[truehappiness]

IIRC, Nana Mizuki was into doing enka and stuff early on in her career. It also helps that she's a super professional seiyuu/voice actress. It is true that Ayu was never a 'singer' in the sense that she had an amazing voice that was operatic or able to hit high notes/belt easily, but she's able to move people with her songs and I think that's enough for most people... though she gets a lot of flack from people for 'not being able to sing' like she used to. I think it's just a change in technique and a maturation of her voice for the most part.

I don't think her other ear is injured. At least, that was never mentioned before.