Aoi Shouta - flower MV by shoutans

I cannot believe I would be so obsessed with this song--

First time I watched the short ver. on Youtube I was "meh" with the track despite the fact the MV looked pretty.

AND THEN I GAVE IT ANOTHER WATCH A MONTH LATER...AND SUDDENLY I GOT HOOKED WTF.

Mind you, I didn't even like Shouta in the first place (partly cause he looked too pretty to be real...I thought he resembled one of those ulzzangs or something...-.-") but because my other seiyuu friends kept exposing me to Shouta and even made me sit through his entire live concert from last year (?) or something, I think I gradually warmed up to him. orz

He really is a talented singer, I'll give you that. This song doesn't really do him justice. People should check out his live performances instead. c'x

Amongst all the other seiyuus in Japan, he has one of the most recognisable voices out there, especially when he sings. I was kinda put off by his almost exaggerated vibrato when I first discovered him, but I'm always weak for guys with feminine-ish voices so...orz The combination of his unique vibrato and the high tenor quality in his voice makes him stand out from the rest.

A lot of Shouta's past works also show off his androgynous side - he's unafraid to experiment (there were photos of him dressed up glamorously as a blue mermaid floating around on the net - found out later that he played the main female character in a recent stageplay called 'Smile Mermaid'). I'm no SJW and nor am I an expert in gender studies but I must say, it's interesting how he constantly challenges and pushes the norms like this.

Yet, he continues to remain humble and modest, and Shouta stans are always raving on about how much he cares and spoils his fans. Apparently he had a bit of a traumatic experience with singing and playing piano at the same time before and hence he has developed a bit of a phobia over it. Yet, for one of his concerts, he presented his fans with live piano and singing at the same time even though it was evident he was very nervous and shaky at first. He apparently practiced this particular song over and over again a month beforehand.

So...yeah. I still can't believe I used to hate Aoi Shouta. OTL He's a gem.