Japanese talent agency ART ONE Entertainment has announced on Tuesday that singer Maon Kurosaki has died. She was 35.
According to the statement, she passes away unexpectedly on Thursday, February 16, after her chronic illness had worsen. The statement also states that a funeral for close family members had already taken place.
Kurosaki underwent emergency surgery for epidural hematoma, which is bleeding between the skull and the outermost protective membrane covering the brain, in September 2021 after she collapsed in the middle of her online streaming concert earlier the same month.
Maon Kurosaki started her singing career in 2008 where she was discovered by a music producer at a performance venue in Akihabara, and was eventually signed under Geneon Universal Entertainment, now known as NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan.
Her debut album, “H.O.T.D.”, was her first musical release in September 2010 and contains the ending theme songs used on the post-apocalyptical horror anime High School of the Dead.
Her debut single “Magic∞World” was released in November 2010, which was then followed by the song “Memories Last” in March the following year. Both songs were used as ending theme songs for the sci-fi anime A Certain Magical Index II.
Kurosaki also performed theme songs for several anime titles, like Hakuoki, Tokyo Ravens, The Fruit of Grisaia, School-Live!, Drifters and Rewrite among others.
She also formed the synthpop music group Altima, together with rapper Mototaka Segawa (Motsu) from the band Move and composer Satoshi Yaginuma (Sat) from the music duo fripSide.
The group released “I’ll Believe” as debut single in December 2011, which was used as the first ending theme song to Shakugan no Shana Final anime series. It was followed by their second single “One” in February 2012, also used by the anime series as its second ending theme song.
The group released “Burst the Gravity” in July 2012, which was used as the second opening theme song for the sci-fi action anime Accel World, while their fourth single “Fight 4 Real” was released in January 2014, which was used as the second opening theme song for the supernatural anime Strike the Blood.
The band’s final single “Plasmic Fire”, which was a collaboration with Japanese singer KOTOKO, was used as the ending theme song for the 2016 anime film Accel World: Infinite Burst. The song was released in July 2016.
Kurosaki’s final single, “More Strongly”, was used as the ending theme song for first season of the anime series Reincarnated as a Sword, which was aired from October to December last year.
