HANABIE. released their new song Bari Bari Buddy (バリバリBuddy) on 8 October 2026, and the music video followed on 14 October. It is the ending theme for Reincarnated as a Sword II, the second season of the isekai fantasy anime, which began streaming in Japan on 30 September and is on HIDIVE in the UK.
The Tokyo rock band have more on the way. A CD single follows in Japan on 4 November, and their next album, UMAMI, comes out on Wednesday 2 December.
The Bari Bari Buddy music video, published on HANABIE.’s official YouTube channel.
Bari Bari Buddy, Written by Yukina and Matsuri for Fran and Teacher
Vocalist Yukina and guitarist and vocalist Matsuri wrote the song together, and Matsuri arranged it with Keita Kawaguchi. The release announcement describes it as a loud, raw and catchy track built around a chorus for crowds to shout back, and expects it to become a new live favourite.
The band wrote it with the anime’s two leads in mind. In their own words, released with the song:
“We’ve created an epic, larger-than-life song that perfectly captures Fran and Teacher’s grand adventure! The chorus is something everyone can sing along to, so I hope you’ll join us and get hyped together. And through this series, I hope we can all become totally badass Buddies!”
The title is a clue to the mood. バリバリ (bari bari) is a Japanese sound word for something crackling or tearing, and in everyday speech it describes doing something at full power, as in バリバリ働く, to work flat out. A bari bari buddy is a partner who goes all in with you, which is a fair summary of a girl and the talking sword she carries into every fight.
Reincarnated as a Sword II: Fran, Teacher and the Undead Army of Lich
Reincarnated as a Sword (転生したら剣でした, Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita) follows a man from modern Japan who dies and wakes up in a fantasy world as a sword. He can think, talk and move by telekinesis, and he grows stronger by absorbing the magic stones of the monsters he defeats. He frees Fran, a girl of the Black Cat tribe held by slavers, and becomes her weapon and guardian. She calls him Teacher (師匠, Shishou), and the pair set out as adventurers so that Fran can reach her own evolution.
The first season ran for 12 episodes in 2022. In the second, Fran and Teacher face a powerful new enemy called Lich and his army of undead monsters, and the trailer hints at a link between the mysterious Nameless and a floating island. If you are new to the genre, our list of the best isekai anime explains how these other world stories work.
The season 2 trailer, published by HIDIVE.
The story comes from Yu Tanaka’s light novels, which started online in 2015 and are published in English by Seven Seas. Studio C2C animates both seasons under director Shinji Ishihira. The score is by Yasuharu Takanashi, the Naruto Shippuden composer, working with his Team-MAX collective. He spoke to Japan Nakama before his first UK show in London.
Shinichiro Miki voices Teacher and Ai Kakuma voices Fran, and Sho Hayami joins the cast as Lich. FZMZ sing the opening theme, DREAM OF BUTTERFLY.
In Japan, ABEMA streamed the season one week ahead of television from 30 September, and it airs on Tokyo MX and ABC TV from 7 October and on BS Asahi and AT-X from 9 October. In the UK it streams on HIDIVE, which also carries season 1. Cast and staff are listed on the official anime site, in Japanese.
The Bari Bari Buddy CD Single and New Album UMAMI
Bari Bari Buddy is HANABIE.’s third single. The CD comes out in Japan on 4 November as a limited edition with a Blu-ray of the anime’s ending sequence without credits, priced at ¥2,200 (catalogue numbers ESCL-6298 and ESCL-6299). The second track is a remix of their earlier song ICONIC by the producer Yuyoyuppe.
The UMAMI album follows on 2 December. The tracklist has not been announced yet. The first press edition, at ¥7,700, adds a Blu-ray filmed at the band’s Zepp Haneda show in Tokyo on their Japan tour this year, and the standard CD costs ¥3,300.
The band are on the road in Japan now. Their 2MAN Tour 2026, where they share each night with a second act, reaches Osaka’s BIG CAT on 30 October and ends at Zepp Shinjuku in Tokyo on 12 December, ten days after UMAMI is released.
HANABIE.: From a Tokyo School Club to Lollapalooza and Electric Brixton
HANABIE. started in 2015, when Yukina, Matsuri and bassist Hettsu formed a band as part of their high school’s light music club. Drummer Chika joined in May 2023, completing the current line up. The name 花冷え (hanabie) means the chill that sometimes returns in spring while the cherry blossoms are out, and the full stop is part of it.
They call their sound Harajuku-core: metalcore riffs and Yukina’s screamed vocals set against bright J-Pop hooks and kawaii Harajuku fashion. Their breakthrough song, Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now (お先に失礼します。), takes its Japanese title from the polite phrase you say when leaving the office before your colleagues, and their label puts it at more than 12 million YouTube views and 5.4 million on TikTok. They signed to Epic Records Japan, part of Sony Music, in 2023, and released the EPs Bucchigiri Tokyo in December 2024 and HOT TOPIC on 28 January 2026.
Bari Bari Buddy adds to their anime work. Tasty Survivor was the opening theme for Momentary Lily, and anime themes have long been a route into rock for Japanese bands with women out front, as LiSA’s career shows.
Abroad, they played the T-Mobile stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago on 4 August 2024, which their label says made them the first Japanese women to perform on the festival’s main stage. Their first North American headline tour followed in March 2026.
UK fans have seen them too. Their 2025 European tour came through Glasgow’s QMU on 31 October, Manchester Academy 2 on 1 November, the O2 Institute in Birmingham on 2 November and the Limelight in Belfast on 5 November, before finishing at Electric Brixton in London on 7 November.
You can stream Bari Bari Buddy now, ahead of the single in November and UMAMI in December.
