On Sep 19, 2006, at 8:40 PM, Hitoshi Doi wrote:


>
> I have no idea who Hirano Aya is, but she seems to
> be very popular these days.

She was in a otaku favorite, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The  
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)...and perhaps more famously, on Hey!  
Hey! Hey! Music Champ, where we find that she has a really high  
pitched voice (in contrast to her Haruhi voice). She's been in other  
things (like Kiddy Grade, as Lumiere), but I think her role as Haruhi  
caused her popularity to skyrocket...releasing a single (for insert  
songs in the anime) that debuts at #5 in the weekly Oricon charts  
tends to do that, I suppose. ^_^

--Tim
tenton@mac.com