Reona ( ; stylized as ReoNa, born October 20, 1998) is a Japanese singer who is signed to

Sacra Music Sacra Music (stylized as SACRA MUSIC) is a Japanese record label subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The record label was established on April 1, 2017, specializing in anison music. On September 25, 2021, SACRA MUSIC started an official ...

. Having been active as a cosplayer and independent musician, she made her major debut in 2018 as the singing voice of the character Elza Kanzaki in the anime series '' Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online''. Her first single under her own name was released in August 2018.

Career

Reona was born in Kagoshima on October 20, 1998. She became interested in becoming a cosplayer during her elementary school years, as she had been recommended to become one by a classmate. Her interest in

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subcultur ...

was boosted after ordering a costume of the

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's pers ...

. She became active as a cosplayer while in junior high school, and went under the names and ReoNa* while attending events such as

Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-run ...

91 in 2016. She had also dreamed of becoming a singer for anime, and had released covers of songs on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

. Reona had her break as a singer in 2017 when she became a finalist in an audition held by the music label

. She made her major debut as a singer the following year as the singing voice of the character Elza Kanzaki in the anime series '' Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online''. She released the song on April 15, 2018; the song topped iTunes Japan's anime singles chart as well as Amazon Japan's digital music rankings. This was followed by the release of the digital singles "Step, Step" and "Independence". She released the mini-album ''Elza'' on July 4, 2018; the mini-album peaked at No. 8 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in N ...

's weekly charts. Her first single under her own name, "Sweet Hurt", was released on August 29, 2018; the title track is used as the ending theme to the anime series '' Happy Sugar Life''. Her second single "forget-me-not" was released digitally on January 13, 2019 and received a physical release on February 6, 2019; the title track is used as the second ending theme to the anime series '' Sword Art Online: Alicization'', and the single also includes the song , which is used as the ending theme for episode 19 of anime series ''Sword Art Online: Alicization''. Her feature single "Prologue" was released on June 26, 2019 under the Elza Kanzaki stage name. Her third single "Null" was released on August 28, 2019. She released her fourth single "Anima" digitally on July 13, 2020, and received a physical release on July 22, 2020; the title song is being used as the opening theme of television series anime ''Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld: Part 2'' . ReoNa sang "Scar/let" as the opening for the videogame sword art online alicization lycoris, as well as appearing in the game as a playable character. in 2021 he will release the song "Scar/let" on one of his albums. She released her first album "unknown" on October 7, 2020. Reona collaborated with

Hiroyuki Sawano is a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist, pianist, and Music Producer best known for his work on many anime series, video games, television dramas, and movies. His works include the musical scores for '' Attack on Titan'', '' The Seven Dead ...

on the song "time"; the song was used as the ending theme to the anime series '' The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon's Judgement''. She released her fifth single "Nai Nai" on May 12, 2021; the title song was used as the ending theme to the first season of the anime series '' Shadows House''. Her sixth single "Shall We Dance?" is set to be released on July 27, 2022, which will be used as the opening theme of the second season of ''Shadows House''.

Discography

As Elza Kanzaki

Singles

Mini-albums

As Reona

Albums

Mini-albums

Singles

=As lead artist

Digital singles

=As featured artist

Awards and nominations

Notes

* The singles were released as digital downloads.

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1998 births Living people Singers from Tokyo Anime singers Musicians from Kagoshima Prefecture Japanese women pop singers Sacra Music artists 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers Ryukyuan people