100 Seiyuu Everybody Should Know: 10-1
It’s been both enjoyable and amusing to read recent comments and speculation over the possible list of the final 10 seiyuu on the list and I’ve had to suppress the urge to reply until I actually got the whole thing done. So here we are, finally!
More on Nana: Setting and smashing records left and right, Nana is currently the seiyuu industry’s hottest property and its most prominent spokesperson, although she is primarily known for her singing skill rather than her voice acting ability. In training to become an enka singer from a young age, Nana won a couple of local & regional contests when she was still based in her hometown of Niihama, Ehime and got scouted. She moved to Tokyo and entered Horikoshi Gakuen where famous schoolmates included KinKi Kids singer Dohmoto Tsuyoshi and actress/singer Tomosaka Rie. Mizuki also enrolled in Yoyogi Animation’s seiyuu training school at the same time, graduating in 1997. By 1998 she had landed her first voice acting role in the PS game Noël: La Neige and by 2000 had gotten a recording contract with King Records, releasing her fist single Omoi in December 2000. The going was slow at first but the Nanoha series proved a turning point, its opening theme innocent starter earning Nana her first top 10 hit in 2004 and she has firmly established herself at the top of the seiyuu idol stakes since.
Records: The first seiyuu to achieve a No.1 single, album, DVD and on the modern-day Oricon charts, the first seiyuu to play Yokohama Arena & Saitama Super Arena, the first seiyuu to be invited to the NHK’s year-end song contest Kohaku, all achieved before the age of 30.
Best known roles: Hyuuga Hinata in Naruto series, Fate in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha series, Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist, Lan Fan in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Ogata Rina in White Album, Shinobu in 2×2=Shinobuden, Kirihara Misaki in Darker than Black series, Kururu in Bottle Fairy
Currently heard in: Tegami Bachi (Sylvette), Naruto Shippuuden (Hinata), Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (Lan Fan)
About Seki: One of the finest and voice actors of his generation, not much is known about how Seki got into the seiyuu industry – most of the tales of his youth revolve around his love for gunpla and figures and he actually observed and learned about garage kit manufacturing after spending time at Kaiyodo during his school days. Seki debuted in 1993 as Tomache Massarik in Mobile Suit Victory Gundam and a year later earned the lead role in Mobile Fighter G Gundam as Domon Kasshu. His screaming ability & hot-bloodedness was much valued and got him cast as many mecha/robot anime heroes, but Seki’s versatility is such that it is impossible to typecast him in any particular role, good or bad. He’s kept up his work rate in recent years, balancing voice acting with stage work as the chairman of Hero Hero Q Company.
Best known roles: Sagara Sosuke in Full Metal Panic! series, Kinomoto Toya in Cardcaptor Sakura, Van Fanel in Escaflowne, Domon Kasshu in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Chiaki Shinichi in Nodame Cantabile, Chichiri in Fushigi Yugi, Shindo Shuichi in Gravitation, Ryuki Shi in Saiunkoku Monogatari, Gai Daigoji in Kidou Senkan Nadesico, Sohma Kyo in Fruits Basket
What else you should know: People might remember that Seki was ‘dropped’ from the cast line-up of Mai-HiME follow-up Mai-Otome (‘replaced’ by Konishi Katsuyuki) after producers got cross at him for accidentally leaking out an important plot point about the final episode of the first series. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise for Seki since the sequel wasn’t… particularly good.
Did you know?: Seki was originally asked to audition for the role of Doraemon in the renewal of the classic kids’ series, but he couldn’t pull off the voice required and the producers cast him as Suneo instead.
Currently heard in: Nodame Cantabile Final (Chiaki), Duel Masters Cross (Amachi Ryoga), Doraemon (Suneo)
More on Inoue: Inoue went into seiyuu training school after graduating senior high, having previously entertained hopes of being a pro bowler or a chef – he has a chef’s license and worked as a delivery boy while his parents opened a Chinese restaurant. Making his seiyuu debut in 1973 with a role in Mazinger Z, the cool-voiced Inoue describes his early seiyuu days as being tough and a steep learning curve with directors often berating him for his lack of skill. With a few more years’ experience under his belt Inoue got a major role in Candy Candy in 1976, which increased his profile and set him on the road to fame in the 80s where he voiced a string of characters in popular mecha anime. The early 90s were a leaner period for him, although he did become the representative for the Genki Project agency in 1995 (before eventually leaving to start up his own seiyuu school B-Box in 2005). In the late 90s/early 00s Inoue started coming back into prominence with roles in Gravitation and Saint Beast and in 2009, picked up a Seiyuu Award for his performance in Natsume Yujincho. Throughout his career Inoue has released music CDs and in recent years, tried his hand out at sound directing on Tactics and Ueki no Hosoku.
Best known roles: Asuka Eiji/Albatro Null in SPT Layzner, Dusty Attenborough in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Hatake Kakashi in Naruto series, Madara/Nyanko-sensei in Natsume Yujincho, Anthony Brown in Candy Candy, Yuki Eiri in Gravitation, Yamaoka Shiro in Oishinbo, Jerid Messa in Mobile Suit Z Gundam, Bill Wilcox in Bismark (Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs)
What else you should know: Inoue has been married thrice – his first marriage was to Candy Candy mangaka Igarashi Yumiko, with whom he had two children and his second wife was seiyuu Arakawa Minako. His current spouse is the actress Ochi Shizuka. One of his seiyuu training classmates was the late Gouri Daisuke (who commited suicide on Jan 18) – the two of them worked part-time jobs at McDonalds and soba shops whilst chasing their seiyuu dream.
Currently heard in: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (Gamma), Naruto Shippuuden (Kakashi), Detective Conan (Shiratori)
Nonko’s history: The oldest of three children, Hidaka was brought up in the Chiyoda area of Tokyo by her tailor parents and was a child actress in her younger days, attached to Tokyo Hoei. By the age of 18 she had released her first single under the name Itou Noriko – the song was used as the theme for 1980 anime Futago no Monchhichi. Dropping out of junior college, Nonko pursued the idol route under the management of Sony/CBS, releasing numerous CDs, appearing in ad campaigns for Nivea and on NHK TV shows. However her career stalled quickly and by 22 Hidaka was ready to quit showbiz before a listener on one of her radio shows suggested she try out voice acting because she had a ‘unique’ voice. Acting on this advice, Nonko started going to voice auditions and passed an audition for the role of Musica in The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross in 1984 and a year later she shot to fame with the lead role of Minami in Adachi Mitsuru’s Touch. Subsequent roles in Totoro, Ranma 1/2 and Gunbuster would further cement her reputation, and Nonko continued releasing solo CDs as well as with her Ranma 1/2 castmates as DoCo before putting a stop to her recording career in 2007. Today she focuses on narration works and management, having established the Combination talent agency with her Touch co-star Mitsuya Yuji in 2009. Additionally, her popular radio show Anime Scramble (with Hasegawa Nobita) has been running on Bunka Housou for 19 years.
Best known roles: Kusakabe Satsuki in Tonari no Totoro, Asakura Minami in Touch, Tendo Akane in Ranma 1/2, Takaya Noriko in Top o Nerae!/Gunbuster, Sojiro Seta in Rurouni Kenshin, Kikyo in Inu Yasha, Jean Roque Raltique in Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, Near in Death Note
What else you should know: Hidaka has often spoken of the unpleasant experiences she had to go through in her idol days, including a now-humorous situation where she was required to do a photoshoot in an onsen…. with a bear, much to her horror. The bear unfortunately chose to bite Nonko’s hair – her complaints to the director fell on deaf ears and he told her to get in the onsen again and this time, the bear bit her arm.
Currently heard in: Inu Yasha Kenketsu-hen (Kikyo)
Signature line: AAATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!! AAAAA-CHAAAAA!!!
All about Akira: Kamiya was part of the first wave of male seiyuu ‘idols’ in the ’70s, working extensively on CM and TV work in addition to providing voices for anime characters, in his case – a lot of super robot anime heroes. He got his start in 1970 with Mahou no Mako-chan whilst taking acting lessons at Theatre Echo and by the end of the decade had gained much fame for his roles in the Super Sentai series as well as various anime conversions of Shonen Jump manga. Kamiya’s skill and repuation was so high that mangaka Takahashi Rumiko had personally requested him to fill the role of Kuno Tatewaki in Ranma 1/2 but the director chose the late Suzuoki Hirotaka instead. Due to his seniority and veteran status, the fees his services demand have caused some production companies to drop him from the cast to keep costs down, most notably for Kinnikuman and also rumoured to have been the reason behind him being dropped from his long-running role in the Detective Conan anime in 2009.
Best known roles: Roy Focker in Macross, Nagare Ryoma in Getter Robo, Saeba Ryo in City Hunter, Kenshiro in Hokuto no Ken, Mendo Shutaro in Urusei Yatsura, Kinniku Suguru in Kinnikuman, Mori Kogoro in Detective Conan, Hibiki Akira in Yusha Raideen
What else you should know: Kamiya was the first seiyuu to put on a one-man show at the Nihon Gekijo theatre (now the Yurakucho Marion) and also headline his agency Aoni’s Voice.Voice.Voice event, the first seiyuu-only production held at the same venue. In 1995, Kamiya would also organize a seiyuu charity project in aid of victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake called WITH YOU, releasing a single and holding various events to raise money.
About Minami: Birth name is Arai Izumi. She joined Gekidan Himawari in junior high but upon graduation from her senior high school in Adachi, entered the workforce as an OL. It was only at 22 that Minami decided to work towards becoming a seiyuu and within a year she earned her first anime lead role in Mister Ajikko. Her big break came with the titular role in Ghibli’s 1989 classic Kiki’s Delivery Service, but it was not all good news for Minami as her association with the role of Kiki made it a little harder for her to find work (a case of typecasting). Her fortunes improved over the next few years, establishing herself in shonen shows such as Moomin, Magical Taruruto-kun and Yaiba before landing her regular gig as Conan in Detective Conan – she’s been voicing the character for 14 years and counting.
Music: Apart from her voice-acting exploits, Minami has an active music career. She teamed up with her Ranma 1/2 castmates Inoue Kikuko, Hidaka Noriko, Sakuma Rei and Hayashibara Megumi to form DoCo & they released 6 CDs before being dissolved in 1994. Minami also used to be in an indie band called RE-X and was introduced to producer Shiina Nagano through a friend – he ended up working with her on her 1992 album Endless Communication and as part of a trio called ES CONNEXION with guitarist Abukawa Osamu. Takayama & Shiina then teamed up to form TWO-MIX in 1995, debuting with JUST COMMUNICATION which was used as the theme song for Gundam Wing. Their second single RHYTHM EMOTION (also for Gundam W) would eventually end up as the second biggest-selling seiyuu-related single of all time with 353,270 copies sold, and they went on to win one of the Best 5 New Artist awards at the 10th Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1995. In recent years, attempts at reviving the TWO-MIX brand through collaborations with Joe Rinoie (II MIX ⊿ DELTA) and ShiinaTactix have yielded mixed results and the project has been put on official hiatus.
Best known roles: Edogawa Conan in Detective Conan, Kiki in Kiki’s Delivery Service, Ajiyoshi Yoichi in Mister Ajikko, Kurogane Yaiba in Yaiba, Moomin in Tanoshii Moomin Ikka, Asakura Hao in Shaman King, Yamamoto Yoko in Starship Girl Yamamoto Yoko, Tendo Nabiki in Ranma 1/2, Dilandau in Escaflowne
What else you should know: Minami married manga-ka Aoyama Gosho in 2005 (she proposed to him) but they divorced after 2 1/2 years. Amongst Aoyama’s works were Yaiba, Magic Kaito and Detective Conan – Minami voiced characters within all 3 anime adaptations of the manga.
Currently heard in: Detective Conan (Conan), Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (Envy), Nintama Rantaro (Inadera Rantaro)
More on Nozawa: One of the most influential figures in the seiyuu industry, Nozawa has been voice acting since the 1950s while her showbiz history stretches back even further, having made her movie debut at the age of 3. Due to her father’s work, the family was forced to relocate from Tokyo to Gunma and Masako spent her teenage years attending school in Numata while still commuting to Tokyo for acting work during her holidays. After graduating from high school she moved to the capital permanently and mostly took on stage work before trying out voice work, although in those days the dubbing overs were done live on air. Masako’s first anime work was in Astro Boy in 1963 and her first major role in Gegege no Kitaro in 1968, but it is still the role of Goku in Dragon Ball that she is most associated with until today.
Management: Masako, or Mako-chan as she is affectionately called, was one of the founding members of Aoni Production, one of the largest seiyuu agencies today, when it was first established in 1969 but eventually left to join 81produce and then in 2006 broke away to form her own agency Office Nozawa with long-time friend and former seiyuu Yoshida Rihoko. Additionally Masako is the chairwoman and director/producer of theatre group Gekidan Moonlight.
Best known roles: Son Goku in Dragon Ball, Kitaro in Gegege no Kitaro (1st & 2nd series), Kitaro in Hakaba Kitaro, Hoshino Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999, Esteban in The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Hiroshi in GoLion, Guilmon in Digimon Tamers, Hiroshi in Dokonjo Gaeru, Kaze Daizaemon in Inakappe Taisho, Kaibutsu Taro in Kaibutsu-kun 2, Dr.Kureha in ONE PIECE
What else you should know: Masako’s father Nozawa Ryoshu was an artist while her aunt Sasaki Kiyono was an actress in the 20s. She is married to fellow seiyuu Tsukada Masaaki.
Currently heard in: Dragon Ball Kai (Son Goku), Cross Game (Nomo)
About Yamadera: Yama-chan had a bit of experience appearing in ads and TV shows in his younger days in his hometown of Shiogama, Miyagi but pursued a degree in business studies at Tohoku Gakuin university where he cultivated an interest in voice acting as a member of the rakugo society. After finishing his studies Yamadera went to take voice lessons at Haikyo’s training school, an agency with whom he would be associated until leading an exodus to form Across Entertainment in 2008. His first role was in the Megazone 23 OVA in 1985 but it would not be until getting the part of Hibiki Ryoga in Ranma 1/2 that his career truly got going. Rather than focusing on regular TV animation roles, Yamadera’s CV is filled with dubbing roles for western movies – he has dubbed for a wide range of actors from Eddie Murphy to Jean Claude Van Damme to Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks. He also has a strong association with Disney works – he is the Japanese voice of Donald Duck and has also dubbed for Beast, Stitch and Aladdin’s Genie. Yama-chan is also familiar to the mainstream as the host of TV Tokyo’s early morning programme Oha Suta, which has been on air since 1997.
Voice: Yama-chan’s versatility is both a strength and weakness, on the one hand he can do any role asked of him (he can cover women too) but director Oshii Mamoru once commented that ‘his biggest problem is that nobody knows what his “true voice” is like’. He voices four different characters on Anpanman.
Best known roles: Spike Siegel in Cowboy Bebop, Kaji Ryoji in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Kodai Susumu in Uchuu Senkan Yamato series (replacing late Tomiyama Kei), Hibiki Ryoga in Ranma 1/2, Togusa in Ghost in the Shell series, Cheese in Soreike! Anpanman, Kibagami Jubei in Ninja Scroll
Currently heard in: Stitch (Stitch), Gintama (Yoshida Shoyo)
All about Megu: Megu holds a certificate in nursing, attending college and voice acting school simultaneously and made her anime debut before graduating with a bunch of minor roles in Maison Ikkoku. At the beginning of her career, the young Hayashibara came in for criticism from various corners for her frankness and no-nonsense approach, with her behaviour reportedly disrupting various events that she was involved in – there was an incident during a Ranma 1/2 event where Hidaka Noriko had to step in to smooth the situation over. Megu’s lack of experience also made recording difficult, often fluffing her lines during studio sessions. That naturally did not last long as her talent shone through and by the mid-90s Megu had secured her position as the top seiyuu in the business with an impressive string of iconic roles adding to the current record of 2.5 million singles and 1.3 million albums sold since 1991. She has additionally topped Animage’s Seiyuu Grand Prix poll 12 times between 1990 and 2002, and some of her close friends/rivals in the seiyuu business jokingly described her as a ‘cockroach’ that you just can’t wait to get rid of due to her being ever present in print media, on TV and on the airwaves.
Recently…: Having gotten married in 1999, Megu went on a break in 2004 to give birth to her first child. Since then she has kept a relatively light workload while raising her daughter and gets to pick and choose roles which are specially offered to her, a rarity given that almost all seiyuu have to audition for their roles no matter how famous they are. Megu still however, presents her two long-running radio shows – Heartful Station on Radio Kansai and Tokyo Boogie Night on TBS, the latter for which she was awarded a Golden Mike trophy for long services.
Best known roles: Ayanami Rei in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, Lina Inverse in Slayers series, Musashi in Pokemon, Haibara Ai in Detective Conan, Kyoyama Anna in Shaman King, Canal Vorfeed in Lost Universe, Chiba Atsuko/Paprika in Paprika, Female Ranma in Ranma 1/2, Bakabon in Tensai Bakabon
Currently heard in: Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl (Musashi), Detective Conan (Haibara Ai)
About Furuya: The son of tofu shop owners, Furuya’s mother enrolled him into Gekidan Himawari when he was just 5 years old, hoping to get her son to carry on her failed dream of becoming an announcer. His seiyuu debut came in 1966 in Toei’s Kaizoku Ouji at the age of 13, voicing the lead character Kid & two years later he would successfully audition for the main role in the anime adaptation of classic baseball manga Kyojin no Hoshi. After that came a 7-year break from acting/voice acting as Furuya pursued his studies, graduating from Meiji Gakuin University having studied Commerce in the economics department. By the age of 22 he was back doing seiyuu work and by 25 he would land the role of Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam, which made him one of the most famous male seiyuu idol pin-ups of the 70s. The Amuro role has also helped Furuya remain one of the most familiar faces (and voices) in the seiyuu world today with appearances on popular TV programmes (Saku Saku, Utaban, Waratte Iitomo!), ads as well as in pop superstar Amuro Namie’s recent Defend Love PV.
Best known roles: Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam series, Yamcha in Dragon Ball, Chiba Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, Hyuma Hoshi in Kyojin no Hoshi, Pegasus Seiya in Saint Seiya, Kasuga Kyosuke in Kimagure Orange Road, Shiba Hiroshi in Kotetsu Jeeg, Casshern in Casshern Sins, Narration & Ribbons Almark (under the pseudonym Sogetsu Noboru) in Mobile Suit Gundam 00
What else you should know: Formerly married to seiyuu Koyama Mami, but they divorced in 1983. He is currently married to another seiyuu, the retired Majima Satomi with whom he has a daughter. Some of Furuya’s hobbies include windsurfing and automobiles, and he taught himself basic programming – you can download a few of his apps on his website (for older OS). He also plays the drums and did so for seiyuu group Slapstick, whose other members included Kamiya Akira, Furukawa Toshio, Nojima Hisao, Mitsuya Yuji, Sogabe Kazuyuki and Suzuoki Hirotaka.
Currently heard in: Dragon Ball Kai (Yamcha)
Phew.
I could spend years listing out the seiyuu that didn’t make the cut, people like Shinohara Emi, Kishio Daisuke, Sakamoto Chika, the Naya brothers Goro & Rokuro, Otsuka Chikao, Oyama Nobuyo, Ogata Kenichi, Natsuki Rio, Yokoyama Chisa, Orikasa Ai, Kikuchi Masami, Morikubo Shotaro, Shiozawa Kaneto, Nomura Michiko, Tobita Nobuo, Ono Daisuke, Nakahara Shigeru, Ueda Kana, Amano Yuri, Nagai Ichiro, Ishikawa Hideo, Okawa Toru, Sakurai Tomo…that’s probably long enough, but I think you get the picture. I’m sure I missed out a lot more worthy names as well, I was already loathe to leave some personal favourites like Iwao Junko, Koyama Rikiya and Kasahara Hiroko off the list.
So many seiyuu who made an impact on the business in their own little ways, but of course I couldn’t look too far back in time or place too much emphasis on the present if I wanted to build a balanced list that had a good blend of old-timers and young ones. Hopefully that’s what I’ve done here and maybe people will have learned a thing or two they never knew they wanted to know about seiyuu they’ve never heard of.
Once again, thanks all for sticking with me and reading through this list over the last three months. It’s been a fun ride!
Quick Links:
100-91
90-81
80-71
70-61
60-51
50-41
40-31
30-21
20-11
Aaaww, and here I was hoping you’d give Nana 7th place :p But oh well, it was a fun ride indeed ^^ Definitely very informative and, uhh, educational? :p
Would be nice if something similar about anison singers could be made… Just an idea :p
Absolutely elite that I can’t say anymore.
I will always remember Seki as Sekiman.
Good job with the 100. It’s a really good list if we toss the ranking portion :p If I were to make it I probably would throw people like Hiroko Kasahara or Mariko Kouda in there…
And whoever says it’s not ordered is lying. It’s obviously ordered!
Lol. It’s ordered maybe in a way I just wrote the first 100 names that came to mind when I think of ’seiyuu’ and then count backwards
I think people were anticipating your top 10 or whatever, so as the list winded down there were a growing interest for it. On the other hand I think 70+ onward there are just less interests, so it wouldn’t be as exciting if you did it in reverse order.
Maybe it takes a while for your list to get around. I dunno.
Anyways, thanks for doing it.
Good list indeed, and yea some of those that did not make the cut… >_<
KYAASHAARN as number 1 though, that surprised me, even if I knew this list was not truly ordered to rank.
Yay! Really great job; I really enjoyed reading this!
*bows down* So many seiyuu I should at least know the names of…
… M-Megu. <3
Minami Takayama’s voice made me totally gay for Dilandau.
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to do this. They were all very interesting posts!
This 10-1 reads like a dream SRW frontline …
Amuro Ray, Domon Kasshuu, Ryouma Nagare, Noriko Takaya etc … Fate’s singing gets morale maxed and whatever enemy surviving STONER HOMERUN would just have to deal with an awfully oversized Genkidama or L-sama XD
Great list!
However I’m slightly disappointed that Yu “Gahaku” Kobayashi did not make it. ^_^;
Funny enough, you left out Seki’s famous line…
GODDDDDDDD FINGERRRRRRR!!! (Forgive me for not putting it in proper romaji, I can’t do it properly -_-)
I really enjoyed these lists, thank you so much!
I think one of Seki Tomokazu’s tale of getting into the seiyuu industry was that he originally wanted to be a theatre actor (how many times have we heard this one now?) – but he was rejected because he was too short and not handsome. Because he loved acting so much anyway so he thought he would try for being a seiyuu (which at that time didn’t require as much looks) and he got into it. That is also the reason why now he loves to do his own theatre shows……
7/10! Not bad! Should have taken back the Sakuma-san nod and placed in Mizuki-san instead, but oh well.
Seeing that I mentioned the latter, yeah, she’s a better singer obviously. People say that she has a horrid stigma of being either second fiddle in a really good series or being the lead in an average at best series or worse. I don’t think she has the stigma anymore.
Seki-san’s so good, I’ll say this. If I keep revising my top 10 list of seiyuu ever, he’d be one of two, maybe three guys that never gets dropped off the list. Yes people, he’s that good. If you want to know how to be a good voice actor, he’s a very good example. Just don’t follow his bad habit now.
Nothing witty to say about Inoue-san. He’s just a solid seiyuu.
Nonko was mauled by a bear?! What were those people thinking?! Were they drinking sake when they did this shoot?! Side note: Brandon Sheffield (of Insert Credit) loves her. Apparently, so do I. Ha ha ha!
AAATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!! AAAAA-CHAAAAA!!!
I love Takayama-san. Man, I have lots of love to give. Ha ha ha! Her characters are fun.
It took me a few years to figure out why Kei’s grandmother in “Love Hina” sounded so familiar. Turns out that it’s Nozawa-san. She’s been a great seiyuu over the years.
Yama-chan’s versatility is a blessing really. He really played as a girl before? Which anime has he played as a girl? I know Seki-san can pull off a decent shy girl voice. He just showed it in Baltimore.
When I was younger, I would keep saying that I am married to the seiyuu queen’s voice. Hee hee! Of course, I don’t think that it’s a legit marriage anymore now that I’m older. Oh and her old tales in the form of a manga are awesome.
Furuya-san has the last spot, huh? Quite an iconic seiyuu really. He has covered a good amount of decades and he has always been a favorite of mine.
Most of the seiyuu here, I’d put in my list of 100 seiyuu people should know. I would have told people to get to know people like Orikasa-san, but yeah. It’s a great list overall.
@Re-Hikari
It’s not in order, remember? Still, yeah, fun ride.
@DoggieDyna
I don’t think much else can be said really.
@Shinmaru
Ha ha ha!
@baka-chan
Honestly, as popular as she is to some people, I don’t think she would have cracked my list either.
@Nis161
“GODDO FINGAA!” =P
@houkoholic
Wow. I never knew that. Now I know.
Wow, I know/have heard every single VA on this top 10 list. I must have watched very old anime (in fact, I’m 8 eps off finishing GE999, and NORIKO IS AWESOME AND BLOWS HALF A GALAXY UP etc.)
Awesome stuff is awesome.
Interesting list and twas such a fun ride. Some of my faves aren’t in, but this is more of ‘influental’ rather than ‘favorites’, so I’ll bite.
Great job!
By the way, Seki’s line should be….
“ORE NO KONO TE GA MAKKA NI MOERU!! SHOURI NO TSUKAMETTO NO TODOROKKE SAKEBU!!! BAAAAAKUNETSU!!! GODDO FINGAAAAAA!!!! (SEKIHA! TENKYOOOOOKEEEENNNN!!!)”
(Apologies if there are mistakes. Admittedly I’m not very good at Japanese…)
I suppose I should thank you for putting my favourite seiyuu in number one, hahaha. I didn’t even give him much of a chance of cracking the top 10 initially, some fan I am
.
I’m surprised you put one Natsuki Rio in the ‘honorable mentions’ list. She’s one of my sentimental favourite from way back when, and I suppose she does deserve a mention even though all she voices these days are video games (just kidding Natsuki-san, please come back and voice an onee-san type character).
Another thing I find interesting (I love to nitpick) is that Tobita Nobuo’s the only one of the original three UC Gundam TV series lead to not be featured in the list. I suppose this proves that apparently everyone hates Kamille more than Shinn =P.
It’s very amusing for me to read how people “know” there isn’t any ranking in your list and yet in the same paragraph state how they wished their seiyuu was number so & so or yay their favorite seiyuu was number whatever. To me, it shows how conditioned some people are that they only see numbers as a way to rank people/things versus a way of keeping track of how many are on a list.
Actually, Seki’s new line should be
“MOMMY! I SANG AT BUDOKAN TOO!”
Great list – really gives us a “survey” of seiyuu history. You should turn it into an encyclopedia! Many thanks.
I like the old pictures of the 70s-90s seiyuu – not that easy to find good ones. Enough of the pictures floating around, and maybe they can become internet seiyuu idols at middle age!
@聖者: I really like Sakuma Rei too – she should form a pair with Hidaka Noriko since they both were both members of the “Sundays” idol group (Matsuda Seiko and Tahara Toshihiko were in the first generation) before “graduating” and becoming seiyuu. But she didn’t have many lead roles; her most memorable ones are supporting, i.e Shampoo in Urusei Yatsura, so perhaps that’s a disadvantage for her.
Speaking of Sundays, Ohta Takako took the opposite route, starring in the iconic Creamy Mami role before joining the idol group.
Omi Minami, Matsushima Minori, Iwao Junko, and Doi Mika would be the other ones that I would have included. I should probably explain Doi since she not had many lead roles either – it’s down not only to her versatility and longevity, but to the fact that she has been able to continue to play mainstream “young” roles (and not animals, aliens, or males, either) regardless of her age. Her role as psychotic supermodel Sakiyama Kaori on Air Master, when she was nearly 50, should probably be enough to put her on the list.
But only being able to think of three out of a hundred does mean the list has something for everyone. I learned a huge amount from reading it!
I just noticed this one thing…
I never knew that Goku’s seiyuu (Nozawa Masako) is married with the seiyuu who voiced Shigekuni Yamamoto Genryuusai (Tsukaada Masaki) in Bleach! Wow, that’s one fun informative thing I just knew…
@Basaka
Ha ha ha!
@ChrisX
Just learned that too.
@Livid
Natsuki-san gets so much love for having to deal with one of the most annoying laughs ever.
@skchai1
“i.e Shampoo in ‘Ranma’”.
Fixed.
Oh. Sakuma-san unfortunately has not had many lead roles over the years. At least she is good at making second fiddle characters memorable.
Can’t help but smile after reading. This isn’t just entertaining, it’s also very educational. Although I’m a bit disappointed some of my favorite seiyuu don’t make the list, I understand that some others deserve a little more, especially those who aren’t much in the limelight or nearly forgotten by time.
I’ll give a toast to this worthwhile work of yours. Cheers!
I had fun! Weeee!
and I finally get to see Nonko! I’ve been waiting for her! She should be on that list! Everybody loves her and her big big big smile! I think one of her best roles is Seta Soujiro in Rurouni Kenshin 
Too bad Sakamoto Chika didn’t make on the list. Now that you mentioned, they are tons of notable seiyuu didn’t shown up… ho-hum… But I’m still happy Nakapan made on the list
yay!
btw, Inoue-san looked so hot in there XDDDD
It’s been a fun ride for me too because it’s nice to know more about the seiyuu.
Agreed with Re-Hikari; anison singer list, please! XD
re: anison singers list
I already did a list of my favourite seiyuu singers a couple of years back & I don’t think an anisong one is possible given how the lines are blurred with mainstream Jpop, doujin artists and composers. It would just be way too messy, I think.
re: Seki’s signature line
Lol see? He doesn’t really have that one line that everyone would recognise him for. He just does way too many roles.
Thanks all once again for the positive comments
I wasn’t expecting Furuya to be at #1. When you announced Wakamoto Norio’s and Hayashibara’s spots, it pretty much destroyed any chance of me guessing who the #1 seiyuu would be. It certainly was a fun ride! I’m sad that it has to end, though.
@聖者 “i.e Shampoo in ‘Ranma’”.
Oops. . . it’s not that all Takahashi Rumiko adaptations are the same, but somehow . . .
BTW, the Ranma 1/2 cast has at least eight people (as far as I can remember) from this list: Hayashibara, Yamaguchi Kappei, Hidaka, Inoue Kikuko, Takayama, Yamadera, Shimazu, Seki Toshihiko. . . . Am I missing some?
Trivia question warning: Which anime cast had the most members from j1m0ne’s 100?
@skchai1
I’d probably go for Bleach, Naruto or ONE PIECE ahead of Ranma 1/2, haha.
Huh, I was almost certain that the No. 1 spot would be held by Megumi Hayashibara.
Thanks for this little presentation! I enjoyed every entry and, yes, learning quite a bit about a great range of seiyuus over almost half a century now. Again, thanks for putting so much work into this.
Awesome list. I applaud this compilation.
Delurking to say “Thank you!” for making this list! Like everyone’s said, it was really educational, and I really looked forward to each installment (though I was a tad disappointed when you stopped picking a favourite role for most of the top 40-50. Was it that they just had too many roles to choose from?)
I’m glad that most of my favourites made it. The only current one who didn’t was OnoD, who’s been impressing me with some of his work over the last two years, though I like him more for how he gets bullied on a certain radio show anyway…(^_^;;)
@skchai1
In Ranma 1/2, there are other seiyuus who also made it on the list:
Aso Miyoko, Suzuoki Hirotaka, Chiba Shigeru and Tsuru Hiromi. Even though they only made a few appearances, it may also include Touma Yumi, Koyasu Takehito and Inoue Kazuhiko.
SOOOOOoooo I was reading this post in a REALLY BORING class, and the person next to me, who happened to be a friend of mine, was reading it over my shoulder. WE WERE HIGHLY AMUSED and were giggling non-stop throughout the whole lecture (aka the part of the lecture which we stayed in) we actually packed up and left after we finished the post, because we realized that your post was waaaaay more interesting than our prof was.
Thanks for making my day more interesting
Didn’t Tomokazu Seki also star in some live action Tokusatsu show before getting into Seiyuu land? I remember seeing a pic of him in some funky spandex.
Anyway, great set of articles, I learned many new things from this! Perhaps, if you have the time, you can just talk about the Seiyuu who you left out as a “bonus” featurette
.
By slipping Yamadera Kouichi from the pocket, I succeed to score 9 of 10.
But,
It seemed that I misplaced Furuya Tohru with Hidaka Noriko.
CMIIW,
Seki Tomokazu’s kanji name can be misread to Seki Junichi, right?
Mizuki Nana is at her 30 this year but she looks hotter and hotter. Something burnt inside me when looking the picture above. Har..har..har
Megumi Hayabshibara! She was the first seiyuu I went crazy over (Nana has taken her place now haha) and I think she deserves to be No.2, if not No. 1. (Dragon Slave!!)
Thanks for this list, I enjoyed reading it very much!
The quality of these 10 articles are second to none on the internet. If it’s Seiyuu-related, then it’s got to be j1m0ne’s blog. Hats off to you for these fantastic articles. Now I literally have a GOTO place for my Seiyuu info, more colourful than ANN could ever be.
Although since it’s divided into 10 pages, it would be nice to compile a summary page just listing which seiyuu is located in which page so I can go to them straight away instead of clicking through 10 links.
- A very thankful visitor
Aaeru
I couldn’t agree more about the presence of Mizuki Nana, Tomokazu Seki and Furuya Tohru.
Nana is the main reason for me to give seiyuu’s singles a chance from time to time. She’s my currently fav female singer (and she has been in that spot for quite a while now) and I can only feel sad for knowing that she probably won’t be popular anymore when I get the chance to travel to Japan. If I had to point one thing I don’t like about her career, it would be that the producers rely too much on her “falsetto with lots of violins” epic songs, and it can get kind of tiresome, knowing how much more she’s able to pull off. Regarding her seiyuu work, I would say that I’m amazed she doesn’t get better roles (sometimes I think “this is it”, like her role in white album…but then the series turns to be BAD). Maybe she’s too famous for her own good right now and studios want a fresh face for their upcoming big projects…I’m still waiting to hear her in a Gundam anime since that franchise is knwon for immortalizing seiyuus…
Not too much to say about Tomokazu Seki, he’s really good although I can’t agree too much on his ability to play a wide range of characters, since most of the times I’ve heard him in hot-blooded roles and I can always tell it’s him. (and even as Chiaki, his shouting is kinda trademark) But I do recognize he is indeed very talented.
I can’t add much about Furuya, I absolutely love him as Amuro Ray in all his incarnations, and if Saint Seiya (an iconic anime in my country) had been broadcasted in my country with subtitles, I’m sure I would have liked that role too. I wish I could listen to the album he did inspired in his seiyuu work though. He definetly has something unique about his voice.
I was also surprised Nobuo Obita wasn’t included in the top 100; maybe because he didn’t have many well known-roles, but he was awesome as angsty Kamille and every time I hear him in another role, I’m not able to recognize him inmediatly, which talks about his acting skills.
Thank you for you hard work j1m0ne! Personally, I was very surprised when Takayama Mimami’s name popped up on the list. And here I was thinking someone like Ono Daisuke might mysterious show up. Lol.
This list is exactly what I expected and I wasn’t disappointed. Phew, what a relief? Now, what other plans do you have next? Maybe more Seiyuu Profiles? I will be looking forward to whatever comes.
100 Seiyuu Everybody Should Know = requirement in the Seiyuu Major at Atemonai University? Definitely!
A solid list all around, and in a way, it shows me that I still have a lot to learn.
Nova: ;( Not enough well-known roles? I love Tobita. Personally, I think he’s rather flexible (maybe Yasunori Matsumoto flexible or more)!
Lots of names could’ve been listed, but these 100 names are great as it is.
Kraker: Didn’t Seki do a tokasetsu show recently? Because I also remember seeing him in spandex (lol).
This list sucks.
Hocchan should be 1st.