SOS Voice Actor Discussion and Appreciation

[Noppapana]

yeah thats right .. sometimes i forget she is just 19

[Kaoru Chujo]

There is a video on the 6th DVD that anyone interested in this thread absolutely has to look around for. It's little behind-the-scenes clips -- some by Sugita Tomokazu, it appears -- of Hirano Aya at events around the country in support of her CD releases in April and May. The moments are totally wonderful. And there is one in Tokyo where she cries at the support people give her. A hint of things to come, unfortunately, although it is a great scene at the time.

I am hoping that "the last time" just means the last time for a while. And that it just refers to the singing, and not to the voice work. I see diary entries for a Death Note live on Dec. 16th, anyway. And I read elsewhere that she did several live events in December.

I don't know how you could possibly do college and a singing career at the same time, anyway. Celebrity is amazing: you dye your hair and it's a national issue.

As for getting a replacement seiyuu: no way. No-one sounds like her. No-one. She has a particular sharp, energetic quality that is unique. Perhaps it relates to her own evidently high-strung nature. Everything she does in what we see of "real life" seems a bit forced. And she has been in show business since she was 11. Normal life? What normal life?

EDIT: And as for whether a film makes an artist or an artist makes a film, the answer, as with all other such questions, is "both." The importance of each varies from case to case. In this case, it's about equal, and both Haruhi and Aaya are at a very high level. (note: I read that Hirano Aya's nickname is Aaya.)

[Kaoru Chujo]

As you can see, I've changed my avatar and sig to Hirano Aya (for the next few months, at least). And I've put together a longish piece on my blog about her, with photos, bio, links to YouTube videos, etc. At least one of the videos I mentioned in my last post is now on YouTube.

She seems to be back recording anime and even doing some events. And she posts to her blog at least once a day, with photos. She may have cut back, but maybe just on events and not on anime roles. She's in the new shows Manabi Straight and Himawari, and still in NANA and Death Note. But she's not the main star in any of them, and I haven't seen a new CD since September.

[Noppapana]

zomg aya-chan does the sumomomo radio and the radio shibu
btw in her blog from no.217-218 she was in a karaoke bar or something
is she singing the opening of evangelion ?

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Noppapana

zomg aya-chan does the sumomomo radio and the radio shibu. btw in her blog from no.217-218 she was in a karaoke bar or something. is she singing the opening of evangelion ?

Yes, I think so. There was some talk about it in the thread about her on 2channel, where fans are in a white heat, analyzing her blog every day, and making around a thousand posts a week.

BTW, for anyone here who didn't see it, I have a post in the General thread about an upcoming live with the whole cast.

And I'm going to answer Noppapana's question about her hair color here: yes, she changed it in November. There are pics in her blog of her making it even redder this month. I talked about some background to the hair-color change in the long piece about her in my blog.

The Sumomo radio show can be cute: Aaya, Miyazaki Ui, and Kano Yui. I give an example at the end of the blog piece.

[Vexx]

Kind of a funny "ayu" moment in one pic on her blog with her new reddish hair and a chomping a big taiyaki .... heh.
Too bad her pics are all micro-sized images.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Kind of a funny "ayu" moment in one pic on her blog with her new reddish hair and a chomping a big taiyaki .... heh. Too bad her pics are all micro-sized images.

Have you clicked on them? They are more mini than micro, I'd say. I think for that pic she says she's a Dora-neko (Doraemon cat?).

[Vexx]

yeah... the results are not much bigger than avvie sized, saves bandwidth for her but not exactly "posterizable"
ah well.. just hope she keeps her feet on the ground and is able to put some money away.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I just found that Gotou Yuuko has a new blog that she can put little videos in. Details in the Hidamari Sketch thread.

Vexx, you're right about the "feet on the ground." And I'm not sure. I don't think seiyuu work is that well-paying, so Aaya has to become a "personality," and/or a more general entertainer, to make a bundle. Her very active blog is part of becoming a personality, I suppose. I get the sense that she is determined to be popular and famous. We'll see how it goes for her: fame can taste like ashes. She's been in show business so long that I guess she has some idea how to handle it -- or else she is so buried in it that she can't be normal.

I find the humorous little things on her blog a promising indication that she doesn't take herself too seriously. As someone said, these are not exactly the kinds of images her PR people put out. And at least she has a life at college outside of show business. But she seems to be working so much right now that I'm not sure how she can study, too. She did say on her blog that she can memorize things quite quickly -- things that she enjoys, at least.

I just noticed that a 2channel poster saw the same resemblance you did, Vexx, and referred to that pic of her eating taiyaki as "Hirano Ayu."

EDIT: One more thing. There is an announcement on the SOS-Dan site that a drama CD will be coming out on 24 January in which Haruhi and the band decide to do more music together. And there will be a new song on the CD to go with God Knows and Lost My Music: "First Good Bye." She does not play guitar on it, lol.

[Noppapana]

^^

minori has also her cd released on 24
cant wait till that day

[Kaoru Chujo]

A post on 2channel directed me to this video of Hirano Aya made about a year and a half ago. I think her voice is more natural in the interview than I've heard it. And about three minutes in, she plays guitar, doing part of an Avril Lavigne song. Then there's a video of a Voice Newtype photo shoot. Asked what she does on Sundays, she answers: sleep, and practice guitar. I think she does need the practice, but it's okay. What is her interest: reading. What does she like to eat: anything, but just then especially apple pie.

The site is stage6.com, which is a DivX site allowing free download (or viewing) of full-size good quality videos, a lot better than YouTube's. You have to download software to use the site, but it hasn't caused me any problems (yet).

[Noppapana]

*faints* .....soo kawaiii

[Samatarou]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Kind of a funny "ayu" moment in one pic on her blog with her new reddish hair

It seems she dyed her hair to match her favourite horse:


In fact even their jackets match!

[Kaoru Chujo]

Tickets to the live event in March, which have a face value of ¥4500 (~US$37), are now going for ¥66000 (~$540) on Yahoo auctions. News article (Japanese). 2channel has been full of people crowing about how they got their tickets.

The event will be a full concert presentation featuring all the main seiyuu from SHnY: Hirano Aya, Gotou Yuuko, Chihara Minori, Sugita Tomokazu, etc.

The live event is probably a good sign that a second season of the anime is on the way. I do not believe Hirano Aya has any real health problems. Posts on her blog seem to indicate she is working almost every day: Death Note, Sumomo mo Momo mo, Manabi Straight, photo sessions, radio, etc. No mention of the college courses she is supposedly taking, too. But she has drastically cut back the number of live events she does. I believe there has only been one so far this year, if that.

The lovely horse pics were from a photo session on Sunday for Voice Newtype.She said it was her first time on a horse, but she loved it. She said she envied one horse its long eyelashes. I think it was pure chance that her hair matched the horse. Or else they chose the horses to match it, lol. On the other hand, she did dye her hair a little redder a couple of weeks ago....

[Kaoru Chujo]

Kadokawa Shoten, the publishers of the novels, had their annual private thank-you party last night, and Sugita Tomokazu and Hirano Aya were the star attractions. Aaya has numerous photos on her blog, and I've made a blog post of my own showing some of them.

I also had a post yesterday using photos from Aaya's blog to show how she spent January.

[Noppapana]

IIRC Sugita is much older then Aya-chan, right ?

http://bp0.blogger.com/_Zg1R9ioNR1s/...00-h/341_1.jpg
LOL Hare Hare Yukai dance ??

[Kaoru Chujo]

He's 26 and she's 19. He apparently finished college, working at the same time, as far as I can tell from Wikipedia. Also as far as I can tell, they first worked together in Beyblade, in 2003, which would have been when she was 15.

Yes, I think they did the dance for the event, which appears to have been in a hotel somewhere.

He's got a nice website, too, but no mention of this event yet. His website is called "Zangetsu," which means the moon as seen after dawn, with the slogan (in English): "The moon shines with sunlight. And I shine with moonlight."

[aegismode]

I thought it was pretty interesting that Aya-chan became so huge while if you honestly look at the 3 seiyuus for the leads, both Goto Yuuko and Chihara Minori are hotter than her. But she's got some qualities that's unique to her and I guess now she's a seiyuu super-star, even though there's plenty of hot girls with pretty voices. I mean I don't remember another seiyuu who went on Hey!x3 and performed live; I guess that woudl be every seiyuu-singer's dream.

[Samatarou]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

She's been in show business so long that I guess she has some idea how to handle it -- or else she is so buried in it that she can't be normal.

She’s not in the business, she is the business.

[Kaoru Chujo]

You may have seen it, but I have a post over in the General Anime Voice Actor thread showing nominations for a new Seiyuu Awards competition. Aaya is nominated in four different categories: lead female, supporting female, new female, and singer. Maybe she is the business. There's a discussion there of who should be on the list, and whether or not Aaya is worthy.

And I found (via 2channel) an interesting post by a guy who attended the Kadokawa event. He and his wife shook hands with Aaya. He said she was terribly thin, and his wife said that she never imagined anyone could have such thin hands. He included a pic of them together. He is Yamada Shinya, a 29-year-old accountant and short-story writer.