Maaya Sings in Hellsing Ultimate
Hellsing Ultimate OAV 4 came out on R2 dvd in Japan this week, and apparently Maaya sings in it. But it's not like any of her previous music because she sings in German. duckroll sent me a couple audio clips which you can download or stream below. In the first clip, Maaya sings a German song titled Das Engellandlied (click here for lyrics).

NOTE: The second clip contains some dialogue so there are potential spoilers.

• Hellsing Ultimate clip 1
• Hellsing Ultimate clip 2

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New Song in the Works,
Voice Role in Soul Eater Anime &
Hellsing Ultimate Update
Maaya's official site was recently updated with a statement that she's recorded a new song. No details were mentioned, so it's more of an announcement for an upcoming announcement. In any case, I'm hoping the song is non-CLAMP related.

Maaya has a voice role in the upcoming anime Soul Eater, which debuts on Japanese TV this April. The anime is an adaptation of the manga, and she plays the character of Chrona Makenshi.

To follow-up on my post about Maaya's role in Hellsing Ultimate OAV, the 4th episode should finally come out on 2/22/08 in Japan. The Japanese R2 dvd can be preordered from on-line stores such as CD Japan. The timeframe of a N. American release is still unclear due to Geneon Entertainment shutting down. However, there is a possibilty that Funimation might rescue Hellsing Ultimate. In a recent interview, the CEO of Navarre (parent company of Funimation) stated they are "in very early stages of negotiations to acquire some of the Geneon library of titles."

More Anime Voice Roles
The Hellsing Ultimate OAV isn't the only anime that Maaya is working on. She plays the main female character Shiki Ryogi in Kara no Kyoukai (wikipedia link). The anime is based off a novel series with the same name by TYPE-MOON and is being released as a 7 part movie. Kara no Kyoukai is considered the prototype / predecessor to Tsukihime. The first part of the movie was released in Japan on 12/01/07. I really enjoyed the Tsukihime anime, so I hope Kara no Kyoukai is licensed for the N. American market. There are a few different trailers for the anime, the 3rd one has narration by Maaya. Here's some Youtube links.

• Trailer 1
• Trailer 2
• Trailer 3

Maaya also has a supporting role in the Stranger - Mukoh Hadan movie produced by Bones. The movie came out in Japan theaters on 9/29/07 and is being released on blu-ray on 4/11/08.

Saigo no Kajitsu Page
I added a page for Maaya's newest single, Saigo no Kajitsu. I'm also trying something new on the web site. I've added some "streaming" versions of the sample audio clips which you can listen to on the site. You'll need the Flash Player to listen to them, and the quality is a bit worse than the sample mp3s. I added streaming audio clips on my 30minutes night flight page as well. Let me know what you think at jason@maayasakamotoNOSPAMnet. If people like the streaming clips, I might add them for other cds as well.

30minutes night flight Page
I took some time recently to add a page for Maaya's 30minutes night flight mini-album. While on the same subject, I noticed the limited edition version of the album is currently on sale at a couple on-line stores. The LE includes a R2 dvd that contains the animated PV for the song Universe. Here's links to where the LE is on sale.

• CD Japan
• YesAsia

Saigo no Kajitsu Release
Just 1 more day until Maaya's new single comes out. Well, Saigo no Kajitsu is actually out if you live in Japan. I received a shipping confirmation e-mail from CD Japan this morning, so I should get my copy in the mail towards the end of this week.

On another note, I noticed Rightstuf.com has many Geneon music cds priced down to $6. That's more than half off the suggested retail price of $15. Unfortunately Hotchpotch isn't part of the price downs, but Nikopachi is. These cds are basically out of print due to Geneon ceasing sales in the North American market. Once they are sold out, the only alternative will be importing the Japanese releases (much more expensive). Here's some links to specific Geneon cds that Maaya / Yoko Kanno fans might be interested in.

• Nikopachi
• Hotchpotch
• Arjuna OST
• Memories OST
• Browse all cds on Rightstuf.com

Saigo no Kajitsu Clips and PV
Victor Ent. updated Maaya's official web page with a mini-site for her upcoming single, Saigo no Kajitsu. Content on the mini-site includes the full track list, audio samples and a video stream of the PV. The site also includes a 1 minute video clip of the PV that fans can embed into their own web sites / blogs. It's a pretty cool way of promoting the new single, and I've included the clip below.

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Maaya voice role in Hellsing Ultimate
In my last post about a month ago, I made reference to an new voice acting role Maaya has in a high profile anime series. She will be playing the role of Rip Van Winkle in the upcoming 4th episode of Hellsing Ultimate OAV. There's a teaser trailer which briefly shows her character in action (YouTube link).

OAV 4 was scheduled for release on 10/05/07 in Japan, but has been delayed to 2008. Perhaps more concerning to North American fans is that Geneon Entertainment has stopped sales and basically closed shop at this point (Geneon previously released OAVs 1-3 on dvd). It's likely ep 4 will still come out in N. America from another anime company, but it may be a very long time before it does.

Site Status
I'm sure some Maaya fans wondered if this fansite would ever be updated again. Yep, it's been over a year since I last posted anything on here. To be honest, my interest in Maaya's music has significantly declined since her Shounen Alice album. Her works post Yoko Kanno are not of the same overall quality in my opinion. In any case, I'll continue to leave this site up until maybe one day I finally get sick of it. I think it would be a disservice to existing and new Maaya fans to take it down completely.

So what has Maaya been up to in the past year or so? She released the mini-album "30minutes night flight" in March and performed in a Ragnarok Online 2 concert with Yoko Kanno in South Korea in June. She has a couple music cds coming out soon, see the below news post for details. Maaya is still voice acting in anime, and has a fairly significant role in a high-profile title (I'll provide more details in a future post).

Upcoming CDs
Maaya has two anime related cds coming out this month and next. In October, Victor Entertainment is releasing a cd collection of songs for the CLAMP In Wonderland anime music videos (in conjunction with the upcoming R2 dvd release). Maaya performs one song titled "action!", the other songs on the cd are by other artists. A full track list is on Victor Ent's site. There's also a trailer on the official CLAMP In Wonderland web site for the upcoming dvd release (alternative YouTube link). The trailer uses "action!" as the background music.

• Title: CLAMP In Wonderland 1&2 Theme Song Collection (Precious Songs)
• Catalog #: VTCL-60003
• Release Date: 10/24/07
• Price: ¥1,500
• Song List:
  action!
  • Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto
  • Composition: h-wonder

Following the CLAMP trend over the past couple years, Maaya also performs the ending theme song for the upcoming Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations OAV. The song is titled "Saigo no Kajitsu", and can be heard in a short trailer on the official Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations web site (alternative YouTube link). Victor Ent. has not provided the full track list for the single yet, but here's some details.

• Title: Saigo no Kajitsu
• Catalog #: VTCL-35008
• Release Date: 11/21/07
• Price: ¥1,100
• Song List:
  Saigo no Kajitsu
  • Lyrics: Maaya Sakamoto
  • Composition: Shoko Suzuki