tokyograph