Nana Mizuki is regarded as royalty in the worlds of both J-pop and anime music. Known for her extravagant concerts, stirring instrumental backings, and powerful voice, she came from the humblest of beginnings and carved her own niche in the upper echelons of Japan's music scene.
Born Nana Kondou, the singer known as Nana Mizuki is one of modern J-pop's biggest success stories. Mizuki was born and raised in Ehime prefecture. Pushed into vocal lessons by her father, she began to train as an enka singer at age five. Though she released a cassette tape titled Tsugazakura in 1993, it seemed that enka was not the path Mizuki's career was destined to follow.
Nana Mizuki's star didn't truly begin to shine until she was discovered by King Records, who moved her out of her abusive enka teacher's house and set her up to debut as both a singer and a voice actress. Her first voice acting role was for the Playstation game "Noël: La Neige", and her debut single under the name Nana Mizuki, Omoi, was released in 2000. In 2001, Mizuki was cast as Aria in the anime and game series "Sister Princess", endearing her to a substantial number of new fans and pushing her career even further. As a tie-in with the series, she joined three other voice actresses to form the short-lived pop group Prits, which released three singles and a full album before its disbandment. Her debut solo album, Supersonic Girl, also came out the same year and landed her a first appearance on the Oricon chart.
For the next three years, Mizuki released one full album per year -- Magic Attraction, Dream Skipper, and Alive & Kicking. It was the third of the trio that brought her the most recognition, with its single Innocent Starter reaching number nine on the Oricon singles chart.
After several more successful singles, Mizuki reached a milestone in her career. Though she'd only been active for a few short years, her 2005 Live Rainbow event brought her something most singers only dream about: a performance at the Nippon Budoukan. Additionally, 2005 marked the start of her greatest success. Beginning with the release of Eternal Blaze, all but one of her singles have charted in the Oricon's top five spots.
2006 saw another Budoukan performance, as well as the release of two singles and a full album. 2007 was another milestone year, in which Mizuki released her first compilation album and won "Best Musical Performance" for her single Justice to Believe at the first annual Seiyuu Awards. She also released a new album, titled Great Activity, which peaked at number two on the charts. In 2008, she released several more singles, in addition to holding her Live Fighter concert series at Yoyogi National Stadium.
More landmarks came in 2009. Her album Ultimate Diamond became the first released by a voice actress to take the Oricon's number one spot. To further compound the excitement, it was announced that Mizuki would perform on NHK's "Kouhaku Uta Gassen", a cultural institution of Japanese society that airs annually on New Year's Eve. In 2010, Mizuki released her eighth studio album, Impact Exciter, which reached number two on the charts and earned her another "Kouhaku" performance.
Mizuki kicked off 2011 with Live Grace -Orchestra-, a concert series held at Yokohama Arena featuring fully-orchestrated arrangements of many songs. Additionally, she became the first voice actress to hold a concert at the Tokyo Dome. She closed out the year with another "Kouhaku" performance, and started off 2012 with the release of Synchrogazer. Following it were two more singles, an album, and more concerts.
In 2013 came an unexpected surprise for Mizuki’s fans -- the announcement of a collaborative single with none other than T.M. Revolution. Titled Preserved Roses, the single brought with it a whirlwind of promotion, TV appearances, and Mizuki’s first performance abroad at Anime Festival Asia Singapore. So successful was their joint effort that the duo soon released another single, Kakumei Dualism, to similar acclaim.
2014 has been a somewhat quiet year for Nana Mizuki, so far only bringing her latest number one album, SUPERNAL LIBERTY. She has remained busy outside of her music career, however, still taking on a variety of voice acting and narration roles, thereby allowing her to continue fulfilling both of her childhood dreams at once. For someone as busy as her, fans would probably agree that a slow year may not be such a bad thing. If previous activity is anything to go by, however, much more can be expected from Nana Mizuki -- not just in 2014, but for many years to come.
