Supercell

Members

supercell is made up of 11 members led by Ryo, who produces the music and writes the lyrics. The other 10 members provide illustrations, animation, design, and photography in album booklets, cases and music videos.

Ryo (music, lyrics)
Shirow Miwa (illustration)
Huke (illustration)
Redjuice (illustration)
Suga (illustration)
Maque (illustration and animation)
Yoshiki Usa at Wooserdesign (design)
Hei8ro (Heihachiro) (support in illustration and photography)
Guitar (support in illustration)
Crow (support)
Golv (support)

Former members
119 (Hikeshi) (illustration)

History

Formation and indie releases
On December 7, 2007, Ryo submitted the song "Melt" (メルト Meruto?) to the Nico Nico Douga video sharing website using the Vocaloid singing synthesizer software, Hatsune Miku, for the vocals; since then, the video has been viewed over 5 million times. Ryo used an illustration of Miku without permission by an illustrator named 119 (pronounced Hikeshi). After Ryo contacted 119 with an apology, 119 responded with great interest in "Melt" and began to work together with Ryo, thus forming Supercell. More members joined Supercell since its forming leading to 11 members by the time the group made its major debut. In an article in The Japan Times, Ryo admitted that he did not have any "big intentions" in uploading "Melt" to Nico Nico Douga and was not someone who "set out to find success" as he put it.
Ryo chose to distribute his music on Nico Nico Douga since he liked the website along with its response system. Ryo did not originally intend to use Hatsune Miku as the vocalist for his songs, and most members of Supercell did not even know of Miku until after "Melt" gained popularity. Since Ryo did not know any singers, he was recommended by his friends to use Miku, which he thought was a good idea since videos using Miku were already widely being distributed on Nico Nico Douga at the time.

In 2008, Supercell continued to release songs which quickly became popular. Supercell's releases of "Koi wa Sensō" (恋は戦争?) on February 22, "World is Mine" (ワールドイズマイン Wārudo izu Main?) on May 31, and "Black Rock Shooter" (ブラック★ロックシューター Burakku Rokku Shūtā?) on June 13 all received over 1 million views. On Nico Nico Douga, "World is Mine" and "Black Rock Shooter" both achieved the No. 1 spot on the daily My List Rankings. Ryo composed the song "Kibō no Neiro" (キボウノネイロ?), released as a limited edition image song CD with the fifth volume of Shū Shirase's light novel series Oto × Maho on July 15, 2008; the CD was only sold at Animate and Comic Toranoana. The CD sold at Animate had the song sung by Hatsune Miku, but the Toranoana version had it sung by the human singer Sari.
At Comiket 74 in August 2008, Supercell released the independent self-titled album Supercell containing their most popular songs in addition to several previously unreleased songs. On December 12, 2008, Supercell released "Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki" (初めての恋が終わる時?) on Nico Nico Douga which stayed at No. 1 on the daily My List Rankings for three days in a row, and has received over 1 million views; this was the last song Supercell posted on Nico Nico Douga.

Major debut
Supercell made their major debut with Sony Music Entertainment Japan with the professional release of their Supercell album on March 4, 2009. The updated release included the art book originally bundled with the indie version, contained more songs than the original, and included a DVD with music videos for four songs. The album obtained a No. 4 ranking on Oricon's weekly albums chart,and in June 2009 was awarded the Gold Disc by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for having exceeded 100,000 copies shipped in a single year. Supercell released their first major single "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (君の知らない物語?) on August 12, 2009, which ranked No. 5 on Oricon's weekly singles chart. The song "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" was used as the ending theme song for the 2009 Bakemonogatari anime series,and the single also included two tracks featured in the 2009 animated film Cencoroll. The single marked the first time Supercell did not use Hatsune Miku as the vocalist, but instead having the singer Nagi provide the vocals. Supercell was chosen as one of the best five new Japanese artists of 2009 during the 2010 Japan Gold Disc Award competition.

A second single, "Sayonara Memories" (さよならメモリーズ?), was released on February 10, 2010.[14] Supercell's third single, "Utakata Hanabi/Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni" (うたかた花火/星が瞬くこんな夜に?), is a double A-side and was released on August 25, 2010. "Utakata Hanabi" was used as the 14th ending theme for the Naruto: Shippuden anime series and "Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni" was used as the ending theme for Type-Moon's visual novel Mahōtsukai no Yoru. Supercell released a split single in collaboration with Kz of Livetune called "Kotchi Muite Baby/Yellow" (こっち向いて Baby/Yellow?), which is the theme song of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd. The single was released by Sony Music Direct on July 14, 2010 in Japan, and is the first release by Supercell to feature Hatsune Miku as the vocalist since their debut album. Supercell produced the song "Hero" (ヒーロー?) as a theme song to Shueisha's manga magazine Aoharu, a special edition version of Young Jump, which had its first issue on November 30, 2010. The full version of the song was released by Sony Music on their website on November 30, 2010 for trial listening.
A 50-minute original video animation project entitled Black Rock Shooter was released on July 24, 2010 based on the song "Black Rock Shooter" and its original music video featuring illustrations by Huke. A "Pilot Edition" of the anime was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on September 30, 2009.Ryo and Huke collaborated on the project with supervisor Yutaka Yamamoto and his animation studio Ordet; Shinobu Yoshioka directed the project. Black Rock Shooter is Ordet's first solo production as the main animation studio. Some footage of the anime was shown at Anime Expo on July 4, 2010.

TamStar Records
In late 2010, Shibuya, Tokyo-based company INCS toenter established the major record label TamStar Records for musicians and artists who originally made their debut as dōjin music artists online. Supercell joined the label as one of the inaugural members, including others such as Livetune, Gom, Rapbit, and Nagi Yanagi. Supercell collaborated on a compilation album titled TamStar Records Collection Vol. 0 released as a limited edition at Comiket 79 in December 2010; on the album is Supercell's "Kibō no Neiro" sung by Hatsune Miku and "Ashita e" (アシタヘ?) sung by Rapbit and Clear. TamStar Records released a remix album of Supercell's debut album Supercell as a tribute to the band titled Stowaways at Comiket 79. Supercell released their second studio album Today Is A Beautiful Day on March 16, 2011. · close