By Mishio Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Specialist I was watching cherry blossoms fall with an aching heart. It was because my friend, Koji Wada, a singer of anime songs, died from nasopharyngeal cancer on April 3 when the trees were in full bloom. He was only 42.

Wada made his debut in 1999 singing “Butter-Fly,” the theme song for TV anime “Digimon Adventure.” The song was a huge hit and became popular overseas, too, especially in Latin America. Wada went on singing other theme songs and contributed songs for the series, such as “Hirari” and “We Are Xros Heart!”

Wada was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer in spring 2003. The doctor said it was impossible to remove the tumor completely because it was located behind his nose.

Wada withdrew from work to concentrate on getting treatment and made a comeback in 2006. He started holding concerts overseas, such as in Brazil, but again had to suspend his activities after it was discovered that the tumor had spread in 2011.

The singer started energetically holding performances such as concerts from the autumn of 2013, but once more ceased his activities last summer when his condition deteriorated.

I first met Wada in 2010. We went out for drinks to discuss the event he was going to take part in. Since the event featured the guests’ life stories, I interviewed him about his background and what he was like as a child.

Wada told me he wanted to be a baseball player all the way up to his high school days, dreaming of playing at the twice-a-year national high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture. After graduating from high school, his interest shifted to music. He left his hometown in Kyoto Prefecture and moved to Tokyo with just two bags and ￥400,000 in savings.

Then Wada recounted an interesting story. After coming to Tokyo, he was busy around the clock doing part-time jobs ? but he couldn’t give up singing. He made nearly 1,000 demo tapes and sent them off to record companies over and over. One of them eventually led to his debut, but there’s another story behind this. The record company director had thrown away the tape, but the person in charge of Digimon picked it up and had a listen. The rest is history.

Wada was breezy and nonchalant as he talked about his memories. But I thought the story made me feel that only those who work the hardest can reach the stars.

My friend looked a lot thinner when he made his second comeback. But he came to the events I organized and his e-mails were always packed with jokes. From that, it was hard to tell how bad his condition was ? which is why I kept believing we’d go out for drinks again.

When I interviewed him in the summer of 2014, I asked him about his thoughts on anime songs, or anison. Wada thought about it for a while before saying, “After I got sick, I started thinking there’s something only anison can do ? that anison can create a world without borders.” I feel like he was thinking about the happy faces of fans at his concerts abroad.

I believe the anison Wada sang have “become happy butterflies,” like the lyrics in “Butter-Fly.” They will carry on fluttering through the skies, connecting people from all over the world.

Suzuki is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior specialist and an expert on tokusatsu superhero films and dramas. Speech