Perfume announce that they will log out of Computer City and go on hiatus

So… when Perfume posted on Instagram that they had an announcement on the way, my immediate thought was ‘It’s a wrap’. Especially after the “Megu Loop” music video which had such a sense of finality to it. Also a couple of the songs on Nebula Romance: Part 2 had a vibe of reminiscence and closure.

And lo and behold, the dreaded announcement came.

Shout-outs to ef (@efQQef) for sharing the official post with me, which was made available to P.T.A members.

The center of all Perfume activities lies in our live shows.

We have given out everything to share that time and place together and resonate with you. Every show, we went up on stage thinking this might be the last time the miracle happened and ignited our hearts.

Time spent with you means the world to us.

“Marking our shining legacy in history”. This has always been one of Perfume’s dreams.

To capture this moment that we can proudly call a “shining legacy”, we have decided to put Perfume to cryosleep starting 2026.

No matter what shape or form, as the three of us, we will forever be Perfume.

To spend many more years together, to become better and more sophisticated Perfume, to face new challenges, we have decided to pause our milestone.

We have continued to improve and polish ourselves every day for the past 25 years so we are always ready to go as Perfume and this break will be the time that we, for the first time, will face our lives as individuals to find the new us. We have never experienced a time like this, nor have we never even thought about something like this so we will probably start with rehab. LOL But the three of us all agreed that we are ready to face that challenge.

Many beautiful landscapes we created together will continue to push us forward and if we ever feel down, we’re sure that they will keep shining upon us. We appreciate every one of you who has supported us thus far, from the bottom of our hearts.

Since we came this far without taking a break as Perfume, we hope you support our decision to give ourselves little break time. Please continue to lend us your support as we chase our new dreams.

We are doing all this just to come back as “new Perfume.” We all want to be more powerful than ever so we would be delighted if you could kindly look forward to that day when we meet again.

It’s a wrap…for now.

Perfume log out. Temporarily. | Universal Music

The important thing to note about this announcement before it gets sensationalised and misconstrued within corners of Kawayuka’s Internet and the fandom — this is not a disbandment announcement. HOWEVER. I do think that fans should be realistic about the possibility that Perfume may not come back, even though the announcement states that they will. Life can change. Circumstances can change. Minds can change. And I hope that if Perfume PR sends out a fax in 6 years to say ‘Yeah, so the cryosleep machine broke and Perfume can’t wake up, so they’re in permanent comas now’ that fans will respect that.

Ayaka, Kashino and Ayano may realise that they quite like life without the eventual pressures that came with being Perfume and the toll that it took on them, and that they are happy with the legacy they’d left to not continue it — and they’d be well within their rights to decide that. Or perhaps they’ll decide that that ‘new Perfume’ should be a whole other thing where Perfume streams on Twitch and has a schedule which involves Kashiyuka sitting on live and talking about bowls on a Monday, a-chan crying on camera as she reviews Korean dramas on a Thursday and Nocchi playing Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection on weekends — and they’d be well within their rights to decide that too.

I, for one, am not entirely surprised at this announcement coming when it did. Especially after that “Megu Loop” video. But it’s always been in the back of my mind that Perfume has never come off of the treadmill since Game in 2008. There has been no extended period where they’ve not been doing something. Even during COVID’s debut in 2020 — which cut one of Perfume’s tours short — they were still giving us performances, content and putting together a show ready for when they were able to.

The past 12 years for Perfume have especially been ridiculous. I mean, look at this shit.

2013. Single releases. World Tour 2nd. The LEVEL3 album release. The LEVEL3 tour. 2014. A single release. The Gurun Gurun Tour. World Tour 3rd. 2015. Single releases. The anniversary 3：5：6：9 gigs. 2016. The Cosmic Explorer album release. The Cosmic Explorer Tour, which included dates in North America. Then the Cosmic Explorer gigs at the Tokyo Dome. Reframe shows. 2018. Single releases. The Future Pop album release. The Future Pop Tour. 2019. World Tour 4th (which was just North America and pissed me off). A performance at Coachella. A second set of Reframe shows. The P Cubed album release. 2020. The P Cubed tour. A single release. 2021. The Polygon Wave gig. A Reframe tour. 2022. A second set of Polygon Wave gigs. The Plasma album release. The Plasma tour. 2023. The Code of Perfume gig in London. Single releases. The Code of Perfume gigs in Japan. 2024. Single releases. The Code of Perfume gigs in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei and Bangkok. The Nebula Romance: Part 1 album release. The Nebula Romance: Episode 1 Tour. 2025. The Nebula Romance: Episode 1 Tour continues. Single releases. The Nebula Romance: Part 2 album release. The Nebula Romance: Tokyo Dome gigs.

And of course there is not only the act of recording the music, preparing for the tours and shooting music videos (back when Perfume shot music videos for every single release), but all of the festival appearances, the televised performances, the in-person promo and more besides which was happening in the midst of ALL of the above.

It’s insanity. Perfume’s schedule was on some Mathew Knowles, Joe Jackson type shit.

Perfume really should’ve taken a break after P Cubed. Many of us fans had even speculated that perhaps they would, because the timing just seemed so ideal. So, I’m glad that they’re taking one now.

My life is in no way comparable to Perfume’s — but there was a period in my life when I was doing way too much. And it wasn’t just that my work and my career was a focus, but that I was put in a position where I had to make sacrifices and just put up with shit, because so much and so many relied on me being in that position. I slowly began to lose a sense of self. I just became my job and my work. It drove me to a point where I was forced to slam on the brakes, because I was so unhappy and fell into a state of what I feel was depression. I just didn’t want to give anything more, and I don’t think I could have of even if I wanted to. I was proud of what I had achieved and all that I had done, but it felt like it came at an expense that I just didn’t want to keep being put out of pocket for. So, on some [turns and looks into the camera] level, I get the decision of putting Perfume on pause, and I’m generally very understanding behind these sorts of choices whenever they’re made.

Burnout is a real thing. But so is the feeling that you’ve not really been living life because so much of your life has been fuelling and feeding the machine that has become your career. And as a music act, the bigger your career becomes, the more people rely on you financially to keep the machine going, and the more parasocial the relationship with fans becomes — making it harder to press the emergency stop button. You become increasingly aware that doing so will affect a whole lot of people. But this is no way to live. Ayaka, Kashino and Ayano should have the chance to exist without the pressures of being beholden to something which — despite doing amazing things for their lives — is blocking them from actually living their lives and discovering other parts of it separate from Perfume. All these women have known life to be is Perfume since they were at school. That mention in their ‘Gurl, we’re tired’ statement of rehab was real, because this adjustment is going to be HUGE for them and everyone around them. What is life going to be like without Perfume?

Perfume saying ‘Every show, we went up on stage thinking this might be the last time’ goes without saying, because you felt this in every performance. But you also get a sense that Perfume’s hustle mentality from their earlier years never left them. They work with a sense that they’ve yet to make it and that they can’t stop out of a fear it could all disappear tomorrow. So as a fan, I am so glad that Ayaka, Kashino and Nocchi realise that they have created a legacy with Perfume, and that they are now in a position where they can put a pause on it without the fear that they’ll un-do all of their hard work and lose it all.

The feeling of ‘I don’t even know what my life is beyond my career’ is a large part of what prompted Hikaru Utada to take a hiatus. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is what drove Namie Amuro’s choice to retire. I imagine that this is a very common feeling for those who started their music careers young, but not everybody finds themselves in the enlightened and privileged position of being able to say ‘I need a time out’.

I just wish that Perfume was going out with something better than Nebula Romance and that the story of it all was closer to Perfume’s actual story. There was a real chance to tell something of Perfume’s story to close out a chapter of it, but instead we got cyborgs with wigs and guns.

HENNYWAY.

From a creative perspective — as somebody who has felt that Perfume’s music became a little uninspired and half-baked, a hiatus is needed. I really hope that in the event Perfume returns, that new life experiences and outlook is brought to their music and approaches to their career — with a newfound realisation that they are more than what they themselves thought they were. I have always felt that for all Perfume is and what they have built, that there is so much more to them that we are yet to see. And I hope that this hiatus makes Ayaka, Kashino, Nocchi and everybody in team Perfume see it too.

Perfume preapring to leave the Computer City. Temporarily | Amuse

I’m sure there are fans who are crashing out and in distress over this. And a-chan is going to be an absolute MESS during those Tokyo Dome shows at the end of September. But Perfume have created such a legacy that we’ll be able to revel in it until the end of time. So let us be grateful for what Perfume have managed to give us, because in them taking time off, we have not lost anything.

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💿 Album reviews: Game | Complete Best | Triangle | LEVEL3 | JPN | Cosmic Explorer | The Best “P Cubed” | Future Pop | Plasma | Nebula Romance: Part 1

🎛️ Extended Mixes: Mawaru Kagami | Moon | Cosmic Treat | Nebula Romance