Peace Sign (Kenshi Yonezu song)

"Peace Sign" is a song by Japanese musician Kenshi Yonezu. It was released as a single by Sony Music on June 21, 2017. The song was used as the first opening theme for the second season of the anime series My Hero Academia.

"Peace Sign"
Single by Kenshi Yonezu
from the album Bootleg
Language	Japanese
B-side	"Neighbourhood" "Yumekui Shōjo"
Released	June 21, 2017 (2017-06-21)
Label	Sony Music
Songwriter(s)	Kenshi Yonezu
Kenshi Yonezu singles chronology
"orion" (2017) "Peace Sign" (2017) "Dune" (2017)
Music video
"Peace Sign" on YouTube

Background and release

The demo that became the prototype for "Peace Sign" was produced in spring 2016. Yonezu then accepted an offer from the producers of My Hero Academia to provide music. Yonezu referred to "Butter-Fly", the opening theme song for Digimon Adventure, as an example.^[1]

One of the B-sides, "Yumekui Shōjo", is a self-cover of Yonezu's Vocaloid song "Shajō no Yumekui Shōjo", released under the name Hachi in 2010. Yonezu was initially reluctant to self-cover songs he released using Vocaloid, but later thought that it might be okay. "Yumekui Shōjo" is slower than the original song.^[1][2]

"Peace Sign" was released during the first broadcast for the second season My Hero Academia. The version used during the broadcast was released as "Peace Sign (TV edit.)" on music distribution services on April 29, 2017.^[3] It is an arrangement that uses the chorus more than the version recorded on the single.^[4] The single was released on June 21, 2017, with three versions. The Peace version came with a DVD containing the non-credit opening of My Hero Academia, and the Hero version came with a special trading card featuring Izuku Midoriya, the main character of My Hero Academia. Yonezu designed the jackets for the Peace and Hero versions. The first release, regardless of version, contained advance applications for tickets of Yonezu's live tour Fogbound, which started in November of that year.

Music video

The music video for "Peace Sign" was released on Yonezu's YouTube channel on June 7, 2017. The video exceeded 1 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release, and on September 1, it was reported on Yonezu's website that the video had surpassed 100 million views, Yonezu's fifth music video to reach this milestone. It exceeded 200 million views on August 24, 2020.

On December 18, 2017, a special music video for "Peace Sign" using footage from My Hero Academia was released on Toho Animation's YouTube channel.^[5]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kenshi Yonezu.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Peace Sign" (ピースサイン)	3:57
2.	"Neighbourhood"	3:57
3.	"Yumekui Shōjo" (ゆめくいしょうじょ)	4:43
4.	"Peace Sign (Instrumental)"	3:55
Total length:		16:32

Personnel

• Kenshi Yonezu – vocals (tracks 1–3), guitar (tracks 2–3)
• Yōhei Makabe – guitar (track 1)
• Yū Sutō – bass (tracks 1–2)
• Teru Horimasa – drums (tracks 1–3)
• Ichiyo Izawa – piano (track 3)

Accolades

Awards and nominations for "Peace Sign"

Ceremony	Year	Award	Result	Ref.
2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards	2018	Best Opening	Won	[6]
32nd Japan Gold Disc Awards	2018	Best 5 Songs by Download	Won	[7]
40th Anime Grand Prix	2018	Best Theme Song	6th place	[8]

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2017) Peak position Japan Hot 100 (Billboard)[9] 1 Japan (Oricon)[10] 2 Japan Hot Animation (Billboard)[11] 1 Japan Anime Singles (Oricon)[12] 1

Monthly charts Monthly chart performance for "Peace Sign" Chart (2017) Peak position Japan (Oricon)[13] 6 Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for "Peace Sign" Chart (2017) Peak position Japan (Japan Hot 100)[14] 14 Japan (Oricon)[15] 70 Chart (2018) Peak position Japan (Japan Hot 100)[16] 31