is a Japanese musician and YouTuber from

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

who is signed to

Sony Music Associated Records , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operat ...

. Starting her career as an independent musician in 2011, Akari gained a following performing at various live houses in Japan, as well as through uploading songs on the website

Niconico , known before 2012 as , is a Japanese video sharing service based in Tokyo, Japan. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese sound symbolism, Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, accordi ...

. She was also cast in a

stage play A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging ...

adaptation of the mobile game ''

Fate/Grand Order is a free-to-play Japanese gacha game, gacha mobile game, developed by Lasengle (formerly Delightworks) using Unity (game engine), Unity, and published by Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The game is based on Type-Moon' ...

''. She made her major debut in 2018, performing the opening theme to the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series ''

Happy Sugar Life is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by . It was serialized in Square Enix's ''shōnen'' manga magazine '' Gangan Joker'' from May 2015 to June 2019. The series is licensed by Yen Press. An anime television series adaptation b ...

''. She released her first full album in October of that year.

Early life and career

Akari was born in

on November 12, 1995. She had been interested in music for much of her life, and in junior high school, she primarily listened to

anison is a genre of music originating from Japanese pop music. Anime songs consist of theme, insert, and image songs for anime, manga, video game, and audio drama CD series, as well as any other song released primarily for the anime market, includin ...

and

Vocaloid is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...

music. In particular, she had become a major fan of the ''

dōjin In Japan, a is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as " clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in " sewing circle"). Self-published creative works pro ...

'' music producer

Deco*27 Deco*27 (stylized in all caps and pronounced "Dekonīna") is a Japanese musician, Vocaloid producer, and songwriter. He is considered to be one of the most influential Vocaloid producers of the early 2010s, along with Wowaka and Kenshi Yonezu. ...

. She was inspired to become a singer after listening to the music of

Bump of Chicken is a Japanese alternative rock group from Sakura, Chiba. The band members are Motoo Fujiwara (Vocalist, vocals, Rhythm guitar, rhythm), Hiroaki Masukawa (guitar), Yoshifumi Naoi (Bass guitar, bass) and Hideo Masu (Drum kit, drums). Since their c ...

and discovering

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Akari made her debut as a singer in 2011, performing in an indie band which held live shows throughout Japan. After the band broke up, she pursued a solo career. In 2014, Akari beat over 5000 others who had participated in an audition held by

Sony Music Artists is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (imaging and sensing), S ...

In 2016, she began uploading ''dōjin'' music on the Japanese video-sharing website

. She also became a co-host of a radio program titled ''Rock Brothers''. She quickly gained a following on Niconico: as of March 2018, her videos had been viewed at least 9 million times. She also began collaborating with other ''dōjin '' artists for her songs, including DECO*27. In 2017, she was cast as the character Mash Kyrielight in a

adaptation of the mobile game ''

''. She released a mini-album titled in July of that year. During a live performance in Tokyo in March 2018, Akari announced that she would make her major debut under Sony Music later that year. Her first single, was released on August 22, 2018; the song "One Room Sugar Life" is used as the opening theme to the

television series ''

''. The single peaked at #33 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

's weekly charts and charted for nine weeks. She released her first major album on October 3, 2018. Her second major single was released on February 5, 2020; the title song is used as the ending theme to the anime television series '' Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It''. Her third major single "Higher's High" was released on October 21, 2020; the title song is used as the opening theme to the anime television series '' Warlords of Sigrdrifa''. In 2022, she had her first overseas performance at

Anime Festival Asia C3AFA, also known as Anime Festival Asia (AFA), is a series of anime conventions held in the Southeast Asian region, with a core annual convention held in Singapore. The main convention is traditionally held over a weekend in late November to e ...

Singapore 2022.

Discography

Independent releases

Major releases

Singles

Albums

References

External links

Official website
*
Youtube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akari Nanawo 1995 births Anime musicians Living people Musicians from Osaka Prefecture Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists Japanese YouTubers Utaite