100 Seiyuu Everybody Should Know: 60-51
I like these lists cos they give me a chance to write about old and dead people. Hah!
Moving on…
Why you should know her: The most recognisable female shonen anime character specialist today.
Signature line: (insert phrase) DATTEBAYO!!!
More on Junko: While studying at Nihon University, Junko joined fellow acting enthusiasts in forming theater group Gekidan BQMAP. She was still working part-time as a political secretary when she got signed up by Love-Live (now YMO Entertainment) and she’s still there more than 10 years later.
Best known roles: Uzumaki Naruto in Naruto, Gon Freecss in Hunter X Hunter, Toramizu Ginta in MAR, Lambo (child) in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Endo Mamoru in Inazuma Eleven
My favourite Junko role: Gon is calm-headed, rational, resourceful and 10000x less annoying than Naruto.
Currently heard in: Naruto Shippuden (Uzumaki Naruto), Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (Lambo), Inazuma Eleven (Endo Mamoru), Jewel Pet (Tata), Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou (Kenzaki Rei)
Why you should know him: One of the ‘royalty’ of the seiyuu industry.
History: Nozawa never received formal voice training – he had wanted to be a stage artist or writer instead, but never quite made the grade. Instead he turned to acting, eventually setting up his own theater troupe but a combination of mismanagement and incompetence landed him in financial trouble with debts of 37,000,000 yen. Forced to sell off his apartment, Nozawa struggled to stay afloat before a friend recommended he do dubbing work as a part-time job. After halving his debt within a year, he decided to focus more on the seiyuu profession and took on extensive work in Western movie dubbing, anime, stage production, radio and theatre work.
Best known roles: Cobra in Space Adventure Cobra, Hans Axel von Fersen in The Rose of Versailles, Hyakkimaru in Dororo. He mostly worked in dubbing – he is the Japanese voice of C-3PO and also dubbed for Alain Delon, Bruce Willis, Robert Redford and Al Pacino.
What else you should know: Talent runs across the Nozawa family, with his father the late writer Kuga Naojiro, his niece Nozawa Naoko a comedian and his son Nozawa Sou an actor. Nachi is also the head of his own agency Office PAC, and he received a Merit Award in the Second Seiyuu Awards.
Why you should know her: She is (was?) the go-to person for loli imouto-type characters throughout and is the second most famous exponent of the Forever-17 culture club.
Stuff about Yukarin: Doesn’t need much introduction I think. Yukarin hails from Fukuoka, attended the local branch of Yoyogi Animation on the side while still working and after finishing the course, resigned and moved to Tokyo to enroll in NichiNare. First official role was in radio drama Macross Generation in 1997, for which she also sang an insert song Yuuki o Kudasai – which also happens to be her first ever CD release.
Best known roles: Ranpha Franboise in Galaxy Angel, Takamachi Nanoha in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha series, Furude Rika in Higurashi no Naku koro ni, Yoshino Sakura in Da Capo series
Recently…: I guess it seems rather depressing that her anime voice work has decreased in recent years while her former partner-in-crime Horie Yui goes from strength to strength…. oh wait. Katanagatari’s Togame may get her back in the spotlight. Her January 2010 release My wish My Love happens to be her 17th official single… should she stop at that number XD
What else you should know: I swear she has the most rabid fanbase on this planet. Also happens to be the third seiyuu to play live at the Budokan, before her (maybe not so) beloved Horie Yui did.
My favourite Yukarin role: Ichigo Morino from the Onegai series, a loli who is actually an oba-san (with a sinister laugh). Where have I heard that description before, ufufu…
Currently heard in: Kampfer (Seppuku Kuro Usagi), Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou (Touri Marin), Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Bernkastel)
Why you should know him: People say he’s the Casey Kasem of Japan.
All about Mori: Mori got his start in the entertainment biz when he joined a children’s theater troupe at the age of 10. It was only after working on Speed Racer (1967) that he decided to make a switch to full-time voice acting, thanks to the influence of co-stars Omiya Teiji, Tomiyama Kei and Aikawa Kinya. Mori was most active in the 70s-80s period, although he was cast as the lead in Shirow Masamune’s Real Drive in 2008.
Best known roles: Mifune Go in Speed Racer, Shimamura Joe aka 009 in Cyborg 009, Washio Ken in Gatchaman, Minami Joji in Tekkaman, Jean Pierre Polnareff in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Garma Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam, Haru Masamichi in Real Drive RD Senno Chosashitsu, Hayami Seiji in Cutie Honey
Currently heard in: If you live in Japan and wake up particularly early, you can hear Mori narrating Mezamashi TV on the Fuji TV network.
Why you should know him: I HATE SHINN.
All about SuzuKen: Went into voice acting school straight after graduation and debuted in Macross 7 in 1994. SuzuKen’s style of speaking is typically rather laidback (or lazy), and he seems to get more than his fair share of loser roles but is actually a more capable seiyuu than most seem to think.
Best known roles: Shinn Asuka in Gundam Seed Destiny, Kokuto Mikiya in Kara no Kyokai series, Tohno Shiki in Tsukihime, Hitachiin Hikaru in Ouran High School Host Club, Ryutaros in Kamen Rider Den-O
What else you should know: The poor guy has drawn plenty of ire for his role as Shinn, getting plenty of hatemail (I hate Shinn.) for his troubles. He can no doubt still console himself with his horde of crazy, screaming fangirls…
My favourite SuzuKen role: Know-it-all Rakushun (the rat) in Twelve Kingdoms.
Currently heard in: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (George Ushiromiya), Kemono no Soja Erin (Ial), Kara no Kyokai movies (Mikiya), Gintama (Okita Sogo)
Why you should know her: Only the second most popular, second most best-selling seiyuu idol of today.
All about Aaya: A member of the child acting troupe Space Craft from a young age, Hirano appeared in commercials, was a member of a short-lived girl group SpringS and appeared in a bunch of anime in the early part of the decade (Tenshi no Shippo, Kiddy Grade) without garnering much attention until the phenomenon that was Haruhi hit. Since then she’s pretty much established herself as one of the strongest players not just in the seiyuu industry but as a multi-media talento with interests in music, TV presenting and gravure.
Best known roles: Suzumiya Haruhi in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Izumi Konata in Lucky Star, Amane Misa in Death Note, Lumiere in Kiddy Grade, Serizawa Reira in NANA
My favourite Aaya role: Manabi Straight’s Etoh Mei is perhaps the finest acting performance I’ll ever hear from her, a subtle combination of tsundere and tsukkomi that is neither overbearing nor annoying like many of her other roles (hello Konata).
Currently heard in: Kimi ni Todoke (Kurumi), Fairy Tail (Lucy), Queen’s Blade Gyokuza o Tsugu Mono (Nanael), Dragonball Kai (Dende), Jewel Pet (Garnet), WHITE ALBUM 2 (Morikawa Yuki), Kiddy Girl-and (Lumiere)
Why you should know him: Sephiroth.
Voice-wise: Badass? Bishonen? Seme? Uke? He covers them all.
Best known roles: Griffith in Berserk, Sephiroth in Final Fantasy series, Naraku in Inu Yasha, Conrad Weller in Kyo Kara Maoh!, Shagia Frost in After War Gundam X, Tekkaman Blade /Aiba Takaya in Tekkaman Blade
What else you should know: His drastic weight loss in recent years has been the subject of much talk even in the seiyuu circles. Seems to have gained a new lease of life lately with his embarking on a rock music career with his band Black Velvet. Oh and er, he used to be in the American Football club in high school.
My favourite Morimori role: The cool-as-ice Captain Alex Rowe from Last Exile.
Currently heard in: Hanasakeru Seishonen (Lee-leng Huang), Inuyasha Kenketsu-hen (Naraku)
Why you should know him: Yet another Jack of all trades with tons of tricks in his bag.
About his voice: Although he has a very distinctive voice Ueda is very hard to pigeonhole and oh wait this description is probably too similar to Morikawa’s. He’s got an lazy drawl that he uses to good effect with free-spirited characters like Morita in Hachikuro and Prince Hakim in Emma but he can also be very, very creepy (Daimon in Nazca).
Best known roles: Tenkawa Akito in Kidou Senkan Nadesico, Urashima Keitaro in Love Hina, Sagara Sanosuke in Rurouni Kenshin, Morita Shinobu in Honey and Clover
What else you should know: He comes from a musical family and can play the violin (he did so on a Violinist of Hameln CD). Apparently also a very good cook – his wife must be a very lucky person…
My favourite Yuji role: He sings death metal as Krauser in Detroit Metal City, what’s not to love?
Currently heard in: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl (Takeshi), Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (Jean Havoc)
Why you should know him: The voice of calm.
All about Hirotaka: Born and bred in Nagoya, Suzuoki moved to Tokyo to further his studies in his late teens and ventured into acting after joining a theater troupe led by Nozawa Nachi. His seiyuu debut came in 1978’s Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 after a friend had recommended he try out voice acting as a part-time job, and it eventually turned into his dayjob after joining Haikyo in 1981. Suzuoki continued working steadily throughout the 3 decades leading up to his diagnosis of lung cancer in July 2006. His condition deteriorated rapidly and he died little over a month later, at the age of 56. His final role was a reprisal of his signature Bright Noa character in Mobile Suit Z Gundam: III Love is the Pulse of the Stars.
Best known roles: Bright Noa in Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Shinryu in Saint Seiya, Saito Hajime in Rurouni Kenshin, Tenshinhan in Dragon Ball, Yellow Belmont in Mospeada, Kuno Tatewaki in Ranma 1/2, Hyuga Kojiro in Captain Tsubasa
What else you should know: Furuya Toru was one of Suzuoki’s best friends in the business, while Shiozawa Kaneto and Ikeda Shuichi were regular drinking buddies. A bright and optimistic person, there was an incident during the 90s when Suzuoki had suddenly collapsed when riding in a bullet-train. Dragonball co-stars Furuya and Horikawa Ryo paid him a visit in the hospital out of great concern but were instead amused to find Suzuoki declaring to them that ‘the nurses here are really cute’.
Why you should know her: The voice of Doraemon’s owner.
All about Noriko: Noriko may have been overshadowed by a certain Oyama Nobuyo throughout most of the 26-year stint on Doraemon, but she built a very credible career away from the show with strong credits in timeless series such as Yatterman and Macross. The daughter of a lawyer, Noriko was enrolled in a child theater troupe from an early age but the group was disbanded due to the ongoing war. Refusing to follow her father’s footsteps, she went into broadcasting after graduating from high school and gradually progressed towards dubbing and anime work (circa 1955).
Best known roles: Nobi Nobita in Doraemon, Doronjo in Yatterman, Conan in Mirai Shonen Conan, Claudia LaSalle in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross , Miime in Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Go Hiyoshi in Voltes V
What else you should know: Around the 90s period, Noriko began to concentrate more on lecturing and giving national fairytale reciting workshops and runs her own production company Stage One geared towards that end. Her son is the animator Tobe Atsuo, who has worked on shows such as Inu Yasha, Kekkaishi and Turn A Gundam.
The progress being made on this series is sloooow, I keep getting distracted by other stuff…
Wait… Who’s the first? Is there a better selling seiyuu as a tv personality than Hirano Aya?
Why you should know him: I HATE SHINN. – QFT QFT
Why you should know him: The voice of calm. – I remember him as “Port! Your Bullet Screen is too thin!” (左弦！弾幕は薄い！) or something.
Also SAINT SEIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA freaking yeah.
@rawr: A certain person who will be in kohaku this year… lol probably.
UEDDDDDDDDDDA! (cough) I felt like he was right around the corner. Definately one of my favs.
Oh Hirotaka! That part about the “cute nurses” is on WIKI I think, but I couldn’t fully translate it at all. Thank you for clearing it up!
YES! Yukarin’s fans are INSANE! (> <)
Hirano is 2nd? Then who’s first? Maybe Horie? Or Toyoguchi Megumi (someone who I see as nearly “freakin everywhere”, but she’s nice).
Suzuken has a lazy voice? Doesn’t fit a lot of his roles..lol.
Annnd I hate Sephiroth. It’s great that Mori’s flexible!
Ohara: Isn’t the new Yatterman still airing or did it end? She and Ikeda Masako sound quite nice/sexy for 70.
It is kind of obvious that the top selling, most popular seiyuu is Nana Mizuki. She topped the Oricon chart for Ultimate Diamond, and is appearing in 2010 Kohaku.
kinda loled at the dekobitch trolls.
@I HATE SHINN: i thought everyone hated him. Though SuzuKen sticks in my memory as the wrong choice of seiyuu for Manaka Junpei in the Ichigo 100% anime, but I think that’s just me.
Nana…of course…*scratches eyebrow*
More great names this time round with Morikawa Toshiyuki, and I had no idea Katsuji was such a veteran as well, since I only know him for his role in Real Drive.
Sorry but I have to say this – Hirano Aya = gimmick. Her only role I know of that should actually be praised is that of Chiko in Niijuumensou no Musume last year.
How in the world did Deko get a higher position than Yukarin?
Currently wondering whether I’ll know anyone in the latter half, as you’re hitting up the seiyuus I recognized left and right. o.o;
@I HATE SHINN: I don’t hate him xD Because I’ve never watched the show…
I think it’ll be Nana Mizuki ^^ for the first place or probably minorin since j1me0ne likes her.
BTW : I’m in the “I HATE SHINN” fan club also :grins:
I can recognize it’s not the fault of the seiyuu actor though. Blame SUNRISE for creating some shitty characters.
I dont know any of these seiyuus. Is that a problem?
lol what is this Hirano hatefest xd
And um yeah, Nana.
@Kairu
It probably means you’re normal.
I for one like the post-weight loss Morikawa
(Though I doubt it had much effect on his voice acting?)
YUKARIN, YUKARIN, YUKARIN!
Psst, her 17th single comes out on my birthday omigfgagagfgagagdgbag Not helping the rabid fanbase thing OKAY.
Poor biscuit boy. Poor biscuit boy… Okay not rly, who cares about biscuits or Shinn zzzz
HAYASHIBARA MEGUMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
PS – The numbers don’t mean that much, right? Right? Crazy people. ;A;!
I’ve been able to sleep better at night ever since I realised you never explicitly stated that this list is ranked. Other wise I’d be tossing and turning at these numbers.
Also to those Hirano Aya haters out there, I also (really, REALLY) dislike Hirano’s singing and voice but if you can’t see that she’s got talent for voice acting then your view is way too biased to measure her skill objectively.
Objectively, you really do have to admit that Aya Hirano has sick range and flexibility. She’s definitely not for everyone, and I’m not a huge fan of her’s either. Still she has tons of talent and can do a variety of roles. She is a decent singer if she actually sings instead of random yelling.
But nana’s the top as a singer, right? O wait, singers also get tons of sponsors. Forget it, then.
OMFG, Ueda Yuji and Minami Omi?!? You really want to tell me that Akito finally got his Ruriruri?
(seriously, this one is hoax, isn’t it)
Ah, and obligatory YUKARIN! HI-ME-TARU! KAMI KAMI KAMI KAMI! ekhm
All I can say is that Kenta Hoshino is the best TakeJun voice role…
I nearly forgot that this was still going on! Ha ha ha! Glad to see 60-51.
By the way, take your time.
Ueda-san and Morikawa-san are definitely two of my favorite seiyuu. Unfortunately, I hate to say this, but I’m not much of a Gorin person. It’s not that I don’t like their characters or that I’m not good with them. (I really, really like them and I can play as them very well.) It’s that I don’t like how they’re missing a critical element. (By that, I mean Shouma not having an anti-air attack and Roberto not having a sweep.)
In regards of Tamura-san, two words: Talim love. There. Enough said.
Yeah, it’s still hard to believe that Suzuoki-san passed away a few years back. I wonder if someone replaced him for the “SRT” games. Maybe his old recordings were used? I don’t know.
@DoggieDyna
Unfortunately, yes, a good amount of her fans are insane. I’m not one of those fans that are insane though.
@DoggieDyna
She didn’t. These numbers probably don’t have meaning anymore.
@r3
There you go. She’s finally mentioned. Oh and uh, yay Hayashibara-san. By the way, you’re right. The numbers don’t matter. XD
@かな
The list isn’t ranked. As for Hirano-san, she has range. I’ll say that. Unfortunately, I don’t know if she finally managed to work with battered down characters properly. (Don’t know what I’m referring to? She’s one of the last people I’d pick to play as Polka.)
@BlickWinkel
Yes, those two are really married to each other. (Don’t ask me if Kuwashima Houko-san’s single because I don’t know.)
@ Previous poster with the kanji letters – Its a combination of old recordings and new actors: in the recent SRTZ(2008) they replaced his role from Orguss with Horiuchi Kenyu, but other shows like Daitarn and Zeta Gundam still has Suzuoki’s voice.
Most seiyuus can change to different voices and have similar (and better) voice range than Aya, right now of what I can remember…Saeko Shimazu, Chisa Yokoyama, Rie Kugimiya, Noriko Hidaka, Kikuko Inoue, Sanae Kobayashi the list goes on and on….
Throw in Miyuki Sawashiro and Haruka Tomatsu. The former just seems to have an endless range. Although, it’s been easier to pick her out recently just because she’s been landing the same types of roles. The latter imo is ridiculously hard to pick out just because of the sheer diversity of the characters she plays.
Whoops. Made a mistake. Funny how I caught it several days later. The message “She didn’t (get a lower ranking). These numbers probably don’t have meaning anymore,” was supposed to be for Julius Firefocht. Ha ha ha!
@Kraker2k
Oh, is that so? Thanks for clarifying that thought.
I definitely agree that Takeuchi Junko’s best performance is as Gon. Kinda sad about Suzuoki Hirotaka and definitely agree that Ueda Yuji’s surprise is as Krauser. I don’t really agree with your selection of Hirano Aya being that high. I am not going to say much since my comments are kinda late, but I look fwd to your remaining countdown.
Hey j1mone! Been stalking your blog for quite some time, gotta say thanks for all the info I need to spaz over xD
I just came to point out a mistake in this post. Under “Best Known Roles” for Takeuchi Junko, you listed Toramizu Ginta from MAR. Ginta was actually voiced by Kumai Motoko and not TakeJun
Hope I helped clear some stuff up. And once again thanks for this awesome blog!
Why all the Hirano Aya haters giving such a damn comment about Aya?
Aya has a lot of potential in seiyuu and singing, it just that she cannot perform better on-stage performance because her lack of stamina.
Also, @kevo, you should hear more of her singing, not just in her anime osts and character CDs, but also her singles and album.
@animemiz
Actually Hirano Aya was the first in VOICE Newtype ranking in November-December 2009, so the ranking above is accurate to me.