One could believe that losing one great talent would be enough for this week, but the fate has decided to make it even darker and sadder. Today, we were supposed to celebrate the fourth anniversary since Final Fantasy XIII-2 was unveiled at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier, but instead, we have sad news to tell related to the game and a person who worked on it.

On Saturday, ORIGA had passed away at age 44 after losing the fight against aggressive lung cancer. This was reported by a Japanese voice actress Jenya, whose tweet can be found at the end of the post. ORIGA was a Russian pop artist who has performed in many Japanese animes and games, including Final Fantasy XIII-2. Her career took off after gaining international acclaim for her performances of the “Ghost in the Shell” theme songs, which eventually led her working on bigger projects. For the Final Fantasy community, she is best known for singing in Final Fantasy XIII-2 songs like “New Bodhum”, “Historia Crux”, “Missing Link”, “Parallel World” and “Space-Time Interval”.

Rest in peace, Origa. Thank you for everything. Your voice and talent will always be remembered in our minds and hearts.

https://twitter.com/jenya_jp/status/556763307739082752

WHO WAS ORIGA?

Olga “ORIGA” Yakovleva was born on October 12, 1970, in a town of Kochenevo in the Novosibirsk Region of Russia. She began her music studies at age 5. When ORIGA turned 11, she was invited a TV show to perform a song she had written. That was the beginning of her career and a new chapter in her life, where studies of voice and composition never stopped – until today. During her pre-adult years, ORIGA studied at the Novosibirsk Musical College where she participated in various festivals and competitions and gained popularity as a singer. A few years later, she signed a contract with the ROAD & SKY Company and moved to Tokyo to record her first album where she later continued her career as a composer and a singer.

ORIGA has recorded four long play albums, two mini albums and a few selection albums. Her breakthrough was the [EIEN ”Eternity”] album which is the first Russian language album to appear on the Japanese national hit charts. This success opened her new opportunities and soon ORIGA took part in various projects with popular JPOP artists as a back-vocals producer, worked on advertisements and commercials and performed in concerts. As she continued gaining popularity in Japan, her another project made her acknowledged worldwide: Ghost in the Shell.

After and during these milestones, she has been touring and performing around the world. The last years of her life she spend working on her two albums “The Annulet” and “Amon Ra”, she also made a major appearance in Final Fantasy XIII-2 Original Soundtrack in songs like “New Bodhum”, “Historia Crux”, “Missing Link”, “Parallel World” and “Space-Time Interval”.