Hirano Aya, and why she rocks

Hirano Aya is an increasingly popular seiyuu (voice actor) from Aichi prefecture, who's casting in last year's anime hit "Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutzu" made her exceptional talents known to the world.

Born in 1987, you'll notice this made her 17 when she voiced Haruhi.

Not stopping there, she was recently cast as Misa in the Death Note anime, and is the voice of lead character Konata Suzumi in the currently airing series Lucky Star.
Her past works include the voices behind important roles in other series' such as Kiddy Grade, Himawari, NANA, School Rumble, Busou Renkin, Eyeshield 21 and a handful of games too. She was also a member of the short lived band Springs between 2002 and '03.
All this has earned her quite a large fan following.


Now that you know who she is, what sets her apart from the masses of many other decent seiyuu?

Aside from her young age (she was 14 when doing Lumiere's voice in Kiddy Grade), and the fact she's adorably cute, more importantly she's really damn good at her job.
If you want to see a real seiyuu, then watch this Hey x3 interview and you'll see what I mean.


Watched it? Good. Her real voice gave me a heart attack the first time I heard it too.

If you're still not impressed, she was a nominee for 1st place in 4 of the 11 awards at the first Seiyu Awards held last month, and won the best rookie actress award.

Not settling with one talent alone though, she's also a brilliant singer. This was made apparent when she sang Haruhi's insert song "God Knows" (which was an instant chart hit), and other decent songs in the same role including the series OP/ED.
All of the songs stand out from your average anime pieces, and the fact they're all sung in her seiyuu voice is all the more impressive. If you're wondering why, then you didn't watch the video up there ^.

Insert song clip (YouTube).

And there you have it, my favourite voice actor. Go Aya.
Further reading at Ayaism.