In February 1996, vocalist yabuki, together with bassist Eiji and drummer Akito, decided to create a band called sanbika. The three members had also previously worked together in a group called May. Later on, guitarist XX was added to the lineup and in March, a second guitarist, Sakura, joined and would later on be the only member to remain with yabuki after the others decided to leave. Those three members were replaced by Reia on guitar, Kazuki on bass and Seiji on drums, but they ended up not staying long with the band either.
yabuki and Sakura kept going and in December, a bassist by the name of Noboru was added to the lineup. Over the next year, sanbika built up their popularity and released their major debut single, Snow Flake no Yoru, in November 1997.
The band's major contract with Bandai Music was dropped around the time Sakura left, which was sometime in July 1998. New members Rina (gt) and Shima Satsuki (key) joined officially on September 1st and not long after, the band's third single, 1945, was released. Even still, the band had many upcoming problems and in June, Rina parted ways with the band. Even though he was not officially a member, Rina still participated in the photoshoots for the band's singles that were to be released that fall.
In mid-2000, Noboru and Satsuki withdrew from the band and yabuki chose to end sanbika seemingly for good. The band's last concert featured a new set of support musicians, only one of which, Asato (piano), was a previous support member.
Over the next three years, yabuki had substantial success as a solo artist. He went by his real name, Masanori Yabuki, and in 2003, he emerged with a group called Runa. It was originally going to be called Runa - The artist formerly known as yabuki but it implied that it was another "evolution" of yabuki's solo work instead of being a new version of sanbika. He was accompanied by Luxor Hg on guitar, Mokkori Mokkie on bass and Okina Wan on drums. The "new" band was extremely popular and one of their Shibuya Kokaido lives in 2004 sold out completely out.
The band started gaining popularity in 2005 when they re-released the old sanbika song winter Love story. The song reached a very high position on both the Okinawa as well as Thailand charts. In 2006, Runa went on to hold a sold out oneman in Korea, with their eyes on the rest of the world following its success. They had planned to tour France in the fall, but had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.
Their retreat from Europe was only temporary, and by early 2007 they released the album Bleu presque transparent in Europe, and embarked on a tour from fall 2007 straight into 2008 which began in Paris, France, with stops including Barcelona, Belgium and Italy, finishing the tour in Germany in the spring. 2009 was a quieter year for Runa, with their focus still remaining overseas. It was also during this time they lost their drummer. Despite becoming a trio, Runa released another album, Adolf in the mirror in December.
The start of 2010 brought several changes to the band, with the first being a sudden change of their name, from Runa to Ant1nett, with their members also each changing their names from Masanori Yabuki to MASA Ant1nett, Luxor HG to Emperor HIROHITO and Mokkori Mokkie to MOKKO Lee. They also made their first trip to the US on December 4th, playing in Hollywood.
Having been busy in the recording studio this year, Ant1nett will see the debut of four new singles set to be released on February 26, 2011. The same day, the band plans to perform their first show in Hong Kong, China. With another busy year ahead, Ant1nett fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.
