For everyone that has been a fan of something or another, the people and things involed deliver to you a moment that makes more of a fan than you could’ve ever imagined. For me those moments included hearing Dave Grohl play Everlong in acoustic for the first time, or when House wrapped up his lecture in his Oscar winning episode “Three Stories” leaving his students rather somber and deep with thought, and yes even in anime when Megumi Hayashibara began chanting “Dragon Slave” in the first Slayers Movie. Another moment for me was in “Aria THE ANIMATION” when Kawai Eri became the singing voice of Athena and sang Barcarolle into the night from her bedroom window (see image above). As a fan and a “member of the press” there was nothing more that I wanted in that moment than to meet the person behind that voice. It looks like my plans are going to be delayed for sometime.
I recieved word that Kawi Eri passed away on the 4th of August at 11:40pm. Aside from Aria, she has also been credited in titles such as “AIR the Move”, “Utawaremono”, “Bamboo Blade”, “Strange Dawn”, and another favorite of mine “Tales of Symphonia”. It has been reported that she has been ill for some time and died from a terminal disease. No information was given about the disease. Her website http://www.goocompany.co.jp/eri_kawai/ has been flooded with traffic to the point that it is has been shut down from time to time.
For now there will be a wake for her on August 6th and the funeral will be held the following day (August 7th) in Taito, Tokyo.
Source: j1m0ne’s Blog