seiyuu3

sent: So what did you think of Hirano Aya’s Hey!Hey!Hey! appearance?

houkoholic: Compared with Nana-chan’s appearance on the same segment, this one is so tame that it was actually enjoyable to watch. But the thing that got to me first was the number of female fans in the audience.

sent: Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed too. There were a lot of girls! What looked like 70-80 percent.  That doesn’t strike me as a ”random” draw.

houkoholic: I agree, I’d go out on a limb to say it’s definitely rigged. The reason, in my opinion, is that Aya’s management had learnt from Nana-chan’s mistake and rigged the draw so that more females will be in the audience. This is done so that the two hosts won’t have as much ammunition to make fun of the demograph of the fandom, which would be the Akiba-kei people. 

sent: Definitely. Nana’s management probably didn’t know what to expect for her interview on Hey!x3 but it was clear that it didn’t paint her fans in an elegant light. I expect that this time around Aya’s management were very smart to reduce that element as much as possible. Even if it meant that we didn’t get to go I think it was the right way to go. I was impressed with Aya’s handling of the interview too. Though I really wonder if her voice is naturally that high. She undoubtedly wowed the hosts with her display of acting skill there and then.

houkoholic: I think for Aya, she had the advantage of going from a high-pitched kiddy voice to a deeper sexy voice.  Whereas for Nana-chan it was the reverse, so she was caught out by the host because of her “punch line”.

sent: That was a trap and it gave them all they needed to pay out the Akiba-kei even more.

houkoholic: Yes I think so too, and unfortunately for Nana-chan she fell right into it thus giving the impression that she’s catering to the scary bunch of sister-complex otakus.  In Aya’s case I’m sure the girls are otakus too, heck one even wore a Haruhi-style headband, but well, they’re girls which is not the standard stereotype of Akiba-kei, thus the host had nothing to make fun of.

sent: Guys can definitely get too fanatic. The more I think about it the more I’m convinced it was a clever move on the part of her management. It’s a pity that Hey!x3 didn’t feature her live performance more but I expect that it’s more a problem with the length of that segment. The rest of her interview seemed pretty light and on the whole I think put seiyuu/kashuu in a more respectable light.

houkoholic: I think it helps that Aya is a cute 18 year old. :P

sent: Cuteness wins. :P Anyway, I think this is a win for the industry.

houkoholic: Hard to say a win, but it’s good exposure nevertheless. But I still have to say though – poor Nana-chan became the guinea pig. Maybe her documentary will give her the better coverage she deserves. :P

sent: Hey!Hey!Hey! is more about sensationalism I think. :P  I’m expecting much better things from the TBS documentary.

This entry was posted by seiyuu3 on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 16:57 and is filed under テレビ/TV, 平野綾/Hirano Aya, 水樹奈々/Mizuki Nana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.