Who is Gabriela Robin?
Appearing regularly on CD's by Yoko Kanno, credited for lyrics and vocals, such as Grace Omega on the Jin-Roh OST, she has never been seen, her name not encountered on any other CD's, in fact no information was available about her at all. For for a long time, fans wondered who this mysterious woman with the beautiful voice, as featured on many anime soundtracks such as Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop and Jin Roh, to name a few, was. But the solution, although never officially confirmed by Kanno, sounds so simple, yet conclusive: Robin is Kanno.
Here's the evidence:
- Macross Plus: on the CD's the vocal performance and lyrics of Santi-U is credited to Gabriela Robin, but in the movies credits, it's credited to Kanno. Yet the voice sounds the same... Additionally, she mentioned in an interview in the japanese Newtype, that she wrote the lyrics for Santi-U herself.
- Hajime Mizoguchi's solo album "Aqua Colors in Paris": This album contains a vocal by Kanno. The voice sounds just like that of Robin in Torch Song, Ring and Santi-U.
- Cowboy Bebop Session #0 Interview: The track Cats on Mars (sung by Robin) is playing in background, so the voices of Kanno and Robin can be directly compared. Notice a difference? I didn't...
- Anime Expo '99: When asked about the identity of Robin, or if she was a singer as well, she declined to answer...
All in all conclusive evidence, it seems to me. But you decide for yourself... As for the reason, your guess is as good as mine.