MindaRyn at 17th Tokyo International Music Market

It’s hard to find another genre that’s done more to expand global interest in Japanese music than anime theme songs, otherwise known as ‘anison(g)’. As such, it was rather apt that the final day of the 17th Tokyo International Music Market was given over to practitioners of the genre. As if to hammer home its global impact, the honour of kicking off the JAPAN ANIME MUSIC SHOWCASE 2020 fell to Thai YouTuber-turned-anison singer MindaRyn.

Dressed all in black, MindaRyn opened her set with BLUE ROSE knows, her debut single’s title track and the closing theme song of anime series “By the Grace of the Gods”. In her preshow interview, she spoke of how becoming a professional anison singer had been a long-held ambition, and the bespectacled songstress certainly performed with the gleeful energy of someone living out a dream come true.

MindaRyn’s exuberance appeared to have rubbed off on her backing band, or maybe it was just the pop-rock number’s relentlessly upbeat vibe. Whatever the case, ex-HaKU bassist HALNA was especially bouncy when she wasn’t providing backing vocals. As if her flowing red polka-dot pants didn’t make her stand out enough, her bass solo didn’t hurt either.

Any danger of the singer being upstaged were put to rest when, after giving a trilingual MC, MindaRyn flexed her linguistic muscles further with an English cover of TRUE’s Sincerely. Reimagined as a power ballad by her support guitarist Haruka - whose Jinn bandmate Tetsuyuki was behind the drums – her rendition revealed her to possess the kind of pipes that tend to set anison singers apart from the average idol.

"Alright everyone, this is the last song. I hope you guys stay safe, and I hope we can see each other for real someday!" said MindaRyn, an instant before she and HALNA started bouncing around to the intro of peppy pop-rock track START. The fact it was very much in same vein as BLUE ROSE knows came as no surprise. In addition to being a B-side on the single, it too was composed by SpecialThanks frontwoman Misaki.

While MindaRyn’s certainly no stranger to the stage – you don’t rack up almost a million YouTube subscribers without convention promoters taking notice – the absence of several hundred congoers watching on didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest. Be it thanks to innate charisma or a confidence built up over countless hours singing to camera, this newly minted anison singer is a born performer.