History


This page covers Kalafina's history and activities from 2008 to the present.
Information's arranged chronologically from earliest to latest.

This is just a quick recap of Kalafina's career!
If you want detailed information about releases, check out the Discography page.
Yuki Kajiura's fansite Canta-Per-Me, where I got most of my information, is also a great place to find Kalafina event dates.

Click on a year below to jump to that year's history.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014


2008

Sony Music Entertainment Japan had started working with Yuki Kajiura in 2007 on the anime movie series Kara no Kyoukai. Kajiura decided to create a vocal group to sing Kara no Kyoukai's main theme songs, and chose two singers that she'd worked with in the past, Wakana Ootaki and Keiko Kubota. In 2008 she revealed Wakana and Keiko as two vocalists of the vocal group, named Kalafina. After that, Kalafina released their first single, Oblivious, and a mini album Re/Oblivious that had remixes of Oblivious' three songs and three original songs.

Originally, Kajiura intended Kalafina to be a varying group, with members switching between songs. With this in mind, she collaborated with SME again to hold auditions across Japan for two more singers. Later in 2008, Hikaru Masai and Maya Toyoshima were chosen as the next two members of Kalafina. With these four members, Kalafina performed live a few times, and Hikaru and Maya were featured prominently in Kalafina's next single Sprinter/Aria. But when their third single Fairytale was released, Maya wasn't on the cover and didn't perform in the songs.


2009

In 2009, Kalafina released their first album Seventh Heaven. Maya still wasn't on the cover, and SME announced that she wouldn't be participating in the group any longer. At this point, Kajiura's idea of a varying group had basically disappeared, and Kalafina was a set group of three people - Wakana, Keiko, and Hikaru. Aside from Maya in Sprinter and the other singers providing chorus, all the songs in Seventh Heaven featured those three singers.

Kalafina's next single, Lacrimosa, was released at the same time as Seventh Heaven. Around this time, Kalafina started performing live more regularly, although most of their lives didn't have a live band onstage. Two months later, they went overseas for the first time, as special guests at Anime Boston in the United States. Yuki Kajiura was also a guest and, during their concert, played keyboard live in some of their songs.

Kalafina released two more singles throughout 2009, Storia and Progressive. The latter was their first single unattached to anime or TV projects, and they performed live in stores to promote it for the first time. They also kept performing live for the rest of 2009, and started using a live band.


2010

In 2010, Kalafina released another single, Hikari no senritsu. They started their first set of live tours, which took them to other places around Asia like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei. In the early spring they released their second album, Red Moon, and went on a tour around Japan to promote it. One of the tour performances was also filmed and released as their first live DVD/BR. After that, they released another single, Kagayaku sora no shijima ni wa, which was another single related to anime.

2010 was also the first year that Kalafina started performing in large concerts with other artists. Some of the biggest events they sang in were Animax Musix and LisAni!, both of which took place later in the year. Their schedule was very busy then, with tour performances dedicated to Kagayaku sora no shijima ni wa as well.


2011

2011 was the year when Kalafina started steadily becoming more well-known. In February they released their most famous single so far, Magia, which was the ED for the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Because of Madoka Magica's huge popularity, and because Magia was a song that expressed the show's mood very well, it got Kalafina a lot of attention and many new fans. After promoting Magia in stores, they began a spring tour named after it right away.

After performing in some other large concerts, Kalafina went to the United States for a second time in summer 2011. This time they were special guests in the largest anime convention in the country, Anime Expo.

A few months later in the autumn, they released their third album, After Eden, and performed in a charity live for the victims of the earthquake earlier that year. They also traveled to Singapore for the first time as special guests at Anime Festival Asia, and performed in Animax Musix and LisAni! again. Most notably, they held their first acoustic live in December.


2012

Kalafina began their After Eden promotional tour immediately in 2012, and released one of the lives as their second live DVD/BR in March. Shortly afterward they released another single, To the beginning, which was the OP of the anime Fate/Zero. Again, this single got Kalafina a lot of attention, since Fate/Zero was written by Madoka Magica's screenwriter and became popular very quickly. Since the anime was promoted a lot, Kalafina did the same for their single and even appeared onstage in an event about Fate/Zero in general.

In the summer, Kalafina went to Malaysia for that year's Anime Festival Asia. They also went to Germany and performed two concerts at the AnimagiC convention, which was their first visit to Europe. That year, Type-Moon - the studio behind Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero - held a "festival" and Kalafina performed at it for several days, singing all the Kara no Kyoukai themes as well as To the beginning and Manten.

Kalafina released two more singles in 2012, Moonfesta and Hikari furu. The latter was another single related to Madoka Magica, this time being theme songs used in the anime movies. After performing in other large events, Kalafina began to promote Hikari furu for the rest of 2012. They also held a three-concert event in December called "Kalafina with Strings", where they sang with a string quartet and pianist as their band.


2013

To kick off 2013 and celebrate their fifth anniversary, Kalafina released their first live album, a two-disc collection of performances from 2008 through 2012. They also performed at LisAni! for the third time, and held two special concerts in honor of their anniversary. Later in the spring, they released their fourth album, Consolation.

May was their busiest month. They performed in "Kaji Fes 2013", Yuki Kajiura's special twentieth anniversary concerts, and also visited the United States a third time as special guests at Chicago's Anime Central. There, they performed with their live band, which was their first time doing a full concert overseas. For the rest of the summer, they traveled across Japan for their Consolation promotional tour. The final performance of this tour was filmed and released in December as their third live DVD/BR.

In September Kalafina visited Indonesia for that year's Anime Festival Asia. After a few other large events, they released their next single Alleluia, which was the theme for the final Kara no Kyoukai movie. A month later they released another single, Kimi no gin no niwa, as the theme for the final Madoka Magica movie. Just like in 2012, they ended the year with a three-concert "Kalafina with Strings" event.


2014

Coming soon!

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