BLEACH and Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Song Icons SCANDAL Announce Disbandment After 21 Years

Japanese rock band SCANDAL has announced that it will bring its activities to an end after more than two decades together, closing a career that introduced the group to countless international fans through anime.

For anime audiences in particular, HARUNA, MAMI, TOMOMI and RINA became closely associated with the late 2000s and early 2010s through theme songs for Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Star Driver and Pokémon.

The four members formed SCANDAL in Osaka in 2006 and went on to make their major-label debut with “DOLL” in 2008, remaining together with the same lineup throughout the band’s career.

That consistency eventually earned SCANDAL a Guinness World Record in 2023 for the longest-running rock band with the same female musicians, an achievement recognized on the 17th anniversary of the group’s formation.

One of the band’s biggest early connections to anime came with “Shoujo S,” which served as an opening theme for Bleach in 2009 and helped push SCANDAL further into the spotlight during the years immediately following its major debut.

SCANDAL returned to Bleach several years later with “HARUKAZE,” another opening theme that arrived in 2012 and became one of the band’s most recognizable anime songs.

Between those two releases came “Shunkan Sentimental,” used as an ending theme for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and still one of the songs most closely associated with SCANDAL among anime fans outside Japan.

The band also performed “Pride” as an ending theme for Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto, adding another major anime series to its growing list of tie-ins during the same period.

Pokémon fans may instead recognize SCANDAL from “Yoake no Ryuuseigun,” the theme song for the 2014 movie Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction.

Those anime connections became an important part of SCANDAL’s international reach, sitting alongside years of overseas touring that took the four-piece well beyond the Japanese live circuit.

The decision to end the band was announced shortly after SCANDAL celebrated its 20th anniversary with the “Chapter 20” concert at Osaka-jo Hall, a venue that had represented an early dream for the group before eventually becoming the setting for several major milestones.

In their joint statement, the members explained that two decades of traveling, meeting people and experiencing life together as SCANDAL had left them feeling that the four of them had accomplished everything they could as a band.

They described deciding how to bring such a long-running group to an end as extremely difficult, with the final decision coming only after repeated discussions between all four members.

SCANDAL is not disappearing immediately, with the band planning one final journey around Japan through the “SCANDAL FINAL TOUR 2026-2027 ‘SCANDAL no 47 Todofuken Tour,'” which will visit all 47 prefectures beginning on October 22, 2026.

The farewell will culminate at Yokohama Arena on August 21, 2027, exactly 21 years after the band’s formation, with the arena concert set to become SCANDAL’s final performance before activities officially come to an end.

For anime fans who first encountered SCANDAL through Ichigo Kurosaki, Edward Elric, or one of Pokémon’s big-screen adventures, the coming year offers a final opportunity to follow a band whose music became part of several defining anime eras.