With the anime series My Hero Academia now over, AnimeTV チェーン has published an exclusive interview with BUMP OF CHICKEN, the band behind the series’ final ending theme, “I.”
My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON Ending Theme / “I” by BUMP OF CHICKEN
Final Visual:
This time, we gathered questions from fans on X and were able to provide an opportunity for them to receive answers! Please be sure to read all the way through.
Fans: If you could tell something to listeners who discovered BUMP OF CHICKEN through My Hero Academia for the first time, what would it be?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Nice to meet you. We love My Hero Academia just as much as you do. We hope you’ll come see us live someday.
Fans: How does BUMP OF CHICKEN manage to make us cry and feel all sorts of things with their songs?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: If our songs become that kind of meaningful music for you, it’s because you listen to them with that level of care. You’re able to find something within our music—and that’s what makes the connection possible.
Fans: You have got now plenty of anime songs, are you planning to do a worldwide tour? Is there a possibility that you come to South America?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: There are no concrete plans at the moment, but we’ve always felt that if there are people who want to listen, we’d like to go anywhere.
Fans: How did you become a band?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: We started taking it seriously when we were in our first year of high school, but the very beginning goes back to middle school, when Masu asked me, “Do you want to start a ban together?”
Not long after that, the four of us became the band we are today. We were all friends in the
same basketball club, and every day on the way home, we’d kick stones around until it got too dark to see them.
At first, it felt like that stone-kicking just turned into a band. We never imagined we’d still be doing it together, with the same members, 30 years later.
Fans: What kept you motivated to continue doing them?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: It’s the moment when we feel that something inside us has truly become sound—and the moment when we feel that it’s reached someone else.
Fans: Hello BUMP OF CHICKEN, if given the chance to play music again for this franchise in the future would you do it & would the style of music be any different like a different vibe or type of genre?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Of course. We’d love to. We’ve always just played the music we want to play, and that won’t change. That’s our style.
Fans: What part of the Final Season’s story moved you the most while making the theme song?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: I can’t choose just one. From beginning to end, my emotions were constantly being moved. Looking back now, I think “I” wasn’t made only as the ending for the final chapter, but as the ending for My Hero Academia as a whole.
Fans: If we compare each member’s personality to a Quirk in My Hero Academia, what would they be like?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: We’re all Quirkless, just like Deku. That’s why we’re in a band.
Fans: How does the production committee offers your team to become the ending of the final season?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: It was November 2024. We were nearing the end of a tour and were in Kanazawa, Japan, preparing for two shows starting the next day. While we were all having dinner together, our staff told us,“We’ve received an offer for the ending theme.”
We were absolutely thrilled. We answered immediately, “We’ll definitely do it.”
Fans: If you had the choice to pick one opening or ending to listen to for the rest of your life from MHA, which one would you pick?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: That’s a very strange question. It feels the same as being asked, “If you could spend the rest of your life with only one student out of all the children at your child’s school, who would you choose?”. It’s that kind of question.
Fans: Hi BUMP OF CHICKEN! What’s your favorite song you’ve composed for an anime? My favorite one by far is “Hello, World”. The songs you written that I’ve heard always feel like they come from the heart of the MC like Leo in Blood blockade battlefront or Deku in My Hero Academia.
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Naturally—every single one of them.
Fans: What is your first contact with BNHA ?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: I read the very first chapter when it started serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump. It was instantly gripping, and it completely captured my attention.
Fans: Are you fan of this series ? If yes, as anime watcher only or manga reader as well ?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Reading manga is one of my hobbies, and I don’t usually watch anime that much. I first discovered My Hero Academia through the manga. It was so good that I ended up rereading it many times, and that’s what eventually made me want to watch the anime as well.
Fans: What means My Hero academia for you? If you’re fans of MHA, for sure.
MOTOO FUJIWARA: It’s hard to explain clearly, but I trust this work.
Fans: What was you’re response for when you were doing the final ending theme for My Hero Academia? Did you thought it was a perfect choice for you guys to do it?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: All of us are huge fans of My Hero Academia, so we were honestly beyond happy—it felt almost unreal. It’s hard to put into words just how excited we were. We kept saying to each other, “I can’t believe this is really happening,” and got pretty carried away together.
Fans: I posted an illustration on TikTok about MHA and BUMP OF CHICKEN. After that, I received several comments from people around the world asking, “Why is the title ‘I’?”. If possible, I would be very happy if could share the origin and meaning of the title with fans around the world.
MOTOO FUJIWARA: All Might’s famous line, “I am here”, represents both his resolve and his pride. For us as well, the idea behind “I am here” has always been at the core of what we express. Over nearly 30 years of making music, we’ve written many songs that share that same foundation.
Because of that, we named the song “I”. Right after choosing the title, we started noticing a few really nice coincidences. One of them is that “I” is the ninth letter of the alphabet（The “9th” in My Hero Academia has meaning, right?, and it also happens to be the ninth letter in our band’s name. When things line up like that, it feels as if the universe（or something bigger than us) is gently telling us, “Yes, that’s the right choice”.
Fans: I love the vibe and tone of the Ending by BUMP OF CHICKEN. In Episode 2 when we saw Bakugo again than the end credits with that soundtrack, it was so beautiful. My Question: Considering the popularity of the Anime, did they feel more pressure to deliver than usual?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Not really. As we thought about the long journey of this epic story, we simply focused on making the song with care and sincerity.
Fans: When you first started working on “I”, what aspect of My Hero Academia first popped into your head and how did you want to encapsulate it in the song?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Even before we officially received the offer to write the ending theme, I was already deeply immersed in reading the original manga. As I read, there was one particular phrase that kept playing over and over in my head during many different scenes. It became very familiar to me. So the first step was to take that phrase out of my head—and that eventually became the intro of “I.”
Fans: Dear BUMP OF CHICKEN, I’ve been wondering what kind of guitar and pedals did you guys use in order to make the song “I”? As to why I’m asking, I need a new guitar. Could you give us any recommendations? Thank you!
MOTOO FUJIWARA:
Guitars used by Fujiwara:
- PRS Custom 24
- Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard
- Fender 1961 Stratocaster
- Epiphone 1966 Texan
Guitars used by Masukawa:
- Gibson Custom Shop 2003 Les Paul Standard
- Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard
- Fender Custom Shop 2025 Stratocaster
- Fender Custom Shop 2017 Stratocaster
All of the electric guitar sounds on this track were created using either amps or amp simulators. As for recommendations, it really depends on what you want to do. I think the most important thing is choosing a guitar that matches your own purpose and goals.
Fans: What was the idea behind this song “I”?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: There were actually a lot of ideas inspired directly by My Hero Academia, especially in terms of sound. It’s hard to know where to even begin explaining them, and just talking about that could take quite a long time. If I ever get the chance to focus only on that topic and explain everything properly, I’d really love to do so. It would probably be very long—but I hope you’d read it all the way through.
Fans: How long did it take you to come up with the lyrics of the song “I”? What your thought when writing the song as ending theme for final season MHA ?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: I wanted to say to everyone who was looking forward to the final season, “I love My Hero Academia just as much as you do”. I wanted to share both the emotion of the ending and the sadness of saying goodbye. More than anything, I hoped to connect with people through this song. Even now that the final season has ended, I still feel the same way.
Fans: Is there a lyric from “I” that holds special meaning for you personally? Favorite lyrics from “I”?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: Every line influences the others and comes together as a single expression, so there isn’t one particular phrase that stands out as more special than the rest.
Fans: When writing the lyrics for the ending song, what points of the story or emotions were you thinking about?
MOTOO FUJIWARA: I wasn’t thinking about any specific character, line of dialogue, or particular scene, nor was I trying to portray one directly. I think I was trying to write something like the atmosphere that fills the world of My Hero Academia. That’s usually how I approach writing songs for anime.
Fans: Do you have any drafts of songs that were to be for the ED that you scrapped??
MOTOO FUJIWARA: No, there weren’t. This isn’t just for this project—there’s nothing that gets left unused for us.
Artist photo:
More about BUMP OF CHICKEN:
One of Japan’s top alternative rock band formed on February 11, 1996. Their second single, “Tentaikansoku”, released in 2001, was a huge hit and brought them to fame as one of the most popular bands in Japan.
In their 29 years, they have released 10 albums and 28 singles, and has continued to produce numerous hit songs throughout their career. They collaborated and have tie-ins with many brands including anime, dramas, and movies that are famous worldwide. In recent years, they released “Acacia,” a collaboration with Pokemon, “Chronostasis,” as the theme song for the Detective Conan movie, and “SOUVENIR,” as the theme song for the anime “SPY x FAMILY.
The group has been energetically active, mainly in live performances, and held their first stadium tour in 2016 and a ’dome’ tour in 2019 that drew 350,000 people.
Even after 29 years since their start, the band continues to gain popularity, making them a legendary band that cannot be overlooked when discussing the J-pop scene.
■ BUMP OF CHICKEN links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bumpofchicken
X (Twitter): https://x.com/boc_official_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bumpofchickenofficial/
Website: https://www.bumpofchicken.com/
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