Our Aniki is back to Singapore as “The Most Famous Japanese in the World.”
Ichirou Mizuki, Japan’s “King of Anime Songs”, has confirmed that he will come back to Anime Festival Asia 2009 (AFA09) to perform at AFA09’s “I Love Anisong”
Better known as “Aniki” (meaning older brother) by industry and anime fans alike, Ichirou Mizuki began his career as anime theme song singer in 1971, with the theme of “Genshi Shonen Ryu”. Since then, he has performed over 1200 songs including songs for “Mazinger Z”, “Captain Harlock” and Tokusatsu (meaning Sci-fi or fantasy) shows, such as “Masked Rider”. He has gained international recognition as Japan’s most prominent Anime performer in his 40 year career as a singer for Anime songs.
In 1999, Ichirou Mizuki held a “1000 songs concert”, one of the most amazing events in the history of music, where he sang 1000 songs continuously for a period of 24 hours. His popularity is not only limited to Japan, having performed at prominent anime events overseas and on various TV shows around the world.
He has also represented Japan as the “Anime Song ambassador” in Paris in 2007 and has won countless awards and accolades during his colourful career. Ichirou Mizuki proved to be also extremely trendy as a performer when he worked with French DJ Dimitri from Paris, releasing “BOKURA NO MAZINGER Z（Black ver.）”（2003), and ‘Disney’s “Everybody wants to be a cat” (2005). Following his appearance in Anime Festival Asia on November 2008, he performed in Hong Kong together with Mitsuko Horie in 2009 and the concert was a great success.
His international fame was proven in 2009 by Wikipedia; his article had been translated into 91 different languages (currently 92) and became “The Most Famous Japanese in the World.” It has been over 40 years since he has been providing dreams and hope to children. He continues his challenge to promote and pass on to the next generation on the precious culture of “Ani-song”
