Hikaru Masai (born July 2, 1987), who has gone by the stage names Hikaru and currently Helical (stylized H-el-ical//), is a Japanese pop singer. She was one of the core members of the vocal group

Kalafina was a Japanese vocal group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007, mainly to perform theme songs for the anime ''Kara no Kyōkai'', but later expanded to include many other theme songs for other anime shows and films including the '' Madoka Mag ...

, which was started by

Yuki Kajiura Yuki, Yūki or Yuuki may refer to: Places * Yuki, Hiroshima (Jinseki), a town in Jinseki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yuki, Hiroshima (Saeki), a town in Saeki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yūki, Ibaraki, a city on Honshu island in Japan * Yuki, ...

to perform anime television and film theme songs. She is from

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

. In 2007, she was selected to join Kalafina in an audition held by

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 ...

, and debuted on their second single " Sprinter" in 2008. During her ten years there, Kalafina released five studio albums and two compilation albums, all of which have charted in the Oricon top 10. Her Kalafina profile describes her voice range as the mid-to-high register, a wide range that is "powerful, stylish, and sharp". Following the resignation of music composer

from Space Craft, Hikaru would later leave the label on October 20, 2018, after her contract expired. In November 2019, she launched her solo project under the name H-el-ical//, pronounced "he-ri-ka-ru" (ヘリカル). In April 2020, she released her first single "Altern-ate-" under

NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

. It was used as the theme song for the anime television series ''

Gleipnir In Norse mythology, Gleipnir (Old Norse "open one")Orchard (1997:58). is the binding that holds the mighty wolf Fenrir (as attested in chapter 34 of the ''Prose Edda'' book ''Gylfaginning''). The Gods had attempted to bind Fenrir twice before wit ...

''. and reached No. 9 on the Oricon charts. She has written and released some concept music on her self-titled mini-album and another mini-album called ''elements'', releasing videos on YouTube. In November, she released her second single "disclose", which was the ending theme for the anime television series '' Magatsu Wahrheit -Zuerst-''. In November 2021, she released her third single "The Sacred Torch", which was used as the opening theme for the anime television series ''

The Faraway Paladin is a Japanese light novel series written by Kanata Yanagino and illustrated by Kususaga Rin. It began serialization online in May 2015 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was later acquired by Overlap, wh ...

''. On the same month, she released her fourth indie album ''Story''. In January 2022, she released her fourth single "JUST DO IT", which was used as the opening theme for the anime television series ''

World's End Harem is a Japanese manga series written by LINK and illustrated by Kotarou Shouno. The first part of the manga was serialized in Shueisha's online magazine ''Shōnen Jump+'' from May 2016 to June 2020, while a second part, ''World's End Harem: A ...

''. The single was originally scheduled to release in November 2021, but it was postponed until January 2022. In April 2022, she announced her first major studio album ''Kaihouku''. Her past four singles were included. The album was released on June 29, 2022.

Discography

Singles

As lead artist

As a collaborating artist

Studio albums

Studio concept albums

Music videos

Concept videos

References

External links

*
Hikaru profile
at Space Craft
H-el-ical//
at

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 Nov ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hikaru 1987 births Living people Japanese women pop singers Musicians from Toyama Prefecture Anime singers 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers