Music

Eiko Shimamiya (島みや えい子, Shimamiya Eiko, born April 20, 1965), also called Eiko or Peko, is a female J-pop singer-songwriter, and producer who is currently affiliated with Heart Company. She is best known for singing the opening themes of the anime series Higurashi When They Cry. Eiko also handles a school called Shimamiya Size (S-size) in Sapporo. Some of her former students are I've Sound singers Mami Kawada, Kotoko and Kaori Utatsuki. She announced on May 10, 2010, via Twitter that she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her "Perfect World Live Tour", which was scheduled to begin in June, was subsequently canceled. She made an announcement of her full recovery from cancer on January 28, 2011.

Kelun is a Japanese rock band signed by Sony Music Entertainment Japan.

Kelun was originally a band named UTARI, formed in 2006. Their first album, "UTARI", was released in April. It took the indie charts by storm and the band went on their first tour, dubbed the "February Tour" in February 2007. In September 2007, the band officially changed its name to Kelun.

"Astral Lamp", the band's first CD, was released in November 2007 under Sony Music Entertainment. The anime Gintama used "Signal", from "Astral Lamp", as its 7th ending theme. They debuted a major tour called "Astral Circuit" across Japan.

In February 2008, the band released "Sixteen Girl" as a single. It was chosen by JapanCountdown as its opening theme song. They went on a tour of Kanto in April, dubbed the "April Tour". In May 2008, bassist Satou Shuusaku left and was replaced by Yuki. Kelun's second major single, "Chu-Bura", was released in July 2008 and was used by the anime Bleach as its 8th opening theme, catapulting Kelun to fame.

Supercell is an 11-member Japanese pop band led by musician and songwriter Ryo, which formed in 2007 as a dōjin music band. The other 10 members are artists and designers who provide illustrations in album booklets and music videos. Supercell started out by making use of the Hatsune Miku Vocaloid singing synthesizer to produce vocals for songs submitted to the Nico Nico Douga video sharing website. The popularity of the songs led the band to release their independent self-titled album Supercell (2008). Supercell later signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan and had a professional release of their Supercell album in March 2009, which was updated with more songs.

Kalafina (カラフィナ) 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 Magica, Black Butler, Arslan Senki and Fate/stay night franchises. They released five albums that have charted in the top 10 for Oricon. They disbanded in 2018–19.

Ali Project is a Japanese rock band with a strong Japanese Aristocrat-style image, consisting of Arika Takarano and Mikiya Katakura .

Dōjin music (同人音楽, dōjin ongaku), also called otokei dōjin (音系同人) in Japan, is a sub-category of dōjin activity. Dōjin are non-official self-published Japanese works which can be based on official products or completely original creations. Such products are sold online on specialized sites, on the authors' own sites, and in conventions such as the popular Comiket.

Dōjin music isn't a musical genre in itself, but is indicative of a particular means of publication, similar to how the term "indie" is used in North America.

Often, such music will consist of video game music fan arrangements. Much original dōjin music also exists, and has been created both for dōjin games and independently, spanning many musical genres such as pop, rock, techno, trance, hardcore and many more.

Stereopony was a Japanese pop rock band that formed in Okinawa, Japan in 2007 and disbanded in 2012. The three-girl band consisted of Aimi Haraguni, Nohana Kitajima, and Shiho Yamanoha (drums). They were signed to the Sony Records music label. The band released 11 singles and three studio albums.

VALSHE (バルシェ, Barushe, born September 15, 1986) is a Japanese female singer, signed under the Being Inc. label. She is well known as a "Ryouseirui" (両声類?, lit. "both voice types"), being able to sing both "male" and "female" voice types.

VALSHE debuted as a Niconico singer in 2009. Occasionally her songs are made by the composer of Vocaloid, doriko. She is also known to be good friends with the illustrator of Niconico, Hakuseki, who does almost all of the artwork for VALSHE's albums and utattemita videos.

In the beginning of her career as a professional singer, VALSHE used to appear as an avatar illustration (drawn by Hakuseki) with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her first appearance as herself is on the cover of her 6th single, "Butterfly Core". She released her first music video showing her own face for the song "Butterfly Core" which was featured on her 4th album "V.D."

鏡音 リン・レン（かがみね リン・レン、KAGAMINE RIN/LEN）は、クリプトン・フューチャー・メディアから発売されている音声合成・デスクトップミュージック（DTM）ソフトウェアの製品名、およびキャラクターとしての名称である。大ヒット商品となった初音ミクに続く「キャラクター・ボーカル・シリーズ（CVシリーズ）」第2弾として2007年12月27日に発売された。2008年7月までに約2万を出荷し、大きな売り上げを記録している。

動画投稿サイトを中心に鏡音リン・レンを使用した多数の楽曲が発表されており、その一部は音楽CDとして販売されている。また、フィギュアをはじめとするキャラクターを用いた関連商品も多数存在する。

ヤマハの開発した音声合成エンジン「VOCALOID2」を採用し、音階と歌詞を入力することで音声ライブラリに収録された音声からボーカルパートやバックコーラスを合成できる。鏡音リン・レンでは女声のリンと男声のレン、2つのライブラリを収録しており声優・下田麻美が一人二役で担当している。声質は初音ミクの声と被らないよう「張りのある声」、「力強い声」を志向し開発された。得意な曲のテンポや音域については後述のプロフィールを参照。なお、これらの特性はあくまで目安であり実際は非常に広い範囲で歌えるとされている。公式ブログによると、初音ミクが日本のデフォルメ文化においてある程度成功したため、次のステップと題して1人2役に挑戦したという。

同ソフトでは2008年7月に「act2」と銘打ったライブラリアップデートが行われている。旧バージョン（act1）は扱いが難しく、普通に歌わせるだけでもテクニックを必要とする部分があったとされる。act2では音のつなぎ目部分を滑らかにしノイズ成分を低減、旧バージョンよりも簡単・的確に歌わせることができるようチューニングされた。一部に再録音した音声データも使用された。既存のユーザーについては、2008年9月20日までに旧バージョンのライセンス登録を行っていた場合には無償でアップデータ・ディスクの配布が行われた。旧バージョンからのアップデートでは新しくライブラリが1つずつ追加される形となり新旧のライブラリは共存できるため、新旧合わせて計4つのライブラリの使用が可能となった。なお、2008年7月18日のact2リリース以降の商品はact2のライブラリのみの収録となっている。

Megumi Hinata is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer and musician.

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virtual idol, and has performed at live virtual concerts onstage as an animated projection.

Vocaloid (ボーカロイド, Bōkaroido) is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to be a full commercial project. Backed by the Yamaha Corporation, it developed the software into the commercial product "Vocaloid" which was released in 2004.

The software enables users to synthesize "singing" by typing in lyrics and melody. It uses synthesizing technology with specially recorded vocals of voice actors or singers. To create a song, the user must input the melody and lyrics. A piano roll type interface is used to input the melody and the lyrics can be entered on each note. The software can change the stress of the pronunciations, add effects such as vibrato, or change the dynamics and tone of the voice.

FanimeCon is an annual four-day anime convention held during May at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, over Memorial Day weekend.

Yuya Matsushita (松下 優也, Matsushita Yūya, born May 24, 1990) is a Japanese pop and R&B singer and actor under Japanese Dream Records. His debut single "foolish foolish" was released on November 26, 2008. He had his first breakthrough as Sebastian Michaelis in the Black Butler musical and since then, been popular in both Japan and overseas.

In 2014, he started a boy band called X4, and the group released their debut album "XVISION" in 2015. The group held their major debut on October 7 of the same year with their single "Killing Me".

Born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, on May 24, 1990, Yuya Matsushita was raised by his mother and grandmother. At the age of 12 in 2002, Matsushita decided to pursue a career in music, enrolling in Caless Vocal & Dance School. Despite disagreements with his mother regarding his future plans, a trip to New York City in October 2005 strengthened his determination to become an artist. This became the turning point of his life as Matsushita decided to pursue music instead of going to high school. In 2007, Matsushita met producer Jin Nakamura who made the song "foolish foolish" for him.

K-ON! (けいおん!, Keion!?) es una serie de manga en 4-koma escrito e ilustrado por Kakifly. Se comenzó a serializar en la revista seinen Manga Time Kirara de la editorial Hōbunsha desde mayo de 2007. También se ha serializado en la revista bimestral Manga Time Kirara Carat de Hōbunsha a partir de octubre de 2008. Una adaptación al anime de 13 episodios producida por Kyoto Animation se emitió entre abril y junio de de 2009. Un OVA salió en enero de 2010. Una segunda temporada de 26 episodios, de nombre K-ON!! (con dos signos de exclamación), se emitió entre abril y septiembre de 2010, con otra OVA en marzo de 2011. En el final de la segunda temporada se anunció la producción de una película, que se estrenó en Japón el 3 de diciembre de 2011.