I also love just the sound of her voice. And I agree totally about "barusamiko su." "Brain-smashing," indeed. How do you know these were ad libs? Certainly, both Endou Aya and Shiraishi Minoru have said in their official-site interviews that as the series progresses, the seiyuu are introducing more ad libs.

And can you tell us one ad lib that Sugita is known to have done?

I have added Miyuki's mom to the Lucky Star character/seiyuu page. With Fukuhara Kaori's performance, she will possibly not have to fall back on her "special skill" of being a "MacDonald's onee-san."

Read her blog dates May 8th: http://blog.livedoor.jp/kaorin_f/

Actually if listen to many seiyuu radios, he is known as a master of ad-libbing by his peers.

If the balsamic vinegar was an adlib... it was freaking brilliant on her part.
I'm getting to where I just love to hear her talk.

"Barusamikosu~" was an ad-lib?!?! That's frickin' genius.

My other favorite line thus far from her would have to be "Onee-chaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Here's a rough translation of the bit from Fukuhara Kaori's blog that kj1980 mentioned, where she talks about what she ad-libbed:

"'Lucky Star' is going quickly. Episode five has already aired.
Are you watching?
The recording is advancing smoothly.
In every episode, we're all putting in ad libs.
We're always thinking: 'Could I get an ad lib in here?'
I won't go into detail because some haven't been broadcast yet,
but in episode 5 all the part about su [vinegar] was ad libbed, lol.
and in episode 4, so were doko no ke ('hair where?' [I think] as Tsukasa's understanding of 'Comiket'), yoguruto desu ka? ('is that yogurt?' as her understanding of 'bourgeois'), and mou tatemashen ('I can't even shtand myshelf up," when she was tired from running.)
The standard is awfully high at the recording sessions, but I'm really learning a lot."

Here's another photo of her from her blog:

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1...akaori3et9.jpg

And just because I find the photo so fascinating, here's the most recent photo from Hirano Aya's blog. Her eye is swollen so she has a patch on it. She says she decided to try out a sort of goth loli look today, wearing a suit jacket with jeans that have a slit patched with lace (posts on 2channel have already shown photos where she wore both of these separately last year). She says that although the look is stylish, she took the photo in the washroom.

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9...41psks2.th.jpg

Going for the Ryoumou from Ikkitousen look eh. Wonder what happened to her though. That can't be pleasant. Though I'm not too big a fan of the goth-loli look outside of anime, I'm not sure why she tooks this angle as the casual look suits her best I find (recording in tank tops and what not). Still every time I look at this blog I'm amused by one thing, and that is the sheer number of pictures she has taken of food items. The girl obviously likes her food as much as your's truly.

I could easily say "going for the Akito look from Air Gear here", thats who she looks more like.

Awesome image though, shame about her eye. ;_;

Another image:

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7647/01pk8.th.jpg

meh... she probably has "pink eye" (an infection sometimes caused by having a nasal infection and sneezing up through your tear ducts or by wiping your nose and then touching your eyes) or just a typical eye irritation from some mote. I like the jeans and lace combo though...

And Tsukasa's VA is cute.... I continue to be intrigued by the comparison of looks between the characters and their VAs. That's so unusual (outside of Disney where they actually model some characters after their VAs (like the actors in The Emperor's New Groove, for example).

is there any full body pic of hirano aya? I wanna compare her figure to kona-chan. They really look alike!!! :heh:

I believe she may have poked herself in the eye or something, since I believe she says she did it to herself. The caption to the pic Shiroth posted is: やっちまいました。腫れてしまったので装着。外すとビフォーアフターです。 My sense is that since recording sessions are scheduled, she has to go, even if she injured her eye. It's what a pro has to do. She just makes the best of it by making it a feature rather than a bug. The look reminds me of Venus Versus Virus, too.
You asked for it. Here are some shots from her photo session in Bali earlier this year. Does her figure look like Konata's? Don't think so, except in that one regard that affords "status." She's not particularly short: 159cm (5'2-5'3") according to one site, but she looks taller on stage.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5...3023pg1.th.jpg http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/4...2230am3.th.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2...0736qg8.th.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2...7067jh4.th.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5...3543vo1.th.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3...0422hz1.th.jpg

2channel was hoping for a bikini, but she's still pretty modest. And I don't think she looks totally at ease.

Lets face it.... when you're most comfortable in a studio behind a mike - having "glamour photo" sessions is always going to be a bit wierd to you.
Actually, quite a few singers who are in the public eye constantly comment that appearing "glamourous" or "sexy" just bemuses them.

@Kaoru Chujo,

What have you done?! You've unleashed a flood of male hormones on us!!! :p

I still say the look is more Agito/Akito from Air Gear. Especially when he wears a wedding dress.

Wow, i'm happy to know she's the same hight as me --- though i do agree, seeing her in various images, i never would have guessed her to be that hight.

159cm?! Not exactly Dwarf status, but that's still pretty short! I had an impression that she was taller than that. Man, that would make her shorter than the average female height around here.

Cheers.

She looks taller to me on stage, so maybe that ja.Wikipedia figure is old. For instance, here (Manabi Straight cast interviews), or here (Rune-Angel Tai performance).

I just read an interesting little post on 2channel repeating the thesis that the selling of Hirano Aya has been too fast and too hard, propelled by the sudden success of SHnY. It was in the Katou Emiri thread, saying she should be promoted in a more normal way, starting with handshake appearances, etc., rather than going straight to the full idol seiyuu treatment. I think it's true that the success of SHnY just moved things faster than normal, but it's also true that Aaya has been around for five years, and was in an idol group before. On the one hand, it's clear that the past year has been hard on her. On the other, she has risen to undreamed-of popularity, it seems, so it's hard to say what would be best.

A nice array of voice actors, gotta love how they got the voice of Haruhi doing Konata and Yuki Nagato as Minami, also this anime has my favourite female voice actor, Inoue Kikuko! *fanboy scream*

well... its not exactly the "voice of Haruhi" but simply the same VA - I'd have to argue she's doing a different style voice (it lacks the higher registers and squeaks that the character Haruhi had - Kona is much lower pitched with different pacing).

As for Minami and Yuki .... we haven't heard Minami yet but I would be surprised if there was much difference other than the character of Minami is much quieter and minimalist than SHnY's Yuki ... if anything Minami might be closer to Sakaki of AzuDa (minimalist grunts) so I'm kind of interested to see if she can handle the subtle differences one might expect.

I'd say that Konata is what Aaya-chan would sound like if she tried to do Kyon....except Kyon isn't half as evil as Kona-chan is. :p

Yeah!!! Now that's what am talking about! :D

She has mole near her eye, smiles like Konata but as for the figure...Aya has more advantage. She looks taller maybe because of high heel shoes. Her hair looks similar to Haruhi there in the images. It's nice very nice!!! :love:

Those pictures of Aya in Bali are evil! EVIL I TELL YA!*

(*Translation: she looks damn hot!)

She actually voiced Kyon in the Drama CD Sound Around; actually she voiced the entire SOS-dan. It was hilarious :D .