>Kawakami Tomoko passed away at 16:45 on 09 June 2011. Source here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-06-10/utena-voice-actress-tomoko-kawakami-passes-away
Two weeks ago, after one and a half years of leaving it as an unfinished project, I finally extracted the internal IDE hard drives from my older computer and slapped them into external enclosures. I hadn't powered on my old computer since January 2010, so I was very happy to find that the hard drives were still functional. One of those drives contained 1.5GB of Aria-related media; on a nostalgic whim, I started listening to the music and drama selections again.
As I re-discovered the world of Aria over the past week, I felt a brief twinge of sadness when I recalled that Kawai Eri, one of the composers and songwriters who also provided the singing voice for the character Athena Glory, had passed away just two years ago at the young age of 43...
Tomoko-san was only 40.
I'll always miss Tomoko (or "Tomo-tomo", as the other Aria cast members called her) as Athena Glory in "Aria".
R.I.P.
-T.Z.
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"I believe that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
Then find someone whose life gives them vodka and have a party."
--Ron White, stand-up comedian.
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