Tsuchiya Anna (土屋アンナ) is a model, singer and actress who started her career as an exclusive model for seventeen magazine at 14. In 2002, she became the vocalist of the indies band Spin Aqua and later in 2004 started an acting career, playing Shirayuri Ichigo in the award winning comedy Shimotsuma Monogatari. Currently Anna continues on her musical career with a solo project under the MAD PRAY RECORDS sub-label of Avex. Anna is semi-proficient in English, having better command of an English accent than her peers (however is not a fluent speaker of English). Anna writes the lyrics to almost all of her songs herself.
Anna was born to a Japanese mother and a Russian/American father in Tokyo, in 1984. Not much is known about her early life, but Anna started her modelling career at age 14. From then on, Anna continued to find success in modelling; finding success as being in the centre stage of many teen magazines. Anna would later feature in EDWIN 'SOMETHING' and '503' commercials, as well as being the cover girl for a Calpis Water campaign. Anna has also starred in UNICLO, KOSE/ESPRIQUE and VISE commercials.
Spin Aqua
In late 2002, Anna debuted in the music world as part of the indies band Spin Aqua alongside the former Oblivion Dust guitarist KAZ. The duo debuted in 2002 under Ki/oon Records with the single Unchained, which was followed up with Spin Aqua's first concert was held in December at the Tokyo Bay NHK Hall at the Devilock '02 concert. Spin Aqua's continued to release two more singles, an album and a music video DVD. Despite the band's music sounding well-processed, Spin Aqua did not fare well commercially. The band's only single that would breath the top 200 was mermaid at #197, and their album sadly only reached #187 on Oricon charts.The band would later slip into hiatus, and then in mid 2004 it was announced to be permanently disbanded.
Shimotsuma Monogatari
Anna starring as Yanki Shirayuri IchigoIt was announced in 2004 that Anna would be starting up an acting career. Anna starred in her first movie in the critically acclaimed blockbuster Shimotsuma Monogatari alongside Fukada Kyoko as the 'Yanki' girl Shirayuri Ichigo. Her role brought her both immediate attention and critical success; winning the award of 'Best New Actress' at five different film awards in Japan. Anna said that she could really relate to the character of Ichigo, seven saying that, "Even after the shoot, I was acting like Ichigo at home and my mom was mad at me, saying, 'Mind your language!'".
Soon after the release of this movie, Anna shocked fans by announcing her engagement to the fellow model JOSHUA, the younger brother of the US-born model Kozue Rin. Joshua worked in the same modelling office as her. On 2004.11.19 Anna's first child, Sky (澄海, sukai), was born. Sky even features in a photobook with her mother, Happy Days - Anna, Mama ni Naru!. However, in early July 2006, the couple decided to break it off and have filed for divorce.
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Anna has continued to act/voice in various movies and dramas, though none as illustrious as her role in Shimotsuma Monogatari. For example, in the Japanese dub of Herbie: Fully Loaded, Anna voiced Lindsay Lohan's character Maggie Peyton. However, Anna said herself that she prefers singing over modelling or acting.
Solo Career
Anna promoting her third single RoseAnna once again returned to the music scene after the disbanding of Spin Aqua due to her pregnancy and marriage, though not as an indies artist. Anna debuted as a solo artist under the MAD PRAY RECORDS label of Avex. It was announced that her debut single was under wraps, though later the announcement was changed as the single turned into an entire mini-album, later to be titled Taste My Beat. Three tracks would be promoted from the album; the semi-eponymous track Taste My Skin was used as the radio single for the release, the song in my hands was used in a commercial and Anna's cover of Full Blown Rose's Somebody Help Me would be used as the theme song to Tru Calling for it's Japanese release. The mini-album even featured help from such successful foreign artists as Josh Freese, the drummer for the band A Perfect Circle. This release was a lot more successful than her previous releases under Spin Aqua, breaking the top 30 albums at #27.
Anna followed up this mini-album with two single releases and a remix album. The singles fared slightly worse than her mini-album (despite one of the tracks, My Fate, being used as the ending theme for the anime Rean no Tsubasa).
For Anna's third single, she would finally receive some major promotion. Her single rose would be used as the opening theme song for the anime adaption for the manga Nana, alongside fellow Avex rock artist OLIVIA who would be singing the ending theme song. The hype brought from this release boosted Tsuchiya Anna's music career a lot, as Rose managed to reach a position of #6 on Oricon charts (her first top 10 placement, and 21 placings above her next best placing product at the time).
To reinforce her growing popularity, Anna's debut studio album was released shortly afterwards. The album, strip me?, features a growing number of commercial tie-up songs (including ones for WHITEEN, Kirin and Kosé Visée). If current estimates are correct, more than half of the album's songs will be used as a theme song for some commercial or some product.
Tsuchiya Anna returned in early 2007 with a new single called Kuroi Namida, which was used as the new ending theme song for the NANA anime. This single was to be released on the same day as Shiina Ringo's Kono Yo no Kagiri, which is the ending theme song to Sakuran, the latest film that Tsuchiya Anna stars in with a leading role, however Kuroi Namida was put forward a week. This was quickly followed by the third NANA OP single, LUCY in early February which directly preceded the release of a special self-titled NANA album billed under "ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi' NANA (BLACK STONES)".
