Minako Honda was born Minako Kudo in 1967 in Japan. She was groomed to be something along the lines of Madonna, although a cuter teen version. She mixed with member of Queen, resulting in Brian May writing songs for her, as did guitar hero Gary Moore . After her idol peak she has recorded a number of anime themes, including Magic Knights Rayearth, Ashita No Nadja. She has also performed in popular stage productions of Les Miserables, Miss Saigon. She even began performing classical music with some level of success. Sadly, in January 2005 she was hospitalized with acute myeloid leukemia, and her health went into decline. Despite treatments, including a bone marrow transplant, her condition did not improve. On November 6, 2005 she succumbed to the disease at the age of 38 ( excerpt by uploader of this video )