Listening to "Asu e no Kizuna," the opening theme to the Valkyria Chronicles anime, you could be excused for thinking it's you typical high quality anime song. It's got all the strings, pianos and slightly rockin' backing band that have become halmarks of anime's long tradition of sweeping themes. Oh, and of course the vocals are sung by a suitably mello yet proficiant Japanese woman.

Ah ha! That's where you'd be wrong, silly person. "Asu e no Kizuna" is actually the debut single from the Canadian born Catherine St-Onge. The tri-lingual St-Onge, aka HIMEKA, in-fact only moved to Japan in 2008. It didn't take the aspiring anison otaku to crush the competition at the Second Annual Animax Anison Grand Prix. Her win sent ripples through the anime-song-o-sphere. This also scored her first single "Asu e no Kizuna," released in May of 2009, and her second single "Hatenaki Michi," an even more sweeping epic, which found a home in Tegamibachi.

Check out a few videos after the jump, including her incredible cover of  "Genesis of Aquarion" and her GP winning performance. And who knows, maybe we'll be hearing more from HIMEKA in the future?