EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s8RcX.jpg)
12 years ago, on December 6th, 2000, Nana Mizuki debuted with her single “Omoi.” However, this was far from being a big hit or achieving any significant amount of success, ranking at 148th on the weekly charts. At the time, no one could guess how far Nana would come. From not even ranking in the top 100 to consistently ranking in the top 3, Nana has now established herself as one of best singers in Japan, but the path has been long and harsh. Indeed, she has earned every sale with sheer hard work, dedication, and an unwavering strength of will: 27 years of it.
The Goddess descends
On January 21, 1980, Nana Kondou was born into this world. At the age of 5, she began Spartan-like enka training under the direction of her father. It should be noted that becoming a singer was her father’s goal for her; however, she also strove with her own will to achieve this dream. She sang every day for several hours immediately after school without exception. If she did not, she was beaten and locked in the storage shed. However, despite being at such a young age, Nana refused to cry in front of her father, thinking of it as losing. Instead, she wanted to prove to him that she was stronger than that and continued like this for 10 years. At the age of 13, Nana released her very first song, Tsugazakura, which is now a legend among Nana fans. Less than a thousand cassette copies were made, and one was recently auctioned for thousands of dollars.
The very first Nana song
In middle school, Nana underwent continuous bullying because she was trying to become a singer. Yet again, because of her stubborn nature and strong personality, she refused to let this affect her and still got top grades in addition to the Spartan training her father was still giving her at the time. At her graduation, these bullies apologized and asked for her autograph for when she became famous but…then they laughed at her and called her disgusting and threw it away (too bad, they would be worth so much money now).
It was then that I found the darkness in my heart, but I wanted to become a strong person who didn’t yield to such weakness. – Mizuki Nana
Nana would escape the bullying of middle school in exchange for the poverty of high school. She attended Horikoshi, a high school specialized for students who planned to go into the entertainment business and has many big names other than Nana as alumni. However, as this is located in Tokyo, the cost of living was high, definitely higher than her budget. She often skipped meals and never bought new clothes. To literally be able to afford to survive, she studied hard enough to achieve the best scores in the school and receive a scholarship.
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One could never guess the painful scars behind that smile
However, perhaps such a feat can be attributed to the fact that unlike her classmates, Nana had yet to work a single entertainment job. In a way, she was already considered a failure among her classmates. Nevertheless, she still befriended Sayuri, who would become one of her oldest friends and compose many of Nana’s songs. Ironically, despite aiming to be a singer, her first job would be a voice actress in Noel: La Neige in 1998. Nana had actually been taking voice acting lessons in high school because she was a big anime fan and actually wanted to become a seiyuu too. In fact, Nana called the first anime shop she ever entered “a sacred place.” Regardless, as her foremost goal was to be a singer, she received a lot of criticism for attempting to be both a seiyuu and singer and insulted for using anime as a stepping stone to her career. But Nana simply said, “Who cares? If no one has done both before, then I will be the first.”
Finally, something went Nana’s way. She met Mishima Aiko, a producer from King Records who wanted to promote her. However, at the time, Nana was actually suffering from Stockholm’s Syndrome toward her current enka teacher who had also been sexually harassing her for several years. Luckily, Mishima did not give up on Nana and eventually, she left her enka teacher to officially work for King Records and debut with “Omoi” in December of 2000, but this was only the beginning.
Debut of Nana Mizuki
For the next four years, Nana slowly built up her career. Her sales were slowly increasing but she had yet to really make a name for herself. She gained moderate attention with anime roles such as Hinata in Naruto and Aria in Sister Princess, but at last her big break came, once again thanks to anime. Voicing the character Fate Testarossa in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha in 2004, Nana’s song Innocent Starter gained huge amounts of attention thanks to the popularity of the show and reached #9 on the weekly Oricon. In 2005, Eternal Blaze, the opening song of the sequel, reached #2 on the weekly Oricon charts. This was a momentous event in Nana’s career and to this day, Eternal Blaze is considered one of her greatest works and is THE Nana song of concerts. Particularly the coordination of the fans is something that I will never grow tired of seeing or hearing. Without a doubt, Nanoha was the catalyst that put Nana on the radar of the music industry but even this was still the beginning and the momentum of her career was far from over.
It’s not Eternal Blaze without giant pillars of fire
Nana’s popularity only continued to grow and finally, in 2009, her 7th album Ultimate Diamond, with songs like Shin Ai, Astrogation, and Dancing in the Velvet Moon, reached #1 on the weekly Oricon charts. Nana said she’d do both, and she proved it. Perhaps in direct response to such a feat, she was invited to Japan’s annual and prestigious musical event Kouhaku Uta Gassen and shortly thereafter her single Phantom Minds, the theme song to the recent Nanoha movie, reached #1 on the weekly charts at the start of 2010. The year 2010 proved to be a little less exciting, with Impact Exciter “only” reaching #2. Nevertheless, with the aforementioned three consecutive achievements, none of which had ever been accomplished by a seiyuu in history, Nana’s sales dominated the year, solidifying her name as the greatest and most accomplished Anison artist of all time.
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It’s no longer a question of who the best selling animation artist is but rather how much Nana will dominate everyone else by.
However, the explosive success in making history was not all happy times for Nana. Her father, who had been hospitalized for the majority of her career, passed away. Despite what he had put her through in her childhood, Nana had nothing but love and respect for him. Shin Ai, the theme song of White Album, was in fact a song dedicated to him and along with Eternal Blaze, is considered as one of the songs which define her as a singer. It was later revealed that Yume no Tsuzuki was written immediately after his death is also dedicated to the father she loved with all her heart.
A song of unrelenting love
The year of 2011 would prove to be the most epic year of Nana’s career. In January, she performed alongside a full orchestra, with some of her most popular songs receiving stunningly beautiful rearrangements. At the end, Nana made a surprising announcement: a 14 concert tour across Japan, by far her longest tour ever. For 3 months, she performed nearly every weekend (and some weekends twice, for those questioning the math) while simultaneously releasing her singles Scarlet Knight and Pop Master, which ranked #2 and #3 on the weekly charts, respectively. And finally, at the end of her tour, she made the most exciting announcement to date: her next concert would be held in Tokyo Dome, the largest and most prestigious stage in Japan. For Nana, as it would be for any performer, this was the realization of a lifelong dream, a dream which she had worked 11 years building her career and 15 years training prior to that to obtain. Nana would become the 8th female solo singer in history to perform there and, unsurprisingly, the first seiyuu as well. Across Japan and the world, fans cheered for her and hundreds of overseas fan would travel to Japan to be there, to witness Nana perform at the greatest stage in the country.
Nana Mizuki, Queen of Anison
+ Show Spoiler +
Thanks to King Records, essentially every Live Castle video has been taken down from youtube, so I cannot share its full epicness.
It’s really hard to top a year like that. This past year, Nana has released several more singles, still ranking in the top 3 of the weekly charts, held another 14 concert tour across Japan, which included her 100th solo live, and finally, will be releasing her highly anticipated 9th album on 12/12/12 to celebrate her 12th anniversary since the debut of Omoi. She will also be attending Kouhaku for the 4th consecutive year and hold a full orchestral Live Grace II concert on January 19th and 20th. She has come such a long way since her debut; she has come an even longer way since she first started singing 27 years ago.
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At least the album isn’t 12,121.2 yen
Many of us fans joke about Nana being a goddess, but Nana is definitely more than just a popular singer. She has such a humble personality and a strong yet kind heart. She had the will to never give up on her dreams and 27 years of history to prove it. She always aimed for the top, ignored all the criticism against her, remained steadfast in her dreams, continued to work as hard as ever and when she finally reached it, the first thing she did was thank her fans. She always gives her best at all her concerts and the consistency in quality is something I have never heard even among other artists I appreciate. But her singing is only a single reason for me to love her among many. For such a painful childhood and a depressing school life, her ability to stay focused on becoming a singer simply astonishes me. Her values in life and beliefs she follows are things that parallel my own. Many of her songs really touch me on a personal and emotional level and to be able to see her put in an equal amount of emotion during her lives just makes me love her that much more. In fact, Nana has cried during performances on occasion due to the amount of deep and personal emotions the lyrics mean to her. To see such strong resonation between her as a singer and the lyrics of a song shows how seriously she takes not just her career as a singer but also the individual meaning of each song she sings. Certainly, many of her songs are happy and fun or exciting and playful. However, she truly shines when singing painful, deeply emotional, and heart wrenchingly serious songs.
Simply, epic.
A goddess is not someone born beautiful or talented. A goddess is not someone who lucked out on the times or someone who is merely the newest popular female. And a goddess is certainly not a woman who relies on sex appeal to get attention. A goddess is someone who will struggle and work for what she wants no matter how long it takes or how much effort she needs to put in. She is someone who can go through the lows of life and come out a better person with a smile on her face. She is someone with a strong will to maintain her beliefs against oppression yet has a compassionate, understanding, and loving heart. Nana has these qualities and more. For me, Nana has been a limitless source of inspiration and motivation, excitement and happiness, and tranquility and peace. Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess.
Nana, although I have yet to see you live, I will eventually. I may be being unable to attend Live Grace II this January, but I definitely won’t let myself say I haven’t been to one of your concerts for much longer. Whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you sing, I will always support you. Thank you for giving meaning to my life. Nana, I love you, always and forever.
Shoutouts to my fellow Nana fans KawaiiRice and Nagisama!
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