Ryuji Chiyotani has the audience at Shimokitazawa’s Basement Bar in his thrall as he hollers into the mic, thrashes away on guitar and zips all over the small stage. 

But late in the set, the vocalist for rock quartet TV Tairiku Ondo ratchets up the energy even more with a peculiar move: chugging three bottles of water in a row, appearing pained as he empties the last one.

“That was about hyping the crowd up and introducing them to a superhuman they’d never seen before,” the 19-year-old Chiyotani says with a laugh during an interview the following day.

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