Hirano Aya -- Riot Girl??

Hirano Aya's first full album comes out on 16 July, and the name of the album will be...Riot Girl.

I can't help but compare this with the original Riot Grrrl movement. To quote Wikipedia: "Riot grrrl...is an underground feminist punk movement that started in the early 1990s.... Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, and female empowerment. Some bands associated with the movement are: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Le Tigre, Excuse 17, Free Kitten...."

Aya's rock can be a little rough around the edges, but nowhere near as rough as, say, Bratmobile (YouTube). Once again, much as I like Aya's music, she seems a bit of a wannabe at this punk stuff -- which, if you watch the Bratmobile video, might be a good thing.

In any case, the album will feature a number of Aya's old songs (Breakthrough, Bouken Desho Desho, last year's three singles, etc.), as well as some original material. (click photos to enlarge, mouseover for captions)

But this album is far from the only thing Aya is doing these days. She is busier than ever. Besides starring in two current anime -- Nijuumensou no Musume and Zettai Karen Children -- Aaya has been doing live events, appearing on radio and TV, doing PS2 games, has a couple of interesting drama CDs coming up, and is already slated for one fall anime and three summer OVAs.



In anime, both Nijuumensou no Musume and Zettai Karen Children will go right through the summer. A Lucky Star OVA will be released sometime this summer. And Aya appears in Macross Frontier as the Indian crew member Mina.

She will appear in future episodes of the OVA Amuri in Star Ocean as Femina. The next episode of the show will be released on July 25. She will also appear in the OVA series School Rumble 3 as Sasakura Youko, with an episode scheduled for release on 27 July. She will also play, alongside Miyano Mamoru (Light) and Takeuchi Junko (Naruto), in Eguzamurai, an OVA featuring members of the pop group EXILE. Release date will be sometime in July.

In the fall, she will be in the mecha anime Kurogane no Linebarrels, in the supporting role of Mika, alongside an all-star cast including Noto Mamiko, Kakihara Tetsuya, Nakamura Yuuichi, Fukuyama Jun, Sawashiro Miyuki, Ueda Kana, Kugimiya Rie, Nakata Jouji, Ohara Sayaka, Saitou Chiwa, and Shitaya Noriko.



In her work as a "personality" and idol there is her second idol DVD, Love Story, which came out last month. She continues to host two radio shows: Animelo Mix and Say Good Luck.

And she appears every Friday as host of the hour-long film review and interview corner of the Web TV show Midtown TV. Her segment is called "Cinema Renaissance, Princess Aya's Castle." She dresses in a new outfit each week and is co-host with three guys. Her Moegaku 5 kids' show is over, but the DVD of the entire series will go on sale at the beginning of August.




In pure voiceover work, her voice is still heard weekly on the NHK edutainment program Kaitai Shin Show. But I'm not sure if these are new progams or repeats.

And having been one of the subjects of NHK's Anime Giga interview show, on 2 June she will get the honor of appearing on the NHK show Top Runner, which broadcasts features on top performers in the arts. The week before will feature the band Acidman, and the week after will do photographer Ume Kayo. The show's feature from a few years ago on singer Onitsuka Chihiro turned me on to this show.

In live events, she has already been busy. There was a recent Galaxy Angel live event. And she had a mini-live in March connected with the three singles she released last fall. And another in April for the release of her single unnamed world, the Nijuumensou no Musume ED. There will be an event for the Love Story DVD in Tokyo on 22 June. And she will be in Animelo Summer Live 2008, along with Mizuki Nana, Ali Project, Suara, Savage Genius and a long list of other top anime music acts. Let's hope she can do a better job than last year, when she had microphone problems and then was far from her best singing live.



In games, she continues to do only all-ages games. She is in a DS Katekyousha Hitman reborn game that came out at the beginning of May. The PS2 game Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka comes out Thursday in Japan. She will be in a Memories Off PS2 game that comes out in July. A Railway Girls DS game will come out this fall. The PS3 version of Trusty Bell will be out sometime this year. And a Wii version of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is in the works.

It's one of her two upcoming drama CDs that interests me most. On 24 July, she will appear with Tai Yuuki, Yamamoto Maria, and Kanda Akemi in Gakuen Sousei Nekoten (学園創世猫天). But before that, on June 25, she will appear in a drama CD version of the popular TV dorama Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu with Ishida Akira and Ogata Megumi. In the story, a boy's mother dies, but he remembers the story she wrote for him, about a mother who died but promised to reappear at a certain time and place. The boy and his dad go there and find her, but she has no memory of her life with them. Aya has the lead role of the mother. I certainly hope this becomes an anime, because the story is moving, and the mainly serious role would give Aya another character to really sink her teeth into.

So far this year, the two best female lead seiyuu performances I have seen are Koshimizu Ami as Horo in Wolf & Spice, and Aya as Chiko in Nijuumensou no Musume. If this show becomes an anime, I have hopes that Aya could reach similar heights again.
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Take a Trip with Katou Emiri, Gotou Saori, and Asumi Kana

Ever wanted to go on a trip with one of your favorite seiyuus? This might just be your chance.

Katou Emiri, Gotou Saori, and Asumi Kana (below, l-r) will be leading an overnight Natsu Matsuri Fan Tsuaa ("Summer Festival Fan Tour") bus trip from Tokyo to Hamamatsu at the end of September. They will give a live performance at the hotel, as well. Cost of the tour, including transportation, two meals and hotel, will be about US$400.

This is a fairly common thing for seiyuus to do. A few months ago, Koshimizu Ami held a similar event. This one is apparently organized by the seiyuus' agency: Emirin, Saorin, and Asumin are all with the 81 Produce agency.

There will be from one to three 40-passenger buses, depending on how many people sign up. They will leave Tokyo on the morning of Sunday 28 September for the several-hour trip south to Hamamatsu, a city on the east coast just north of Nagoya. The hotel will provide dinner and then breakfast the next day. The mini-live will be after dinner.

Some of the rules are interesting: no photography or video; minors must have parental permission; no large presents for the seiyuu; and no unusual clothing (i.e., no cosplay). I'm sure the seiyuu are a bit apprehensive about what might turn up on the day. Nothing about no foreigners, but you never know.

The hotel people will be staying at is slated to be the Grand Hotel Hamamatsu. There is more info about the trip on this page.

Emirin, who is 24, was Kagami in Lucky Star, as well as being Sakuya in Candy Boy, and Blair in Soul Eater. Three memorable roles, the first of which gained her a "best new seiyuu" award this year.

Saorin, 21, was excellent as Yui in Rakugo Tennyo O-Yui, and was Barasuishou in a couple of Rozen Maiden shows and Karen in Sky Girls. I think she is one of the most beautiful of all active seiyuu, despite the photo above.

Asumin, 24, was Yuno in Hidamari Sketch and Kiyal in Gurren-Laggan, as well as now being Ran (Amu's red heart shugo chara) in Shugo Chara.
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Nijuu-mensou no Musume ep6 -- Wow!

I really can't figure out why this show isn't near the top of more people's lists. The show has an amazing story, some fascinating characters, terrific voice-acting, and outstanding animation. The only thing missing is fanservice -- unless you count one bare foot and some petticoats.

Watching episode one you might have imagined that this was something like Detective Conan or Lupin III. You won't say that when you see episode six. We're about a quarter of the way through the anime, after giving Chiko a new life and a new "family" of friends. Then suddenly....

The overall look is old-fashioned, but the actual animation certainly isn't. There is a scene in episode two where Chiko is lying in bed and wakes up, then realizes someone is sitting next to her and shifts her eyes to see him: it takes six frames to get her eyes from looking straight ahead to looking sideways. Smoooth.

In this episode, there is a fight on top of a train, and finally the antagonist is blown backwards, tumbling over the cars and away into a blizzard. Not extreme detail, but the motion is beautiful. And so is the motion of Chiko running to call Nijuu-mensou so quickly and lightly, or diving through a window.

In any case, we have two great characters at the very least: Nijuu-mensou himself is so extremely cool and controlled, as well as clever and humane. Chiko is a wonderful work in progress, changing a bit in every episode.

Episode summary

The gang is getting away in their zeppelin. Nijuu-mensou congratulates Chiko on her part in the heist, but she is still down because she feels she has betrayed Angie, her new friend who said she was the daughter of the caretaker of the museum from which the gang stole the ancient stone tablet called "the clock of the Magi."

People run after the zeppelin and seem to shoot it down -- but in fact all they have shot down is a smaller model. Nijuu-mensou is so crafty, lol. The gang is at a railway station, ready to make their getaway. Chiko is still depresses and refuses to board the train, going instead to get NJM.




NJM is in conference with the mayor of the town: it turns out that the mayor is the one who got NJM to rescue the "clock of the Magi," because plans were to sell it into private hands after the exhibition. In return, besides a get-away rail car, the mayor gives NJM some papers. We don't know what they are, but NJM mentions that he wants to create a second him. Outside the door, Chiko hears, and says to herself that she hopes he means her.

As the train eventually pulls out, a dumpy man races up to the train and hauls himself aboard. Then he cowers back when he sees a gang with guns drawn rushing onto the train, too: among them are Tora (the tiger) and Angie, showing herself clearly older than she appeared to Chiko.

The plump member of NJM's gang goes down the train corridor to find Chiko, and finds her looking forlornly out a window. As they turn to head back to the gang in their rail car, suddenly he is pierced by a bullet and dies. Chiko looks up to see Angie with a cruel smile, with Tora and his gang.




Tora lets Angie handle Chiko, as the rest rush back with guns drawn toward NJM's gang. In a small compartment, Angie expresses her disdain for the "daughter of Twenty-faces," and says the reality doesn't live up to the reputation. Then she takes out an axe and swings at Chiko, who somersaults out of the way several times, before plunging out the window, which Angie has broken with a missing swing.

Meanwhile, Tora's gang reaches the rail car and opens fire, killing most of NJM's gang outright. Ken, Muta, and the Skipper get away. But soon the guns catch up to them and the Skipper takes bullets that should have killed him immediately, but he turns on two attackers like a bear, gathers them up in his arms and jumps off the train with them beneath him.

Chiko has made her way from the side of the train, which she was hanging from, onto the roof, and crawls forward to get to her friends. But Angie is back with her axe. Chiko someraults away again, but ends up hanging from the lip of the roof. Angie swings the axe at her hand, but Chiko switches hands. Angie tries to pull the axe out of where it is stuck, but ends up losing her balance and being swept away on the wind. Chiko reaches up to save her, but can't.




Chiko finds the train car where most of her friends lie dead. Then she finds Muta-san, wounded but alive. But a remnant member of Tora's gang shoots at her, and Muta interposes his body and takes the bullet, saying "I've enjoyed knowing you" to her as he dies.

In NJM's compartment, Tora holds a gun on him while he invites him to join with him and take over the world. Eventually, NJM says, "I refuse," as he kicks the gun from Tora's hand and shoots him in the chest.




NJM goes out into the corridor and eventually finds Chiko, who bursts into tears as she embraces him. But Tora has a bomb and sets it off, saying he won't die alone. Flames roar through the car toward NJM and Chiko. NJM hurls Chiko across into the next car but stays there himself and is apparently engulfed in the flames as the coupling separates and the burning car recedes from the train. NJM is saying something inaudible to her as Chiko watches the flames surround him. The end.

It's not often we get an anime that spends several episodes building up a cast of characters -- and then kills almost all of them off in one fell swoop. Ken and Nijuu-mensou are the only two who may still be alive, as far as I can tell. Chiko has been cast back into the world of episode one, where she has no friends, and the person who seemed a friend -- Angie -- turns out to have been an enemy. For all its other virtues, it is this world-view that makes me think of this show as something special. And from the preview, it looks as if Chiko will be back with her evil aunt next week. Chilling -- but a great opportunity to hear Hirano Aya and Touma Yumi together again.

If I had to criticise the show, it would be for its "barely believable" aspects: Chiko's dive through the window that doesn't end up with her lying in the snow, but clinging to the side of the train; the way Angie can conceal her huge axe until needed, etc.

But as of now, this is my favorite show of the season, followed by Kurenai and Macross Frontier. As for my amazement that other people don't like this show as much as I do, I guess it's reasonable, seeing that Soul Eater and Code Geass are two of the most popular shows this season, at least outside Japan, and I have dropped both of them. Everyone has their own taste. Thank goodness.

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A Great OP by Utada Hikaru -- Last Friends TV Drama

It's sometimes said that anime songs are sung by seiyuu, by singers just starting their careers, or by singers on the downslide. And TV drama songs are by stars at their peak.

That rule of thumb may not always be true, but it is true of the good new drama Last Friends. Its OP, "Prisoner of Love," is sung by Utada Hikaru. The visuals are great, too, featuring the stars of the dorama: big-name stars including Nagasawa Masami and the wonderful Ueno Juri, who was Nodame in the drama version of Nodame Cantabile.



Last Friends is currently running fifth in the top ten drama ratings, with almost 16% of the audience in its 10 p.m. Thursday timeslot. That's higher than the top-rated anime (Sazae-san is at 14.4%), and five times the ratings of top late-night anime. For more info and to find out how to see the show, check D-Addicts. There is a full wiki here outlining the plot. Be prepared for plenty of angst.

Several people are blogging the show. You can find some entries on Anime Nano.
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The Return of Kano Yui -- Wagaya no Oinari-sama, ep5

Kano Yui was wonderful as Momoko in Sumomo mo Momo mo. One of the most hilarious performances I've heard. She even won a (controversial) seiyuu award for the role.

But since then, she hasn't had a really good role -- until now. It may or may not turn out to be a major role, but YunYun is funny and touching as Sakura Misaki in episode 5 of Wagaya no Oinari-sama, a show which is so far memorable only for its seiyuus, which include Yukana and Hayami Saori.



Now, it's not as if Yui (known as "YunYun") has completely disappeared since Sumomo. She is hosting four different radio programs right now, and has done voiceover for various TV shows, as well as having had minor roles in several anime. The most interesting of these have been as Momota in Himawari!! and as Karla and Pamela in Claymore. She is also in a seiyuu singing group called YumeYura.

Misaki in Wagaya is something like Momoko in Sumomo -- in love and scheming how to get her man. Not anywhere near as direct about it as Momoko, but just as comic. Yui uses a similar tight, quick, self-absorbed delivery in both roles.


Above, l-r: Yui with Katou Emiri, with Miyazaki Ui and Hirano Aya last spring, and with Ui again, this spring. Clearly, when she has a cold or flu, the beautiful Ui follows the sensible East Asian custom of wearing a mask to protect others.

YunYun in real life comes across as just as loopy as Misaki or Momoko, but there is actually a lot to her. She is an only child from a fairly well-off family, and lists her special skills as ikebana, tea ceremony, and koto. When she was 15, she won a script-writing contest on a radio show hosted by Koyasu Takehito, and her script was recorded as a drama CD.

At the same time, Katou Emiri (who also won a seiyuu award, for Kagami in Lucky Star) was one of her high-school classmates, and they played in the same band: YunYun on bass and keyboards, Emirin on drums. In fact, it was YunYun who suggested Emirin come along to see a seiyuu college, and they entered the college together. She is still good friends with Emirin, and also with Miyazaki Ui. She says she and Ui always seem to be on the same wavelength. That would be a far-out wavelength.

Anime News Network
Wikipedia Japan
Yui's blog
Yui's profile
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Young Seiyuus in Current Anime -- Kurenai, Wagaya no Oinari-sama

Teenage and younger seiyuus are nothing new. Yuzuyu in Aishiteruze Baby was played by nine-year-old Tsuzurahara Miyu. And Hirano Aya was 14 when she played Lumière in Kiddy Grade.

This season we have two 16-year-olds giving fine performances, and an eleven-year-old giving a convincing performance as a six-year-old.

Seven-year-old Murasaki (not nine), the heart of Kurenai, is played brilliantly by 16-year-old Yuuki Aoi 悠木碧. Yuuki-san already has quite a resumé, including three films and a number of TV dramas.

Playing Murasaki, her voice is true to the character and very expressive. It occasionally goes off the deep end, but so do most seven-year-olds. Yuuki-san has already had some anime roles, under her previous name of Yabusaki Aoi. She was Marika, Yuzuyu's rival, in Aishiteruze, and has a continuing role as Yumeno Koto in Onegai My Melody.

Also in Kurenai, six-year-old Chizuru is the victim of Murasaki's enthusiastic game-playing in episode five. As Anime Princess wrote, she sounds like a real six-year-old. And she is played by a real eleven-year-old, Imagawa Reina 今川怜奈. Imagawa-san has already been in TV dramas and commercials, but this is her first anime.

It's appropriate that these two young seiyuu should be acting opposite Sawashiro Miyuki, who started her own anime career at fourteen, as Petit Charat in Di Gi Charat. Will these two become pro seiyuus of the same quality as Miyokichi? Hard to say for someone as young as Imagawa Reina, but Yuuki Aoi's acting talent is obvious, and I expect to hear more from her.

The third young seiyuu I want to mention is at another level already. Hayami Saori 早見沙織 broke into anime at 15, playing the heroine Momoka in Touka Gettan. Now 16, she is playing Kou, a powerful but clumsy young priestess, in Wagaya no Oinari-sama. Some posters on the Japanese forum 2channel have said that they thought they were hearing Mamiko Noto, and were surprised to find out it was this young newcomer.

Hayamin has a voice that is already fairly professional, and gives subtlety to the Nagato Yuki-like expressionlessness of Kou. Her singing voice is more than slightly professional. When she left the booth after recording the ED for Touka Gettan, the staff spontaneously applauded. Her ED for Wagaya no Oinari-sama is my favorite anime music of the season.

The 2channel consensus is that as a seiyuu she is good and getting better, and as a singer she is already at a high professional level -- the kind of level I hear when I listen to Sakamoto Maaya's OP for Escaflowne, recorded when she made her anime debut at 16.
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Neo-Angelique Abyss -- Character/Seiyuu Pics

Neo-Angelique Abyss is the latest series in a franchise of reverse-harem fantasies centred around a sweet teenage girl who is the future Queen of the Universe and has the power to sweep away evil in a burst of bright light.

I know of two other Angelique series and three OVAs, and this is the best I have seen. Some of the staff from Corda D'Oro has come in to refresh the franchise. The bishounen guardians who surround Angelique are really bishounen, and Ange herself is lovely. The show is set in an analog of 18th century Europe, and is full of bishounen fanservice, as well as the fanservice of Ange's rather loli-goth outfits, beautiful rooms in beautiful castles, etc.

As in all the other shows in the franchise, the voice-acting is excellent. This time, we have up-and-coming Endou Aya in the title role, as well as such lovely male voices as Takahashi Hiroki, Ohkawa Toru, Onosaka Masaya, Ono Daisuke, Hirakawa Daisuke, Nakamura Yuuichi, Irino Miyu, and others.

To help me keep all these voices straight, and to keep the many characters straight, I have made a page with pictures of each main character and their VA, as well as a bit of info about the VA. Click here or on the image to go to the full page:

Now, I admit that you might not want to know what some of the voice actors actually look like, after hearing their beautiful voices. But in the interests of greater knowledge....

Even the presence of monsters -- something that usually makes a show hard for me to watch -- cannot dampen my affection for this show. Most episodes involve the group finding a monster -- part of the evil Thanatos -- and the guardians first weakening it, then Ange summoning her power and flushing it away in a burst of light.

But Ange's doubts and determination, and her relationships with the various guardians, and the guardians' various personalities, add a lot of interest. If you haven't seen an Angelique show before -- and especially if you have -- give this series a try. It raises the Angelique franchise to a new level, at least through five episodes.

The show is directed by first-time director Katagai Shin, who did storyboards and episode direction on Corda D'Oro, the fine reverse-harem show from a couple of years ago. Character design adaptation is by Fujiota Maki, who was character designer and animation director of Corda. And the lead writer is Yamada Yuka, who was lead writer on Tide-Line Blue, and did script work on Suzuka, Petopeto-san, Bokura ga Ita, Hataraki Man, Mushiuta, etc.
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Hirano Aya Idol DVD "Love Story"

This is Aya's second idol DVD. I guess the first one last fall sold well enough that Spacecraft and Pony Canyon went ahead and made a second. At the moment, a week after its release, it is sitting seventh in sales in the idol DVD category on 7 and Y, and tenth on amazon.co.jp. (click photos to enlarge)



There are several separate sequences, each featuring Aya in a different outfit, two of which are bikinis. More flesh is on view than in the first DVD. There is a loose story, with Aya's voiceover, of her meeting someone and going out with him. She sometimes faces the camera as if the viewer were her date.

But the most interesting parts of the DVD show Aya playing UNO with some girlfriends. The girls sit around playing cards and talking "girl talk" of various kinds with Aya: about what kind of boys attract her, etc. The camera is on Aya the whole time. Several-minute-long segments of this are used to divide the various sequences.



If you've always wondered what her normal voice sounds like (if a seiyuu has a "normal voice"), this may be the place to find out. It isn't the high, speedy cute-girl voice she displays in TV appearances, but the voice of a normal Japanese college student and society girl, it seems to me.

These bits are quite informal, and evidently unscripted -- although they probably had the basic direction of the conversation planned out ahead of time. But you see her thinking, and hear spur-of-the moment jokes from her and others. You never see any of the other girls, who may be her manager and stylist, etc.

In any case, as usual, Aya comes across to me as a fairly smart, natural, and attractive person. Not a quick-thinking, sophisticated entertainer, but more like an ordinary college student (even though she did drop out in first year, probably due to work pressure). The topics are somewhat interesting and amusing, but nothing deep at all. My ability to understand rapid colloquial Japanese is highly imperfect, though, so I'd be glad to hear from others what impression they got from the talk.



I enjoyed the whole DVD, including the bikini pics, but I admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable with the progressive uncovering. Some people on 2channel keep saying she will end up in adult videos. That won't happen, but I hope commercial pressures don't move her too close to it. The idol videos selling more than hers look as if they tend to be more uncovered, too.



As in her blog, she is determined to show us that she is now an adult. One sequence has her as a stylish woman drinking at a bar -- and also as the bartender.



The shooting was done in Guam. They flew her there for a weekend last winter.

The region-free 41-minute DVD is available from Amazon Japan (US$28 + shipping) and other sources.



But if you just want to hear her work as a seiyuu, I can't recommend too highly the current anime Nijuu-mensou no Musume (it's also called Chico, Daughter of the Phantom Thief, or The Daughter of Twenty-Faces). For me, this is among her best seiyuu work, especially from episode 3 on. Nothing could be more different from Konata. If anything, it's more like a young version of her voice as Layla in NANA.
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Sakamoto Maaya #3, Hirano Aya #20

In their first week on the Oricon music charts, Sakamoto Maaya's Triangular (Macross F OP) came in at #3, while Hirano Aya's unnamed world (Nijuumensou no Musume ED) was #20.

Here is a list, from 2channel, of the placing of various anime-related songs on the charts over the past week, with sales figures:

#3 Triangular - Sakamoto Maaya (Macross F OP, 31,270)
#20 unnamed world - Hirano Aya (Nijuumensou no Musume ED, 7808)
#22 Sakura Amaneku Sekai - yozuka (Da Capo 2 SS OP, 7396)
#26 Dear Prince - Ikemen Samurai (Prince of Tennis tie-in, 6527)
#31 Bokutachi no Yukue - CooRie (Da Capo 2 SS ED, 5160)
#36 Love Jump - Kuribayashi Minami (Kurenai OP, 4166)
#39 Koi no Honoo - Sakakibara Yui (Kanokon ED, 3689)
#43 Phosphor - Miyazaki Ui (Kanokon OP, 3096)
#48 Chousai Kenbo Sengen - MOSAIC.WAV (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki OP, 2732)

Hirano's, Sakakibara Yui's, and MOSAIC.WAV's are the songs that I personally enjoy most, at the moment. The anti-Hirano people once again are posting on 2channel that she's finished and that her fans are crying because she didn't get into the top ten. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But as I have been saying for the past year and a half, she is making one last attempt to be an idol/personality/singing star and it may work and it may not. I don't know what level of sales is acceptable to her backers. I love her recent music, but it doesn't seem geared to the market. Her second idol DVD just came out this week, too. I don't have sales figures for that, yet. She has at least got her face on TV quite a bit over the past few months, and I suspect she is getting comparatively good money for her seiyuu work these days. From what I can gather from her blog, at least she is making enough that, at 20, she no longer lives at home.
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