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Himeka & Other Anime Song Grand Prix Winners Form Group
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
The staff of Animax's All-Japan Anison (anime song) Grand Prix singing contest announced on Friday that the winners of the past competitions will form a collective unit titled AG7 for a limited time. The unit containing the past winners Shuhei Kita, HIMEKA, Sayaka Sasaki, Marina Kawano, Konomi Suzuki, Natsumi Okamoto, and Tatsuyuki Kobayashi will perform the song "Endless NOVA," which will serve as the new ending theme to the Battle Spirits Saikyō Ginga Ultimate Zero anime. Aki Hata provided the lyrics for the song, and Seima Iwahashi composed it.
Kobayashi will also perform the anime's new opening theme song titled "ZERO," which will serve as his debut single.
Singer HIMEKA announced on her Twitter account that after being dropped from her agency amuleto (run by 5pb.), she has returned to Canada to live at a relative's home. Without money, she is currently searching for a job. As it will take three months for her belongings to arrive to Canada by ship, she asked fans to please wait a bit longer until she restarts her music career. She also added that unfortunately, being in the unit does not mean she can return to Japan, but may lead to more work in the future. Sayaka Sasaki posted on Twitter that she will do her best to make noise in the Japanese industry about their upcoming song while HIMEKA is not in the country.
Jupiter Telecommunications and the Animax anime television channel have run the nationwide audition to find "next generation artists" to sing anime theme songs since 2007. Catherine St-Onge, a 32-year-old Canadian living in Tokyo, won the singing contest on 2008. Her voice (under her stage name HIMEKA) can be heard on Valkyria Chronicles, Letter Bee, and Night Raid 1931. The winner of the first contest, Shuhei Kita, performed songs for Persona -trinity soul-, Natsume Yūjin-Chō, Miracle Train - Ōedo-sen e Yōkoso, and Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi 2. Tatsuyuki Kobayashi won this year's competition.
The other four previous winners were Sayaka Sasaki (Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra, T.P. Sakura - Time Paladin Sakura - Jikū Bōeisen, My Ordinary Life), Marina Kawano (A-Channel, Nekomonogatari (Black)), Konomi Suzuki (WATAMOTE, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou), and Natsumi Okamoto (il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion).
Animax announced in April that next year's All-Japan Anison Grand Prix competition has been cancelled.
[Source: animeanime.jp]
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