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

Kalafina is a Japanese vocal group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007, mainly to perform theme songs for the anime ''The Garden of Sinners'', but later expanded to include many other theme songs for other anime shows and films including the '' Puel ...

, which was started by

Yuki Kajiura is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as ''Sword Art Online'', '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'', '' Fate/Zero'', ''The Garden of Sinners'', '' Pandora Hearts'', and ...

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 993,848 (1 January 2025) 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 Group Corporation and is opera ...

, 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 that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owned by American telecommunications/media company Comcast headquartered in Akasaka, Min ...

. It was used as the theme song for the anime television series '' Gleipnir''. 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''. 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''. 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 Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

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