I'm out of my obsession of 番凩（つがゐこがらし） (ie. singing it no more than three times a day now) and somewhat moving into another one, Sakamoto Maaya.

Just finished watching Maaya's 15th Anniversary Memorial Live @ Budoukan yesterday, and I'm seriously considering to just pay shipping and order it from Amazon.co.jp (along with a couple other BD movies). I just need to find a shipping address and maybe wait for the 2nd Gundam UC chapter release...

Maaya is the first seiyuu that I also acknowledge to be a great singer. Not only is she awesome in voice acting, she has a wonderful and crystalline singing voice. She's my 3rd favourite female seiyuu, and I've been singing along her songs the most out of all the seiyuu I listen to.

(While that may not seem like much, let me give you a bit a statistics. According to my last.fm chart over a span of almost five years, out of the top ten vocal artists I listen to, four are seiyuu, two are Vocaloids, one is a singer on Niconico, and one used to be doujin. If you extend the list to the top 20 vocal artists, eight are seiyuu. If you really want to push to top 30, 11 are seiyuu.)

(On a side note, there's only one seiyuu in my top ten artists, where seven are composers for anime or games.)

Her concert costumes were specially made for the occasion and more flamboyant than her usual style, but even the idol-like "gift" costume and lace-seamed dress couldn't link your typical idol image to her. The swinging of her hips and the tilting of her head, gestures often used by idols to fake cuteness, only made Maaya all the more innocent.

Kanno Yoko is always a pleasant surprise whenever she appears as a special guest, but it's especially meaningful here when she was the one that discovered and helped shaped Maaya 15 years ago. Too bad "Triangular" wasn't part of the program, so everyone was seriously teased when she sang the one line with Kanno Yoko on piano.

Maaya's live concert happened on her 30th birthday, and she shared a lot about her journey over the years. There was no drama, just Maaya as is. I almost cried during "everywhere" after hearing her account of travelling in Europe for five weeks all by herself, and tears escaped when Maaya bowed one last time at the end of the concert. I've watched a number of live performances, but this was the first to had moved me to tears. Real music isn't just about the sound produced from vibrations in the air, but the stories and emotions behind each note and word.

真綾さんのように、私も毎日を楽しんで過ごしてるよ～