Buzz Panda

Buzz Panda (ばずぱんだ), known professionally as Kikuchi Ryota (キクチリョウタ, Ryota Kikuchi), is a singer-songwriter and with a soft, calming, mid-range voice. He is known for covering songs with acoustic guitar arrangements, which tend to add a boy-next-door sort of feel.

While he is well-known for his acoustic covers, the vast majority of his original songs also have solely acoustic arrangements - as such, some of his original songs, especially "Blue", are fairly popular among aspiring guitarists. He occasionally provides off vocals of his acoustic arrangements for other utaite to use, some of which can be found on his Piapro.

He is good friends with other indie musicians such as Oshiba Hiroki (also known on NND as the composer Moja/もじゃ) and shoikeue, and often performs at concerts with them. As　Kikuchi Ryota, he has released 4 mini albums to date. At the time of their initial release, all of his albums were released independently, and were only available through mail order.

On March 01, 2013, he announced that he had signed a record deal with the indie label Strobe Music. In the same announcement, he stated that he was working on a new mini album (later revealed to be titled "Blue"), and that his previous albums will be re-released and available for sale on the Strobe Music website.

Trivia

 * He has stated that he doesn't mind either way whether his fans call him Buzz Panda or Kikuchi Ryota, citing his belief that what people call him doesn't change who he is or how he sings.
 * He was born in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and moved to Tokyo on his own in 2010 at the age of 18.
 * He first got into music after joining the keion-bu (light music club) at his high school on a whim; and decided to pursue playing the guitar after watching his friend play electric guitar and thinking it looked "pretty cool". However, he was not the club's vocalist, and had never sung in public before being pushed to sing one verse of a song at a school festival. He describes his classmates as doing "a bit of a double take" in response.
 * His favorite foods are dried yam snacks (芋ケンピ, imokenpi), and describes his consumption of them as an obsession.
 * His favorite actress is Anne Hathaway, and considers her to be his "type". In addition, his current favorite song is her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the 2012 film version of Les Misérables.
 * He is a big fan of the movie Toy Story; in fact, his name is derived from a combination of Buzz Lightyear (a character in the Toy Story franchise) and his panda phone charm.