Born Nana Kondou on January 21, 1980 in Niihama, Japan, Nana Mizuki is a Japanese voice actress and singer best known for her powerful voice, which she often converts to a song so mind-blowingly powerful it's awesome. She didn't do much when her career began in 1997, until people started noticing her as Hinata Hyuga, one of Naruto's popular characters. Things really went up for her when she voiced Fate Testarossa and thus was her ultimate start of great fame.
Her music has garnered commercial and critical hits and there have been many times where she has gotten #2 on Oricon (Japan's equivalent of the Billboard Charts), and she may be the first actress to break into the mainstream Japanese music industry. In 2007, she became the first Seiyuu Award winner for the Musical Performance category with "Justice to Believe". On the week of June 15, 2009, she achieved the distinction of being the first seiyuu to nab the #1 position in the Oricon Weekly Album chart with her album, Ultimate Diamond. Since then she has won numerous awards and broken numerous records, most in regards to her success as a seiyuu in the J-Pop world. In 2014, the Japanese Government has honored her as the Rookie of the Year in the Popular Entertainment division.
She has a markedly geeky interest in Buddhist esoteric doctrine. And in a message to the fans, she also admitted to being a Pretty Cure fan and how happy she was to get the lead role in HeartCatch Pretty Cure!.
She also did the voice acting of a Windows 7 mascot.
Mizuki and Yukari Tamura have also both received the ultimate honor: their very own Nendoroid figures.
On July 7, 2020, she announced to the world she had gotten married to a man who is part of the music industry. On March 16, 2021, she gave birth to her first child.
For your listening pleasure, Mizuki's own Crowning Music of Awesome page.
Notable roles by Nana Mizuki:
- Akiko in Blue Literature's adaptation of "In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom".
- Both of the title characters in the Allison and Lillia anime. (Though Allison as an adult is voiced by Houko Kuwashima)
- Alois Trancy (a guy) in the second season of the Black Butler anime.
- Amano Airi in D4DJ
- Angelise Ikaruga "Ange" Misurugi in Cross Ange
- Ann Takamaki in Persona 5 (including The Animation, Dancing in Starlight, Royal, Strikers, and Tactica) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Aoandon and Momo-no-sei in Onmyōji (2016)
- Asha (Tabitha St. Germain) and Nippet (Leanne Coppen) in the Japanese dub of Ewoks (DVD version)
- Ashley Anan in Luminous Arc 3
- Becky (Tara Strong) in the Japanese dub of Sing.
- Bilin Valentine in Listeners
- Bumblebee (Kimberly Brooks) in the Japanese dub of DC Super Hero Girls 2019
- Carly Shay in the Japanese dub of iCarly
- Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) in the Japanese dubs of both her eponymous film and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Koron in Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Miracles ~Animal Adventure~
- Cheelai in Dragon Ball Super: Broly
- Chisato Kadokura in Noel: La Neige. Debut role as a seiyuu and singer, since, thanks to her singing talent, the company decided to release an entire Image Song album for her character despite being voiced by a newcomer.
- Claes Celestia Misqa Sansest in Final Fantasy Type-0
- Colette Brunel in Tales of Symphonia
- Desdemona in Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twin Kings and the Prophecy's End
- Dorothea in Avalon Code
- Elise in Sakura Wars (2019)
- Evangeline Yamamoto in Blast of Tempest
- Excella Noa Aura in Shining Resonance
- Faintear in Triggerheart Exelica Enhanced
- Fate Testarossa Harlaown and Alicia Testarossa in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. She later proceeded to play against type with much gusto as Fate's Doppelgänger, the Large Ham Boisterous Bruiser Levi the Slasher.
- Fragile in the Death Stranding Japanese dub.
- Freya (Emily Blunt) in the Japanese dub of The Huntsman: Winter's War.
- Gale in Drake Rider
- Hakuei Ren in Magi: Labyrinth of Magic
- Hanna in Granblue Fantasy
- Hannah in Dragon's Dogma
- Hinata Hyuga in Naruto (Got her own character song too, huge Breakout Character.)
- Hinowa Sekimori in Ushio and Tora
- Hokuto Sumeragi in Tokyo Babylon 2021 adaptation
- Hotaru Shirakawa in Memories Off
- Ittasha in Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger
- Janice Quatlane in Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
- Official dub voice for Jennifer Lawrence:
- Aurora Lane in Passengers
- Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games
- Serena in Serena
- Jessica Sherawat in the Japanese dub of Resident Evil: Revelations
- Kaho Serizawa in both the Hourglass of Summer visual novel and the corresponding OVA.
- Princess Kakyu in Sailor Moon Cosmos (replacing Sakiko Tamagawa)
- Kallen Kaslana in the Japanese dub of Honkai Impact 3rd
- Kanden Yamaneko in Kämpfer
- Kaoruko Usami in Junjou Romantica
- Kaya Mizuki in Grand Blue
- Kichou, Nobunaga/Saburo's wife in Nobunaga Concerto
- Komurasaki in One Piece
- Kotoko Aihara in Itazura Na Kiss
- Kriemhild in Valvrave the Liberator. Playing Against Type as she was just a stoic adjutant for most of the series. But notable that in the show, she sang both opening songs Preserved Roses and Revolution Dualism... in duets with T.M.Revolution
- Princess Kurama in Urusei Yatsura All Stars
- Kururu in Bottle Fairy
- Lili Hamilton in Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas
- Lucy Liberty in F-Zero: GP Legend
- Maho Nitori in Wandering Son
- Manaria Sousse in I'm In Love With the Villainess
- Maria in Witchblade
- Maya Fey (Mayoi Ayasato) in trailers of Ace Attorney games
- Mia Allen (Jane Levy) in the Japanese dub of the Evil Dead (2013)
- Michella Watch in Blood Blockade Battlefront
- Mifuyu in Granado Espada
- Minazuki Rokumatsuri in Happy Lesson
- Mio in Dororo (2019)
- Misaki Kirihara in Darker than Black
- Misaya Ouji in the sixth The Garden of Sinners movie
- Moka Akashiya (both of them) in Rosario + Vampire
- Morinas in Simoun
- Mostima in Arknights
- Mrs. Primm (Constance Wu) in the Japanese dub of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
- Nagao Kagetora in Fate/Grand Order
- Nagisa Adelheid in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity
- Nana Suzuki (The original one) and Jamanana in Seven of Seven
- Nanami Madobe, a.k.a. Windows 7-tan
- Neige Hausen in Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier EXCEED
- Neju Ma Melmas in Tenchi Muyo! GXP
- Nótt in Fire Emblem Heroes
- Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) in the Japanese dub of Blonde.
- Princess Oboro in Basilisk
- Pandora in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas
- Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- Popuko in Pop Team Epic episode 11A.
- Psycholone in Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z
- Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) in the Japanese dub of Glee
- Rebecca Streisand in Wild ARMs 5 (Lo~ve... It's in my justi~ce. *coughs* Sorry.)
- Rena Lanford in Star Ocean: Second Evolution. Succeeding Aya Hisakawa.
- Ricotta Elmar and Nanami Takatsuki in Dog Days
- She also sings the opening themes, "SCARLET KNIGHT" and "FEARLESS HERO".
- Riful of the West in Claymore
- Rin Ogata and Rin Asogi in RideBack
- Rina Ogata in White Album
- Riyu Kikuchi in the Wrestle Angels Survivor series.
- Rue/Princess Kraehe in Princess Tutu
- Saki Kafuu in Is the Order a Rabbit?
- Samir in Tower of Fantasy
- Sana Sunomiya (aka the Arts Club President) in Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro
- Saya Kisaragi in Blood-C
- Sayaka Mizushiro/Cerulean Blue in Magical Canan
- Sirenmon in Digimon Ghost Game (Ironically, Sirenmon is tone-deaf)
- Six in the Japanese dub of Ultraviolet (2006)
- Sora Yamato in Flint the Time Detective (Her anime debut)
- Suiseiseki in Rozen Maiden (was the first voice before Natsuko Kuwatani took over... DESU!)
- Taeko Hirukawa in Paranoia Agent
- Tamao Tamamura and Kororo in Shaman King . She reprises her role in 2021 reboot as Tamao but Megumi Nakajima takes over as Kororo.
- Tamarinne in Epic Seven
- Tina in Toriko
- Touma Minami in Minami-ke
- Trini Kwan / Yellow Ranger in the Japanese dub of Power Rangers (2017)
- Tsubasa Kazanari in Symphogear (and she's able to sing very beautifully for both the opening and as a part of the Leitmotif for her character). Also provides design assistance for the Alca-Noise from GX onward.
- Tsubomi Hanasaki/Cure Blossom in HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, much to the joy of many fans and herself.
- Also Cure Blossom Mirage and Mugen Silhouette
- Tsugumi Shibata in Hell Girl
- Utano Tadano in Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan
- Utau Hoshina in Shugo Chara!
- Vanessa Enoteca in Black Clover
- Victini in Pokémon: The Movie Black/White
- Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), later Lan Fan in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Also voiced Armory Eselstein in the PS2 game Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel
- Yoo Mina/Yanagi Mina in Counter Side
- Yui Minamito in Strawberry 100%
- Yuufa in Ragnarok: The Animation
Discography:
- 2001: Supersonic Girl
- 2002: MAGIC ATTRACTION
- 2003: DREAM SKIPPER
- 2004: ALIVE & KICKING
- 2006: HYBRID UNIVERSE
- 2007: GREAT ACTIVITY
- 2007: THE MUSEUM (a compilation album)
- 2009: ULTIMATE DIAMOND
- 2010: IMPACT EXCITER
- 2011: THE MUSEUM II (second compilation album)
- 2012: ROCKBOUND NEIGHBORS
- 2014: SUPERNAL LIBERTY
- 2015: SMASHING ANTHEMS
- 2018: THE MUSEUM III (third compilation album)
- 2019: CANNONBALL RUNNING
- 2022: DELIGHTED REVIVER
Nana Mizuki's works provide examples of:
- And Then John Was a Zombie: A vampire at the end of the METRO BAROQUE PV.
- Audience Participation Song: Most notably, her concert staple 'POWER GATE', in which the audience sings nearly half of the first and second verses.
- Not to mention her audience takes it upon themselves, to great lengths, to participate in a song. We're talking glowsticks of certain colors for certain songs, insane jumping and chanting at timed intervals, and more. This is pretty standard at a J-Pop concert, though.
- Bilingual Bonus: Aside from the copious amounts of English/Engrish in her songs, ROMANCERS' NEO takes the cake for making use of Latin. Yep.
- Calling Your Attacks: Played with amusingly. Nana loves to yell her songs' names at the top of her lungs right before performing them, and some of them ("ETERNAL BLAZE!" "BRING IT ON!" "POWER GATE!") totally sound like they could be attacks.
- And then Symphogear actually developed a running gag of using her songs names as each season's final Combination Attack (Synchrogazer in the first season, Vitalization in G, Glorious Break in GX, Testament in AXZ, and Metanoia in XV).
- Classically-Trained Extra: An inverted example. She mentions in Shin-Ai that she was trained to sing Enka (genre based on traditional Japanese music) since she was five. However, as a fan of anime, manga, games, and the seiyuus around them, she leapt at the chance to break into the world of voice acting and anime songs, though she never forgot her roots, fusing enka with modern music in several songs.
- Continuity Nod: The covers to THE MUSEUM and THE MUSEUM II, which both nod to each other and include various props that nod to things in Nana's music videos and single covers.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Her Nendoroid figure, at least. Also early on, Nana's softer, cute voice was a pretty good candidate to voice such characters, as exemplified with Colette Brunel. Her resume has since expanded from there that it's usually a rare sight to see her voice these kind of characters afterwards.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: If she stars in an anime, chances are she will sing, and it's usually awesome.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Her earlier albums contain songs that sound more like early 2000s American music Does this sound more like Nana or J. Lo?
- Epic Instrumental Opener: "Epic" is her middle name. Justice to Believe fits.
- Fandom: A large following of otaku both in and out of Japan, and in the past few years she's gained a large fandom specifically for her music career. Seems to have quite the online fanbase as well.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Some of her stage outfits sport this. See here for an example.
- Gamer Chick: Mizuki enjoys playing video games since childhood. She had the honor to be the special guest in Tokyo Encounter's final two episodes of the first season. Tokyo Encounter is a show hosted by Tomokazu Sugita and Yūichi Nakamura, where those two guys play video games, and sometimes there are other seiyuu who enjoy video games in their private life as special guests.
- Genki Girl: Tends to play as such and she's usually full of energy.
- Girl Next Door: Her earlier image compared to what you see today. She was just an average singer before she became super big. Compounded by the fact that unlike a lot of other mainstream J-pop singers, she hasn't altered her hair, teeth, or eyes to any noticeable effect. Her makeup is usually rather toned down as well.
- Good Bad Girl: Especially seen with the characters she plays, as most seem to be of the soft-spoken, timid variety. But give the girl a mic stand and her band and out comes the fierce attitude.
- Gratuitous English: See MARIA&JOKER, Zankou no Gaia, Chronicle of sky...
- Great Balls of Fire!: You will never see ETERNAL BLAZE performed without copious amounts of pyrotechnics. Every concert, no exception—Orchestral concert with a full symphony orchestra playing highly flammable wooden instruments on a rather tight stage? Who cares.
- Greatest Hits Album: THE MUSEUM, THE MUSEUM II.
- Grief Song: Yume no Tsuzuki, off of ULTIMATE DIAMOND, was written for her late father.
- Hitler Cam: Mysterion. Just look it up.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Any of her concert costumes.
- Intercourse with You: The fandom has generally accepted that Etsuraku Camellia is a very poetic take on sex.If this flower frantically blooming was allowed to bloom by the red crimson moon, / the evening would secretly allow even us to indulge in our pleasure.
- Japanese Pop Music: She initially broke into the industry via Anime character songs and theme songs, but has now become a force to be reckoned with, breaking several records, appearing on Kouhaku Uta Gassen, and even performing at the prestigious Tokyo Dome, making her the only seiyuu to ever do so. If that doesn't make you an iconic J-Pop singer, I don't know what does.
- Kimono Is Traditional: The Etsuraku Camellia PV and LIVE DIAMOND Performance, and the Junketsu Paradox cover.
- Let's Duet: She very often performs her songs in tandem with other singers during the Animelo Lives in which she performs alongside other voice actors and actresses.
- Magical Girl: Some of her roles. But the majority of them are...
- Dark Magical Girl: She's played some of the most famous ones.
- Mind Screw: Her music videos all try to convey some sort of story, but nobody's sure what those stories are.
- Motor Mouth:
- Aoki Hikari no Hate's chorus. GIMMICK GAME also counts.
- Also the rapping in Heaven Knows.
- One-Steve Limit: The reason why she has to use a Stage Name was because there was another singer with the name Nana Kondou, when Mizuki debuted.
- Pimped-Out Dress: She gets several in her music videos and concerts.
- Playing Against Type: While she's mostly on the 'good girls', Paz and Jessica turn out to be subversions, and Pandora is a major antagonist from the start.
- How could anyone forget Alois Trancy? Playing seemingly sadistic teenage boys is definitely not something you'd expect fom Nana.
- Even more surprising was her turn in the Nanoha PSP games. Playing Fate was expected. Playing Fate's Evil Twin was not unexpected. But when said Evil Twin turned out to be a scenery-chewing Bokukko who filled the Dumb Muscle position on the enemy team, and Nana turned in an absolutely scene-stealing performance, THAT was unexpected.
- Power Ballad: Brilliant Star, Shin Ai, Hime Murasaki all come to mind.
- Promoted Fangirl: She was so happy for getting landed with her role at HeartCatch Pretty Cure!
- Also according to one of the interviews, when she was still training, she really looked up to T.M.Revolution, so being chosen to go duet with him twice for Valvrave the Liberator is like a gigantic honor for her.
- Then the same thing happened in Persona 5 and getting the role of Anne Takamaki.
- Rearrange the Song:
- On both THE MUSEUM and THE MUSEUM II, several songs got "MUSEUM STYLE" rearrangements. She also performs nearly every concert with a full band, giving nearly every one of her songs the chance to fall under this trope, even if minimally so.
- On LIVE GRACE, her songs were performed with an entire symphonic orchestra.
- Seven Is Nana: She whores this trope, in every way possible. Understandably so. Especially for Windows 7.
- Softer and Slower Cover: The "MUSEUM Ver." of SUPER GENERATION definitely counts.
- Shipper on Set: She and Yukari Tamura are Nano/Fate shippers, making a joke about how they (as their respective roles) are married, with Yukari as the housewife and Nana as the breadwinner. Also, in Lyrical☆Party IV, she played Nanoha who was proposing to Fate (played by Mikako Takahashi) to marry her.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: She has a very sweet, high pitched voice but her usual singing voice is very low.
- Stage Names: Born 'Nana Kondou', but is known as 'Nana Mizuki'.
- Star-Making Role: While Hinata was her first mostly known role that garnered her a bit of a cult fanbase, it was Fate that propelled her to international stardom. In fact, it was after her role of Fate that she got a lot of musical recognition to the point of achieving that much fame in JPop world.
- Stockholm Syndrome: She discussed this trope in Shin-Ai. At one point before she joined King Records, she was in Sankō Music, the agency of her enka teacher who was also her host family while she was studying at Horikoshi High Schoolnote . She refused several times to leave Sankō, since he helped her stay in Horikoshi High by building Sankō when her first agency went bankrupt. Eventually though, she realized what he was really like when she wasn't being promoted that much and the sexual harassment got worse, left Sankō Music with the help of King Records' staff and broke contact with her teacher.
- Terrible Artist:
- Just watch the Lyrical☆Parties. She and Yukari Tamura tend to mock on other's drawing because both of them suck.
- Also in Symphogear Live. In Symphogear Live 2013, Hideo Ishikawa calls her drawing◊ as the "main event" of the drawing game. The drawing later makes an appearance in episode 3 of GX, appropriately as a drawing by Tsubasanote .
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: After voicing Fate Testarossa and discovering that she has an awesome Tomboyish Voice that she used while singing, the sight of Nana voicing super sweet and shy girls became a rarity as more confident and deep-voiced badass young girls started dominating Nana's portfolio.
- Transformation Sequence: A short one towards the end of the METRO BAROQUE video.
- Write What You Know: Her autobiography, Shin-Ai, recounts her early life as a singer and actress.
- Woman of a Thousand Voices: While she was at first voicing mostly shy and reserved characters (eg: Hinata, Colette), she has since expanded her vocal range to the point that she can do anything.