Introducing HIMEKA - All Japan Anison Grandprix Winner from Canada
HIMEKA is a Canadian singer, who has recently made her debut in the anime song, aka “anison” industry from Japan, and is the only non-Japanese artist to debut in this unique genre.
The Quebec, Canada native anime singer HIMEKA, became familiar with Japanese animation as a small child by watching the French version of programs.
When she was 12 years old, she began to learn English as she wanted to understand Disney cartoons broadcast in English, but at the age of 15, she was deeply impressed by the Japanese animation series “Sailor Moon”.
Although she did not understand the words from the series, she was fascinated by the characters and the imagery, which inspired her to learn more about the Japanese culture.
Taking an interest in Japan, she began to watch other anime videos with the original Japanese language and studied the pronunciation, as well as learning the characters and reading by looking up the lyrics from “Sailor Moon” in the dictionary.
It was natural then for HIMEKA to have dreamed to be an “anison” (animation song) singer in Japan, and in March 2009, she came to Japan on a working-holiday visa.
HIMEKA then entered “The Second All Japan Anison Gran Prix”, an annual competition that gathers aspiring singers from all over Japan, after stumbling upon it on the internet, and ended up first out of 3,186 competitors. It was said that the judges were overwhelmed by her singing and way of expressing the Japanese lyrics.
On May 27, 2009, HIMEKA made her debut from Sony Music Japan International with her single “Asu no Kizuna”, opening theme for TV anime series “Valkyria Chronicles”.
This sensational debut was widely covered not just in the anime world, but in various major Medias including national newspapers, as well as key commercial TV stations across Japan.
HIMEKA's “Japanese Dream” story also spread out to her home country in Canada (National Post, Montreal Gazette).
Now, HIMEKA will be releasing her 2nd single “Hatenaki Michi” on November 25th (Japan release only), which is greatly featured as the ending theme of the TV anime series “Tegami Bachi”.
HIMEKA Official Website: www.himeka.info
