Kiyono Anno made her solo debut. Her mini-album "Tears. is a piece filled with the charm of her singing voice.

Voice actress Kiyono Anno has played main characters in numerous works, including Kaname Buccaneer in "Macross Delta" and Megumi Kato in "Saerenai Kanojo no Nuturekata ♭". Her solo debut work "Tears. will be released on July 26, 2017. The music producer of "Macross Delta" has created the album, which contains six songs (plus one bonus track), all of which are filled with the charm of her voice. In November, she will hold her first live concert. We spoke with her as she begins her journey as a solo artist.

The concept is "tears," but they are not sad tears.

─ ─ Congratulations on your solo debut. What did you think when you first heard about it?

Yasuno: I think it was last December when I first heard about it from my manager. The producer who helped me with Valkyrie told me that he would be working on my solo as well. At first, I was just surprised (laughs). (Laughs) I wondered how long it had been in the works. But when I learned that my solo debut was made possible by the efforts of my manager and the cooperation of many people around me, I realized how lucky I was.

───Then you started talking about what kind of music you were going to make specifically.

Yasuno: Since the producer of Valkyrie was going to write the song, we discussed that it would be easier for listeners to accept the song if it showed the qualities of when I was singing as Kaname. The producer had always complimented me on the crying in my singing voice, and he said, "You show your quality when you sing sad songs, so let's aim for that in your debut solo album as well. So I decided to write songs based on the concept of "tears.

─ ─ When I think of Kaname, I have an image of "AXIA ~Daisuki de Daikirai~" first. It is a famous tearful song.

Yasuno: "AXIA~Daisuki de Daikirai~" is a very important song for me. Whenever I sang it, it made me sad and I would sing it with a feeling of "Can I cry now?" I was singing it with a feeling of "Can I cry now? Another Valkyrie song that I love is "Teary-Eyed Explosion Sound," and this one, on the contrary, I can sing like "whoosh, that's fun! I can sing it like that. For this mini-album, the people who wrote "AXIA~Daisuki de Daikirai~" (lyrics by Sumiyo Rokutsumi, music by Yoshiki Matsumoto, arrangement by Hideyuki Suzuki Daichi) wrote a song called "Sayonara Soleil" and Kohei Dojima, who wrote "Teary-eyed Explosion Sound," wrote a song called "Tragedy is so hard to love. They became two special songs for me.

─ So not only the producer but also the writers of Valkyrie's songs were involved in "Tears. Yasuno: Yes.

Yasuno: Yes. Other songwriters who participated in this project include Mr. Katsutoshi Kitagawa, who arranged "Tear Me Explosion Sound", and Mr. Naoki Nishi, who wrote the lyrics for "Rungu ga Pikakkari Kara" and "Ruin no Junjo".

─ ─ Listening to the mini-album, I got the impression that many of the songs are gentle.

Yasuno: Yes, I think the lyrics and the sound are gentle. The concept of the album is "tears," but they are not sad tears. It's okay to cry. It's okay to cry, and from there, let's move forward" is the message conveyed through all the songs. It is a warm mini album that affirms tears.

───If you listen carefully, you will notice that the word "tears" is included in the lyrics of all seven songs, including the bonus tracks.

Yasuno: That's right. The bonus track "Puzzled Train" is an insert song for the OVA "Escacron," which came about through a completely different process than the mini-album, but I was thrilled to find the word "tear" in the song.