#Why is it that Aya Hirano's career was nearly ruined for being an adult woman with a private life?

[margridarnauds]

I didn’t want to really comment on this because I felt like this situation deserved as much delicacy as possible, that the families are already going through too much and deserve privacy, not a public circus, and that there was nothing that I could really say that no one else had said, but after seeing some truly foul things in Sayaka Kanda’s tag and wanting to see them thoroughly buried, here is my opinion on her: 

I didn’t know her personally, just like every single other person on Tumblr. I didn’t. I don’t know what she was like, I can’t comment on it. 

Here’s what I can say: She was one of the single most talented musical theatre stars I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing on stage. She was an absolutely stunning Olympe, someone who gave her vitality and anger and passion and tenderness. In my time, I’ve seen a lot of actors and actresses on the Japanese stage, there are a lot I’ve liked. She was one of the few that I actively followed. There was always this great...energy to her characters, never in a grating way, but in a way that allowed you to feel what the characters were feeling, and she had a strong, clear voice. I always knew, when looking into any production of hers, that I could be absolutely certain as far as the quality of the performance. 

And now she’s gone. And I can’t imagine what it’s like for her family, because even as someone who didn’t know her, I’m feeling a void, this sense of a “before” and an “after”. It’s hard to realize that I’m never going to see another PV with her face in it, or see an Instagram update, or consider buying a proshot because she’s in it. The world of Japanese musicals has lost...such an incredibly bright star, someone who, in many ways, defined JMusicals for me.  

And if I see one more person. One more person. In her tag to spread hate in some misaimed crusade, I’m going to start chewing glass. I don’t honestly care how long ago the posts were made, they’re all a symptom. She was relentlessly hounded about her private life, judged, had her name dragged through the mud, and told that she would never be forgiven for the crime of saying that she didn’t want to have children with her husband because she came from a divorced home. And I don’t want to speculate more, but given the investigation and the current theories around her death, seeing those posts and having the hindsight to know what would happen leaves a REALLY bad taste in my mouth. 

She was just 35 years old, guys, for the love of God. She should have had so much more time.