, mononymously known by the stage name Yurika (stylized as YURiKA) is a Japanese musician from

Hasuda, Saitama is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 61,540 in 27,461 households and a population density of 2300 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Located in east-central Saitama Pr ...

who is signed to Toho Animation Records. She made her professional debut in 2017 with the release of the single "Shiny Ray", the title track of which was used as the first opening theme to the anime television series ''

Little Witch Academia is a Japanese anime franchise created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger. The original short film, directed by Yoshinari and written by Masahiko Otsuka, was released in theaters in March 2013 as part of the Young Animator Trai ...

''.

Biography

Yurika was born in

on October 29, 1995. From an early age, she had dreamed of becoming a musician. She started playing the piano at the age of 3, and she also listened to the music of

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles ...

and its subgroup Minimoni. While in elementary school, she heard the song "

Genesis of Aquarion , also known simply as ''Aquarion'' is a Japanese anime television series written and directed by Shoji Kawamori, produced by Satelight. Set in the future, a giant fighting machine called the Aquarion is humanity's only effective weapon in th ...

" by Akino in a commercial, which led her to become interested in anime music and a desire to perform songs for anime. Her desire to become an anime musician was also influenced by the popularity of the series ''

Haruhi Suzumiya is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', and has since been followed ...

'' and ''

K-On! is a Japanese four-panel manga series written and illustrated by Kakifly serialized in Houbunsha's '' Manga Time Kirara'' magazine between the May 2007 and October 2010 issues, and also serialized in Houbunsha's '' Manga Time Kirara Car ...

'' at the time. In high school, she tried out for the

Animax Anison Grand Prix The is a Japanese anime song music competition, organized by Animax, in association with Jupiter Telecommunications. Outline The annual competition is first held across a series of preliminaries in several Japanese cities, with the chosen finali ...

and other anime-related singing competitions. In 2014, she placed 6th in a televised competition sponsored by

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

and first in an anime music singing competition sponsored by

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

. In 2016, she won an audition sponsored by the media company

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

and signed a contract with label Toho Animation Records. She made her professional debut in 2017 with the release of her first single "Shiny Ray" on February 22, 2017; the title track is used as the first opening theme to the anime television series ''

''. Her second single "Mind Conductor" was released on May 24, 2017; the title track is used as the second opening theme to ''Little Witch Academia''. Her third single was released on December 6, 2017; the title track is used as the opening theme to the anime series '' Land of the Lustrous''. She performed an insert song for the 2018 visual novel ''

Summer Pockets ''Summer Pockets'' is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key, a brand of Visual Arts. It was released on June 29, 2018 for Windows and is rated for all ages. ''Summer Pockets'' is Key's 13th game, following its previous games such as '' Kanon'' ...

''. In September 2019, she performed the singles "Le zoo", "Sleeping instinct", "Marble" and "Floating Story on the Moon" for the anime television series ''

Beastars ''Beastars'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' from September 2016 to October 2020, with its chapters collected in 22 '' ...

''. Each track served as an ending theme.

Discography

Singles

References

External links

Official website
* {{authority control 1995 births Anime musicians Living people Musicians from Saitama Prefecture