From Koshimizu Ami's Blog

Amisuke began July with her first venture into being a producer. She produced a little show at the Ginja club of the big karaoke chain Pasera. Ami and seiyuu guests sang anime songs of 1995. By all reports, the show went off well enough. Posters on 2channel said that the venue seemed full. The only complaints were from some attendees who wanted to sing more themselves. That sentiment was probably not widely shared.

Below (l-r) Amisuke with her co-performers: her good friend Sanpei Yuuko (Renton in Eureka7, Souta in later episodes of Otogijushi Akazukin), Hanamura Satomi (Anise Azeat in Galaxy Angelune), and Abe Reiko (TV, radio, idol unit Pallet, Noriko in Strawberry Panic). Photo from Ami's blog.



Below left is Ami with her special guest at the event, Kasahara Hiroko (Nanako in Oniisama-e, etc., etc., and singer of three OPs in 1995). A couple of days before the event, Ami went to karaoke to practice with her friends "Pe" (Sanpei Yuuko) and Mizusawa Fumie ( Wapourif in Simoun, Juliet in RomeoxJuliet). Fumie didn't look very Juliet-like as she sang with abandon:



The next time we see Ami in her blog, she is at the hairdresser's, having her hair tamed. Two days later, Pe has a pic of herself in her own blog, getting hers cut:



Amisuke is now co-host of "Saki Radio" with Ueda Kana (Yumi in Marimite, Hazumu in Kashimashi, etc., etc.). The show is publicity for the drama CD (and probably a future anime) based on the manga Saki, which is about two high school girls who are champion mah jong players. Here's a photo from the show's website, and one from Ami's blog, with guest Itou Shizuka (Rei in Marimite, Eika in Sky Girls, etc., etc.):



Finally, just today, Ami gives us another in the continuing series of pictures showing the fated connection between her and her friend Pe. They happened to buy the same socks, with little strawberries on them. This goes with such things as the fact that they were born two weeks apart in 1986, and the fact that they both got exactly the same fortune at New Year's last year:



Ami can be heard now as Yayoi in Idolmaster Xenoglossia and in a week or so as Karen in the final two episodes of (the first season of?) Code Geass, and as AIKa in the second episode of the OVA AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission.

Horie Yui Leaves Arts Vision?

It appears that Horie Yui really has left her long-time agency, Arts Vision. There has been no official announcement, but her name is no longer on the list of seiyuus on the Arts Vision site.

Following the arrest of the president of the company for sexual assault of a teenaged aspiring seiyuu, the company's website shut down. The site showed only an apology and the news that the old president had resigned and a new one had been named to come in and make sure such things didn't happen again. When the site came back up recently, Hocchan's name was not there.

There were salacious rumors all over 2channel, of course, and Hocchan herself posted thanking her fans for their concern, and her agency for its support over the years, and implying that such things had never happened to her. But the editor of Seiyuu Grand Prix magazine has said that she has left Arts Vision and become independent. The absence of her name on the list seems to confirm that.

It remains to be seen if a change of management will make any change in the kinds of roles and concerts we see Hocchan doing. My sense is that she is a fairly strong force herself, and was probably already guiding her own career.

Sanpei Yuuko and Morinaga Rika have also left Arts Vision's sister agency, I"m Enterprise, to become independent.

Lucky Star VAs Meet Their Fans

The four main VAs in Lucky Star -- Hirano Aya (Konata), Katou Emiri (Kagami), Fukuhara Kaori (Tsukasa), and Endou Aya (Miyuki) -- held two "handshake meeting" events last weekend, and will hold two more this coming weekend.

These events are pretty common for seiyuus in Japan. Otaku line up and each gets a chance to shake hands and have a brief conversation with each seiyuu. Here are a picture of the group and of the session, from Katou Emiri's blog. (back, l-r) Endou Aya, Fukuhara Kaori, Hirano Aya, Katou Emiri; (front) Shiraishi Minoru, who apparently kept everyone entertained.



Katou-san thanked everyone for coming and said that although it was the first time she'd ever done one, it was a lot of fun to be able to speak with people one to one. She thanked the people who gave her gifts.

On Fukuhara Kaori's blog, she said that it was great to meet people and that it made her very happy that so many people knew her name and even remembered things she had posted on her blog. She said she was very nervous at first, and apologized if she had seemed uncomfortable. She also thanked people for their gifts and notes, and said that the whole thing really energized her.



Hirano Aya was the first to post something about the event, on her blog, and thanked people for coming out in such bad weather. She mentioned that the weather miraculously cleared up for them. She said that didnt make her a "clear-weather girl" 晴れ女 who brought good weather, but implied that the weather did keep clearing up for her events. On 2channel, people said that Aya was indeed a "clear weather girl." Aya said it had been a long time since she had done one of these, and she enjoyed it and invited people to the ones this coming weekend.



Last weekend's sessions were at the Animate and Gamers stores in Omiya, which is on the outskirts of Tokyo. They shook hands with around 200 people at Animate. The attendees got their places by going to stores ahead of time to register for a chance to get a ticket. Next Saturday's events will be at the main Animate and Gamers stores in Akihabara, in Tokyo. Animate and Gamers are big anime-manga-game chains.