is a Japanese pop rock singer from Shiogama, Miyagi. She is best known through her songs Bokutachi no Yukue and Aozora no Namida, which were theme songs to animation programs Gundam Seed Destiny and Blood+, respectively. With the former, she became the third artist in to top the Oricon charts with a debut single. Biography Pre-Debut Hitomi Takahashi was born on April 8, 1989, in the Miyagi Prefecture of Japan. By the influence of her father, she grew up listening to his favorite music, which was classic rock such as Eric Clapton and the Beatles. In 2002, she entered junior-high/middle school. Upon entrance, Hitomi joined the school softball team and joined kendo, where she obtained the level of sho-dan. It was during these years that she expressed an interest in becoming an artist's backup dancer, and began dancing with her friends. During a karaoke singing event in 2003, Hitomi's friends encouraged her to sing live. Though she expressed a disliking for singing karaoke in front of a large crowd, she eventually sang because of her friend's encouragement, and from that time on the desire to become a singer awoke in her. During her second year in junior-high school, in the middle of the summer of 2003, Hitomi applied for the Sony Music Auditions. Because of a change in interest, Hitomi moved from singing dance music to singing rock music. In 2004, Hitomi was selected as the finalist for the Sony Music SD audition (Vo-che3); 20,000 others had auditioned. She had been worried that because of her height (147 cm), she would be overlooked, but her powerful voice attracted the attention of people while she sang live. The end of 2004 found her being chosen to sing the theme song for Gundam Seed Destiny. Recording of her song "Bokutachi no Yukue" began at the end of the year. Sympathy In 2005, she was in the middle of high school entrance exams as the title for her 1st single "Bokutachi no Yukue" was announced. The single was released in April 2005, and debuted at No. 1 on the Oricon charts. This was a huge success, making Hitomi the second female singer to have a debut single in the number one spot, and the third solo artist to have a debut single reach the top spot. The single ended up selling well over 100,000 copies. Hitomi soon entered Shiogama Girls High School, and