Right after making her debut, she sang the theme songs to Valkyria Chronicles and Tegamimachi which instantly gained her fame, but her anisong tie-ups came to a halt in 2010. She released an album in 2011 and then switched over to 5pb.
She handled a number of theme songs for games, but her contract was not renewed come April 1 of 2014. Because of this, she has lost her eligibility to stay in Japan, and will need to leave the country on May 2 unless she finds a new label.
Right around the time of this was the news of the cancellation of this year's 8th Anisong Grandprix. This competition started back in 2007 and has been a yearly event, with preliminaries being held all over Japan until the finals take place in Tokyo. The winner of the grandprix got to debut professionally as an anisong singer. This competition was one of the biggest events that symbolized the anisong boom that took place years ago.
This event has procured a number of anisong singers such as Shuhei Kita and Sayaka Sasaki and has been a popular entry point for aspiring singers to achieve their dreams. However, controversy struck the event as a lot of viewers and industry members doubted how Natsumi Okamoto, whose singing ability was widely criticized, was able to win the event. This even prompted the competition chairperson Ichiro Mizuki to post criticisms about the judges on Twitter. There have been no further comments or explanations made regarding the cancellation of this year's event, which has led to further speculations.
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