The Melancholy of Aya Hirano

Editorial Comment

Hysterical Barbie

Fame is a strange bedfellow: some handle it as if it were part of life, and for others it becomes a daunting pillar which they spend their entire life trying to stand upon. Aya Hirano burst on to the world stage a mere four years ago at the age of 18 when she voiced Haruhi. Since that time she’s moved on to a singing career, reprized her Haruhi role several times, was Konata’s voice in Lucky Star and has been searching for her real self in real life.

What is real life you ask? It is that life not on the stage, nor in the studio, those nights sitting in front of a mirror trying desperately to figure out what to do next. There are usually thoughts of “Who am I?” or “How did I manage to get into this dilemma?”

It is the opinion of this writer that Ms. Hirano is suffering a massive identity crisis. Her sudden unexplained illness, canceling of appearances, and hair loss all point to this. Furthermore, the rather garish appearance of her latest album (pictured above) in which she’s adopted yet another unnatural hair color after she promised she would return her hair to its natural color (black), seems to support this conclusion.

More after the jump.

Continue reading

Minori Chihara MV’s

Here we feature Minori Chihara the voice of Yuki Nagato. The first music video is indicative of her normal singing style. This bright and cheery number is only excelled by Minori singing in a rain shower.

The next example is done in the style of the Big Band singers of the 1940’s, here Minori performs Paradise Lost used as the opening theme song to the anime Ga-rei -Zero- in which she voices the main character Kagura Tsuchimiya.

Enjoy…

Minori Chihara Sings For Haruhi Movie

We are really getting close to the cinema showing date for the up and coming film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and the trickle of news items is starting to increase. Minori Chihara, the voice behind Yuki Nagato, has appeared in a six minute long video of her song Yasashii Bōkyaku. While I personally find the song a bit whiny, the video depicts the scenes in Tokyo upon which the Suzumiya series were based in and around. Examples include the hill rising towards the school, the entrance area, the old clubhouse, etc.

Also, in other news Bandai Entertainment has licensed the DVD’s of the second season of Haruhi for the USA. Unfortunately, this also means another dub into English; a waste of time and effort which I frown upon. How anyone can listen and then favour the English dub over the original (and superior) Japanese casting is beyond me.

–Via ANN

25th Single Release for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu

_
A new milestone for our favorite anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was reached after the release of Aya Hirano’s new single Super Driver on Wednesday. Since the release of the first single Bouken de-show de-show? in 2006 the franchise has officially sold over 1 million CD’s across 25 releases. This includes the most popular release of the lot, Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsumeawase, which to date has sold over 200,000 copies and includes personal favorites such as Aya’s God Knows! and Lost My Music.

The latest offering, Super Driver, is certainly catchy in OP form but until I hear it in full length without an animated sequence I cannot judge. This CD should also contain the full length version of Tomare!, the theme to the ED containing the voices of  Minori Chihara and Yuko Goto alongside Aya.

–From ANN