The Melancholy of Haruhi Su...

If you follow anime and you've somehow not been hooked into the Haruhi craze, I'll just say that it's an addictive, well-crafted show with all the elements of an anime cult classic. And for those who have, you're probably well familiar with the series' catchy music: from bouncy, silly J-pop like the opening and ending themes, to the amazing rock song "God Knows...". Well, just yesterday (December 6th), two new character-themed albums were released, for supporting characters Asakura Ryouko and Tsuruya-san, two of my personal favorite characters from the series. Each album contains a version with that character singing the very popular Haruhi ending theme "Hare Hare Yukai", as well as two original songs and the karaoke versions of those two. Unfortunately, they're not yet available outside of Japan, but you can try importing them from Amazon.co.jp but they're pretty pricey, especially with shipping!

In related news, Aya Hirano, the voice actor of Suzumiya Haruhi and singer of "God Knows..." along with several other Haruhi songs, has a very serious health condition. After collapsing during a recording session a few weeks ago, she's made a confession on her blog that the condition, whatever it is, "concerns [her] entire life" and so forth. There have been a lot of rumors that the cause is partly being overworked by her agency, which has her doing 7 TV roles, 3 radio show parts, various jobs singing, and her regular university studies at the same time. In any case, I hope that she'll be better soon, because I really love her singing and voice acting, and she's really cute in interviews because she has this super-high-pitched kid voice normally but then she can be super-deep-voiced and sultry. So wish her luck getting better, too! Be back with more news later.