PV / Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

Takagaki Ayahi – Kimi ga Iru Basho PV (Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin ED)

[flv:Takagaki_Ayahi_Kimi_ga_Iru_Basho_PV.mp4 550 310]

Takagaki Ayahi’s solo debut single was released last week (7/21) and bundled with the limited edition is the PV to the title track, “Kimi ga Iru Basho”. As a member of the seiyuu group sphere, Ayahi’s solo precedes Kotobuki Minako’s by a couple of months, but seems to be part of some master plan by their record label, Music Ray’n (a subdivision of Sony Music Entertainment Japan), to milk their four singers for everything they can. Tomatsu Haruka already had her solo debut prior to the formation of sphere, whereas Toyosaki Aki had hers not too long after. The fact that they all have official websites under their own .com domains sort of reiterates how much they’re being promoted separately and together, which is actually nice to see since seiyuu groups don’t tend to last very long. I find sphere to be one of the better groups to come along since all the girls can sing well enough on their own to justify solo debuts, so it’ll be interesting to see how much more of their music is featured in upcoming anime.

As for Ayahi’s debut single that’s featured as the ending theme of Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin this season, I thought it was a really catchy song when I first heard it, which was only overshadowed a bit by the ending sequence featuring real kids. In comparison, I find the full version even better, which is something I tend to say a lot but isn’t always the case. (Lia’s CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ OP and MUCC’s Senkou no Night Raid OP come to mind.) What’s interesting to note about the petite girl with the big voice is that her single also features a third English track titled “You Raise Me Up” (see below), an inspirational New Age song written by Secret Garden and covered by over a hundred artists to date. Ayahi’s English pronunciation isn’t perfect, but her opera singing skills do come through a bit in that song. She did attend and graduate from a music university after all, so it’s nice to see her finally get into the music industry on top of being a seiyuu.

Her singing profession doesn’t take precedence over her acting one however, as she currently plays Kuroki Ami in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin and stars as the lovely Ferris Eris in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (a.k.a. The Legend of the Legendary Heroes). She also narrates in Asobi ni Iku yo, alongside all the other sphere members’ roles.

[flv:Takagaki_Ayahi_You_Raise_Me_Up.mp3 350 0] “You Raise Me Up”

First Impressions / Seitokai Yakuindomo

Seitokai Yakuindomo – 04

「だから見えないところで着崩してる／おめでたー／だから私はここまででいい」
(Dakara Mienai Tokoro de Kikuzu Shiteru / Omedeta– / Dakara Watashi wa Koko Made de Ii)
“That’s Why The Unseen Places Are Sluttish / Congratulations / I’m Fine From Here On”

This series still never reaches laugh-till-you-cry levels with its quick delivery of gags, but I continue to enjoy its witty way of going about the perverse nature of it all.

Black Rock Shooter / First Impressions / OVA/Movie / Series Introduction

Black Rock Shooter – OVA

I’m admittedly not a big fan of the Hatsune Miku nor vocaloids in general, but when supercell‘s illustrator Huke designs an original character named “Black Rock Shooter”, composer Ryo writes a song titled after her for Miku to sing, and everyone can barely contain themselves after learning that a 50-min OVA was going to be made, it felt like I was going to start getting death threats if I didn’t blog about it.

Darker than BLACK / Final Impressions / First Impressions / OVA/Movie

Darker than BLACK – Gaiden 04 (END)

Another two months and two BD/DVD volume releases later, we have the final episode of the Darker than BLACK Gaiden prequel to the events in Ryuusei no Gemini. The best part of this finale is that it actually made sense of the ending we saw seven months ago, which many will recall came somewhat out of the blue.

First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

CAT SHIT ONE – 01

At first glance, the title of Kobayashi Motofumi‘s manga will probably make one think it’s about cats doing their business, while mention of bunnies may suggest it’s one of those cute and cuddling type of shows, but what we actually have here is a war-based series where looking cute doesn’t save you from getting shot in the head.