sarah rhiannon

melbourne-based artist and full-time internet ✿ sarahrhiannonart (at) gmail.com

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 7/21: The Chariot ・ Out of Orbit ~Triple ZERO~, 2002

There were several songs I considered for this card that had connections to travel or vehicles (unsurprising from guy whose nickname is 'turbo'). The one I eventually landed on was the first single self-produced by Takanori Nishikawa. Previously, the entire T.M.Revolution project was 'total produced' by Daisuke Asakura, so this card represents Nishikawa taking more creative control over TMR.

Around this time, some changes were going on at Antinos Records (which ultimately folded in 2004) and the two of them ended up moving to different labels. Despite this, Asakura still continued to compose all music for the project.

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 6/21: The Lovers ・ the force (album), 1999

Resuming my TMR-posting wtih an oddly appropriate card, given recent developments… Unsurprisingly, he absolutely killed it on THE FIRST TAKE, and I always thought HOT LIMIT had the potential to go viral. What a time hahaha.

HOT LIMIT is one of the singles from 'the force', a v fun pop record that was released just before his Tokyo Dome concerts in March 1999. When T.M.Revolution began, Takanori Nishikawa and his producer Daisuke Asakura set three goals - and at this point, the remaining one was to "reach the highest ceiling in Japan". (And he sure did. That performance of Slight faith… chills)

The artwork for 'the force' era very prominently features two Nishikawas, so this card is about his relationship with his popstar persona. In Asakura's book ダイスケ的にOK⁉ he alludes to Nishikawa's frustration with being typecast as "the HOT LIMIT guy who says funny things on TV". In fact, he contains multitudes!! And thus, the day after the Tokyo Dome concerts, Nishikawa announced he was sealing T.M.Revolution away for a while because it needed to "evolve".

Anyway, why limit yourself to just one song when T.M.Revolution has 10 studio albums? (My faves are triple joker (1998), progress (2000) and SEVENTH HEAVEN (2004)). What happens after summer ends? それも君次第で…

[sarah-rhiannon]

lucy sketchdump 💜

[sarah-rhiannon]

Draw Everything June complete for another year! Thanks to AdorkaStock for the challenge :)

[sarah-rhiannon]

getting towards the end of Draw Everything June 2026!

[sarah-rhiannon]

week 3 of the Draw Everything June 2026 challenge!

[sarah-rhiannon]

Week 2 of the Draw Everything June 2026 poses, drawn with coloured ink on calligraphy paper!

[sarah-rhiannon]

interrupting my regular cardposting with some figure drawing from Draw Everything June 2026! Trying out some calligraphy paper I had on hand for these.

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 5/21: The Hierophant ・ HEAT CAPACITY (2000)

No microphone stands were harmed in the making of this tarot card.

This song was first shown to the world during the LIVE ARENA 2000 A.D. tour where he plays his baroque side-project concept album in full, then reappears in a cowboy hat, blows up some pillars, and announces that T.M.Revolution is unsealed. absolute cinemaaaaa

Oddly appropriate that this is my next card, given that a) this single was released 26 years ago today b) they announced the results of his "revival tour" election and LIVE ARENA 2000 A.D. was the winning candidate! Thank you to everyone who voted for my #1 choice when I couldn't 🫡🫡

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 4/21: The Emperor ・ 独裁-monopolize-, 1996

Today is the 30th anniversary of T.M.Revolution's debut! To celebrate, the digital version of my fanzine tarot makes revolution is now available as a free download on my itch.io page! It features all the Major Arcana illustrations from this project, and short essays about the songs/albums I've chosen for each card.

I hope that this zine might introduce his music to a wider audience, or encourage people familiar with only one or two songs to dive deeper into his discography. Recommended if you like catchy j-pop, synthesizers or vibrato!

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 3/21: The Empress ・ UNDER:COVER (self-cover album, 2006)

This was the "self-cover best-of" album released to celebrate T.M.Revolution's 10th anniversary. The tracklist, featuring rearranged versions of his songs, was determined by fan votes. There were originally going to be 10 tracks (for the 10th anniversary perhaps?) but he ended up adding another five tracks in response to enthusiastic voter turnout.

He invited many different artists to contribute rearrangements to U:C., and in the following years he would continue to work with some of the artists he collaborated with here (e.g. Toshiyuki Kishi, Kohsuke Oshima).

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 2/21: The High Priestess ・ BLACK OR WHITE? version 3, 2000

This song has so much history behind it… it's the genesis (👀) of T.M.Revolution, being the first time that Takanori Nishikawa and Daisuke Asakura worked together. Although for my card I've gone with a later version of the song, for reasons I will not explain now (maybe the cards will reveal all later…)

Kind of wild to think that they probably wouldn't have met if Nishikawa didn't go get a haircut on that exact day. Btw he was specifically at the hairdresser because he was like RIGHT… I'M NOT GIVING UP ON MUSIC!!! and had a concrete plan to go get some professional headshots taken. He had been handing out demo tapes for a couple of years after quitting his visual kei band, but wasn't having any luck. In the end, Asakura didn't even want to listen to his demo tape when they met, and his instinct was to get him to sing instead. And Asakura had to actually go double-check it was Nishikawa's voice coming from the booth because he almost didn't believe what he was hearing.

There are other things I could talk about too like Budokan/WHAT JAM? if I wanted this to turn into an entire essay 😂 This card has just a hint of the LIVE ARENA 2000 A.D. flame outfit, which I kind of want to draw properly another time because the full thing really is a sight to behold🔥🔥🔥

[sarah-rhiannon]

A digital version of my 2023 zine game boy camera 20210528 - 20210610 is now available on my itch.io page! 📸

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 1/21: The Magician ・ 魔弾 (Madan) 〜Der Freischütz〜/LOVE SAVER, 2000

I don't need to explain anything just watch the music video!!! …is what I would say if it wasn't geoblocked on youtube 😔 EDIT 10/5/2026: omg my plea was heard and it is no longer geoblocked! you can watch it here

The Magician was the obvious choice here since the song title means "magic bullet" (also just casually putting opera references in your pop music! sure why not!) I thought a lot about how to incorporate some of the symbolism typically associated with this card, but I didn't want to overcomplicate things either. Sometimes you literally have everything you need right there.

Obviously, LOVE SAVER is the other very important part of this double A-side. "LOVE SAVER is the ultimate ballad" - Daisuke Asakura, in regards to a 170BPM track

[sarah-rhiannon]

tarot makes revolution 0/21: The Fool ・ 蒼い霹靂 (Aoi Hekireki), 1998

It's nearly May, so it's time to start occasionally posting the Major Arcana illustrations from my T.M.Revolution zine. But also! There will be a digital version of this zine very soon when I get it all formatted nicely 👀 (my print file was a totally reasonable 300dpi and I still had to split it into three parts to avoid causing an incident at the printer. Big Turbo strikes again!)

This first card is The Fool, who some consider to be similar to a jester-type figure, or the Joker in a standard deck of playing cards. He also represents the beginning of a journey. Thus, I raise you Aoi Hekireki, the first track on triple joker. I remember putting glitter in my hair in the 90s too… never again…

He has a lot of other songs that lyrically fit the theme of "The Fool" but this one wins based on subliminal messages teaching you how to write kanji 💙◆

[sarah-rhiannon]

Hello! I'm in ✨ the tent ✨ at Supanova Melbourne at table 77 today and tomorrow~

[sarah-rhiannon]

I'm at table 77 in the Alley at Melbnova tomorrow and Sunday! Here's a little preview of my new stuff:

Tarot Makes Revolution: A T.M.Revolution fanzine created for his 30th anniversary next month. Do you like catchy j-pop, synthesizers and vibrato? Then do yourself a favour and come to table 77 at Melbnova where you can read about his career through the lens of the Major Arcana. Which I have also illustrated, of course. I think this zine ended up walking a fine line between absurdity and seriousness, which is actually so correct and so T.M.Revolution of me. My real deadline for this was next month, but with Melbnova coming up I arbitrarily decided to get it done earlier (fool's journey 😵‍💫) So if you're at Melbnova you can get a PRE-DEBUT copy! I will also share more of the illustrations on here starting in May 🧡

Gundam fashion zine (I actually debuted this at Festival of the Photocopier in February, but it's relatively new and I think it bears mentioning again!) Come peruse some suits based on mobile suits 🕺

Hourly Comics Day mini zine, which chronicles my day at the aforementioned Festival of the Photocopier 2026.

A few new A5 prints: Quattro unsuccessfully getting roasted on A Current Affair. Seto Kaiba leopard print. A nice bowl of fruit.

New glitter nudibranch stickers! They won't stop multiplying and I had to rearrange my whole display about it. The two new ones are Hypselodoris obscura and Mexichromis macropus, which I drew during the Nudivember challenge last year 🌟