This thread is for discussing the lovely Miharu Arisawa of BeForU NEXT. All posts about her work under the name Miharu should go here; her work under the name AYA should go in the AYA thread or the Pinkbeatz thread.

What's everyone's favorite hair color from Miharu? Brown, honey-brown, purple, black, anything else I can't think of? I wanted to see more pictures of her with purple hair.

definitely purple! the worst was the blonde

Her LIVE 2007 Zepp Tokyo hair...so cute!

Hmm...I just realized, I have a shirt that looks very similar to the one she's wearing there. Or at least the top half does.

So I'm writing something in response to what I just read in a spam thread (http://beforu.under-the-sky.net/board/index.php?topic=566.msg12165#new), and noticed that some similar discussions took place here.  I've noticed that there has been some discussion and thoughts about whether Miharu was sick or not, and whether she faked her illness in order to further her own career.  Miharu fanboyism aside, I feel that the few who assumed she did so (rather than merely speculate) may be unfairly judging her character with scant evidence.  I actually feel it's more likely that she really was sick.

First of all, I'm not sure it has been mentioned here before, but upon using google translator in her Cover Girls site (click biography), it says that she has some chronic seizure disorder.  I'm not saying that this is what I think caused her illness, but with all the types of seizures that range in severity, it's something to take into consideration.

Also, my theory is that her original plan was to perform in the December 2007 concert and graduate along with Risa and Noria, but the illness may have just come at an inopportune moment two weeks beforehand, thus making her have to leave and say an abrupt goodbye, which we all witnessed.  IF she really was lying about her illness, she would have saved a total of a whopping two and a half weeks (the 12th of december to the 30th).  And for what?  Why lie about an illness to quit if one was going to quit in a short time anyway?  That really doesn't make much sense to me at all.

I had never noticed that about the seizure disorder. That's a very interesting point. That would be just the sort of problem that could make her need to slow down for a few months.

Wow, I never would have guessed that. That must be terrible, though I have to admit a bit better than some of the other illness theories of what sickness she had.

Yeah, the Cover Girls are very open about their various ailments, in contrast to when they were under Konami in which their info was kept under tight lock and key. (And I thought some of their composers had it bad, what more their vocalists. :p)

Well, on the upside, at least seizures don't tend to interfere with voices (or do they? I'm not really an expert).

I do think that seizures can change vocal chords and part of me is inclined to think that it might have led to her distinctive voice which I find a bit hard to describe - sorta like Shiina Ringo but without the rolling r's and much smoother. (nilmind might know more on this than me, haha)

First to be honest, all my knowledge of seizures were frantically gleaned over along with an entire half a semester's worth of neuroscience a night before my final, so I really don't think I know any more than you do now xP.  However, I have read about instances of people who have recovered from Grand Mal Seizures and only had a falsetto voice for a little while.  To my knowledge, yes, they can affect people's voices, but so far, I haven't heard a case where it's particularly detrimental to someone's voice.