Ishida Yoko
Birthdate: October 7th Birthplace: Niigataken Blood Type: A Type Height: 156 cm Hobby: Traveling Fave Artist: Sugiyama Kiyotaka
The Beginnings & Columbia
Ishida Yoko was discovered when she won the 4th Annual "Columbia Anime Singer Contest" in 1992. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture, she had lived a relatively normal life until then. In fact, when she was a young child growing up, it was not her dream to be a singer (nor did she persue it actively). Little did she know that this chance audition would change her life forever, as well as usher her into stardom. Columbia Records immediately signed her to release a single, and to place it in their most prominent series of the time. The song would be "Otome no Policy," which was used as the Ending Theme for "Sailormoon_R" (second season of the show).
Her single (coupled with the song "Suki to Itte") was released in March of 1993, and sold very well. Sailormoon was becoming a phenomena in Japan at that time, so Ishida was given much exposure through this. She went on to record another song for Sailormoon_R that year, "Ai no Senshi," which was used as a theme for the season's heated primary battle. In a similar way, her life was becoming very exciting itself. Press events and promotional appearances filled her time, as the world was introduced for the first time to the Ishida Yoko that we know and love.
These promotional events and mini-concerts would continue for many years thereafter. In fact, Sailormoon_R turned out to be the show's most popular season over its five-year run. Moreover, "Otome no Policy" would end up being the most-played theme song in the entirety of Sailormoon (after "Moonlight Densetsu," of course). It was played as the Ending Theme for 45 out of the show's 200 total episodes. To this day, she remains one of the most popular figures in Sailormoon and Columbia fandom (and she did it from this humble first single, quite an amazing feat). More recently, she even appeared at the Toei/Columbia events for the tenth anniversary of Sailormoon in 2002 (to sing her songs, and greet fans who knew of the legacy).
Pioneer & The Future
Ishida was signed to the Pioneer music label "PLDC" in 1999. After more than a four-year hiatus from new musical releases, her first project with them would prove to be extremely ambitious (and grow to a degree which would work her harder than ever before). Pioneer was gearing to release a series of music called "Parapara MAX: The Power of New Animation Song." This series consisted of vocally covering popular anime theme songs, while also recording them from scratch with Eurobeat style music and arrangement. The first volume was released in September of 2000, and Ishida Yoko was the artist responsible for the vocals on all twenty of the disc's tracks!
Parapara MAX was a big hit, especially with Parapara Dancing and Eurobeat being a huge trend in Japan at the time. The second volume of this series was released shortly thereafter in November 2000. Volumes three through five followed suit in 2001, released respectively in January, June, and December. Two spinoff volumes were also released that year ("Bishoujo MAX" in May, and "Mecha MAX" in August). The series ran long; and while there were a rare few songs that were performed by other artists, Ishida was the one responsible for singing almost all of the series' 130 songs!
Through all the fanfare of the MAX series, Ishida prepared in 2001 to release her first singles for Pioneer Music. After covering over one hundred anime songs from other series, she was ready to release some original songs of her own again. Her first song, released in June 2001, was the upbeat "White Destiny" (the Opening Theme for "Shin Shirayuki Hime Densetsu Pretear.") This song was only released on the series' soundtrack however, and not as an independent single. Her first true single release with Pioneer would come in October 2001 with the adorable "Sugar Baby Love" (the Opening Theme to "Chicchana Yukitsukai Sugar.") This single was originally the debut song for the popular jpop duo "Wink" (released in 1988)... whose lyrics were actually written in English originally, then converted to Japanese for the song's release.
In 2002 she was teamed with famous musician Masuda Toshiro, who wrote and arranged the music for her next single "Towa no Hana" (the Opening Theme for "Ai Yori Aoshi.") This was the first slow/ballad type single of her career, and she proved that this was a style of music which she can sing masterfully. Her fame continued to grow exponentially as she sang for these big Pioneer series, and she would soon-after be invited to attend multiple Anime Conventions in America in 2002. She would cross another threshold as she attended both the "Anime Expo" and "Otakon" conventions over the summer, and gain thousands more fans in America in the process.
Another huge milestone was crossed when, for the first time, Ishida WROTE the lyrics to her next single, "Ienai Kara" (Ending Theme to "Puchi Puri Yucie.") They were written during the time of her travels to America, and she put all of her heart and soul into these words. The instrumentation for the song was written by Okui Masami (a legendary anime/jpop singer) and the end result was a beautiful new song. Following this, it was decided that Ishida would soon release her very first Album with Pioneer, on which she would further develop her songwriting talents.
As 2003 rolled in, February 26th would prove to be a big release event for Ishida. Her next single, "Shinjitsu no Tobira" was released on this day (Opening Theme to the new show "Gunparade March," music composed by Kawai Kenji.) On the same day, however, she also released her very first album "Sweets" !! This disc contained her previous four anime singles (as well as an alternate version of "Shinjitsu no Tobira" which came out the same day). Along with this came six brand-new songs, three of which had their lyrics written by Ishida herself. She teamed with many talented composers and songwriters to make this an album to remember.
The primary song of which being "Proof Of Life," a song whose lyrics Ishida had written herself: in tribute to her friend who had passed-away from cancer. This song would mark another first for Ishida, as she filmed a live promotional video (PV) for the song (called "music video" in American terms). The song's instrumentation was again written by Okui Masami (as was another song on the album, "Believing") proving that these two can make some amazing songs together. Three of the other original album tracks were written by Kawamura Saiko, and instrumented/produced by some of the biggest names in the business. The album finishes off with another song that Ishida wrote herself, titled "Thankful."
The future looks bright for Ishida-san. With an album to promote, as well as new singles being released multiple times per year, she has a lot of work on her hands. Still, throughout this, she remains kind-hearted, humble, and never failing to show a genuine appreciation to her fans. She further-develops her songwriting, proving that she is an "artist" in the truest sense of the word. This young lady from Niigataken has come a long way, and here is wishing her success for many more years to come... ^_^
