Supercell

supercell is an 11-member doujin group led by composer and lyricist ryo. The band has produced various hit songs and related art, mostly performed by the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. By collaborating with illustrator huke, they spawned the music and video "Black★Rock Shooter", launching the titular character into stardom.

Members
Supercell is made up of 11 members led by Ryo, who produces the music and writes the lyrics. The other 10 members provide illustrations, animation, design, and photography in album booklets, cases and music videos.
 * Ryo (music, lyrics)
 * Shirow Miwa (illustration)
 * Huke (illustration)
 * Redjuice (illustration)
 * Suga (illustration)
 * Maque (illustration and animation)
 * Yoshiki Usa at Wooserdesign (design)
 * Hei8ro (Heihachiro) (support in illustration and photography)
 * Guitar (support in illustration)
 * Crow (support)
 * Golv (support)

Former Members

 * 119 (Hikeshi) (illustration)

2007-2008: Initial Releases
supercell first introduces itself in the video sharing site Nico Nico Douga. On December 2007, ryo submitted the song "Melt", using the Vocaloid synthesizer program, Hatsune Miku, for the vocals. The song immediately received positive feedback from fellow users and the original video garnered several million views.

Surprisingly, ryo originally did not have any intentions in uploading "Melt", as he admits that he is not the type of person who seeks fame or success. In fact, his choice of uploading the song to Nico Nico Douga was due to practicality, and even his decision to use Hatsune Miku is due to peer advice.

ryo then used an illustration from 119 (pronounced "Hikeshi") without the artist's permission. To avoid any conflicts due to plagiarism, ryo contacts 119 to apologize; this contact, eventually becomes the start of 119's collaboration with ryo, as 119 expresses his interest in working with the song "Melt".

The team of ryo and 119 eventually becomes the core of Supercell.

Supercell continues to release songs on Nico Nico Douga. The songs "Koi wa Sensou", "World is Mine" and "Black Rock Shooter" were released on February 22, May 31 and June 13 respectively, all receiving over one million views. Ryo also composed the song "Kibou no Neiro" for Shuu Shirase's light novel series Oto x Maho on July 15, 2008; copies of the CD were sold exclusively on Animate and Toranoana, with Animate selling the Hatsune Miku version of the song and Toranoana selling an alternate version sung by Sari.

Comiket 74 on August 2008 becomes the venue of Supercell's first-ever release of their songs in an independent self-titled release album. The album contains most of the released songs of Supercell, with additional unreleased tracks.

Then, they continue their release of songs on Nico Nico Douga with the song "Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki" on December 12, 2008. This song will mark the final release of Supercell in Nico Nico Douga.

2009-2011: Major Debut and the Vocalist Nagi
Sony Music Entertainment rereleased Supercell's self-titled album as the band's major debut album on March 4, 2009. More songs are added to the album, and alongside the art book bundled on the original version is a DVD that contains music videos for four songs in the album. The album ranked fourth in Oricon's weekly ranking, and received a Gold Disc from the RIAJ for exceeding 100,000 units of sales in a single year.

Supercell's debut single, "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari", was released on August 12, 2009 and ranked fifth on the Oricon weekly singles chart. The song "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" became an ending song for the animated series Bakemonogatari, while two other songs included in the album were featured in the 2009 animated film Cencoroll. The single marks the first Supercell release that does not use Hatsune Miku as vocals, but instead, the singer Nagi performed the songs.

On February 10, 2010, Supercell's second single, "Sayonara Memories", was released. A third single, "Utakata Hanabi/Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni", was released on August 25, 2010, with two featured songs. "Utakata Hanabi" is used as an ending song for the anime series Naruto: Shippuuden and "Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni" is used as the ending theme for Type-Moon's visual novel Mahoutsukai no Yoru.

Supercell then released a collaborative album with Kz of Livetune, "Kotchi Muite Baby/Yellow", and the song is used as the theme song for the game Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd. The song is released by Sony Music Direct, and becomes the first album of Supercell that uses Hatsune Miku since their major debut.

To commemorate the release of Shueisha's manga magazine Aoharu (a special edition version of Young Jump) on November 30, 2010, Supercell releases the song "Hero" as the magazine's theme song. The full version of the song was released by Sony Music on their website on November 30, 2010 for trial listening.

The band would later be involved with the production of the Black★Rock Shooter OVA, with Ryo and huke collaborating with supervisor Yutaka Yamamoto and his animation studio Ordet.

Supercell then joined TamStar Records under the company INCS toenter, forming a group of artists who have debuted as independent artists. The band would later collaborate with fellow members of TamStar Records to release a compilation album with songs from Livetune, Rapbit and Gom, among others; the album, which includes "Kibou no Neiro" by Hatsune Miku, is released as a limited edition album at Comiket 79 on December 2010.

Supercell released their second studio album Today Is A Beautiful Day on March 16, 2011.

2011-Present
Supercell began holding auditions from May 25 to June 19, 2011 for a guest vocalist on the band's third album. The main criteria for the vocalist is his or her voice, as Supercell is not concerned with the singer's gender or age.

Albums

 * Supercell (March 4, 2009)
 * Today Is A Beautiful Day (March 16, 2011)

Singles

 * Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (2009)
 * Sayonara Memories (2010)
 * Utakata Hanabi/Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni (2010)

Collaborations

 * Kotchi Muite Baby/Yellow (with Kz of Livetune, 2010)