Marcos V's article on Aice5 was a revelation in that seiyuu Yui Horie（堀江由衣）was part of the quintet. And so, that has finally gotten me to gab a bit on the role that I know her best at this writing: her alter-ego Miss Monochrome（ミス・モノクローム）.
My anime buddy has been providing me with the information on her over the years. One tidbit was that Horie created Miss Monochrome as a character at her concerts when then either her or someone else decided that the young-looking but actually aeons-old android would be great having her own anime. Mind you, that first series in 2013 had each episode only being 5 or 10 minutes (can't remember) long. But even in those eps which took up just a fraction of the usual half-hour, I felt that there was a nice kind heart beating in "Miss Monochrome" with the dry deadpan humour of the title character and her sidekick, Ru-chan.
"Miss Monochrome" has now gone ahead into its 3rd season (with longer eps) as of this year, and I've enjoyed all of the theme songs so far, but the one that has been the earworm for me was the ending theme for the first batch of episodes, "Poker Face". Written and composed by Keiichi Kondo（近藤圭一）, Horie should have been awarded "Miss Autotune 2013" for this song. Even without the CG video of Monochrome prancing about, I can still listen to "Poker Face" while doing my translation work and still end up bobbing my head rather animatedly.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDelete"Poker Face" reminded me of another Horie's song called "Coloring". Both are cute auto-tuned songs. Also, it gave me some Mayu Watanabe's "Hikaru Monotachi" feels.
Miss Monochrome looks like a Vocaloid character, but I can see a little bit of Horie in it as well (maybe the hair). Is it really true that the android is old, but young-looking, just like Horie? For me, it makes this woman even more creepy.
Well, Monochrome is Horie's creation so I'm not surprised at the resemblance. The character is indeed millions of years old and has been able to keep herself extremely well preserved (must be using aloe vera). It's kinda ironic then that her friend/rival is played by Kikuko Inoue who has the self-made reputation of being eternally 17 years old (she's three times that now).
DeleteI've got a feeling that Horie is aware of her eccentric looks and behaviour. I just finished watching an anime called "Sore ga Seiyuu da" which featured cameos by the actual seiyuu of which Horie was one. Most of her appearances had her looking distinctly nerdy and weird.