From Underworld to a Wartime Orphanage in Three Songs
ReoNa opened her set with "forget-me-not," the ending theme from the second half of Sword Art Online: Alicization. According to the stage report from Japanese anime news site Animate Times, she performed it with the ease of a veteran, and the report notes she has stood on the Anisama stage many times before.
Her between-song talk is part of the draw. Animate Times describes ReoNa introducing each track in her signature hushed tone, pulling the audience into the song's world before the music starts. From there she moved into "Lv.1 Shokugyō: Ningen" (roughly "Lv.1 Occupation: Human"), the ending theme for The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System, backed by kid dancers wearing red randoseru, the boxy backpacks Japanese elementary schoolers carry.
"Amore" closed the block. The song is the opening theme for I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day, an ensemble drama about girls surviving brutal circumstances, and the report credits the performance with capturing that world on stage. Before singing, ReoNa spoke about the feelings she poured into the track and about love itself. With that, the first half of Day 3 came to an end.
The Two Summer 2026 Shows Behind the New Songs
Both new themes belong to anime that premiered in Japan this month. The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System adapts Nekoko's light novel about a noble who gets exiled after receiving the supposedly worthless Heavy Knight class, then thrives because he knows exactly how the game-like world's mechanics work. It launched on July 2, 2026.
I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day adapts Aono Nachi's yuri manga, set at a school that takes in orphaned children and raises them into magical weapons of war. The anime, produced at studio Roll2, premiered in Japan on July 7, 2026. Its harsh premise sits unusually close to ReoNa's melancholic style, and the Animate Times report singles out "Amore" as the number that expressed the show's world most vividly.
Anisama, short for Animelo Summer Live, is Japan's annual anime-song live event, and this year's edition ran under the theme "-Messenger-" at Makuhari Messe, the convention center just east of Tokyo. ReoNa was one of the featured acts on the July 12 finale, sharing the Day 3 bill with i☆Ris, Sphere, DOES, Masayoshi Oishi, and others.
Looking Ahead
International fans can already watch both shows behind the new songs: Crunchyroll simulcasts The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System with new episodes on Thursdays, and I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day on Tuesdays.
The songs themselves get retail releases soon. "Amore," ReoNa's 12th single, arrives on July 22, 2026, and its official music video is already up on her YouTube channel. "Lv.1 Shokugyō: Ningen" follows as her 13th single on August 26, 2026.
Animate Times says it will keep reporting from Anisama 2026 as the event wraps up. Fans who want the full-show experience from home can look to last year's edition, Animelo Summer Live 2025 "ThanXX!", which received day-by-day Blu-ray releases in March 2026.