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Anime Festival Asia Announces Musical Guests for Singapore Event

Southeast Asian convention Anime Festival Asia announced its musical guest lineup for its Singapore event on Saturday. The lineup includes Aimer, Ami Wajima, HoneyWorks/CHICO with Honeyworks, Home Made Kazoku, JAM Project, May'n, Minori Chihara, T.M. Revolution, and Wake Up, Girls!.

Aimer debuted in 2011 as part of the Agehasprings group. The group released a cover album titled Your Favorite Things in May 2011. Aimer released her first single for Defstar Records, "Rokutousei no Yoru," in September 2011. The single's title song was featured as the ending theme song of the No. 6 television anime series. She has also performed theme songs for the Natsuyuki Rendezvous and Terror in Resonance television anime series. Additionally, the title song of her March 2013 "RE:I:AM" single was used as the ending theme for the sixth OVA episode of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series. She performed the opening theme song "Brave Shine" for last year's Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works anime series' second season and most recently performed the ending theme song "ninelie" for the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress anime alongside EGOIST vocalist chelly.

17-year-old Ami Wajima hails from the Hokkaido town of Kutchan. The singer made her professional debut with "Gensō Drive," the opening theme for the spring 2016 anime The Lost Village (Mayoiga). She performed the new ending theme song for P.A. Works' Kuromukuro anime. The single for the new ending song shipped on August 10, and a limited first edition of the single includes a DVD with the song's music video. Wajima won the top prize in the HoriPro x Pony Canyon Next Generation Anison Singer Audition this year.

HoneyWorks consists of composer Gom (center in image at right), composer shito (center right), and illustrator Yamako (center left). Their support members include guitarist Oji (Kaizoku-Ō, far right), illustrator Mogeratta, illustrator Rokoru (far left), video production member ziro, keyboardist cake, and drummer AtsuyuK!. The group's songs have spawned videos that have garnered over 100 million views on Niconico, YouTube, and other video-sharing sites, and the five novels based on those songs have sold over 850,000 copies. The group contributed theme songs in the Brothers Conflict and Tokyo Ravens television anime. Chico with Honeyworks, the group's collaboration with vocalist Chico, contributed theme songs for Blue Spring Ride, Magic Kaito 1412, and Gintama.

The group's Kokuhaku Jikkō Iinkai ~Renai Series~ (Confession Executive Committee ~Love Series~) Vocaloid songs inspired an anime film titled I've Always Liked You on April 23, and is inspiring a second film titled Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan o: Kokuhaku Jikkō Iinkai on December 17.

Japanese hip-hop group Home Made Kazoku is composed of vocalists Micro and Kuro along with DJ U-Ichi — all 38 years old. Micro and Kuro both lived in the United States; Micro grew up in Kentucky, while Kuro lived in Chicago until he was 12. The group formed in 2004 after the members met in college in Aichi Prefecture. The group has since performed theme songs for Bleach, Eureka Seven, Naruto Shippuden, and Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds. The band released their first three albums independently from 2001 to 2004, before signing on to Ki/oon Records Inc. and releasing the rest of their singles and albums through the label. The band released their 11th album, Laughin' Road, in February 2015.

The trio will go on an indefinite hiatus by the end of the year. According to a comment by group member Micro, the group is taking a hiatus to "grow individually and take on new challenges." The group's three members will then pursue solo careers.

JAM Project, which stands for Japan Animation-song Makers, features Hironobu Kageyama (Dragon Ball Z, Sonic X, Saint Seiya, Shin Getter Robo), Masaaki Endoh (Cowboy Bebop, GaoGaiGar: King of Braves, Cybuster), Hiroshi Kitadani (One Piece, Bakuto Sengen Daigunder, Saint Beast), Masami Okui (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Di Gi Charat, Scrapped Princess, Slayers), and Yoshiki Fukuyama (Macross 7, Buso Renkin, Overman King Gainer, Ehrgeiz).

Since forming in 2000, the group has performed songs for eX-Driver, Gravion, MazinKaiser, New Getter Robo, Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation, Scrapped Princess, The SoulTaker, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monster GX, and their most famous collaboration, the anime-based Super Robot Wars game franchise. The group more recently contributed songs to the Cardfight!! Vanguard, Bakuman., Senyū, Nobunaga the Fool, Garo: Honoo no Kokuin, One-Punch Man, and Garo: Crimson Moon television anime series.

May'n performed songs as the Macross Frontier anime's "Galactic Fairy" idol Sheryl Nome. Beyond her performances for Macross Frontier, May'n has performed theme songs for anime series including Accel World, Phi-Brain - Puzzle of God, Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Inari Kon Kon, and M3 - Sono Kuroki Hagane. She also recently performed the opening theme song "Yoake no Logos" for the last year's television anime series Aquarion Logos with composer Yoko Kanno. She held her "May'n 10th Anniversary Special Concert at Budokan 'POWERS OF VOICE'" concert in August 2015. The title song of her 13th and latest single "Belief" is the opening theme song of the Taboo Tattoo series.

Minori Chihara debuted as a voice actress in 2004, voicing the role of Aya Natsume in the Tenjho Tenge anime series. She has since voiced numerous roles in anime such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Yuki Nagato), Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny (Ekitoku Chouhi), Lucky Star (Minami Iwasaki), D.C. II: Da Capo II (Nanaka Shirakawa), Minami-ke (Chiaki Minami), Ga-Rei-Zero (Kagura Tsuchimiya), Saki (Tōka Ryūmonbuchi), Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Miezela Celestella), Hyōka (Yuri Kōnosu), Beyond the Boundary (Mitsuki Nase), Sound! Euphonium (Kaori Nakaseko), and Ange Vierge (CodeΩ33 Carene). She has performed theme songs for many of the anime in which she is a main cast member. She released her 22nd single, "Arigatō, Daisuki," in June 2015, and her sixth album, Innocent Age, on April 6.

Before assuming the stage name of T.M. Revolution, Takanori Nishikawa sang under the name Haine in the visual-kei band Luis-Mary from 1989 to 1993. He then made his solo debut with the single “Dokusai –monopolize-” in 1996.

T.M.Revolution has since performed a string of hit anime theme songs for Bleach the Movie: Hell Verse, Sengoku Basara Two, D.Gray-man, Darker than Black, Rurouni Kenshin, and Soul Eater. His most popular anime theme songs appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and its Gundam Seed Destiny sequel, for which he collectively sang six songs. He has also performed a theme song for Valvrave the Liberator (a collaboration with Nana Mizuki), and the opening theme song for the Thunderbolt Fantasy puppet series.

He also voiced guest roles in Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny, and Rurouni Kenshin. He starred in his own live-action television series with the adaptation of Miyoko Motomura's Okusama wa 18-sai (My Wife Is 18 Years Old) manga. He is helming the B-PROJECT fictional male idol project, which inspired its own television anime in July.

Wake Up, Girls! is the idol group of seven girls who formed to voice the main characters of the Wake Up, GIRLS! TV anime series. The group's first four singles' title songs were all used in various Wake Up, GIRLS! anime. The first two singles, "7 Girls' War" and "Kotonoha Aoba," shipped in February 2014, and featured in the television anime as the opening and theme song, respectively. The third single, "Shōjo Kōkyōkyoku," shipped in August 2015 and featured in the Wake Up, Girls! Seishun no Kage film. The fourth single, "Beyond the Bottom," shipped last December, and featured in the Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom film. The group will perform the ending theme song "Bokura no Frontier" (Our Frontier) for the upcoming Shakunetsu no Takkyū Musume anime as its first song for an anime not in the Wake Up, Girls! franchise.

AFA Singapore will take place at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Center on November 25-27.