Spinning Globe

"Spinning Globe" was written as the theme song for The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki's first full-length directorial work in a decade.[1] It was announced on July 14, 2023, the day of the film's release, as the film had a policy of keeping the content and cast confidential prior to its release.

Miyazaki asked Yonezu to write the theme song four years prior to the film's release after he heard Foorin's "Paprika", which Yonezu had produced, on the radio. Yonezu commented that he grew up watching Miyazaki's films, and "Spinning Globe" is a song about The Boy and the Heron but also a song to give back to Miyazaki.[1]

The song was released a month after Yonezu's last single, "Tsuki wo Miteita (Moongazing)", and roughly a year after his last film theme song, "M87" for Shin Ultraman. It was first performed on July 1 and 2 at Yokohama Arena during Yonezu's tour, Kusou, as an unreleased new song, though details were not revealed. Advance distribution of the song began on July 17, 2023.[1] The jacket of the work was extracted from an original frame of The Boy and the Heron and chosen by Yonezu.[2] The single was released on July 26 with two versions: first version, which has a moss green hard cover with three-dimensional leaf patterns and images of herons, and a regular version with a soft cover; both have a photobook with documentary photos as well as a conversation Yonezu and Toshio Suzuki, the film's producer.

The music video, filmed in Yakushima and directed by Hiroshi Okuyama, premiered on July 26.[3] Two days later, a video of a conversation between Yonezu and Masaki Suda, who voiced the Grey Heron in the film and had previously collaborated with Yonezu on "Haiiro to Ao", was released.[4] A live video of a surprise performance of "Spinning Globe" at the final concert of Yonezu's tour, Kusou, was released. Animation from Takeshi Honda, the animation director for the film, was included in the beginning and end of the video.[5]

On July 17, 2023, the day of its release, the song ranked first on all distribution sites with a total of 25 titles for daily and real-time rankings. It also ranked first on the Oricon Daily Digital Singles Chart.[6] It ranked third on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 released on July 26,[7] and first on the Billboard Japan Download Songs.[8] "Spinning Globe" also ranked first on the Oricon Weekly Digital Single ranking, Yonezu's 14th song to do so, breaking his own record for the most number-one digital singles.[9] In the Billboard Japan Hot 100 of the following week announced on August 2, the song rose to second place and kept its first place ranking on Download Songs and second place ranking on Hot Animation.[10] It also kept its first place ranking on the Oricon Weekly Digital Single ranking.[11]