Biography
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Born
4 November 1987
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Born In
Kagoshima, Japan
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Died
5 April 2019 (aged 31)
Wowaka was born in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan on November 4, 1987. He was interested in joining rock bands since his middle school, starting as a guitarist, he joined bands in his high school and college. He was an alumni of University of Tokyo, and was the leader of the music club "Toudai Onkan" (東大音感). In college, he began composing original music for his band.
Wowaka's first contact with Vocaloid music was in December 2008, when he listened to livetune's song Last Night, Good Night. Taking a liking to the song, he was shocked to learn that this song was one-man's work. He then quit his band, and began creating Vocaloid music using Hatsune Miku in April 2009. Wowaka began his musical career in May 2009, by uploading his original Vocaloid music titled In the Gray Zone. (グレーゾーンにて。) to the Japanese video-sharing website Niconico Douga. In the video of In the Gray Zone, trying to convey the image of the song without using illustrations of Vocaloid characters, wowaka used his own drawing instead, and, for consistency, he kept this style in all his later Vocaloid works. His songs published on Niconico are characterized by obscure lyrics depicting thoughts of young women in fast-paced melodies. He has said that although he initially wanted to make music that can only be made using Vocaloid, he later realized the advantages of Vocaloid music. He became known under the name "Genjitsu Touhi P" after writing in music descriptions the phrase "Escaping from reality, how nice!" (Japanese: 現実逃避って、いいよね！)
Wowaka's works gained particularly large popularity on Niconico Douga. After releasing his self-published album, he helped found Balloom, an independent record label, along with other musicians popular on Niconico Douga, on March 4, 2011. His first Album under this label was Unhappy Refrain (アンハッピーリフレイン), which was released on May 18, 2011. His magna opera included Two-faced Lovers, World's End Dancehall, Rolling Girl, and Unhappy Refrain.
Wowaka was the composer and lyricist of And I'm Home, one of the ending theme songs of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The song was released on August 24, 2011 along with the show's BD/DVD version.
In 2011, he joined the rock band "hitorie" as the vocalist and guitarist, and remained mainly active there. Hitorie's first album is ″Room Sick Girls Escape″ and its latest album is "HOWLS". He released his last Vocaloid song Unknown Mother Goose (アンノウン・マザーグース) on August 22, 2017, about six years since his previous Vocaloid music. The song was created for Hatsune Miku's 10-year anniversary compilation album Re:Start. On October 23, 2017, he released his own vocal cover version of the song under hitorie.
In a 2017 interview, wowaka credits Hatsune Miku for getting him into making music. Commenting on his song Unknown Mother Goose, he said that "I heard the theme for compilation is 'gratitude,' but personally, I made a song themed around love, It's a bit embarrassing to say, but this is the first song I've ever made in my life themed around love. I never gave it a second of thought 10 years ago as I posted songs, but no matter how you look at it, Hatsune Miku is the one who got me to start music. Miku is sort of like a mother figure to me."
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