In June of 2025 LIZA published their 1st depiction “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou) to the world, a one-song single and MV that dives into the mental state and obsession of a painter towards their (unfinished) painting. Naturally, this single set the bar for LIZA’s next work. And fans didn’t have to wait very long for the 2nd depiction to be revealed. In August of the same year the band revealed their new song and MV for “ANTARES” – which you’ve already guessed is the subject for today.
We can keep the introduction to a minimum this time, considering there have not been any changes in the lineup of the band. We’re still looking at the world created by vocalist HIVARI, guitarist/violinist Roki, guitarist ICE, bassist Amane and drummer #FFFFFF.
The single was released on August 29, but the music video wasn’t revealed on YouTube until September 9. I don’t want to make this introduction any longer than it needs to be, so let’s take a look at “ANTARES”!
I continued to call out your wavering name
Before we take a look at the lyrics, let’s start with the title first. The word ‘Antares’ can refer to many different things, including works of fiction, music, science, transportation and locations and structures around the world.
The most interesting one probably is the astrological one, since Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. It’s classified as a supergiant (which means this is a large evolved massive star) and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. It is visible from all around the world (but the southern hemisphere can see it better than the northern hemisphere, where the star is completely invisible for a period in late November), where May 31st is the one night where you can see it the easiest from wherever you are in the world.
HIVARI mentions “Why does it arc into the western night sky?”, “Two distances hundreds of millions of light years apart” and “Someday we’ll look at the same night sky” in the lyrics, meaning there are hints to believe that he is referring to the star Antares rather than any of the other definitions, but of course it’s hard to say it with one hundred percent certainty without the artist themselves confirming it.
Unlike its predecessor, “ANTARES” is sung entirely in Japanese – though if you look at the lyrics you will see that only the word ‘ANTARES’ is written in romaji. (To us, this doesn’t count as ‘English lyrics’.)
Where “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou) showed us a story of (creative) obsession without having to look for it, “ANTARES” is doing quite the opposite. There is no clear story described within the lyrics, but instead we have a monologue of emotion. The narrator doesn’t really tell us a story with their words, causing “ANTARES” to be a longing love song above anything else. A completely different presentation than what we saw with LIZA’s 1st depiction earlier.
The music video starts with HIVARI approaching the stage the band will be playing on during this video, accompanied by a violin played by Roki – who can finally show that instrument rather than only having it mentioned in his position in the band as a guitarist/violinist – and a piano playing in the background before ICE takes over with a soft, but quick passed rhythm to pave the way for HIVARI’s vocals, Amane’s bass and #FFFFFF’s drums.
With the star Antares still as the suspected inspiration you might notice that the main color for the music video is blue. Antares itself is red, and also often associated with the color red due to its relation to the planet Mars. While the music video uses some red lights here and there, the dominant color is blue. There also isn’t a visual story for us this time, making this 2nd depiction a completely different approach than “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou). Unfortunately this means there isn’t much to tell about the music video itself, and it (unfortunately) earns a spot in the ‘band performs song’-type of category. Of course it is always a bonus to be able to see the band members doing what they do best in their costumes, but unfortunately the music video doesn’t add anything to “ANTARES” like its predecessor did.
Conclusion
While “ANTARES” doesn’t continue on LIZA’s ‘art nouveau’ concept like we saw in “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou), it does show traces of it in the composition. The opening with the violin and piano introduction before the backing vocals does show what LIZA’s members are capable of together. It’s just not as ‘polished’ as their 1st depiction where we saw a story in the lyrics and music video.
Regardless, if you enjoyed “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou), you will absolutely enjoy “ANTARES”, since the composition style is similar enough to immediately say that it is one of the songs from LIZA. While the ‘dark fantasy’ tagline doesn’t return in the lyrics, it does return in the instrumentals. Not just for the instruments themselves, but also how HIVARI delivers his vocals.
While we were working on this article, LIZA announced the release of their first album “THE IMMORTAL PALETTE” for the 21st of January. This album contains “未完の肖像” (Mikan no Syouzou) and “ANTARES”, but also their third single “M4GNET4R”, among various new songs. We didn’t want to group “ANTARES” into a potential album review in the future because of the existence of the music video and how far we already were with this article when the album was announced. That’s why you’re reading about LIZA’s 2nd depiction as a separate article now.
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