The is a Japanese

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

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Exampl ...

, organized by

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

, in association with Jupiter Telecommunications.

Outline

The annual competition is first held across a series of preliminaries in several Japanese cities, with the chosen finalists performing at a final round, which will be broadcast across Japan on

, where they will be judged by a panel of celebrity judges,

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

s and

record company A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

executives, including noted singers Ichirō Mizuki,

Mitsuko Horie is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer. She was born in Yamato, Kanagawa. She has voiced several characters throughout her career, such as Sailor Galaxia in '' Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars'' and Remi in the Nippon Animation World Masterp ...

and

Yumi Matsuzawa is a Japanese singer from Fujimi, Saitama. She is best known for her debut release, "You Get to Burning", the opening theme for ''Martian Successor Nadesico'', as well as the movie version's theme song "Dearest" and the song "Chikyuugi", the ope ...

. The winner of the competition will subsequently perform a theme song to an Animax

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

project as their debut and earn a professional contract with

Sony Music Japan , 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, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

History

The first Animax All-Japan Anison Grand Prix was held in July 2007, with preliminaries taking place across

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, 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 ancie ...

and

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

, and was attended by 1792 applicants. The winner of the competition was Shūhei Kita, who subsequently performed "Breakin' Through", the opening theme to the

series '' Persona: Trinity Soul'' as his debut, and earned a professional contract with Sony Music Japan. Kita subsequently also performed "Issei no Sei", the opening theme to the '' Natsume Yūjin-Chō'' anime series in 2008. The second competition, in 2008, was attended by 3186 applicants, with preliminaries held across Tokyo, Osaka,

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

and

, with eleven chosen finalists performing at the final round, held in

JCB Hall The Tokyo Dome City Hall (TDC Hall) is a facility for sports, fashion shows, circuses, and live music, located inside Tokyo Dome City in Tokyo, Japan. It is on the opposite corner of the Tokyo Dome, and hosts a variety of events at any given ti ...

in September 2008, and was won by the Tokyo-based Canadian Catherine St. Onge, who will perform the theme song, produced by

Shintarō Tokita is a member of the J-pop band, Sukima Switch. He was born February 25, 1978, in Midori-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture Japan. He has also produced Chitose Hajime's comeback single "Kataritsugu Koto", ending theme to ''Blood+''. He enjoys soccer, ju ...

Sukima Switch is a Japanese rock/jazz fusion duo consisting of core members , born May 9, 1978, and , born February 25, 1978, formed in 1999. Formerly with BMG Japan (bought by SMEJ in early 2009), they signed with Sony Music Japan's Ariola Japan label in Se ...

, to an Animax anime project, and earn a professional contract with Sony Music Japan. In the first round, she performed ''Silly-go-round'' from '' .hack//Roots'', while in the second round, she performed ''Adesso e Fortuna ~Honō to Eien~'' from ''

Record of Lodoss War is a franchise of fantasy novels by Ryo Mizuno based on the work he originally created for a world called '' Forcelia'' as a rules-free setting for role-playing games (RPGs).Yasuda, Hitoshi. Afterword. . By Ryo Mizuno. Kadoka ...

''. Animax subsequently broadcast the "2nd All-Japan Anison Grand Prix Special", marking its tenth anniversary, on November 16, 2008, featuring live performances by judge and noted anime singer Ichiro Mizuki, idol group

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

and singers

Akira Kushida , is a Japanese vocalist who is well known for his work in the soundtracks for anime and tokusatsu productions, most notably '' Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan'', ''Kinnikuman'', and ''Space Sheriff Gavan''. His nickname from his fans is . His real give ...

Nana Kitade is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to being the lead singer of the rock band The Teenage Kissers, she has (or had) success as a solo artist, model, actress, and fashion designer. Kitade is particularly known for her songs ...

, the previous competition's winner Shūhei Kita, and numerous others. In February 2009, it was announced that St. Onge, under her chosen

moniker A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

Himeka, would perform the theme song, produced by Tokita of Sukima Switch, to the anime adaptation of ''

Valkyria Chronicles ''Valkyria Chronicles'' is a series of military-themed tactical role-playing video games created by Ryutaro Nonaka and Shuntaro Tanaka, and developed by Sega. The series began with ''Valkyria Chronicles'', which was released for the PlayStation ...

'' (a.k.a. ''Senjō no Valkyria: Gallian Chronicles''), which will air from April 2009, across Animax and other Japanese broadcast networks.

Event schedule

※Finals are held in Tokyo.

References

External links

Animax official website
{{Animation industry in Japan Animax Aniplex Sony Music Entertainment Japan Japanese music awards Anime awards Awards established in 2007 2007 establishments in Japan Recurring events established in 2007 Annual events in Japan

Outline

History

Event schedule

See also

References

External links