, who goes by the

mononymous A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Wakana, is a Japanese pop singer. She was one of the vocalists of the

FictionJunction FictionJunction is the solo project of Japanese composer Yuki Kajiura featuring guests musicians, mainly singers. Historically, works between Kajiura and a vocalist were referenced by adding the singer's name after "FictionJunction". Although bo ...

project started by

Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as ''Sword Art Online'', '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'', '' Fate/Zero'', ''The Garden of Sinners'', '' Pandora Hearts'', and ...

, and is a core member of the vocal group

Kalafina is a Japanese vocal group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007, mainly to perform theme songs for the anime ''The Garden of Sinners'', but later expanded to include many other theme songs for other anime shows and films including the '' Puel ...

. She is currently signed with

Victor Entertainment is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...

with a solo career, having released two albums and an EP that have charted 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 ...

Biography

Wakana is from

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

. She started learning singing at age 12. She joined the

project in 2005, where she performed on many of

's soundtracks for anime shows and films. She performed two songs for the original soundtrack of '' Fist of the North Star True Saviour Legend'': and the Japanese version of "Where the Lights Are" bonus track. She sang "Paradise Regained" (an insert song for ''

El Cazador de la Bruja is an anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo and animated by Bee Train studio. It is a spiritual successor of '' Noir'' and '' Madlax'' and the final installment of Bee Train's " girls-with-guns" trilogy. The series was aired ...

'') and in the ''

Pandora Hearts ''Pandora Hearts'' (stylized as ''PandoraHearts'') is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jun Mochizuki. It was serialized in Square Enix's manga magazine '' Monthly GFantasy'' from May 2006 to March 2015, with its chapters ...

'' soundtrack. In 2007, she and FictionJunction colleague Keiko joined Kajiura's new vocal group

, which was put together to sing the theme songs for ''

The Garden of Sinners ''The Garden of Sinners'', known in Japan as sometimes referred to as , is a Japanese light novel series, written by Kinoko Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. Originally released as a series of chapters released independently onl ...

'' film series. Their first single was " Oblivious" which reached number 8 on the Oricon charts. Vocalists

Hikaru is a Japanese unisex given name meaning "light" or "radiance". Written forms Hikaru can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: * 光, "light" * 輝, "radiance" The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana. It is more ...

and Maya joined the group for the singles "

Sprinter/Aria "sprinter/ARIA" is the second single by Kalafina, featuring Wakana Ootaki and Keiko Kubota, along with two new members, Maya Toyoshima and Hikaru Masai. "ARIA" was used as theme song for the fourth chapter of Kara no Kyoukai ''The Gar ...

", after which Maya left the group, resulting in a trio. Over the next ten years, Kalafina would continue to release more anime theme songs as well as original material, with five studio albums and two compilation albums that have charted in Oricon's top 10. In 2018, Kajiura resigned from Space Craft, and Keiko left the group soon afterwards. The group was officially disbanded in 2019. Wakana moved from Space Craft to

. She had a solo debut with the single "Toki o Koeru Yoru Ni" in February 2019. She released a self-titled album in March and an EP titled ''Aki no Sakura'' in November. They reached No. 19 and No. 34 respectively on the Oricon charts. She released the album ''magic moment'' in 2020, which charted at No. 22. On April 24, 2021, she held her solo concert ''Wakana Spring Live 2020 ~ magic moment ~'' in

Ōtemachi is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is located north of Tokyo Station and Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, west of Nihonbashi and south of Kanda. It is the location of the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most an ...

to promote the album. In October 2020, she released a cover album of anime songs. She won an award for Classic Anison Singer at the

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

Account Festival in Tokyo 2020. In May 2022, she announced a collaboration song with the mobile game "Memento Mori". ''Flag'' is used as a character song for Florence, voiced by

Ayaka Suwa is a Japanese voice actress from Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. She is represented by the agency Arts Vision. Early life Suwa has loved watching anime since she was a child, and realized the joy of acting in a Musical theatre she did in elementary sc ...

Discography

Solo singles

Other appearances

Studio albums

Video albums

References

External links

* at

Wakana
at Space Craft
Wakana
at

{{Authority control Yuki Kajiura 1984 births Living people Japanese women pop singers Singers from Fukuoka Prefecture Anime singers 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers