, 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. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

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

FictionJunction FictionJunction is a singing group that solely performs songs written by Japanese composer Yuki Kajiura. The term "FictionJunction" alone refers to this group; solo works between Kajiura and a vocalist are referenced by adding the singer's name ...

project 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, ...

, and was a core member 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 ...

. She is currently signed with

Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, 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 Ent ...

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 and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

Biography

Wakana is from

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 ...

. 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 on TV ...

'') 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 ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Monthly GFantasy'' from May 2006 to March 2015, with its ...

'' 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". Possible writings 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 m ...

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 Garde ...

", 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 a ...

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 may refer to: * Microblogging in China, or China-based microblogging services (), including: ** NetEase Weibo (), launched by NetEase ** People's Weibo (), launched by ''People's Daily'' ** Phoenix Weibo (), launched by Phoenix Television ** W ...

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. She has loved watching anime since she was a child, and realized the joy of acting in a Musical theatre she did in elementary school. She fir ...

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 Musicians from Fukuoka Prefecture Anime singers 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers