If you can hum that intro, you'll probably never forget it. A drum-and-bass groove, a synth arpeggio racing over the top, and then the strings come flooding in toward the Bayside Precinct—that's Akihiko Matsumoto's "Rhythm And Police." More than a quarter century since the TV series, the theater-filling Bayside Shakedown (Odoru Daisousasen) franchise returns at last as the new film N.E.W. Metropolis wo Kakenukero!, opening September 18, 2026. And on that very same day, Akihiko Matsumoto's original soundtrack arrives from Universal Music. For film and score lovers alike, the release date is also the day the music is finally unlocked.
One of the few Japanese film series where the music was a lead role
What makes Bayside Shakedown remarkable is that its score never sat quietly in the background—it lives in memory with the same intensity as the characters. When Shunsaku Aoshima breaks into a run, "Rhythm And Police" kicks in; when a case turns, the tense brass cuts through. You might forget the dialogue, but you can still hum that theme—and not many Japanese films can claim that. Matsumoto's score drew a single line connecting the club-music air of the late '90s with the heat of a police drama. The buzz around this soundtrack exists precisely because fans have been waiting for the continuation of the sound just as much as the continuation of the story.
Think back to the 1997 TV series: from the very start, this franchise pulled off a bold multiplication for its time—"police drama times dance music"—and it held together at the single point of the score. The drive of drum-and-bass, the urban chill of the synths, and on top of it all the body heat of human drama: without Matsumoto's sense of balance, that theme might have ended up as merely "cool background music." The reason it hasn't faded in a quarter century is that it never chased a trend—it was sounded as an inevitability from inside the work itself.
Akihiko Matsumoto, the "architect" of the score
Matsumoto is not a composer who merely writes melodies. His work is closer to "sound design," factoring in the tempo of a scene, the rhythm of the edit, even the breathing of the actors. That's why the Bayside Shakedown music holds up as a standalone album cut loose from the picture—and snaps right back into place when returned to it. For the new film, the familiar team reunites: director Katsuyuki Motohiro, screenwriter Ryoichi Kimizuka, producer Chihiro Kameyama, and star Yuji Oda. The same team, joining the same composer a quarter century on—that continuity is the source of the weight this score carries. Set in a new city (the "Metropolis"), how will that sound be updated? Not a rehash of the old, but "Rhythm And Police" re-sounded in the air of 2026—we'll find out in the theater.
A CD, a double LP, and what "streaming on day one" means
The release formats are worth noting too. The CD (single disc) drops on September 18, 2026—the same day the film opens—at 3,300 yen (tax incl.), with digital streaming beginning the same day. A vinyl edition (double LP) follows on November 18, 2026, at 5,500 yen (tax incl.). Jacket art and the full track list are to be announced, but the very fact that a score is "streamable the day the film opens" speaks to how wide this work's doors have become. Music that once could only be encountered on a theater screen now plays inside your earbuds by the night of the premiere—and for fans who want to sink in deeper, there's the ritual of a double LP waiting. The sound of Bayside Shakedown races off once again toward a new set of listeners. The case, after all, is happening in the music.
