THE ORAL CIGARETTES Explore Shared DNA Between Their Music and Anime ‘Jigoku Sensei Nube’ With Opening Theme ‘ERASE’
Billboard JAPAN talked to the band about what the past year has been like for them.
THE ORAL CIGARETTES have put the finishing touches on “ERASE,” their first new single since “OVERNIGHT,” which came out in July 2025. This straightforward, powerful rock tune was written as the opening theme for the second arc of the TV anime Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube, and is a bold encapsulation of the band that THE ORAL CIGARETTES has become. Billboard JAPAN talked to the band about what the past year has been like for them, as they came back from a break and started performing live shows again, about what went into “ERASE,” and about their expectations for 2026.
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It feels to me like you really put your all into “ERASE.”
Takuya: I watched Nube back when I was a little kid, but when they reached out to us about writing the opening theme, I went back and watched it again. Rewatching it, I found a lot of overlap between the anime’s worldview and my own. That’s what made me so confident that there was no need to overthink things. If I just expressed myself, purely and honestly, what came out would be a perfect fit for Nube. So I didn’t think that hard about it, I just wrote whatever flowed out of me, purely as-is. It felt like the first time in a long time that I was able to do that.
What did you feel like you had in common with Nube****?
Takuya: Ever since our band was formed, we’ve focused on the kinds of things that people tend to avoid, instead taking them head-on. That’s also true for Nube. Rewatching it as an adult, I felt like the ghosts or spirits in the story are like invisible presences created by the emotions the students want to avoid, like anxiety, guilt, or shame. The teacher, Nube, takes them on, but that process involves discussions between characters, or between Nube and the ghosts or spirits. I feel like that’s a lot like what we’ve been doing through music.
So that’s why the lyrics to “ERASE” feel like they’re about the world of Nube but, at the same time, the words and message share so much in common with the themes that THE ORAL CIGARETTES has been singing about through the years. What did all of you feel as you worked on the song?
Akira: When I heard about the offer to make the song, I was ecstatic. I told Takuya “I know we’re really busy, but come on, let’s do it.” (laughs) It’s such a relief that the song we came up with is so good. I think we recorded it back in around May of 2025. We were bouncing back from what had happened the previous year, so the offer came at a point when were brimming with enthusiasm and feeling the love for making music. The vibes when we worked on the song were amazing. It’s a new chapter of an anime that we’d all grown up on, and we ourselves were coming back from a bit of a break, so making it was a blast.