Aya Hirano. Can someone fill me in?

[Midonin]

Originally Posted by flying ^

i doubt north americans (mexicans included) would stoop as low as the japanese with their antics

A fandom should recognize its own faults before it starts casting blame on others. Especially since, whether we're Japanese or American, we're the same damn fandom.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Midonin

A fandom should recognize its own faults before it starts casting blame on others. Especially since, whether we're Japanese or American, we're the same damn fandom.

Right.

Plus, Hirano is beyond the point where she's just an innocent victim in all of this, imo. The Britney Spears comparison that synaesthetic brought up has some truth to it, I think.

And keep in mind that I say this as a big Haruhi fan. I'd like nothing more than for Hirano to move away from the Britney Spears route, and come back and be a great Haruhi for years to come.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by blitz1/2

Aya makes a better AV actor than a seiyuu, considering all she cares about is showing off her body.

Not that I really follow this but this isn't even really true from most of the non-english articles I've seen and iirc, the whole modeling phase was the doing of her manager at the time.

Originally Posted by cyth

I don't care about neckbeards raging, but seiyuu should follow proper etiquette. If their money is good enough for her, she should act the way her agency and her fans want her to act. She's not there to sell her mind but her image.

What etiquette? And she isn't trying to exclusively be a seiyuu. She is trying to be a talent and voice actress, mostly because of her managers' doing.

And she clearly is acting how her real fans, the so called 'life liners' want her to act because they are keeping her relevant. If they didn't, she would fade into obscurity pretty rapidly. You are mixing up the opinion of trolls with other people. Because 4chan hates K-on, does that mean everyone hates K-on?

Originally Posted by Taufiq91

Everything Aya Hirano says will be reported and exaggerated by otakus and Shitkaku Complex nowadays.

Or just made up. One of those "can't believe she just said that" segments which was attributed to being about her was actually part of a segment on a show and not about her. I don't remember which one because I don't care about her, just that it was misreported.

Originally Posted by totoum

Random question:did the brain tumor thing turn out to be true or was that Sankaku being Sankaku?

Here is the truth behind that:
http://yunakiti.blog79.fc2.com/blog-entry-7115.html

[cyth]

Originally Posted by bayoab

You are mixing up the opinion of trolls with other people. Because 4chan hates K-on, does that mean everyone hates K-on?

I don't think so, but that's a matter of opinion how an image/idol seiyuu should act. This is probably the reason why I hate this girl--she's trying to be an idol seiyuu and a normal girl at the same time. Whether her antics are keeping her relevant and if her "real fans" want that is not in my interest, but this fan thinks her recent antics aren't fit for her seiyuu career. Maybe her managers don't know what they're doing, I don't know.

And why is it that everybody who demands a level of chastity from her seiyuu is either a troll or a fuckwad? I don't want her public image to taint the roles she's played, she should be considerate at least that much.

[Proto]

I don't want her public image to taint the roles she's played

Well, then just imagine they don't. It's the fan role for mixing up two things that should be kept separate in the first place. To use an extreme example, that Ludwig van Beethoven was a complete asshole doesn't change the fact that Ode of Joy is one of the single finest pieces of music even written in the history of humanity. I think something as small as Suzumiya Haruhi can handle the fact that her seiyuu is going a little nuts.

[j0x]

lol looks like the media is in between of the fans and aya hirano, so its safe to say this is another exaggeration of the media just to get more popularity and ratings for their news

[Kouvley]

Originally Posted by cyth

This is probably the reason why I hate this girl--she's trying to be an idol seiyuu and a normal girl at the same time.

....either you didn't quite mean it like this or you must hate nearly everybody....

I blame sites like sankaku complex for over-reporting about her "crazy antics" and blowing them out of proportion.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by cyth

And why is it that everybody who demands a level of chastity from her seiyuu is either a troll or a fuckwad? I don't want her public image to taint the roles she's played, she should be considerate at least that much.

Err... no. Unless you know the individual personally, no one has the right to demand anything about someone else's level of chastity. If she's acting in a self-destructive way, then it should be up to people who know her personally to get her the help she needs. If she's just having fun, then what she does behind closed doors is her business and no one else's. If this is about otaku enforcing 1950s standards of femininity, then bluntly, they can just fuck off. Anyone who still wants to imply that a woman's worth is somehow dependent on her "purity" should go to a hardware store and buy themselves a crowbar. That should help them pry their head out of their ass.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

what she does behind closed doors is her business and no one else's.

I totally agree. Somebody should tell her that, imo.

Look, it's not like she's being hounded by the paparazzi, and hence she can't help what gets out there. She's volunteering a lot of information that she probably should be choosing to be discreet about.

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I totally agree. Somebody should tell her that, imo.

Look, it's not like she's being hounded by the paparazzi, and hence she can't help what gets out there. She's volunteering a lot of information that she probably should be choosing to be discreet about.

Yeah, I can agree with that. As I've said before, she doesn't exactly come across as the clearest of thinkers.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

Yeah, I can agree with that. As I've said before, she doesn't exactly come across as the clearest of thinkers.

Just to be clear, I think that any person (otaku or otherwise) who expects a mid-20 year old woman to be chaste needs to be a lot more realistic, and quite possibly much less of a busybody too. But I also think that there's a natural human instinct that comes into play when a prominent public figure reveals intricate details about their personal life. That natural human instinct is to make character assessments on the basis of those details (I see this a lot in politics). I don't like that, but it is human nature I think, so I'm not sure if we should hold that against Japanese otakus in particular.

[raile]

Originally Posted by Midonin

Let's not try to demonize the Japanese fanbase while forgetting that the American fanbase can act just as stupid. Sometimes while demonizing the Japanese fanbase.

I'm not attacking the whole of otaku in general, it's just that a LOT of them (the super-die-hard ones) can go waay beyond the line, if you get my drift. Heck, some of them are making a petition to not get Aya Hirano a part in some big anime. I don't have a side as to whether Aya has really gone koo-koo or not (I'm rather indifferent towards her person and I can't say I'm a fan of Haruhi), but c'mon! >.>

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Proto

It's the fan role for mixing up two things that should be kept separate in the first place.

I agree with this generally, but I have enough experience to know that in practice this ideal doesn't quite hold up, mostly because people aren't strictly rational beings that can compartmentalize their feelings when needed. This is for a different debate, so I'll just stick to Hirano Aya. I like the character Mikami Chizuko from Nijuu Mensou no Musume, she's one of the top girls on my personal moe charts, and Aaya's performance really sold me that character. At the time the series was airing, her antics barely started popping up in news media, so it was easy to ignore, but a couple of years pass and that girl is still doing it, and I'm an anime fan so I do follow the news, and yeah, it gets old. So forgive me if whenever I hear her voice I think of a hysteric barbie. Even eroge seiyuu know how to work the crowds, so maybe she really isn't fit for this job and her direction to become a TV star isn't that insane. I just wish she'd leave innocent characters out of her business and gtfo of anime asap.

[boredandlazy]

Meh, she can be a crazy bitch for all I care. I'm a fan because of the characters she portrays rather than the person behind the mic.

[wontaek]

Originally Posted by cyth

I don't care about neckbeards raging, but seiyuu should follow proper etiquette. If their money is good enough for her, she should act the way her agency and her fans want her to act. She's not there to sell her mind but her image.

I doubt the pay is that good and believe most voice actors keep a side job or two to make the ends meet. On top of that, I heard that competition for the few available roles for the seiyuu is very fierce, average career life span is rather short, and the choice of alternative career when no longer famous is limited. Can someone check out whether what I heard is mostly true, or mere exaggeration of hardships voice actors have?

[brocko]

Sounds about right with what I've been told as well. Only the really popular and household name VA's can manage to make a living of voice acting alone. Most actually require a 2nd job or two. That's why you see so many hybrid singer/voice acting seiyu.

[Nightbat®]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I mean, similar to what The Joker role might have done to Heath Ledger (Ledger was a great Joker, no doubt about it, and I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but I've read reports that suggested that Ledger was getting a bit too deep in-character, and might have let his own personality get infused with the Joker persona a bit too much).

LOL
The only thing he was too deep in was his medicine addiction, that it showed in his performance and blurred his sense of reality has nothing to do with what character he played

[Leo Keichi]

Originally Posted by raduccio

Don't get me wrong, I think she did a killer job with Haruhi, Konata and Misa and I hope she doesn't leave the industry for good because I'm looking forward to seeing more Haruhi seasons in the future.

But it's not like she's irreplaceable. If she leaves the job, everything the studio must do is find another seiyuu.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Remember that crap over Kannagi being a virgin or not or some shit?

These guys make such a drama. If they're not liking the story, they should just stop reading it and buying the manga. Now if they want to dictate how the author should write it, why they just don't make a story of their own.

[TJR]

Originally Posted by wontaek

I doubt the pay is that good and believe most voice actors keep a side job or two to make the ends meet.

That's true for the majority of voice actors (i.e. all the people doing bit parts, etc.). However, the popular ones make tons of money, hence the recurring demand to break in. Reportedly, Megumi Hayashibara pulled in about a million dollars a year at her peak.

This difference between Hirano and many of her peers is that voice acting was never a career goal. It was intended to be a stepping stone toward something bigger, and it's possible she's become impatient.

[ChainLegacy]

She has a pretty annoying voice, and she's not even that good looking (don't get me wrong she's attractive but the fan worship is entirely unwarranted). Don't really care what happens to her.