Real Name: Unknown
Stage Name: Piko (ピコ)
Birthday: March 11, 1988 (age 32)
Height: 170cm
Birthplace: Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Zodiac: Pisces
Activities at Nico Nico Douga
Piko's musical career began in his second year in high school, where he was the vocalist in a cover band. Already at the university he joined the light music club. In parallel, he watched other performers upload their videos to the Nico Nico Douga website. His mother advised him to try performing songs on the Internet and put his work on the site. Piko even took a sabbatical year to devote himself entirely to singing. If unsuccessful, Piko would return to university. His mom supported him, while his father was distrustful of this kind of hobby. In December 2007, Pico released his first track, a cover of the song Melt by Hatsune Miku. The song quickly gained popularity, collecting over 25,000 views per day. The audience was very attracted by the unusual voice of the performer, who sang both male and female voices without falsity, for which he eventually received the nickname as ryouseirui, Which means "a combination of two voices." This marked his debut on Nico Nico Douga. Then Piko performed mainly covers of Janne Da Arc and Acid Black Cherry, as well as popular anime openings.
In early 2008, Pico published another hit, Koi wa Sensou (Love Is War) by Hatune Miku, Which almost immediately reached 100,000 views. and after the publication of the medley "Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga" Piko immediately entered the ranks of popular utattamita performers.
After participating in the niconico WINTER LIVE'08 event, Piko began to receive various offers of colaboration. From here began his more active work on niko. He teamed up with HYBRID SENSE and [TEST] to form a team called D.I. and performed the original song "Kono Koe ga kikoemasu ka?"
In 2009, Pico began working with the record company Heartfull Entertainment and on July 22, 2009 he released his first indie single Thanatos feat. Tissue Hime under the reajyu recods label.
The first indie album, INFINITY, was released on September 9th. For three tracks from the album, Piko wrote the lyrics himself.
Duet with Sekihan
The duo AkaPikoHammer ☆ was formed in 2009. Their first song together was a cover of the popular song Magnet by famous composer Minato (RyuuseiP), which was published on August 7, 2009. On February 17, 2010 a cover of the song Valentine Kiss was recorded, but this song was not published on niko, it was only available as a ringtone for Japanese phones.
On February 20, 2010, Sekihan and Piko performed in Tokyo at the main show of the Nico Nico Daikaigi Zenkoku TOUR FINAL 2010 tour at JCB Hall, where they performed a duet song IMITATION BLACK and Magnet.
A cover of the song Cendrillion was published on March 26, 2010.
On August 28, 2010 the Piko & Sekihan Summer Live !! ~ Yappari, AX no Mudazukai ~. This concert was attended by 2,800 people. Piko and Sekihan performed compositions from their recently released albums, and also did not miss the opportunity to please fans with joint compositions. So, for example, specially before this event, a new song ACUTE was recorded, which was uploaded to niko on the same day.
After almost three years of a long hiatus, Piko and Sekihan publish a joint cover of the song "Shindeshimau to wa Nakasenai!" They then announced several joint concerts, both in Japan and abroad. Sekihan also joined Piko's mini-tour called Pikonchi. Among other things, the guys began to often conduct joint broadcasts with karaoke or game playthroughs. Several collaborative tracks have also been released, including the music video for the song Magnet, which was featured on the SEKIHAN Kyodaku Deta Best limited edition album. Also, at the 2015 Winter Comikit a joint DVD AkaPikoSan was released, featuring the adventures of Sekihan and Pico. In 2016, the guys gave a joint concert in China.
Major debut
The indie period, which lasted about two and a half years, ended in March 2010. Then he became interested in the record company Sony Music Entertainment, and after signing a contract with her, Piko began working under the Ki / oon Records label. In the same month, the first solo concert of Spring Live !! "Infinity" ~ AX no Mudazukai ~ at Shibuya AX, which was attended by about 1400 people, where Piko announced that he was going to make a major debut. The transition to the category of a major performer made it possible to work even more actively. Piko announced the release of his debut single, Story, which was released on October 13, 2010. The number of sales for the week was about 6.5 thousand copies, and the single itself reached number 12 on the Oricon weekly chart and stayed there for four weeks. In addition, Piko's support musicians were now: Takuya (An Cafe) - guitar, Intetsu (ex. Ayabie) - bass, LEVIN (ex. La'cryma Christi & THE HUSKY) - drums. It has also become known that Piko is heading to Europe to participate in the Japan Anime Live festival. In mid-October, Piko embarked on a European tour. Daisuke Asakura also joined their line-up - keyboards, and during the European tour, bassist Intetsu replaced Takeomi. The festival took place in six European cities. While performing at the festival, Piko performed covers of songs from famous anime such as One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, etc.
The second single, Wasurenagusa, which went on sale on December 8th, was the cover theme for the Tegami Bachi Reverse anime (episodes 1-13). On the same day, a new vocaloid of the VOCALOID2 series with the voice of Pico was released - Utatane Piko. In addition, the third single, Sakurane, was announced, which is the cover theme for the anime Yorinuki Gintama-san, and then Piko embarked on his first mini-tour of Japan and played the Winter Live "Story" series of concerts in Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto. The third single entered the top 10 of the Oricon charts, overtaking the debut single. Then it became known about the national tour PIKO LIVE TOUR 2011, but unfortunately, March 11 was overshadowed by the terrible events taking place in Japan. Piko's performances, which he intended to give in honor of his birthday, were canceled, as well as the tour schedule was changed.
On May 11, 2011, the first major album, 1PIKO, was released, the release of which was well received by the audience. The song Shooting Star from this album was written by Piko in support of all the people in Japan affected by the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.
On November 5, 2011, the fourth single, Yume Hana, was released, which became the opening theme for the music show V-Style and the October ending theme for Street Fighters.
On March 25, 2012, the fifth single, Emiiro Refrain, was released, with the title track written by TETSUYA of L'Arc ～ en ～ Ciel.
On May 30, 2012, 2PIKO's second major album was released, and on August 15, the sixth single, Make my Day !, was released, which became the opening theme for the anime Binbougami ga !, as well as the Piko no Natsu matsuri DVD of the tour's performance in spring 2011.
In December 2012, Pico announced himself bokaro-P under the pseudonym ChuutoroP and wrote his own song for Vocaloid.
Piko also tried his hand at acting: he starred in a production of Bakeri no Fushi Matsu in 2013, a production of Ashita no Omohi de in 2015, but his most acclaimed theater performance was the production of the play Record of Lodoss War in 2017. The play was based on the series of novels by Ryo Mizuno, the story of which has also been adapted for manga, anime series, and video games. The play was released on DVD.
He entered a hiatus in August 2019 due to end-stage kidney failure, he resume activities in October 2020, but actually he is okay!
