# Kroi 内田怜央 & 長谷部悠生（MC:森本しんたろう） | ポッドフリックス -秘密の発信局- | Netflix Japan

- Show: ポッドフリックス -秘密の発信局-
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1895688428_16a1ec7c552d.html
- Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/111e36a7c/podcast/play/127168580/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-9%2F433767167-44100-2-576a5f30c90a4.mp3
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Kroi vocalist Uchida Reo (内田怜央) and guitarist Hasebe Yuki (長谷部悠生) joined host Morimoto Shintaro (森本しんたろう) on Podfrix (ポッドフリックス). They covered everything from Hasebe tearing his Achilles tendon mid-show and finishing the tour on crutches, to the story of how Hasebe recruited Uchida into a band by slapping him on the backside on their third day of middle school. The two also revealed their reaction to receiving an out-of-the-blue LINE message offering them the opening theme for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run.

## What this episode answers

### Why is Hasebe Yuki on crutches during the tour?

In early July, at a two-man live in Osaka organized by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ), Hasebe tore his right Achilles tendon at the end of the third song while skipping back to his position. It was his second such injury—he had torn his left Achilles three years earlier—and the staff, by now accustomed to the situation, immediately brought out a chair so he could continue the MC without even checking on him. He played through the remaining songs that night and has kept touring ever since.

### How did the members of Kroi come to form the band?

When Hasebe enrolled in middle school through an entrance exam, he made a handwritten notebook cataloguing the hobbies of every student in the school so he could find bandmates. Only three students listed instrument experience, and Uchida was the only one who listed drums. On day three of school, Hasebe walked up behind Uchida at a vending machine near the cafeteria and slapped him on the backside with both hands, saying "Let's start a band." Uchida's first impression was one of dislike, but with no one else around who shared his interests he started spending time with Hasebe by default, and the two went on to watch rock concert footage together at McDonald's until closing time.

### Why did Uchida Reo switch from drums to vocals?

Hasebe had been handling vocals at the school cultural festival but noticed the audience giggling, which made him realize he simply could not sing. After watching Uchida perform in his own original band—where Uchida played drums and sang—Hasebe proposed making Uchida the vocalist, and around their third year of middle school the roles settled into what they are today.

### Why does the band's schedule get so packed even during tours, and how do they carve out time off?

Even when the band agrees in advance not to write new material during a tour, commissioned offers come in and they cannot bring themselves to decline, worrying about who the offer would go to if they said no and whether the tight deadline means someone else already turned it down. As a result, their schedules fill up. For time off, each member marks themselves as "unavailable" in a shared scheduling app; when member Chiba (千葉さん) books a trip first, the others tend to pile on, which is how longer stretches of rest actually happen.

### What was their reaction when they received the offer for the Steel Ball Run opening theme?

The offer arrived as a sudden message in the band's team LINE group. Hasebe had been talking with staff in London just two months earlier about how Steel Ball Run is his favorite arc, so the news came as a bolt from the blue. Uchida admitted he felt anxious at first, wondering whether Kroi was really the right fit for a work that had never before had a band perform its opening theme.

## Article

## Tearing His Achilles Tendon—Twice—and Continuing the Tour Anyway

Hasebe Yuki walked into the recording studio on crutches. In early July, at a two-man live in Osaka organized by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, he tore his right Achilles tendon at the very end of the third song—just as he was skipping back to his spot after finishing a guitar part. Because he had already torn his left Achilles three years earlier, the staff had essentially become Achilles-rupture veterans. The moment he went down, a chair appeared in front of him seemingly out of nowhere, with no one stopping to check how he was feeling, so he could continue the MC. Hasebe laughed about it: "The chair just whooshed out before anyone even asked if I was okay." He played through the rest of the set that night and has continued every tour date since, explaining the circumstances at each show's MC. By mid-tour, he says, a vague "oh, that story again" feeling has begun to settle over the audience—which means, as he puts it, "the Achilles tendon rupture is slowly gaining name recognition."

## The Backside Slap: How the Band Began on Day Three of Middle School

Uchida Reo had been at the school since elementary through an internal promotion track; Hasebe came in fresh from an entrance exam. Determined to find bandmates in an unfamiliar school, Hasebe made a handwritten notebook cataloguing the hobbies of every student in the school. Only three students, including himself, listed any instrument experience, and Uchida was the sole person who listed drums. On their third day of school, Hasebe spotted Uchida at a vending machine beside the cafeteria buying milk tea, walked up behind him, slapped him on both sides of his backside with both hands, and said, "Let's start a band." Uchida's immediate reaction: "I'm going to hate this person." But with nobody else nearby whose interests matched his own, he ended up spending time with Hasebe by process of elimination. The two began going to McDonald's together and watching rock concert footage until closing time, and it was through those sessions that they discovered how deep their musical tastes actually aligned.

## The Prodigy Drummer Who Hit a Wall—and Found His Voice

Uchida had been playing drums since early childhood and was consistently told by adults that he was better than other kids his age. By around his second year of middle school, he was so sure of himself that he assumed he would eventually appear on TV as some kind of genius drum kid. Reality arrived differently. He found himself in the classical guitar club, plugging a bass into an amp alone and slapping Red Hot Chili Peppers lines at top volume while everyone around him practiced Ghibli songs. "I realized this might be a problem," he said. That recognition broke something in him. He rebuilt himself by teaching himself guitar and starting to write his own songs.

Meanwhile, Hasebe had been singing at the cultural festival—and could hear the audience quietly laughing. He understood what that meant. After watching Uchida perform in his own original band, where Uchida both drummed and sang, Hasebe proposed shifting Uchida to the vocalist role. By around their third year of middle school, the lineup that exists today was set.

## A Schedule That Never Quite Clears

The band will agree before a tour that they won't accept new commissions during it. Then an offer arrives. The internal debate is immediate: if they say no, who gets it? If the deadline is unrealistically short, did someone else already turn it down? Either way, the feeling of not wanting to miss an opportunity wins out, and they say yes. This cycle is why, as Hasebe describes it, the schedule is always packed. Time off is managed through a shared scheduling app: each member manually marks themselves as unavailable for personal plans. When member Chiba books a trip first, the others tend to attach themselves to that block of dates, which is how genuine stretches of rest end up forming.

## The Steel Ball Run Theme and How Film and TV Feed Their Music

Kroi will perform the opening theme for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 スティールボールラン). The offer came as a sudden post in the band's team LINE group. Two months before the offer arrived, Hasebe had been in London talking with staff about how Steel Ball Run is his favorite arc in the series. The news landed like a lightning bolt from a clear sky. Uchida's reaction was different—anxiety. No band had ever performed an opening theme for this particular work, which made him wonder whether Kroi was really the right choice.

Both musicians also spoke about how visual media feeds their songwriting. Hasebe listens closely to Ennio Morricone and other Western film soundtracks, breaking down how strings are deployed in melancholy scenes. He strongly recommended the soundtrack to the drama series Fargo. Uchida's practice is to share reference films with bandmates when working on a track to lock in a shared sense of world. He praised Ishino Takkyoku's (石野卓球) score for Jimenjitachi (地面師たち) as "music that takes risks you would never hear in a normal drama." Both agreed that being able to follow in real time how OTT works on Netflix and similar platforms foreground homage and sampling has been directly useful to their own music-making.

## Takeaways

- Hasebe Yuki tore his right Achilles tendon mid-show while skipping back to his position—his second such injury in three years—and has continued the tour on crutches.
- Hasebe recruited Uchida into the band on their third day of middle school by slapping him on the backside at a vending machine, having already identified Uchida as the school's only drummer from a handwritten hobby notebook.
- The offer to write the opening theme for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run arrived without warning via LINE, blindsiding Hasebe especially since he had described the arc as his favorite just two months earlier in London.