Mika Nakashima anyone?
She's starred in Nana with Yuna Ito. & she's released some albums too. I'll be back with more. (:

Early life and debut

Born in Kagoshima Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, Japan, Mika Nakashima was the youngest of three children. She dreamed of pursuing a singing career from a young age. She decided not to attend high school or college in order to pursue a music career.

She was chosen from among 3000 girls to be the heroine of the 2001 fall Fuji TV drama, Kizudarake no Love Song (Tainted Love Song). In November, she made her debut with Sony Music Associated Records, with the song "Stars", which was also the theme song of the drama. Her second single "Crescent Moon", an 80's themed song, was limited to 100,000 copies. It sold out the first day of its release. In March of 2002 she released her third single "One Survive" and her first video collection, "Film Lotus". This was followed in May by her 4th single "Helpless Rain", and in August, by her 5th single "Will", which went on to rack up sales of over 140,000. Both were top ten hits and sold over or near the key 100k mark, proving Nakashima's rising star appeal.

Rise to fame

Her first album True released in August 2002 was a #1 hit in the Oricon charts. In 3 weeks, True sold a million copies. Then as commemoration of one year since her debut, Mika released a Premium EP Resistance, which hit the charts #1 spot two weeks in a row. On December 18, a documentary video Kiseki: the document of a start was released. In 2002, Mika received the "New Artist of the Year" award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards, and "Best New Artist of the Year" at the All Japan Request Awards 2002. She also won the "New Artist of the Year" award from the 44th Japan Record Awards.

Nakashima has become one of the most popular female vocalists in Japan. Her most popular songs include Gundam Seed's ending song "Find the Way", "Sakurairo Maukoro", and "Yuki no Hana" which was covered by Korean male singer Hyo-Shin Park and this covered song is inserted in popular Korean drama Mianhada Saranghanda (Sorry, I Love You). It was also one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan in 2004. In 2004 she sang the ending theme of the anime series based on the manga Hi no tori as aired on NHK.

Debut in the silver screen

Nana starring Mika NakashimaIn 2005, Nakashima co-starred alongside Aoi Miyazaki in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name, which was released September 10, 2005. She also sang one of the theme songs for the movie, which was released as a single under the name "Nana starring Mika Nakashima". The single, titled "Glamorous Sky" was written by the manga's author, Ai Yazawa and composed by L'Arc~en~Ciel frontman Hyde. It was Mika's first #1 single on Oricon charts. The single has sold over 423,000 copies making it the best-selling female single of the year and the tenth highest selling overall. The single continued selling well into the next year and sold 442,000 copies, which was about 25,000 copies less than her Nana co-star, Yuna Ito's "Endless Story". The single will be featured in Konami's guitar/drum simulation game GuitarFreaks and Drummania V3.

Nakashima was nominated at the MTV Video Music Japan as "Best BuzzAsia from Japan" for "Amazing Grace '05", and the "Glamorous Sky" video was nominated as "Best Female Video" and "Best Video from a Film". She won the "Best Video from a Film" award.

Due to the success of Nana, a sequel was released in December, 2006, as well as new songs by Nakashima under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima. The theme song to Nana 2 movie is "Hitoiro" (One Color), which is also written by Yazawa, while the music is composed by Glay's leader Takuro, who is also the author of the coupling song "Eyes For The Moon". Besides the single, Mika released the mini-album The End, featuring all her songs under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima.

On December 18, 2006 Nakashima and Yui Ichikawa came to New York City for the International Premier of NANA 2 at the IFC Center.

credits to ; wikipedia.

she is super pretty and i love her songs! <33
there is already a thread somewhere

You'll stone me to death if I say that, but I never understood why they took her for the Nana live action, and not Anna Tsuchiya (who sing in the anime, it would have been coherent).
It's true that she looks like Nana, but I don't know why I can't stand her
Anna is much much cooler, she rules ! (even if she's a bad singer and actress).


PS : it's surprising but there isn't any tread in the directory



Edit : by the way, her new single Mienai Hoshi came out on feb 21th



You can listen to samples here
見えない星
I love you

i liked her song that she sung in nana glorious days and yuki no hana

Dang, she's pretty! I love her contacts too! Hm, I've never heard of her before though! =X

there already is a nakashima mika thread on soompi
heres the link:
nakashima mika thread


its over a 100 pages long =]

that's the photo thread.
this is the music thread. (: lol

I love Mika.
She's so talented and pretty!
ahah I'm actually listening to Mienai Hoshi right now.

ahh mika is so great. i love her! i love her songs and her voice. and i think shes really pretty. really really really!

it has news and everything on mika already in that thread

It's weird how the thread in the Other Celeb forum is updated.
That thread would be hard for people to find, I didn't even know it existed.
I haven't heard a new single from her in awhile, must listen when I get a soundcard on this laptop.

I Love Her!!!! ^__^ She is such a good singer!

I fell in love with her a few years ago, when her album LOVE came out. To this day, it's still one of my favorite albums. I miss her old jazzy-style songs! It suited her voice so well.
I haven't been liking her more recent songs (off her album Yes, as well as the NANA songs), but her new single LIFE is really good

honest. i took notice when i saw how amazing she looks. then i really like her music. her voice is not high and all cutesy: just right.

besides all the ballads things that no one can say they do not like. her fast stuff is good. i really like SEVEN alot especially when she does that "boom ba dum ba dum badabavadadadadadad boom ba dum...". its the perfect song for driving.

^ yeah i agree, her voice is really one of a kind. she doesnt strains or force her vibratto (sp?) she can sing high or low with such ease...really amazing

btw theres already a really big mika nakashima thread somewhere ><

^ it's in other celeb photos (:
i want this thread to grow big too though~ haha
ahh i haven't listened to Life yet T-T
i've been listening to her BEST album for a while now and i'm not tired of it. i always listen in the car.. my mom likes her too xD

glamourous sky is the only song i like by her lol, amazing voice

I love Mika Nakashima Glamorous Sky has got to be the best song out of all the songs she sung. Lol. Well in my opinion that is. Can i ask, is NANA 2 out yet?

I LOVE MIKAAA
^^ she's so pretty

god, I need to watch nana

Mika is super super gorgeous and I adore her talents!
I love her music and the songs she sings because her voice is that awesome!
Her voice has a lot of emotions so it really set off a really good vibe.

Her acting skills in NANA is amazing! I love her style!
Thanks for having a thread for Mika! (:
I hope it doesnt die-- Keep it alive you guys ^__^

I love Glamorous Sky and Yuki no Hana.
How about you?

my favorite songs from mika are GLAMOROUS SKY and LIFE. i also like her new single, "SAKURA ~Hanagasumi~", too.

I listened to glamourous sky, yuki no hana and I love you
she's really good

I loved her as Nana!

And glamorous sky is such a beautiful song!

There is already a Mika Nakashima thread:
http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212

She was fantastic in NANA. perfectly cast!! Her music is good too. my favourite song has to be glamourous sky.

mika's close up shot is so gorgeous her glamorous sky song is so goood