Eroyume

She’s given some live performances for MangaGamer and Circus at the yearly Anime Expo held in the United States. Is probably best known for her songs in Soranana.

Having debuted in 2004, her game discography is pretty extensive. She’s also recorded songs for more than 15 anime series. Her and two other singers recently formed the group “SV Tribe” to provide songs for the Majikoi anime adaptation.

She’s with 5pb records, so quite a number of the tracks are featured as theme songs to PS2 visual novels. Her style tends to be edgier, more serious in tone, as can be heard in 11eyes and Higurashi.

Ceui’s been an active singer since 2000, but she didn’t sign to a major label until 2007. She’s often described by many as angelic, both in her appearance and in the sound of her voice. There are also some striking similarities to Riya, but out of the two, Ceui unquestionably has the better vocal range.

Chata’s been part of various doujin circles and has her own called “Usagi Kinoko”. She’s very good friends with Haruka Shimotsuki and Rekka Katakiri, even going so far as to form the group “Shimochamin”. Her major debut album was a collaboration with famous video game composer, Yoko Shimomura.

Cy-Rim rev. is the brainchild of Masa (left) and Miru (right). Their music is found almost exclusively in Circus’s games. Miru also does recordings as a solo artist.

Denkare is a metal band comprised of four members, with Karen (pictured to the left) as the vocalist. Many of their songs are featured in Black Cyc’s games, which I find quite fitting given the dark themes. Although it hasn’t been documented anywhere, at least to my knowledge, Karen is very clearly the same singer from the band Yousei Teikoku, a group known for their anime music.

Duca has a very strong, distinct voice that is unmistakable. In 2008, she appeared under the stage name “Mao” for the express purpose of releasing anime music. It took me all of five seconds to realize it was her. Up until that point, her identity had been a complete mystery to me, as she hadn’t shown herself in any photos.

Since aligning with Lantis in 2009, she’s had a pretty successful run as an anison artist. I’ll always remember her best from the Reconquista VN, though.

FripSide is a synthpop duo originally formed by Nao and Satoshi Yaginuma (right). After Nao departed from the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career, Yoshino Nanjou (left) replaced her as the new lead vocalist. Many of their earlier songs can be found in games from publisher Visual Arts. Today, the band’s music does very well on the Oricon charts.

I’ve been listening to Shimotsuki for many years, and she still remains as one of my favorite artists to date. She has sang theme songs for the Atelier and Ar Tonelico RPG series and is one of the main composers for the ethnic, fantasy-based soundtracks. She’s contracted to provide music for a wide range of visual novels, but some of her best songs can be found with developer Innocent Grey. I’m a proud owner of all of her albums.

Nakase doesn’t just lend her vocal talents for opening theme songs. She is also quite prolific as a seiyuu.

She’s one of the veterans of the industry at 41 years of age. Her debut came in 2000 when she sang the theme song for Front Wing’s Kanaria. In 2007, she started the talent management and music production agency S Inc.

She got her big break when she teamed up with tenmon to provide theme songs for Minori’s Haru no Ashioto, EF, and Eden* games. They were very successful songs and did well on the charts.

Kanako is one of my top 3 favorite singers and for a number of good reasons. She has the best vocal range of them all, and when you pair her with a good music producer, the results are spectacular. Recently, she’s been getting a lot of much-needed exposure due to her involvement with Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate.

I will stab someone if I have to give an explanation on who this is. It’s virtually impossible to indulge in anime/eroge fandom and not recognize the name Kotoko.

Lia was one of the original I’ve Sound members who signed on around the same time as Kotoko. She now works with Key Sounds Label. One of her first and most successful songs is “Tori no Uta”, the opening theme for AIR. To this day, it still ranks highly among the top 100 VN/Anime songs of all time as voted by fans in Japan and very often takes the #1 spot. She is not a one-hit wonder, however. She doesn’t do main themes very often, but when she does, they are almost always godly. Some of her other notable works include the openings to Hoshiuta, Clannad After Story, Tomoyo After, and Angel Beats.

Another prominent member of I’ve Sound, she is best known for her anime theme songs with the Geneon Enterntainment label, many of which are a collaboration with Kotoko. She still puts out the occasional opening for eroge.

She records music exclusively for games and has never delved into anime, AFAIK. Some of her more recent works are with producer bassy and Barbarian on the Groove.

I don’t know much about Fujiwara except that she’s credited with vocals for several Touhou songs and also made her anime debut last year with Yumekui Merry. She has a few eroge OP under her name.

Makkun is an industry veteran with more experience than any singer on this list. She has been active since 1989 and has recorded more than 50 singles and 20 albums. In addition to her solo career, she’s a known member of the supergroup “JAM Project.” The majority of her music is found in anime, but an occasional eroge OP will turn up every year.

Again, I don’t know much about her. What I can tell you is that Sakuragawa is credited with one of the most epic songs I’ve ever heard in a VN. Look up the second opening video to Coμ. It can be found on this site.

MELL is an I’ve Sound-produced artist, best known for her song in Black Lagoon. What is most striking about her voice and the thing that separates her from the others is the strong vibrato. She does openings for games but not very often. She has a few tracks from the kinetic novel “Planetarian”.

Minami celebrates her 10th anniversary this year. She has a lot of anime songs in her name, but she’ll forever be remembered as the singer and seiyuu for Age Soft’s Kiminozo and Muv-Luv series of games.

She is known for that akiba-pop, denpa-coined genre of music some of us have come to know and love. It’s an acquired taste though and certainly not for everyone. Listen to Angel Magister’s OP for a pretty good idea.

Miyuki’s voice has become a staple in VN music. It’s something I’ve come to expect after nine years, and I couldn’t imagine it without her. You can see her speak on camera for 11 minutes at her website. Maybe someone will translate for you, because I sure as hell won’t. XD

Susumu Kayamori (left) and Mi~ku (right) are pioneers of a genre, the start of an era. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, their influence cannot be denied.

After her graduation from fripSide in 2009, Nao embarked on a journey as a solo artist. Why did she choose this path? My guess is that her and Satoshi had some creative differences, although they may not have revealed this officially on record. She wanted to go a different direction with her music, as evidenced by the fripSide Nao Project they started before her departure. In the end, I think they’ve both bettered themselves since the split. I’ve enjoyed their music now more than I ever did.

If you don’t laugh at this image, you have no sense of humor. Yes, that really is Katakiri under the cat head. No, she doesn’t just do this for lulz. It’s also to hide her identity, which is not particularly unusual. You can take one guess as to why. She has never shown her face on camera before, to my knowledge. If she has, I’d love to see it. XD

One of ave;new’s minions following in the footsteps of Saori Sakura. She made her debut in 2008 with the Seiken no Fairies OP. They are here to bring an overload of cuteness, and no one can stop them.

She has some classic songs under her name that I won’t soon forget. She’s also known by the alias “Milk Kurumi”.

Rita is one of my other top 3 favorite singers. She keeps things semi-anonymous, never actually showing her whole face but showing just enough. The name is obviously a pseudonym. More importantly though, she’s contributed a lot to VN music, with a really impressive discography. Some of her better works can be found in Liar-Soft’s games.

Riya is the lead singer of the pop band Eufonius. Her bandmate, Hajime Kikuchi, provides composition and arrangement on the keyboard. She has sang duets with Haruka Shimotsuki for the Akai Ito visual novel, and arguably her biggest claim to fame is the song “Mag Mell” from Clannad.

I don’t know how well her solo career is going. She doesn’t appear to have been active much since 2010. Could be because of the Cheerful+Colorful band she started with Yuana Miyazawa. She had some good songs a few years ago that I liked anyway.

Saori is a member of the ave;new unit. Her breakthrough hit was “True My Heart” for Lump of Sugar’s “Nursery Rhyme”. She brings 100% cute and 0% of everything else.

She’s a fairly new act and someone I’m not familiar with at all. Indeed, she debuted in 2010. I was rather impressed with the song she sang for the yet-to-be-released eroge “Grisaia no Meikyuu”. I will be keeping my ears open for more later.

Swinging Popsicle is a three-member indie pop/rock band with Mineko Fujishima as vocalist. Their only contributions have been a few songs for Nitroplus’ game “Sumaga”. I hadn’t heard of the band prior to this, so it was a nice discovery. I started seeking out the rest of their music as a result.

She goes by the alternate alias “AiRI”. Probably remembered best for the songs she’s recorded for Overdrive and Crossnet’s games.

The majority of her songs can be found in Eushully’s games.

She is famous for the countless songs she’s written for Circus’ games, going as far back as the original Da Capo. Listening to them now is pretty nostalgic. She has also worked with Rino from CooRie a few times under the name Yozurino*.

Her name is pretty much everywhere these days, so she’s another one of those artists who probably doesn’t need an introduction. Sakakibara is multi-talented and does choreography, singing, dancing, songwriting, and voice acting. When she’s not providing eroge OP that are very akiba-pop in sound, she’s singing in a rock band as Phantasm in Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate.

She’s best known for providing many of the songs in Navel’s games. What separates her from other acts is her ability to play guitar. She has played in the now-defunct band “Honey Bee” as the lead vocalist and guitarist. She’s now the lead singer and bassist for the punk rock band “Pink Doodle Poodle”.