Maaya Uchida Reveals Cover Art and Tracklist for First Album "PENKI"

It's finally here. The moment you've all been waiting for. Popular voice actress-singer Maaya Uchida will be releasing her long-anticipated first album, "PENKI" on December 2nd! The cover art and tracklist, along with a short track preview was unveiled by record label Pony Canyon today.

The title, "PENKI", was conceived by the voice actress (Takanashi Rikka in Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, Kurobane Yusa in Charlotte, Liliruca in DanMachi) herself and the album jackets feature her posing expressively in vividly colourful settings, reflecting the title's theme.

Music video for Maaya Uchida's last-released single, "Karappo Capsule"

All of her three released singles to date, "Soushou Innocence", "Gimme! Revolution" and "Karappo Capsule", will be featured on "PENKI". In addition, original songs developing Maaya Uchida's distinctive capabilities and new possibilities of the future are recorded on the album. The tracks are expressive and colourful, matching well with the title too.

"PENKI" BD edition

A storyline is cleverly interwoven through all the songs and lyrics, with the aptly-titled prologue and epilogue tracks "Hello, 1st contact!" and "Hello, future contact!", penned and composed by Tomoya Tabuchi of popular rock band UNISON SQUARE GARDEN. Interestingly enough, a look at the tracklist reveals that Maaya penned the lyrics herself, together with Shihori, to the tenth track, "Watashi no Stage (My Stage).

"PENKI" DVD edition

A preview for the fifth track on the album, "Distorted World", is already out with more set to follow. A vibrant and upbeat track, it features Maaya's polished high-energy vocals set against fast-playing piano tunes, drum beats and electric guitar chords. If the other songs are any good as this, we can no doubt expect a promising first album from her.

A preview of "Distorted World", one of the tracks on "PENKI"

The album, standing as both a summation of her activities from 2014 till now and one which looks forwards to 2016 and beyond, is described as Maaya Uchida's first album with her "past", "present" and "future" feel.

It will be released in three editions, the limited edition BD (PCCG-01492) and DVD (PCCG-01493) editions, which come with a full-colour photobook and a BD/DVD with her music videos each, priced at 4500 yen and 3800 yen respectively, and a regular CD-only (PCCG-01494) edition, priced at 3000 yen. Which edition will you be getting? One thing's for sure, we will be getting all of them!

"PENKI" CD edition

In addition, Maaya Uchida will also be coming down to Singapore next month! She will be performing at Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2015's I Love Anisong concert, with other Pony Canyon artistes including Ayana Taketatsu and Mimori Suzuko as part of the special P's Live concert on the second day. Tickets are on sale now!

AFA is Southeast Asia's largest anime convention, attracting over a record 140,000 visitors in its biggest edition to date last year.

2015 has been a year of many firsts for Singapore, marking the first overseas performance for many Japanese artistes such as singer Ayano Mashiro and idol unit BPM15Q. It will also be Maaya Uchida's first time performing overseas and we here at XDantheManX Online are ardently looking forward to meeting her.

Maaya Uchida's first album announcement video message

We will be presenting a full report of her activities when the time comes. Until then, like our Facebook page for more updates of Japanese pop culture events in Singapore!

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■Profile
Maaya Uchida
Birthday: December 27th
Horoscope: Capricorn
Blood Type: A
Birthplace: Tokyo
Hobbies: Gaming, listening to music, taking photos, being photographed
Affliation: I'm Enterprise Co., Ltd

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① BD Limited Edition (CD+BD+PHOTOBOOK) PCCG-1492 at ¥4,500