2008 in Review: Seiyuu
Uh, happy new year! I was too busy consuming mango pudding whilst watching Kohaku Uta Gassen on TV to put this up on time…
There really weren’t any big stories in the seiyuu world this year, unlike the whole ARTSVISION scandal thingy in 2007. Which is a good thing I suppose… but that leaves only minor things like:
Wedding Bells
Those whose marriage status became clear in 2008:
・Kaida Yuko’s marriage to a theatre actor was made known by a tourism blog.
・Wakabayashi Naomi revealed 2007 marriage on blog, complete with wedding dress picture.
・Kojima Sachiko (Sayako in Bamboo Blade) married her boyfriend of 9 years, theatre director Yasue Makoto
The wedding was attended by seiyuu Hikami Kyoko & Masuda Yuki, and Yamagata Kaori also posted about a party organised by the dub cast of drama Everwood (of which Kojima is a part of) to celebrate the newlyweds, complete with scrapbook-style card (above).
・Hirata Hiromi revealed on her blog that she has been married since 2007.
・Sonozaki Mie revealed her marriage on her blog.
・Miyano Mamoru told the whole world of his shotgun wedding, and fujoshi cursed his bride to death.
・Inokuchi Yuka announced on her blog on New Year’s eve that she had a shotgun wedding, with the baby due in the spring. Unlike Mamo, Yuka’s not that well known so presumably no sword-wielding otaku will go hunt her husband down.
Oh, and not forgetting:
・Nabatame Hitomi & Ito Shizuka. We all know who wears the pants in the relationship.
Illnesses, injuries etc
There weren’t many of these this year thankfully.
1.Kawakami Tomoko underwent surgery for unspecified ailment in August.
It doesn’t seem too serious, but Kawakami is still seeing limited action at the moment in just Bashin and CLANNAD, with Kuwashima Houko still standing in for her role as Fuyuki in Keroro Gunso.
2.Ochiai Yurika got whiplash and a cut lip in a motor accident
And proudly showed off the scars on her blog.
3.Fukuen Misato had some throat ailment (laryngitis? strained vocal chords?)
Resulted in missed radio shows and a non-appearance in Ga-Rei episode 1.
And the personal stuff:
Favourite story of 2008
Hirano Aya fails to grasp the concept of wearing a bikini
It was eventually blamed on the photography staff telling her to wear it that way, because it seems Hirano has never been to the beach and has no idea how to wear a bikini top. She may want to forget the whole incident, but nasty internet users are not going to drop it for a long, long time…
Favourite Radio Shows
Ga-Rei-Zero- Choshizen Saigai Radio Taisakushitsu
Although Mizuhara Kaoru & Shiraishi Minoru have done shows together before, it’s the added Chihara Minori in the mix that really made Ga-Rei radio all that more special. Not that Minorin was a particularly good host or anything (in fact, she’s just an airhead that giggles non-stop) but it was her very presence that escalated the rivalry between Shiraishi & Mizuhara (mostly over Minorin, lol) :3 And people obviously liked listening to the show enough to get it extended to an hour-long programme instead of half an hour… though it could be that the staff just couldn’t stop them talking.
5 favourite moments (in no particular order):
1. Kaoru’s indignant ‘Oi Kagura (Minorin) look at me! [and stop looking at that faggot]‘ after Shiraishi caught Minorin staring at him intently.
2. Minorin refusing to invite Shiraishi Minoru to a nabe party in her flat - he was even willing to be isolated to the veranda, or to turn up just to cook the nabe and then leave, but Kaoru refused to let him into the fun (and it turned out true! Minorin & Kaoru had a nabe party without Minoru, lol).
3. Shiraishi Minoru’s love songs for Chihara Minori - one done in the style of Remioromen meets Sukimaswitch, the other in Minorin’s beloved B’z rock style, complete with Inaba Koshi-style vocals…Kimoi. Kimooiiiii. KIMOIIIIIII… demo UMAI.
4. Mizuhara Kaoru’s hilarious self-intros for every episode, from her terrible imitation of a kudagitsune, her ‘Isayama Yomi, 17-sai!’ and even managing to introduce herself as Mizuhara Kaori once ^^;
5. Loli Mizuhara cutely repeating ‘Oniichan!’ after Shiraishi Minoru mentioned that he gets embarassed when girls call him Oniichan.
Toshokan Senso Radio - Kanto Toshokichi Kohoka (Boy’s side)
Gosh, lewd. Suzuki Tatsuhisa is lewd. As is Maeno Tomoaki, who also served as a whipping boy for sadistic Tatsu - they should rename this the S & M Radio show. I think a good 60% of whatever they said got censored, though stuff like ‘that got my hips moving’ and ‘condoms’ still got through, lol. And I totally approve that they approve of (Inoue) Marina’s legs [^_^]b But they’d both make horrible boyfriends, it seems =_=
Anitama.com standard Marunage
There’s never a dull moment with Ueda Kana around, and with Shimizu Kaori egging her on, there were plenty of rude, not entirely politically correct moments, culminating with Ueda’s hilarious threat to wipe old men off the face of the earth. I hope something like that won’t tone down their style though.
And of course, Tamura Yukari’s Itazura Kuro Usagi. Still offending people left and right, still saying some of the most outrageous things ever, still the best seiyuu radio show of all time. The highlight of this year was the whole fujoshi thing (rotten women!) which led to Yukarin implicating Ono Daisuke & Kamiya Hiroshi as the BL seiyuu duo in addition to suggesting that she might do the yuri with Mizuki Nana.
Favourite Seiyuu Blog
KaneTomo Jigoku. I learn a lot of things I never knew I wanted to learn, and pondered a lot of questions in life that I never knew I wanted to ponder. KaneTomo-sensei truly sees the world through different eyes and I am grateful for the enlightening experiences she has given me. In short, her blog is funny as shit and everyone should learn Japanese to read it *and I don’t even like Kaneda Tomoko*
Worst Camwhoring Seiyuu Blog
Yokoyama Chisa no Keitai Nikki. I respect her a lot for her work in Tenchi Muyo and Sakura Taisen, but nobody loves (pictures of) their own face as much as Yokoyama does.
Favourite Blog Pic:
Matsukaze Masaya moo moo. Via Koyama Rikiya’s blog.
There’re always jokes going on about how some seiyuu are only able to update their blogs so much because they aren’t getting any work offers (re: Sasaki Nozomi, Hirota Shion, Kimura Madoka). So it may be a good thing when your favourite seiyuu only posts on their blog every few days or once a week - they could actually be busy earning money somewhere else!
Adventures in Yuriland
I’d always thought that Naba’s harem is where it’s at, but I realise Kitamura Eri’s ability to make any seiyuu (yuri-leaning or not) adapt to her yuri ways appeals to me much more. Plus her catches are always cute, young, fresh, meaty, juicy girls…. yeah.
Hopefully we’ll see and hear more of Izawa Shiori this year? All I know about her is through KitaEri, and I need more yuri purikura info.
Ore no Yome 2008:
Tomatsu Haruka was my main obsession for 2008 (and most of 2007 actually) and it’ll be interesting to see how long this infatuation lasts… probably until the next super-cute seiyuu comes along. I was happy that Kannagi was the show that finally allowed Tomacchan to worm her way into otaku hearts.
Sorry I pretty much ignored you this year:
Inoue Marina. You need to stop appearing in shit like AkaSaka and Sekirei, and I’ll start loving you more. Maybe that will be remedied if you appear in the Valkyria anime? And pretty please Starchild, give her a recording contract - even Yukana got one (mumble, mumble).
The people I came to love in 2008:
Shimono Hiro & Kaji Yuki. Even if Hiro can’t sing to save his life, he’ll always be my too pure-pure boy. Kaji-kun because his blog is awesome and always full of other seiyuu’s pics, and cos he’s a pretty funny guy too.
Maeno Tomoaki, cos though he looks so serious he’s actually pretty dorky. And Fukuen Misato, who I learned to love in her own right (her laugh is infectious!) and not just because she’s Nana’s sidekick.
The people I love that I talked about too much in 2008:
Mizuki Nana… Fact(s): There is a 95% chance that an anime with Mizuki Nana in it will suck terribly, and there is a 95% chance that a music CD bearing the name of Mizuki Nana will be fantastic. That is why I call myself a fan of Nana the seiyuu idol, not a fan of Nana the seiyuu. But yeah, 2009 is gonna be another fantastic year for her, I’m sure. Album please?
…and Chihara Minori. Even if she records an entire album of nursery rhymes and lullabies, I’d still buy it (especially if they tucked in a photobook). Viva Minorin of the uneven eyes!
The people I love but I didn’t talk about enough in 2008:
Miyano Mamoru, Kobayashi Yu & Ono Daisuke. They need to do more crazy things! Well at least Mamo did do something crazy this year but I wasn’t around at the time to write about it.
And finally,
4 things I learnt in 2008:
1. Kakihara Tetsuya is quite possibly sexier than Ono Daisuke.
2. I want to make love to Mizuhara Kaoru’s sexy onee-san voice. Just her voice, though.
3. Tomatsu Haruka’s legs are longer than the Yangtze river, but shorter than Kobayashi Yu’s River Nile-length legs.
4. I really dislike Ochiai Yurika, that attention-seeking whore. Put the boobs and butt away, love.
4 things I want to learn for 2009:
1. Just how big is Chiaking - 32A or 36C?
2. What Kitamura Eri looks like without make-up.
3. How to lose weight, from Morikawa Toshiyuki.
4. How to still look like a loli at age 35, from Kaneda Tomoko.
I demand more yuri, more shotgun weddings and more scandals in 2009!
January 1st, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Wow…fun post!!
1. Kaoru’s indignant ‘Oi Kagura (Minorin) look at me! [and stop looking at that faggot]‘ after Shiraishi caught Minorin staring at him intently.
>>Grrr >=O Shiraishi no yarou!!
2. Minorin refusing to invite Shiraishi Minoru to a nabe party in her flat - he was even willing to be isolated to the veranda, or to turn up just to cook the nabe and then leave, but Kaoru refused to let him into the fun (and it turned out true! Minorin & Kaoru had a nabe party without Minoru, lol).
>>I’m happy for this lol XD
KitaEri
Plus her catches are always cute, young, fresh, meaty, juicy girls…. yeah.
>> I’m looking forward for that haha =D
Marina-nee~
Sorry I pretty much ignored you this year:
>>Argg…I’m still biased looking for her anime ^^
… … oh… and haha…the yuri marriage couple, shizuka-sama and naba is a blast! ^.^
January 1st, 2009 at 9:52 pm
1. Wonderful to see Kadowaki Maii getting her due. She may only be a semi-competent seiyuu, but she seems like a lovely person.
2. Horrible to see you sniggering with 2channel and Sankaku over the upside-down bikini. But hey, at least you posted a fairly big picture.
3. I hardly ever read her blog (I mean, who wants to read five posts a day from one blog?), but I can’t help feeling sorry for poor Ochiai Yurika. She’s like the muttering bag lady of the seiyuu world.
4. Thanks for the marriage run-down. Whew!
5. Happy New Year! And thanks for a year of great posts.
January 1st, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Ah, the Hirano Aya bikini thing. Talking about making waves with a new fashion style out of a ‘malfunctioning wardrobe’. =P
Still, there are things that which being harped over and over again will make it smell no better than stale milk though. I guess that’s what Hirano Aya haters will eventually end up.
Still a good round up on the Seiyuu scene in 2008 (there doesn’t seem to be any mention about Yukarin holding her Live at Budoukan though). Looking forward to a wonderful 2009!
Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2009 at 11:22 pm
1. WHAT?! I had no idea that Kaoru Mizuhara did Misao in Lucky Star, that’s like the opposite range of the voice spectrum compared to Yomi-oneesan(*sniff*). My respect for her has increased.
2. I don’t think I’ve seen a picture of Morikawa Toshiyuki, but did he go from plump to thin or something lol?
3. >>1. Kakihara Tetsuya is quite possibly sexier than Ono Daisuke.
Is it wrong for a straight guy to agree to this?
4. You missed out on one category though “Silliest photo of the year from Tomokazu Sugita”
January 1st, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Yes I want to see more Inoue Marina too.
And I did like Sekirei, the manga version that is.
Shizuka X Hitomi yuri. <3
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 am
“There is a 95% chance that an anime with Mizuki Nana in it will suck terribly, and there is a 95% chance that a music CD bearing the name of Mizuki Nana will be fantastic.”
Awww c’mon, the anime that Nana appears in are not as terrible as you think.
*looks around with shifty eyes while banishing his copy of Ayakashi and Tsuyokiss*
Yeah, its not that bad, really…
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:10 am
Happy new years, and KaneTomo’s blog is so awesome, I read it even when I can’t read it XD
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:11 am
lol, that’s the first I’ve heard about Hirano Aya’s bikini thing. Awesome.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 am
Heh, did Aya really never go to the beach or even a public pool in her life, or were you just being sarcastic?
Pretty good roundup. ‘08 was the year I joined the Minorin cult. I didn’t listen to the Ga-Rei radio show, but from what you told me she didn’t sound totally useless; laughter and giggling is contaigious, especially when it’s in the background and you don’t get its explanation right away. I still like how she said she was rehearsing at home, yelling stuff like, “Evil spirits!” “You didn’t kill him, did you?”…and then the next day her neighbor moved out. O_0
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:19 am
You started to like Kakihara a little more in 2008, didn’t you? I also love all the silly Sugita Tomokazu pictures you posted. That helped me like him a little more
And yes, more Inoue! The only awesome this she really did in 2008 is star in Skip Beat!.
That last picture is awesome, btw.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:27 am
1) Inokuchi Yuka’s wedding + pregnancy was really surprising when I read her blog entry…it was at the end of the year too!
2) Itou + Naba marriage (laughs)
3) I can’t help but still giggle over the Aya-style bikini
4) I do hope Marunage would be as laughable in 2009 as it has always been. Hopefully Ueda and Shimizu would not let the “old man incident” deter them from their badmouthedness.
5) I can’t really stand Ochiai Yurika’s tendency to stick her boobs in the camera too…actually, I don’t particularly like her voice either…
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 am
Nice review! Best single radio episode for me had to be the Smile Gang punishment episode, where Mizuki Nana gets her batsu game XD. I totally loved Toshokan Radio but Ga-rei had staff talking to much of the time (boring) and Marunage was kinda zzz.
Toaru radio no Index and Kojika radio have to be my favourites for this year (Iguchi Yuka is crazy and KitaEri picking on Shindou Kei is just priceless). Oh and Kakihara trying to make Noto Mamiko do nurse cosplay in linebarrel radio!
“2. What Kitamura Eri looks like without make-up.”
I honestly don’t think you (or anyone) should go there…
Keep up the good work in 2009!
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 am
Awesome review. I keep forgetting Kaneda is 35.
…. it feels like Yukarin is ditching Hocchan for Nana-chan.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
What is the aya hirano bikini incident exactly? looking at the pictures and reading the articles doesn’t make it clear to me >_>
Also, can we have a voice sample of fukuens contagious laugh please :p?
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:03 am
Thank you for providing this information people who don’t listen to these awesome radio shows throughout 2008, and hopefully the same can happen for 2009. Happy New Years.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Thanks for the roundup and providing all the fun seiyuu news :). I don’t even think of Nana as a seiyuu anymore period; she’s a talented diva to me.
And rawr Yurika Ochiai. I’m still wondering why they’re that whining slut has a thread on JPM and Minorin DOESN’T.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Happy New Year! Here’s to another year of blogging of radio shows and seiyuu craziness. I just can’t muster the time to listen to all those radio shows…
>>2. I want to make love to Mizuhara Kaoru’s sexy onee-san voice. Just her voice, though.
Yes. Me too.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
@ZhakurRo
Nah, Minorin was only staring at him because she was afraid he’d eat her, lol.
@hashi
muttering bag seiyuu lolol
@PPP
I forgot about Yukarin @ Budokan :3
@Kraker2k
Ah yes Sugita…forgot about him, heh.
Yes Morikawa is now a sexy ikemen
@Panther
I want to see more Marina too. In non-shitty shows, preferrably…
@Julius Firefocht
I see what you did there!
@omo
I think it’s quite possible to read it without knowing Japanese. Babelfish should suffice…
@Neo Horizon
I didn’t post about it when the news first broke cos…. I don’t wanna be mean to Aya. No, really.
@Andrew
Honestly no idea why Aya wore it that way. I mean, the method of wearing bikinis and bras are kinda similar…
@Vness
Yes I like Kakky a lot, lot more now
@Ren
I was shocked by Inokuchi too…like crap, I didn’t think she’d be the shotgun-wedding type =_=
@Jigga
Heh, I liked Ga-Rei & Ito Atsushi too, it was interesting to hear some of the stuff that goes on in the making of an anime. I gave up on ToAru radio because I dislike the anime…
@r
Yukarin should - Nana is way hotter.
@stewie
Aya wore the bikini wrong way around ie the bits that are supposed to go strap round the back she strapped around her shoulders and neck instead…
And Misato’s laugh can be heard everytime in her radio shows. But I’ve got a future post idea that revolves around laughter so er… hope it sees the light of day!
@TheBigN & Kurogane
Sure hope I can keep the momentum going for 2009
@kiseki gurl
whining slut - perfect description.
*whew* thanks all for the replies!
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:32 am
Oh I see, thanks, I guess i get it now
Oh oh, and just to add, not all mizuki nana animes are bad :(, allison to lillia, minami ke were great :P! (short list, i know :(, I guess that does represent like the 5% >_> )
January 5th, 2009 at 3:44 am
“3. Tomatsu Haruka’s legs are longer than the Yangtze river, but shorter than Kobayashi Yu’s River Nile-length legs.”
Actually I believe the Amazon is the second-longest river. Unless someone else has the No. 2 legs.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:19 am
@Andrew
Amazon would be Inoue Marina :3 That’s because of her height - Yu is 168cm, Marina is 162cm & Haruka around 158cm (I think).
January 5th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
@stewie: ItaKiss was good too. She’s getting better roles nowadays *ignoring Capu2* Rideback looks promising too..
@j1m0ne: ..Tomacchan is that short? Shit. I saw Marina in person and she’s shorter than me, but I was very sure Tomacchan is taller.. at least 165cm or something with legs that long. O_o”
..and I’m suspecting KitaEri real ambition as a seiyuu is not the job itself, but fresh victims..
January 10th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
1. i am jealous of Kobayashi Yuu’s River Nile legs.
2. things i TOTALLY want to learn for 2010: how to lose weight, from Morikawa Toshiyuki.