Reona

Reona was born in Kagoshima on October 20, 1998. She became interested in becoming a cosplayer during her elementary school years, as she had been recommended to become one by a classmate.^[2] Her interest in cosplay was boosted after ordering a costume of the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku.^[3] She became active as a cosplayer while in junior high school, and went under the names Reopeko (れおぺこ) and ReoNa* while attending events such as Comiket 91 in 2016.^[4] She had also dreamed of becoming a singer for anime, and had released covers of songs on YouTube.^[3][5]

Reona had her break as a singer in 2017 when she became a finalist in an audition held by the music label Sacra Music.^[6] She made her major debut as a singer the following year as the singing voice of the character Elza Kanzaki in the anime series Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. She released the song "Pilgrim" (ピルグリム) on April 15, 2018; the song topped iTunes Japan's anime singles chart as well as Amazon Japan's digital music rankings.^[7] This was followed by the release of the digital singles "Step, Step" and "Independence".^[7] She released the mini-album Elza on July 4, 2018; the mini-album peaked at No. 8 on Oricon's weekly charts.^[8] Her first single under her own name, "Sweet Hurt", was released on August 29, 2018;^[9] the title track was used as the ending theme to the anime series Happy Sugar Life.^[10] Her second single "forget-me-not" was released digitally on January 13, 2019,^[11] and received a physical release on February 6, 2019; the title track was used as the second ending theme to the anime series Sword Art Online: Alicization, and the single also includes the song "Niji no Kanata ni" (虹の彼方に, Beyond the Rainbow), which was used as the ending theme for episode 19 of anime series Sword Art Online: Alicization.^[12]

Reona's feature single "Prologue" was released on June 26, 2019 under the Elza Kanzaki stage name.^[13] Her third single "Null" was released on August 28, 2019.^[14] She released her fourth single "Anima" digitally on July 13, 2020, and received a physical release on July 22, 2020; the title song was used as the opening theme of television series anime Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld: Part 2.^[15][16][A] Reona sang "Scar/let" as the opening for the video game Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris, as well as appearing in the game as a playable character. On July 1, 2020 single "Untitled World" was released as part of promotion for "Episode 6: Partial Necrosis" update of the game Arknights.^[17] She released her first album, Unknown, on October 7, 2020.^[18]

Reona collaborated with Hiroyuki Sawano on the song "Time"; the song was used as the ending theme to the anime series The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon's Judgement.^[19] She released her fifth single "Nai Nai" on May 12, 2021; the title song was used as the ending theme to the first season of the anime series Shadows House.^[20] Her sixth single "Shall We Dance?" was released on July 27, 2022; it was used as the opening theme of the second season of Shadows House.^[21] Reona's single "Alive" was used as the opening theme for the anime Arknights: Prelude To Dawn.^[22] Her song "VITA" was featured as the theme song in the video game Sword Art Online: Last Recollection.^[23] She held a one-off Nippon Budokan concert on March 6, 2023,^[24] and released her second studio album, Human, 2 days after, on March 8, 2023.^[25] Her single "R.I.P" was used as the ending theme song for the anime Arknights: Perish in Frost.^[26] On September 30, 2024, Reona released her 10-minute single "Our Song" (私たちの讃歌（ウタ）, Watashitachi no Uta), the theme song for the Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream video game, featuring all the artists who were involved in Reona's Sword Art Online works;^[27][28] the song contains elements from Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9's fourth movement "Ode to Joy", as well as his Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique", second movement.^[29]

Reona in a 2019 interview, talked about how her motivation comes from her dream at a young age to become a singer as she enjoyed singing and watching animated series.^[30] She continued by highlighting that she cares about her fans and all her admirers who welcome and love her music and thanks her fans for making her dream come true.^[31] In the same interview, Reona said she has multiple artists she admires making it difficult to choose only one as a role model.^[32] She highlights ever since she was the voice singer for Elza Kanzaki, a character from the anime Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, she began to play the guitar.^[33] Her Azalea guitar was inspired by Ed Sheeran's guitar since she had admired his guitar.^[34] Reona also talks about the anime series Higurashi When They Cry which she had seen a lot of during her youth and was considered an anime with a dark tone.^[35] She said the second season's opening song had the most impact on her music.^[36]

Reona said her use of dark emotions and strong lyrics comes from her encounters and reflects her emotions in a 2019 interview.^[37] In scenarios with collaborations, she would do her best to find a balance between herself and the song.^[38] She would then go on to talk about her emotions with her lyricists and ask them to add those emotions to her lyrics.^[39] During a separate interview in 2022 with JRock News, Reona talked about her song "Numb" (written in entirely English).^[40] She describes the theme of the song to revolve around self-dissatisfaction escalating to self-disgust reflecting how she feels both mentally and emotionally.^[41]

Reona brought up in a 2021 interview that she was so thrilled to be the singing voice actor for the character Elza Kanzaki as it was the first time that she would sing in an anime and it was a moment that completely transformed her life.^[42] She describes about how heartfelt it was to hear her voice among the characters in a fight scene.^[43] In her 2019 interview, Reona credits her singing role for Elza Kanzaki as it allowed her to share her music with a wider audience.^[44] Reona continued in her 2021 interview and described how she began to place herself in the world of Sword Art Online, making the ending theme song "forget-me-not" for Sword Art Online: Alicization and making the opening theme song "Anima" for Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld.^[45] Reona continues about how for the 10th anniversary of the release of the SAO novel, she made the opening theme "Till the End" and when she watched the song in the music video, she was so close to having tears of joy.^[46] She highlighted she did not think she would be who she is today if she had never come across the Sword Art Online anime.^[47]