Sayuri's tragic passing at 28 - known for songs 'Erased', 'My Hero Academia'

The Japanese singer Sayuri, known for singing many songs featured in Japanese animation, has been reported to have passed away at the young age at 28 on 20th September. Her death is quite the tragic one, as she died from a chronic illness, and it was announced by her newly wedded husband on social media.

All images are from taltalasuka / X, unless otherwise stated.

Sayuri was a Japanese singer-songwriter who was best known in the international world for also having many of her songs featured in several Japanese animes. She is also known for her work in the Japanese music scene for uniquely combining pop and rock elements together in her songs.

Sayuri was born on June 7, 1996, in Fukuoka, Japan. According to an interview with 'rockin'on', she had always thought that her voice was an "ordinary" one since she was in elementary school.

According to TicketJam, Sayuri started pursuing her passion for music at a young age, where she not only composed music while in middle school, she also went to perform on the street and for live events across Japan, starting so in Fukuoka city.

Kyodo News reports that Sayuri had even participated in a music competition where she won the top prize, the Grand Prix, in the 5th Music Revolution finals. She was the youngest contestant out of 4,123 hopefuls. Following this, she decided to go further in pursuing a career in music and left school for Tokyo.

Image: Cydwæise, WikiMedia

Tokyo Hive reports that all had paid off for Sayuri when she shot to fame with her debut CD work, ‘Mikazuki’, which was featured in ‘Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace’, in 2015.

Since then, Sayuri’s work has been featured in more animes, with some of it also being some of the more popular animes and shows in Japan and abroad. They include ‘Erased’, ‘Scum’s Wish’, ‘Golden Kamuy’, and ‘My Hero Academia’.

Did you know?: Sayuri was also best known for her unique performance style, where she would perform always barefoot and with a poncho. As reported in her interview with JaME, she does this to feel “one with the land”.

In her personal life, Natalie reports that Sayuri married on March 18 to a fellow Japanese pop star, Amaarashi, who makes up half of the J-pop band, Misekai.

The fact that Sayuri had gotten married just this year makes her death even more tragic, as it was just six months after her marriage that she had passed, and CBR reports Sayuri had died of a chronic illness which she had been fighting for quite a while, on September 20.

Sayuri had previously announced in June 2024 that she was taking a hiatus to recover from functional dysphonia, which is an illness that affects the throat. However, the illness eventually took her life in September, Anime News Network reports.