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Nana Mizuki (水樹 奈々, Mizuki Nana ^?, born January 21, 1980 in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture), born Nana Kondō (近藤 奈々, Kondō Nana ^?), is a popular Japanese singer–songwriter and voice actress. Born and raised in Niihama, Ehime, Japan, Mizuki was trained as an enka singer. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1998, however, she released her debut single "Omoi", under the King Records label on December 6, 2000. A year later, she released her debut album, Supersonic Girl on December 5, 2001.^[1]

In the years that followed, Mizuki enjoyed modest success that concluded with the release of her single "Innocent Starter", which reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart, charting at #9.^[2] Since then, Mizuki's releases have charted steadily higher in Japan, establishing her as one of the more popular singers in the country. Despite this, she remains a prolific seiyū, with over 130 voice roles in separate media.^[3] On June 3, 2009, her album Ultimate Diamond peaked at #1,^[4] further confirming her status as one of the highest-charting artists in Japan. Mizuki is the first seiyū to top the weekly Oricon albums chart since its inception in 1968.^[5]

Life and career

Born in Niihama, Ehime, Japan, she began to train enka when she was five years old.^[6] In 1993, she released Compact Cassette single "Tsugazakura" (つがざくら, lit. "Phyllodoce Nipponica" ^?) as "Nana Kondo".^[7] However, she passed the audition of game Noël: La Neige and became a seiyū.^[6]

She released an image song single titled "Girl's Age" under the name Chisato Kadokura in 1998. When she performed a concert at the age of 20, she was scouted by the Japanese record label King Records. Her debut single as Nana Mizuki, "Omoi", was released on December 6, 2000. Her 2004 song "Innocent Starter" became her first Top 10 single and her 2005 single "Eternal Blaze" reached #2 position on Japanese Oricon weekly single charts.^[6]

She won the "Best Musical Performance" award by her song "Justice to Believe" in the first Seiyū Awards in 2007. Her seventh album Ultimate Diamond became the first seiyū album to reach the #1 position on the Oricon weekly charts during the week of June 15, 2009 since its creation in 1968.^[8] Ultimate Diamond sold over 74,000 copies in the first week, outselling the popular hip-hop band, Black Eyed Peas' album, The E.N.D., by over 20,000 copies in Japan.^[4]

On November 23, 2009, NHK announced that she would take part in the 60th Kōhaku Uta Gassen of New Year's Eve. It was Nana's first time appearing on the show. Nana chose her song Shin Ai for her performance.^[9][10]

Many of the characters whom she has voiced were initially very shy/soft-spoken (however, after interactions with other people, they gradually opened up (e.g. Fate, Lili, Nyamo, Hinata, and Wrath), six of her characters have romantic feelings for the main characters (e.g. Oboro from Basilisk, Hinata Hyūga from Naruto, Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia, Tamao Tamamura from Shaman King and Moka Akashiya from Rosario + Vampire), some of her characters craved maternal attention (e.g. Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and its sequels A's and StrikerS, Wrath and Maria), and she was also part of the seiyu quartet "Prits", alongside Yumiko Kobayashi, Natsuko Kuwatani and Hisayo Mochizuki (all four voiced characters in the anime Sister Princess).

Nana Mizuki voices Microsoft's Japanese Windows 7 official "OS-tan" mascot, Nanami Madobe. The mascot's name uses some wordplay on Mizuki's own name as well as the operating system ("Nana" = "seven").^[11][12]

Voice acting roles

Leading roles in bold.

Discography

Concerts

See also

• Category:Nana Mizuki albums
• Category:Nana Mizuki songs

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official website at Sigma7 (Japanese)
• Official fan program (Japanese)