Ai Kayano

About this playlist

Ai Kayano’s solo discography is seven tracks total across a sixteen-year career. Her identity as a musical artist lives almost entirely inside the anime roles she voices: thirty-plus character-credited tracks across fifteen-plus roles, against an artist-credited solo output that fits on a single CD. The ten tracks this playlist holds are built around that asymmetry.

Where to start listening: track 1 — secret base ～君がくれたもの～ (10 years after Ver.) (2021) — because it’s the track where the three Anohana protagonist voice actresses (Kayano/Tomatsu/Hayami) came back a decade later to resing the show’s iconic ED, and a decade-spanning reunion of this kind sitting on her highest-recognition work has no parallel elsewhere in the Symphogear cohort.

Seven tracks, sixteen years

Most catalogs in this cast require a judgment call about which mode dominates. Kayano’s does not. Her solo discography is seven tracks. Six are from Musunde Hiraite (2021), her tenth-anniversary mini-album. The seventh is her 2023 FIRST TAKE collaboration with Galileo Galilei on 青い栞. Across sixteen years of voice-acting career, her artist-credited solo output fits on a single CD.

Against that: thirty-plus character-credited tracks across fifteen-plus roles. Menma in Anohana. Shiro in No Game No Life. Sylphiette in Mushoku Tensei. Darkness in KonoSuba. Mashiro in Sakurasou. Kanade Ōe in Chihayafuru. Saori in Girls und Panzer. Tōyama Rin in NEW GAME!!. Chisaki in Nagi-Asu. Many more. Her musical identity is real, but it is assembled from other people’s fictional characters.

Why ten tracks and not twelve

Two specific character-song candidates were the obvious targets for inclusion (Meaning the start from SAO Alicization as Alice, 饒舌スキャンダラス from Saekano as Utaha), but both failed to resolve on Spotify, and supplementary character-song candidates from Sakurasou, Nagi-Asu, and Yuyushiki OVAs were also unavailable.

Rather than padding with more Musunde Hiraite tracks — which would over-concentrate the playlist on one mini-album — the playlist shrinks to ten. Her catalog is genuinely thin on Spotify, so the playlist is honestly small. A character-songs companion will carry the depth when Spotify’s index catches up.

Character songs count as identity here

A strict “solo tracks only” reading of her Main would produce seven tracks — and omit every song her audience would expect to find. Secret Base the Menma trio. Oración the Shiro ED. Hanaemi as Sylphiette. ちいさな冒険者 the KonoSuba trio. Long and Shining Road with Anglerfish Team. Excluding those to stay “solo-only” would misrepresent her harder than including them with credit-line labels does.

The curatorial choice is to let character songs onto the playlist openly. The thesis: her musical identity is real and it lives inside her roles. Labeling each credit form keeps the reader oriented without pretending the solo-artist layer is the one to protect.

The ten tracks, in detail

1. secret base ～君がくれたもの～ (10 years after Ver.) (2021)

Anohana’s closing theme, credited on Spotify to 本間芽衣子 (CV. 茅野愛衣), 安城鳴子 (CV.戸松遥), 鶴見知利子 (CV.早見沙織) — the three protagonists (Menma / Anaru / Tsuruko) performed by their three voice actresses. Anohana (2011) is widely regarded as one of the most emotionally load-bearing anime of the 2010s, Secret Base is its iconic track, and the three-VA trio cover is the version fans associate with the show rather than Zone’s 2001 original. The ten-years-after version is the one Spotify carries.

This is an ensemble character song, not artist-credited to Kayano. Including it at slot 1 is the point: if the playlist is honest about her catalog’s center of gravity, the most recognizable opener is an ensemble track, not a solo release.

2. 青い栞 – From THE FIRST TAKE (Galileo Galilei × 茅野愛衣, 2023)

Her 2023 FIRST TAKE collaboration with Galileo Galilei on their Anohana: The Movie theme — the sole artist-credited, non-ensemble track in her catalog. Slots 1 and 2 together form a twelve-year Anohana bracket: the trio cover at slot 1, the solo-adjacent FIRST TAKE at slot 2. The two tracks that would anchor most seiyuu playlists happen to both belong to the same show.

3. オラシオン (Oración, 2014)

The No Game No Life ending, credited to 白 (CV:茅野愛衣) — Shiro. A slower atmospheric ballad performed in Shiro’s signature soft, distant register. Alongside Secret Base and Aoi Shiori, this is her highest-recognition character work and the solo-character-song anchor of this playlist.

4. 花咲み (Hanaemi, 2021)

A Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation character track, credited to シルフィエット(CV:茅野愛衣) — Sylphiette. Title translates approximately as “blooming flower / smile-flower.” Provides 2020–2022 era coverage and extends the character-song mode into her current decade.

5. リメンバーミー (Remember Me, 2021)

From Musunde Hiraite, solo-credited. Title is the Japanese romanization of the Pixar Coco song, though the track is an original composition rather than a cover. We wanted 饒舌スキャンダラス here — the Saekano Utaha character song — but it isn’t on Spotify. リメンバーミー shifts the slot from character-song mode to solo- album mode. Honest trade.

6. 君へ (Kimi e, 2021)

From Musunde Hiraite, composed by Yūki Ozaki. The track’s emotional register calls back to Menma — Kayano has spoken in interviews about Anohana as a role that shaped her artistic identity — and the song functions in the playlist as the spiritual pair with slots 1 and 2’s Anohana bookends. Not labeled “about Menma,” but written by someone who knows the show was hers.

7. Long and Shining Road (Anglerfish Team, 2013)

A Girls und Panzer ensemble, credited to あんこうチーム — the Anglerfish Team, six VAs including Kayano as Saori Takebe. Appears on the Enter Enter MISSION! (Final Chapter ver.) release. GuP’s Anglerfish Team ensemble is a canonical entry in her character-song catalog; it covers the M5 ensemble mode without repeating the Anohana-trio shape.

8. ちいさな冒険者 (Chiisana Bōkensha, 2016)

The first KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! ED, credited to the three heroine voice actresses: アクア (CV:雨宮天), めぐみん (CV:高橋李依), ダクネス (CV:茅野愛衣). Kayano sings as Darkness, the knightly/masochistic paladin. Bright adventure-anthem energy contrasts with the slower Anohana and Oración tracks at slots 1–3, and the trio adds era diversity (2016) and genre diversity (comedic-adventure character song).

9. 乙女の恋は蝶結び (Otome no Koi wa Chōmusubi, 2012)

A Chihayafuru character track as 大江奏 (CV:茅野愛衣) — Kanade Ōe, the traditional-minded karuta club member. Title translates as “A Maiden’s Love is a Butterfly-Knot.” Period-classical arrangement with waka-poem-inspired lyrics, structurally unlike every other track in the playlist. Her most musically unusual character-song entry — hearing her sing in the classical-Japanese character-register at slot 9 is the “I didn’t know she could do that” moment the range- stretcher slot is for.

10. モノグラム (Monogram, 2021)

From Musunde Hiraite, solo-credited. Title translates as “Monogram” — the intertwining-initial motif. Ending the playlist on her solo-auteur register rather than on an anthem or ensemble track is a curatorial call. The playlist’s closing statement: this artist’s musical identity lives in a handful of personal solo tracks and a career’s worth of character voices, and both sides are equally her.

Her Symphogear contribution

Kayano voices Kirika Akatsuki — introduced in G (2013) as an antagonist, redeemed into the FIS ally cast, full wielder of Igalima across G/GX/AXZ/XV. Her in-franchise vocal catalog is dense with two load-bearing cross-cast shapes: the Kirika × Shirabe duets with Yoshino Nanjō — DaiSukiSukiSugi (2019, XD UNLIMITED; title literally “Love Loving You Too Much”), Edge Works of Goddess ZABABA (G-era), Just Loving X-Edge (GX) — and the FIS-core trio with Hikasa’s Maria and Nanjō’s Shirabe on 旋律ソロリティ (AXZ) and 「ありがとう」 を唄いながら (GX), three-woman ensembles that define the trio’s mode of existence. Plus her Kirika solos — 獄鎌・イガリマ (G), オーバー キルサイズ・ヘル (GX), デンジャラス・サンシャイン (AXZ), 未完成 愛マップタツ！ (XV) — across all four seasons.

She has no artist-credited Symphogear work; every in-franchise performance is 暁切歌 (CV:茅野愛衣). Her catalog’s shape of “mostly character voice” holds inside Symphogear too.

The Symphogear-songs sub-playlist for Kirika Akatsuki covers the franchise-side representation — the tracks this playlist can’t carry because they ARE Symphogear.

What was considered and left out

Excluded because they’re Symphogear

• All Kirika Akatsuki solo character songs across G/GX/AXZ/XV and the Little Bitter Duet isn’t there — see below — plus the Kirika × Shirabe duets with Nanjō and the FIS-core trio tracks with Hikasa and Nanjō. Uniformly character-credited.

Considered and unavailable on Spotify

• 饒舌スキャンダラス (Utaha Kasumigaoka, Saekano) — the intended slot 5 pick. Not on Spotify. Substituted with リメンバーミー.
• Meaning the start (Alice, SAO Alicization 2018) — the intended slot 9 pick. Not on Spotify. Absorbed by the ten-track shrink rather than padded.
• Sakurasou Mashiro character songs (BD-bonus releases), あの日 のままで (Chisaki, Nagi-Asu), Yuyushiki OVA tracks — all findable in catalog but not in Spotify.

Considered and cut for editorial reasons

• Little Bitter Duet (Tōyama Rin × Yagami Kō, NEW GAME!! 2017 — Kayano × Hikasa duet). On Spotify, and it sits at slot 11 of Yōko Hikasa’s playlist as her cross-cast curator’s pick. Not duplicated here to avoid track-level redundancy across playlists; a future cross-cast companion will include it.
• Remaining Musunde Hiraite tracks — 返事を書こう, 航路, リメンバーユー. The playlist carries three solo tracks (5, 6, 10); adding more would over-concentrate on the 2021 mini-album at the cost of character-song mode coverage.

Final listen sequence

 1. secret base ～君がくれたもの～ (10 years after Ver.)  (2011/2021) · Anohana trio
 2. 青い栞 – From THE FIRST TAKE              (2023) · Kayano × Galileo Galilei
 3. オラシオン (Oración)                      (2014) · No Game No Life ED, as Shiro
 4. 花咲み (Hanaemi)                          (2021) · Mushoku Tensei, as Sylphiette
 5. リメンバーミー (Remember Me)               (2021) · Musunde Hiraite solo
 6. 君へ (Kimi e)                             (2021) · Musunde Hiraite solo
 7. Long and Shining Road                    (2013) · Girls und Panzer Anglerfish Team
 8. ちいさな冒険者                             (2016) · KonoSuba trio, as Darkness
 9. 乙女の恋は蝶結び                           (2012) · Chihayafuru, as Kanade Ōe
10. モノグラム (Monogram)                     (2021) · Musunde Hiraite solo