Wada Koji

Wada Koji (和田 光司, Wada Kouji; January 29, 1974 – April 3, 2016) was a Japanese singer. He made his debut in 1999, performing his first single, Butter-Fly, the opening theme of Digimon Adventure and later provided other opening and ending themes, in addition to insert songs, to subsequent Digimon anime series up until his death. His nickname was the "Immortal Butterfly Singer" (不死蝶のアニソンシンガー, Fushichou no Anison Shingā).
==Biography==
===Life and career===
Wada was born in Kyoto, Japan. In 2001, Wada released his first original album, "All of My Mind", which included many of his previous works. He also collaborated in Ōta Michihiko's self-cover album Mirai e no Message ~Ōta Michihiko Self-Cover~, featuring in two tracks – a cover version of "Hontō no Tsuyosa" (本当の強さ) (True Strength) (Ken & Wormmon's Theme) and in "3 Primary Colors" (the Tamers' theme), along with AiM. More recently, he has released an album called "The Best Selection ~ Welcome Back!~". It contains several of his earlier works as well as two new songs, titled "Pierce" and "Kimi no Keshiki" (君の景色). On August 1, 2008, he debuted a mini-album titled "ever", which contained five brand new songs. His most current complete album, called Kazakami no Oka Kara (風上の丘から), was sold at his live concerts in Japan throughout the end of 2009 in commemoration of his 10th anniversary in music, and it was released worldwide on January 11, 2010. His latest concerts will be held in Japan on August 21. It is a collaboration between himself and AiM, and their two-person unit is called "KALEIDO☆SCOPE".
Wada has contributed songs to all six Digimon anime series, including opening themes for the first five of them. He also performed two songs used as ending themes of the series, "Innocent ~Mujaki na Mama de~" (イノセント ~無邪気なままで~) (Innocent (Remaining Innocent)) and "an Endless Tale" (with AiM). He starred in various other songs for the series, such as "Bokura no Digital World"(僕らのデジタルワールド) (Our Digital World) (the "memorial" theme for the Adventure series), "Yūki o Uketsugu Kodomo-tachi e" (勇気を受け継ぐ子供達へ) (To The Children Who Inherit Courage) and also several Christmas songs. He also performed a song for Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
On October 4, 2011, Wada announced via his blog that he is putting his career on hold in order to deal with a sudden metastasized cancer which had previously seen treatment in 2003.[1]
===International appearances===
In July 2007, Wada made his first show in Brazil, doing a solo presentation and singing along other invited Japanese singers on the "Anime Friends". This happened one year after Ayumi Miyazaki visited Brazil in another convention "ExpoAnime Brasil". He also visited the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil on October 14, 2007, during the Anima Weekend event. On December 15–16, 2007, he made a live presentation in the "Anime Festival XL" event in Santiago, Chile. In August 2008, he released a mini-album named "ever", which contains five original songs, with four of them composed and written by himself. In December 2008 he was performing in the "Animeku 08", in February the "AniCon", and in July the "Anime Friends" (Both in 2010) Events from "Yamato", in Brazil and Argentina. On June 5–6, 2010, he did 2 concerts in Monterrey, Mexico in the Santa Lucia Arena at the "Dengeki Live", a jpop event and anime convention. In response to his metastasized cancer in 2011, he cancelled two appearances planned for Chile and Peru.
==Digimon Discography==
* Butter-Fly
* Seven
* Target~Akai Shougeki~
* Boku wa Boku Datte
* The Biggest Dreamer
* Kaze
* Egao
* FIRE!!
* With The Will
* Innocent ~Mujaki na Mama de~
* an Endless tale ft. Maeda Ai
* Haruka na Okurimono ft. Maeda Ai
* Miracle Maker ft. Tanimoto Takayoshi & Maeda Ai
* Hirari
* WE ARE Xros Heart!
* X4B THE GUARDIAN 
* Sora Mau Yūsha! X5
* Evolution & Digixros (ver. TAIKI) ft. Tanimoto Takayoshi
* WE ARE Xros Heart! (ver. X7) ft. Tanimoto Takayoshi & Miyazaki Ayumi
* Butter-Fly~tri.Version~
* Seven~tri.Version~
(under construction)
==Discography==
* 2001: All of My Mind
* 2007: The Best Selection~Welcome Back
* 2008: ever
* 2015: Re-Fly
==External Links==
*Anime News Network
*Wikipedia
*Wada Koji Official Blog
*KALEIDO☆SCOPE Twitter Account
*wada_koji Twitter Account
==References==
Category:Music Artists