2011–2013: Indie debut In an interview with
Natalie, wowaka disclosed that after releasing "Unhappy Refrain", he became mentally exhausted and distanced himself from the scene to protect his well-being, feeling that the pressure for fame and success had overshadowed the authenticity of the music. He met Yumao and ygarshy online later that year and formed the band, previously named . In 2012, Shinoda, an acquaintance of both ygarshy and Yumao, was invited to join. They met via
Skype, and Shinoda joined the band, which was renamed to Hitorie. In April 2013, they released their first EP "non-fiction four e.p." independently. Although an indie release, it reached over 10.000 copies sold. Later that month, they held their first one-man live named "hitori-escape" in Tokyo. On November 4, they held their first sold-out show (Extraordinary Shibuya Edition)" at shibuya eggman. The same day, they announced their major debut under their own label, "", under the
Sony Music umbrella. They also participated in multiple rock festivals, such as the
ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2014, WORLD HAPPINESS 2014 and
RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2014 in EZO, gaining more support from fans throughout the country.In December, they held their "WONDER and WANDER" tour, over 12 locations nationwide. In Tokyo, their performance at
Akasaka Blitz was sold out. As promotion for the album, all of wowaka's posts on social media, especially
Instagram, were in
black and white. This went from March 1, to December 10. On the same month, they held their one-man tour "", with an additional performance in
Sendai. Various venues were sold out. The release featured remasters of most of their old songs, as well as feature a re-recording of "Kara no Waremono", the first song to be written by wowaka for the band.
2016–2018: Deeper, Iki and Ai/Solate On January 27, their 3rd single " (stylized as one-Me two-Hearts)", was released as the
opening theme for the anime series "". It was Hitorie's first song to be featured in an anime series. The anime received mixed reviews by fans and critics alike, citing a convoluted story and disappointing adaptation. However, Hitorie's opening theme was praised by many for being memorable, even outside the anime's context. On February 24, they released their 2nd full-length studio album
Deeper. The
cover art is from an
art exhibition called "STILLSCAPE" by photographers Tetsuya Nagato and Taro Mizutani. In March, they started their one-man tour "one-Me Tour "DEEP/SEEK"", over 14 locations nationwide. The tour final was held at the Studio Coast in
Shin-Kiba, and was very successful. On August 8th, they released their first
live movie and album featuring the performance. On November 1, they started their one-man tour "HITORI-[E]SCAPE 2016 tour "5"" over 5 venues nationwide. On the 1st of December, they released their 3rd full-length studio album
Iki, their 2nd full-length album release on the same year. A talk and autograph event to commemorate the release was held in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. The album's title, stylized in English, is based on the japanese word "生きる", which means "to live". It was previously named "Human". On August 22, 2017, wowaka released his final vocaloid song, for
Hatsune Miku's 10th anniversary compilation album
Re:Start. A cover version by Hitorie featuring wowaka's vocals was released 2 months later, on October 22. The song was recorded with Hitorie on both versions, and wowaka sings the
chorus on the original vocaloid version, while Miku can be heard on the Hitorie version. On December 6, they released the mini-album
Ai/Solate, featuring "Unknown Mother-Goose" as the lead single. The title is a
double entendre, as it can be interpreted as "isolate" or "愛 ("ai", love in Japanese) so late". had short music videos released by the members on social media. The first video released was for the song "NAI.", which was directed by , who directed the music videos for "" and "One Me Two Hearts".The second video released was for the song "Loveless", during their national "IKI" tour, and was directed by , who also directed the music videos for "" and "". The video's theme was simply "pink". Shimada's comment on the video:"The color pink was the only prompt I received, so my initial inspiration was to use the hues of skin. With closeups on the tonality of the girl's skin, and the combination of soft-colored flowers... The video turned quite feminine, yet still with a slightly bare and ominous aura to it."The third video released was for the song "Namid[A]me". The title is a
play on words with the Japanese words (means "tears"), and (means "rain"). A literal translation would be "rain of tears". The video was recorded by , which appeared on the album cover for "Monochrome Entrance" and the music video for "Talkie Dance". The fourth and final video released was for the song "". It was directed by Kakimoto Kensaku, who also directed the music video for "Little Cry Baby". The video's theme was "red". Kakimoto's comment on the video: "In the present country we dwell, what is red, I ask. From nuclear power, the mass media, vested interest, to politics as a whole... Just thinking about it there's no end. If you know it's red and yet get too scared to voice how red it is, then at that point it's already bright red. Every bit of imagery in this video was forged from layers of reds, so the act of releasing this video into the world is virtually red in itself. Red is an amass of energy, I think."On January 17, 2018, Hitorie performed alongside
Unison Square Garden on their two-man live "nexUs Vol.4" at Akasaka BLITZ. On the 28th, they started their "UNKNOWN-TOUR 2018 "Loveless"" in over 10 locations across the country. They also performed overseas for the first time, at additional performances in
Taiwan and Shanghai. On October 4th, they started their first overseas tour, called "HITORI-ESCAPE in CHINA "RED HOT POT TOUR"". On October 28, their fourth single was released as the seventh ending theme for the anime series
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. A month later, on November 28, the physical version was released with 2 additional songs. One of them was a new song, titled "River Fog, Chocolate Butterfly". The other, was Hitorie's cover of , one of wowaka's vocaloid songs. Shinoda said in an interview that the song was one of his favorites and the one that he wanted to play live the most, however wowaka, exhausted from the release of "Unhappy Refrain", neglected the idea. After performing the song in rehearsals, wowaka felt compelled to record the song and include it on the single.
2019: Howls and death of wowaka On January 7, 2019, Hitorie announced their 4th full-length studio album
Howls. It released on February 27, and featured their single "Polaris". It was preceded by two singles from the album, "SLEEPWALK", and "". On the talk and listening party to commemorate the album's release, Yumao revealed that, unlike all their other songs, "SLEEPWALK" was produced solely by wowaka. Although he was hesitant to include it on the album, Yumao heavily pushed wowaka to include it. Production on the song begun after ygarshy suggested that wowaka should write a song by himself again. From January 21 to January 27, Hitorie hosted a special event titled , renting out Shimokitazawa ERA for the entire duration. On the 1st of March, they announced their 2019 tour "Coyote Howling". On April 8, in an announcement on Sony Music's official website, it was disclosed that wowaka had died 3 days prior, on April 5, in his sleep. The cause of death was
acute heart failure. He was 31 years old. A private funeral was held with his family and friends. They cancelled their previously announced tour and offered refunds to all concert-goers, and said the band's future was "currently undecided". The band's members left messages for wowaka in the same announcement. ygarshy (Bassist) said:"Even now, I'm still waiting for that moment when wowaka starts playing guitar on stage. Everyone will be in the audience, and when the leader of the band, waving his right hand, makes a huge sound, the happiest time of my life will begin. No matter how much I bluff, honestly, I still can't get anything done. I'm not hungry, and I don't sleep well. I can't think back to the time when I met wowaka. I can't stop crying. I am so sorry that I can't show you the performance with the 4 of us anymore. Still, I am the only bassist that wowaka chose in this world, so I will never stop playing the bass that wowaka told me he loves. Leader, you can come and listen to me anytime. I'll get better tomorrow." The concert started with a video of their performance on the "IKI" tour. Later, Shinoda, Yumao and ygarshy took to the stage, with Shinoda being the vocalist and guitarist. He entered the stage holding up wowaka's signature
Fender Telecaster. They performed "SLEEPWALK" live for the first time. Before the performance, Shinoda said "I'm not used to this, but I'll sing with a hand mic." After the performance, Shinoda said "That must've reached heaven." Various songs from the performance were released on the band's official YouTube channel. The live movie was released on November 4, which is wowaka's birthday.
2020–2023: Return as a 3-piece On March 25, 2020, Sony Music announced that Hitorie provided song for Risa Aizawa from
Dempagumi, titled "Abnormal Q". The collaboration originated from Aizawa being a fan of wowaka's work, which led to an offer for him to write the song. Wowaka handled the lyrics, composition, and arrangement, while Hitorie performed as the backing band. The recording session had taken place three years prior to its release. The song was included as a track on the "First Press Limited Edition B" version of Dempagumi.inc's sixth album
Ai ga Chikyū Sukuunsa! Datte Dempagumi.inc wa Family desho (愛が地球救うんさ！だってでんぱ組.incはファミリーでしょ), which was released on April 15, 2020. On August 19, Hitorie released their first
greatest hits album, named "4". Shinoda chose the name to celebrate the time spent as a 4-member band. A tour named "ヒトリエ (Hitorie, in Japanese) BEST ALBUM RELEASE TOUR "4"" was scheduled to be held in 21 locations, but was canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. They instead performed a paid live-streamed concert named "". On August 26, they provided a song for the group RainDrops from
Nijisanji. Vocalist and guitarist Shinoda wrote the lyrics and music for the track "formula", while the band handled its arrangement and performance. The song was included on RainDrops' first album,
Biography, released on September 22, 2021. On December 7, they held a free live-stream concert on their YouTube channel named "HITORI-ESCAPE 2020". On the same day, they also announced and released their first single as 3-piece band, named "curved edge". The lyrics and music were written by Shinoda, and the song talks about his inner turmoil after wowaka's death. The song's title was inspired by the term
Straight edge, a subculture of
hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using
alcohol, tobacco, and
recreational drugs in reaction to the
punk subculture's excesses. Shinoda says "I'm a proper adult so of course I'm not straight edge, I'm more twisted and curved." It is also a reference to the curved edge in swords. On the livestream, they also announced their 5th full-length album, and their 1st album as a 3-piece, named
Reamp. It released on February 17, 2021. On April 21, 2021, they started their 2021 tour "ヒトリエ Amplified Tour 2021", over 16 locations. On May 1, their 5th single, "3 min 29 sec" (3分29秒) was released as the opening for the first season of the anime adaptation of
86 (Eighty Six). The physical version was released on July 2, featuring a new song called "milk tablet", and instrumental versions. The Blu-Ray/DVD version contained a recording of their online concert ". The song peaked at 22nd on the
Oricon charts. On January 19, 2022, they released their 2nd live movie and album of their 2021 tour, named "Amplified Tour 2021 at OSAKA". On January 26, 2022, they released their new digital single "". It was composed by Yumao, and Shinoda wrote the lyrics. On February 8, they started their 2022 tour "HITORI-ESCAPE TOUR 2022". On April 30, their 6th single, " (Wind, Flower)", was released as the ending theme for the anime adaptation of
Dance Dance Danseur. The physical version was released on May 25, and featured a new song, "undo", and instrumental versions. "Kaze, Hana" was composed by Yumao, and Shinoda composed "undo" and wrote both of the songs' lyrics. On June 22, they released their 6th full-length studio album, and 2nd album as a 3-piece band, named "PHARMACY". The album contained their previously released singles, "3 min 29 sec", "Stereo Juvenile" and "Kaze, Hana". As with "REAMP", all 3 members wrote music for the album, however Yumao wrote 3 songs, and ygarshy only composed 1. Yumao composed "Kaze, Hana", "" and "Stereo Juvenile", while ygarshy composed "Quit." Shinoda composed the remaining songs' music and wrote all the album's lyrics. named "", and was sold as an official merch item. The album's release tour, "Summer flight tour 2022" was held starting on July 16. The tour final was held at
Zepp Haneda. On July 8, they performed as the backing band on the track "Endroll" by singer-songwriter
Yoh Kamiyama, which served as the ending theme for the anime
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Separation. The band also participated in a studio live performance video for the song, which premiered on YouTube Music Weekend on August 25, 2023. On December 2, a one-man live named "" was held at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of their indie debut. In February 2023, they perform as the backing band on the track "D+ has come" for the voice actress unit
DIALOGUE+, which was also co-arranged by Shinoda. On March 10, 2023, they started the "", featuring 9 performances in 8 locations nationwide. On November 8, they started their "HITORI-ESCAPE TOUR 2023" with 15 performances in over 13 locations nationwide. On the same day, their new digital single, "", was released. Shinoda wrote the lyrics and music, and describes the title and song as "the feeling you get when playing an electric guitar". He also drew the album's cover art.
2024–present: 10th major debut anniversary and continued activity On January 22, 2024, Hitorie released the single "", to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their major debut. The first track is a re-recording of the original song, arranged as a 3-piece. ygarshy plays wowaka's rhythm guitar line in the song's intro, on the bass guitar. The second track is a remaster of the original song with wowaka's vocals and guitar. The same day, a new artist photo of the band was released, and on the 23rd and 24th, the "HITORI-ESCAPE 2024 ～10-NEN-SAI～ (Tenth Anniversary)" concerts were held. The first day's theme was "red", and the second was "blue", featuring 2 completely different setlists, with the band's most popular songs, as well as unreleased songs. It was also announced on the 24th that Hitorie would be performing their "HITORI-ESCAPE 2024 10-NEN-SAI ～日比谷超絶野音～ (Hibiya's Transcendent Wild Sounds)" concert at Tokyo's Hibiya Park Concert Hall. They started their nationwide tour on April 7. On April 15, they released the digital single "on the front line" which was released as the opening to the second part of the second season of the anime adaptation of
Mushoku Tensei. The song was composed by Yumao and Shinoda wrote the lyrics. The song peaked at 28th on the Oricon charts. On April 20, they performed the first of their 3-part two-man concerts named "HITORIE presents VERSUS Series". Where other artists and Hitorie would perform, one after the other. On April 20, the first artist to perform was
Tatsuya Kitani at Osaka BIGCAT. On June 6, Kiro Akiyama performed on the Ebisu LIQUIDROOM. The final artist was revealed to be The KEBABS, at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO on August 21. On April 26, Hitorie was invited to the YouTube channel
The First Take, created by Sony Music Japan. On the first video, they performed "Unknown Mother-Goose". On the second video, released on May 8, they performed "on the front line". On May 11, 15 years after wowaka's first vocaloid song, 10 years since Hitorie's major debut, and 5 years after wowaka's death, Japanese publishing label
KADOKAWA released the book "". It features all lyrics written by wowaka, both on his vocaloid works and Hitorie songs, and also features unreleased songs such as "NOTOK". It also features comments by the band members, and fellow vocaloid producers and friends, such as
Kenshi Yonezu, Jin,
Pinocchio-P, and Tabuchi Tomoya of UNISON SQUARE GARDEN. On May 21, 2025, the book was featured on the news at KTS, a terrestrial television from Kagoshima. It was revealed that it was wowaka's mother who wished to compile his works into a book. On June 5, they released their
double A-side single "". Alongside the titular tracks, it features 2 new tracks, "selfy charm" which was composed by ygarshy and written by Shinoda, and " (Someday in Sakura)", which was composed and written by Shinoda. This is the first release to have songs written by all 4 members. Before the concert's encore, Shinoda announced they would hold another tour in January 2025 around Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to conclude the 10th Anniversary tour. It was named "HITORIE 10-NEN-SAI FINALE TOUR". They also released a new artist photo, and announced their 7th full-length studio album, to be released on January 22. The Blu-Ray edition will contain the aforementioned concert. The CD release will feature another unreleased song by him, named "daybreak seeker" which was written during the production of the album "HOWLS", and Hitorie's covers of "" and "". Aside from NOTOK, all other songs on the CD are sung by Shinoda, but all songs are written by wowaka. Shinoda wrote the lyrics for "daybreak seeker". On the same day, they also announced the album release tour, "Freaky Friendship Tour 2025", On December 29, it was announced that in Hitorie will be participating as special guests in the 10th anniversary celebrations of the
Hatsune Miku Symphony concert series. The band performed at the Yokohama and Kobe concerts, on October 4 and December 27, 2025, respectively. They performed a medley of "Two-Sided Lovers", "Rolling Girl", "Unhappy Refrain", and "World's End Dancehall", also "Unknown Mother-Goose". On February 12, 2025, Hitorie members contributed to the song "Hōtā ni Saku" (滂沱に咲く) for singer
Soraru's sixth album
Yumetoki. The track was written by Soraru, with music composed by drummer Yumao. Shinoda performed guitar and Igarashi performed bass on the recording. In June 2025, Hitorie contributed to the digital album
MAGIC by virtual Liver Kaida Haru (甲斐田晴) from Nijisanji. The band provided the track "Dokuhaku" (独白), which was written by Shinoda with music composed by Igarashi and arrangement by Hitorie. In a comment for the album, drummer Yumao expressed satisfaction with how ygarashy's melody perfectly matched Kaida Haru's vocals. On August 14, Hitorie announced that they had provided a new song to
Morfonica, a band featured in the multimedia franchise
BanG Dream!. The track, titled "Beauty For" (ビューティ・フォー), was written and composed by Shinoda, with arrangement by the band itself. This collaboration was simultaneously revealed by the official
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! account during the "Summer Presentation 2025" livestream, highlighting the artist tie-up between Hitorie and Morfonica. A full music video for "Beauty For" premiered on the
BanG Dream! YouTube channel on September 11, 2025. As part of the collaboration, a cover version of Hitorie's "On the Front Line" performed by Morfonica was announced for release in
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! on September 11, 2025. On November 3, it was announced that Hitorie had participated in the recording for a cover of their own song "Senseless Wonder" on the solo cover album
Tabuchi Tomoya, released on December 3 to commemorate the 40th birthday of
Unison Square Garden bassist Tomoya Tabuchi. The band re-recorded the track specifically for the project, with Shinoda on guitar and chorus, ygarashi on bass, and Yumao on drums and chorus. Shinoda also performed as a session guitarist on three other tracks covering songs by
The High-Lows,
The Pillows, and
CreepHyp. Yumao additionally contributed drums to the album's cover of
DIALOGUE+'s "Deneb to Spica". On the same day, they also announced a collaboration with virtual Liver Ryushen (緑仙) from
Nijisanji on the digital single "sleep sheep syndrome (feat. ヒトリエ)". The song was released on December 3, 2025. The track was written and composed by Hitorie's vocalist and guitarist Shinoda, with arrangement by the band. It features vocals from both Ryushen and Shinoda. According to Universal Music Japan and music news sites, the song is described as a "rock and roll lullaby" with Hitorie's distinctive rock sound. The collaboration originated from a social media interaction where Shinoda had liked a post by Ryushen about being unable to sleep, which later inspired the song's theme. On December 5, Hitorie announced their digital single "Minikui Katachi" (みにくいかたち), scheduled for release on December 17. The song was written and composed by vocalist and guitarist Shinoda, who also created the single's cover artwork. Shinoda described the track as a song born from the "scratches" of trial and error while figuring out the band's direction as a three-piece, with a peculiar shape among them that drew him in. Ahead of its official release, the full version of the song received its nationwide radio premiere on
FM802's program "802 Palette" on December 13. On December 10, it was announced that Shinoda had written the song "Sunrise Orange" for voice actor
Hiroshi Kamiya. The track, featuring lyrics and composition by Shinoda with arrangement and performance by Hitorie, is set to be included as the lead song on Kamiya's 11th mini-album
Share Music, scheduled for release on January 28, 2026. == Discography ==