L'Arc-en-Ciel
Japanese rock band
L'Arc-en-Ciel (Japanese: ラルク アン シエル, Hepburn: Raruku an Shieru; French for "The Rainbow"), stylized as L'Arc〜en〜Ciel and abbreviated as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist Tetsuya and vocalist Hyde. Following the departure of original members Hiro and Pero, guitarist Ken and drummer Sakura were recruited to replace them in 1992 and 1993, respectively. While they first got their start as a visual kei band, L'Arc-en-Ciel have not had any association with the movement since their major label debut in 1994. Sakura left the band in 1997 and was replaced by Yukihiro in January 1998, completing the current line-up.
With a reported 40 million records sold, L'Arc-en-Ciel are one of the best-selling music artists in Japan. Their 1999 simultaneously-released albums Ark and Ray are each one of the best-selling albums of all time in Japan. L'Arc-en-Ciel have had seven number one studio albums and 21 number one singles. They were ranked number 58 on a 2003 list of the top 100 Japanese pop musicians by HMV Japan, and were the first Japanese act to headline Madison Square Garden in New York City.
History
1991–1997: Formation, major label debut and Sakura's departure
In February 1991, bassist Tetsuya (then known as TETSU) recruited vocalist Hyde (then known as HIDE), guitarist Hiro and drummer Pero. Together, they formed a band and named themselves L'Arc-en-Ciel.
“L'Arc-en-Ciel” enters the record as japanese rock band. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what L'Arc-en-Ciel, Japanese and rock can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“L'Arc-en-Ciel” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Japanese and rock provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q218866. VIAF identifies the subject as 138004961. 1 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “L'Arc-en-Ciel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.