Twitter | VGMDB | Blog (old) Happy Birthday, Mei Ayakura!!! I've wanted to do a post like this for a long time, and it looks like I made it just in time for her birthday. There are a ton of doujin vocalists that I love listening to, but Mei Ayakura has a special place in my heart. I titled this post, "the first love" as she is the the first vocalist that I really enjoyed listening to when I started getting into touhou music. Mei Ayakura doesn't need much of an introduction if you're a regular reader here or if you've listened to a lot of touhou music. She's probably most well known for her work with Alstroemeria Records (ALR), but she actually started her "career" in 2008 at Anipix at quite a young age (unknown) along with Tsubaki Ichimatsu, hiro.na (Syrufit), and Takuya Sakai (Poplica*). From there, she has branched out to working with well-known circles such as ALR, Syrufit/Poplica, Cytokine, CROW'SCLAW, and Pizuya's Cell. As such, she's mostly featured in electronic, rock, and metal arrangements. How should I describe Mei Ayakura's vocals? She has a young voice in practically all her works, but not young enough to be categorized along with someone like Nachi Sakaue or Yuduki Tsubaki. Mei's voice complement's Tsubaki Ichimatsu's voice very well and can be heard in their duets with Syrufit and Poplica. She has a pretty voice that is quite recognizable. I wish I had a better music vocabulary to actually describe her voice more, but unfortunately I don't :(. Overall though, Mei Ayakura has a voice that works well for most of the works that she is featured in. She has really improved from an amateur into one of the best and most recognizable doujin vocalists around. According to VGMDB, Mei Ayakura clocks in at an impressive 86 albums credited as a performer. In addition, she was also a lyricist in many of Syrufit/Poplica and ALR's albums. I won't claim to have heard every single track with Mei in it, but I've heard almost all of her works with ALR, Syrufit/Poplica, and CROW'SCLAW. Let's take a look at some of my favorite arrangements featuring Mei Ayakura! [2008] Anipix - InnocentCan you guys believe it? Mei Ayakura and Tsubaki Ichimatsu have both been making doujin music for over 7 years now. The uploader of this video claims that Tsubaki was 14 years old when she recorded this, which means that Mei is probably around a similar age! Listening to this track, you can really hear just how amateurish they both sound. Definitely not what I'm used to hearing from the both of them, but that's all in age and experience I suppose! It's far from their best work, but Innocent is definitely a notable one. [2009] Syrufit - lure me toSyrufit and Mei Ayakura are simply amazing together. After all, they started the doujin business together! In this arrangement, we get to hear Mei's beautiful voice carry the main melody of Night Bird. [2009] kimino-museum - 二色蓮華蝶Another Mei Ayakura/Tsubaki Ichimatsu duet. One year later, these two girls have started to sound better but they both haven't quite reached their potential just yet. However... they just sound so damn good together! This is their first and only work with kimino-museum. It's a shame because I think they would have been great matches with kimino-museum's rock style. They certainly would have complemented fi-fy and 723 (kimono-museum's vocalists) well. [2010] Alstroemeria Records {REDALiCE} - Romantic NightYeah, the video title says ALR but the actual arrangement is done by REDALiCE. The arrangement is from Double Counterpoint though, which is a collaboration by ALR and Syrufit. Anyways, this track is a bit on the softer and slower slide, which places more of an emphasis on Mei Ayakura's voice. It just fits so well here, doesn't it? [2010] Alstroemeria Records - Romantic FallThe first actual track by Alstroemeria Records in this list, and damn it's a good one. You can really hear just how much better Mei Ayakura has gotten over the course of about a year and a half. The vibrant energy in her singing really completes this song. [2010] Poplica* - Melt in the skyWell I said that Syrufit and Mei Ayakura were amazing together, however... Poplica x Mei Ayakura is perfection. This is one of my favorite tracks by Poplica, and one of my favorites with Mei as well. With Syrufit's recording/mastering skills, you can hear Mei's voice so clearly in this track! And wow... it really show's off how good of a singer she is. Her voice sounds so sweet and has this ephemeral quality to it. [2011] Syrufit {Hiratake} - Root_A/EvenescenceOh Hiratake, how I wish you were still making music. Anyways, this is the first taste that we get of Mei Ayakura doing vocals for a rock arrangement. Since this track is in a ballad style, we get to hear a more wistful and sad voice from Mei. You can really hear her pouring out her emotions in this track, more so than most others before it. [2011] Poplica* - P-rhythm Players.Now this is a fun arrangement! I really love the interchanges in voices between Mei Ayakura and Tsubaki Ichimatsu in this song. They've really improved so much in the 2.5 years or so together. You can also hear how much more distinctive their voices have become as well. Tsubaki has the more mature and polite voice while Mei Ayakura has the younger, vibrant, and more fun voice. [2011] Syrufit - 月影少女Ahh... the track that really started it all. My first experience with Syrufit and Mei Ayakura, and my first vocalist love. I feel like I've written about this arrangement on my old "About" page before, but I may have taken it down. Long story short, I discovered 月影少女 through moomar2's Lyrica playlist on YouTube and from there I started listening to all of Syrufit/Poplica's works from there on. Anyways, this track is one of my favorite arrangements of Reimu's Theme, Maiden's Cappricio, and quite simply, one of my favorite touhou arrangements of all time. Not much more needs to be said... just listen to the track and you'll understand why Mei Ayakura became my first love. Special mention goes to Poplica* for his amazing remix of Syrufit's track. There's such a difference between the two's arrangement styles. Poplica really loves to focus on creating a sense of immersion in his arrangements, which can be heard starting around 4:34. [2012] Alstroemeria Records - LionheartThis a pretty amazing arrangement. It's a shame that it's so short! It's also one of the few non-touhou tracks that Mei Ayakura has sung in. [2012] CROW'SCLAW - Rainbows and SunflowerAcoustic Episode is such a rare and special work by CROW'SCLAW, with a focus on acoustic guitar. Considering that this is Taka's first album working as a lyricist and with vocalists, he ended up producing a track that I'd consider to be one of the best works by Taka and Mei Ayakura. Mei's voice her is just so soothing, along with Taka's acoustic guitar rifts. If you liked this track, be sure to track out her other track in the EP. [2013] Alstroemeria Records - CLOUDY WITH INTERMITTENT RAINAhh Camellia... If you're a regular reader here, you'll know that I have a love/hate relationship with this guy. Once in a while, he'll produce top-tier arrangements like Eccentricity, but most of the time I honestly hate his works. This track falls somewhere in-between the two spectrum. While I don't like the opening and build-up too much, I absolutely love the drop. That's where Mei Ayakura's voice really shine in this track. [2013] CROW'SCLAW - Hero of Justice / Black or White
Okay, how are there only a few uploads of CROW'SCLAW's Sepia Recollection tracks on Youtube? That's preposterous! Anyways, this is Mei Ayakura's first take on a metal arrangement. Although I don't think I'll ever understand what the lyrics mean in this track, I have a strong feeling that Mei Ayakura is pouring her soul out here. More Mei Ayakura x Taka please!!! I was so disappointed when I found out that she wasn't on Taka's last album, Angel's Wings. [2014] CROW'SCLAW - Chance / 変わらない風景Well... looks like there's no upload of Caramel Crunch whatsoever on YouTube. Now that's a damn shame cause these two tracks with Mei Ayakura are really fun upbeat rock arrangements. I never get tired of hearing them while i'm driving. They just make me really pumped up! Well, that's about it for the list. Unfortunately there weren't any amazing tracks featuring Mei Ayakura in 2015. Really, last year just consisted of Masayoshi Minoshima (ALR) using her for his evil purposes :P. I kid, but I haven't liked the direction that Alstroemeria Records has taken over the past two years or so. Even Mei's vocals can't save mediocre arrangements. She has done some work for Cytokine and Esquaria in 2015, but I don't like their style that much so I haven't listened to most of those tracks.
Now... I've had lots of fun re-listening to my collection of Mei Ayakura's works and I'd like to close out the post with some hopes and anticipations for the future. I'm really hoping for a good track with ALR x Mei coming sometime this year. If ALR's next album isn't another POP | CULTURE, there may be a chance. Again, I'd like to hear another Taka x Mei track this year as well but vocal albums aren't as common as instrumental ones for CROW'SCLAW. I think a Mei Ayakura + Tsubaki Ichimatsu collaboration album or work (perhaps by ALR?) would be amazing. It's been too long since I heard something with both of them together, with Poplica gone and Syrufit working solely on anime music. A Mei x Shibayan work would be pretty interesting if it were ever to happen as well. This is the first of a series of posts that I'd like to eventually get around to writing. I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I know that there's only a small selection of Mei Ayakura's works in this post, but I believe that they're truly some of her best works. If you like Mei Ayakura, please share some of your favorite tracks below! If you have any comments on this post series, please share them below as well!
1 Comment
Daniel
2/7/2018 06:58:42 pm
I really love some of her works with Camellia such as WI[RE/ED] PUZZLE, and Engrasp. Her amazing voice and and of course Camellia in general go so well together in my opinion.
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Welcome to The Emotional Skyscraper, a blog for touhou/doujin music recommendations, games, visual novels, and other otaku related oddities.
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Games: Atelier Escha & Logy Anime: None Emoskyis a full time otaku & audiophile who enjoys listening to Touhou music, playing doujin games, and reading visual novels. For more information, visit the About page. Categories
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