History Music / AkikoShikata

** The entirety of ''[=caTra=]'' is in Akiko's own conlang (with the exception of the first song, sung in "do-re-mis") and has a steampunk feel.

* LongTitle: Some of her songs (notably those related to ''VideoGame/ExaPico'') have weird, lengthy names, such as "EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION./~omness chs ciel sos infel."

** ''Harmonia'' is built around the theme of the FourElementEnsemble: the wind part (track 1 to 4) focuses on the feelings of traveling and flying in the sky; the fire part (5 to 8) has tense songs with heavy electric instrumentations and dark lyrics; the water part (9 to 12) contrasts it with soothing songs and light instrumentations; the earth part (13 to 15) has a "tribal dance" feel to it. Each part is introduced by a short interlude titled "Chouwa~something~," all four of which form the first verse of "Chouwa~Harmonia~," the penultimate track. "Harmonia~Mihatenu Chi e~" brings all this together in a joyful conclusion.

* ContraltoOfDanger: She sometimes uses a variation of her deep voice in this fashion, for example in "Utau Oka ~Salavec Rhaplanca~" or "EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION/.~ee wassa sos yehar."

** ''Utsusemi'' (''LightNovel/ItsukaTenmaNoKuroUsagi'', 2011)

** ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' (2008)

** ''Hanakisou Symphonic Orchestra'' (''[[VisualNovel/HanaKiSou Hanakisou]]'', 2007)
** ''[[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' (2008)

** ''Inori no Kanata'' (''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Tales of Symphonia]]'' and ''[[VisualNovel/AkayaAkashiyaAyakashino Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino]]'', 2010)

** ''Utsusemi'' (''[[LightNovel/ItsukaTenmaNoKuroUsagi Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi]]'', 2011)
** ''Akatsuki'' (''Akatsuki no Yona'', 2015)

Akiko Shikata (志方 あきこ, born on January 7th - age unknown) is a bit of a UFO in the Japanese musical landscape. At first she started as a music composer by creating an independent label called [[http://www.vagrancy.jp/ Vagrancy]], but quickly picked up to singing, developing a style that draws from Japanese traditional music, Celtic music, Middle-Eastern music, classical music, rock, religious chanting, and [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever the hell she feels like.]] And even occasionally in regular JapanesePopMusic. She also released a lot of purely instrumental tracks and albums, often using a music box as her instrument of choice. But what makes her most well known is her contribution to a lot of video game, anime and VisualNovel musics, most famously ''VideoGame/ExaPico'', ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', the ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [=OVAs=] and ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn''. In 2014, she also composed her first (and so far only) soundtrack for an anime, ''Anime/CrossAnge''.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Her music could probably be considered "neoclassical darkwave" or "world fusion", but it's so idiosyncratic and incorporates so many different types of music that those are pretty loose classifications.

Akiko Shikata (志方 あきこ, born on January 7th - age unknown) is a bit of a UFO in the Japanese musical landscape. At first she started as a music composer by creating an independent label called [[http://www.vagrancy.jp/ Vagrancy]], but quickly picked up to singing, developing a style that draws from Japanese traditional music, Celtic music, Middle-Eastern music, classical music, rock, religious chanting, and [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever the hell she feels like.]] And even occasionally in regular JapanesePopMusic. She also released a lot purely instrumental tracks and albums, often using a music box as her instrument of choice. But what makes her most well known is her contribution to a lot of video game, anime and VisualNovel musics, most famously ''VideoGame/ExaPico'', ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', the ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [=OVAs=] and ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn''. In 2014, she also composed her first (and so far only) soundtrack for an anime, ''Anime/CrossAnge''.

** ''VideoGame/ToukenRanbu ONLINE: Kinji Music Collection vol. 1 and vol. 2'' (2018)[[note]]Contributed among other artists[[/note]]

* WomanInWhite: When the album covers don't feature her posing in a white dress, they often feature a white-dressed female character, with some sort of natural background.

** ''Oto no Akari'' (2019)

As you can see below, she's an ''extremely'' prolific composer who routinely releases two projects a year (although that pace has slightly slowed down in the late [=2010s=]). Marathoning her discography will keep you busy for a while.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Shikata's voice in her early releases was noticeably more high-pitched, and her first instrumental albums were made with a music box. Her first album ''Navigatoria'' also had lighter, more ethereal and more rock-based instrumentations, as well as a few experimental songs (most notably [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX9TwtvqUIY "HOLLOW"]]) that don't quite sound like anything she has done since then. While the bases of her current style were already present (by ''Midori no Mori…'' and ''Haikyou to Rakuen'' notably), it's her second album ''RAKA'' that solidified them.

** The lyrics of "HOLLOW" from ''Navigatoria'' notably use quotes from Shakespeare. Yep, the only time she sings in English, it's Middle English.

* OffingTheOffspring: In "Resshikou-ki ~Raikoku no Tenshi~", from ''Utau Oka ~Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor~'', the emperor of El Duel sacrfices his daughter to ensure victory over his enemy, El Nemesys.

Akiko Shikata (志方 あきこ, born on January 7th - age unknown) is a bit of a UFO in the Japanese musical landscape. At first she started as a music composer by creating an independent label called [[http://www.vagrancy.jp/ Vagrancy]], but quickly picked up to singing, developing a style that draws from Japanese traditional music, Celtic music, Middle-Eastern music, classical music, rock, religious chanting, and [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever the hell she feels like.]] And even occasionally in regular JapanesePopMusic. She also released a lot purely instrumental tracks and albums, often using a music box as her instrument of choice. But what makes her most well known is her contribution to a lot of video game, anime and VisualNovel musics, most famously ''VideoGame/ExaPico'', ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' and the ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [=OVAs=] − and most recently, ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn''. In 2014, she also composed her first soundtrack for an anime, ''Anime/CrossAnge''.

Akiko Shikata (志方 あきこ, born on January 7th - age unknown) is a bit of a UFO in the Japanese musical landscape. At first she started as a music composer by creating an independent label called [[http://www.vagrancy.jp/ Vagrancy]], but quickly picked up to singing, developing a style that draws from Japanese traditional music, Celtic music, Middle-Eastern music, classical music, rock, religious chanting, and [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever the hell she feels like.]] And even occasionally in regular JapanesePopMusic. She also released several purely instrumental tracks and albums that she composed and, often, performs. But what makes her most well known is her contribution to a lot of video game, anime and VisualNovel musics, most famously ''VideoGame/ExaPico'', ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' and the ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [=OVAs=] − and most recently, ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn''. In 2014, she also composed her first soundtrack for an anime, ''Anime/CrossAnge''.

* OutOfGenreExperience: Calling it this may be strange considering how diverse she is in general, but ''Ayashi'' (a Japanese-themed album) features "Tsukiyo ni Moratorium", a full-on, foot-tapping, finger-snapping jazz track. "Otome Kokoro", the tracks that follows it (composed by Minoru Yoshida) also counts to an extent as half of it is pretty much heavy metal.

** ''Istoria~Musa~'' (2007)[[note]]This one is a collective album featuring several composers of Vagrancy.[[/note]]