Favourite Seiyuu??? Part 1: Female
Woah, top 10 seiyuu lists ^^;; I always go on and on about seiyuu but not so much about anime becos well….I’m a sad fool? Some ppl are idol otakus, others prefer cosplay; me - I’m a seiyuu ota. I can recognise seiyuu voices in anime before the credits even roll (like, I was literally drooling when I heard Itou Shizuka in the last 2 episodes of Darker Than Black). And I spend more time listening to seiyuu radio than I do watching anime. Woot. Anyway, so I jumped on the bandwagon somewhat late, but I just wanna give some of you out there an idea of who I like and so on.
What do I look for in a seiyuu?
1. Voice
-Versatility is key for me. I’m not particularly fond of seiyuu who sound the same in each and every single role they play (Hellooo, Sugita Tomokazu). Obviously that could be blamed on typecasting, but that’s not my fault ^^;
2. Personality
-I treat seiyuu pretty much like celebrities so if they’ve got the personality of driftwood it’s not likely to appeal to me either.
3. Singing ability
- Most of my money goes not on anime DVDs, but on CDs; so I’m less likely to be a fan of a seiyuu who sings like a strangled cat (i.e. Noto Mamiko).
Some background info - I’ve been actively watching anime for a mere 5 years, since I left the dead town that is Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia for dreary England (due to return to said dead town permanently in 2 months time). I like both male and female seiyuu equally, no real preference. Oh, and I’m a girl, for anyone who’s not aware yet. So moe voices do jackshit for me.
Is it possible to like a seiyuu you’ve spent most of your (anime) life hating?
Yes. I used to hate Shintani Ryoko to the point of refusing to watch anything that had her in it but recent roles in Hidamari Sketch and Red Garden have changed my mind. Kaneda Tomoko is still someone who annoys the shit out of me, though I must commend her role in Sola as… the Rozen Maiden look-a-likey, whatever she was called.
Top 10 Female Seiyuu (no particular order)
01. Itou Shizuka
-If you read my incoherent ramblings regularly, you’ll know how much I worship Shizuka-sama. I oh so aspire to be as wild as she is on her drunken escapades, knee-jumping and groping everyone’s breasts in sight. Oh, and she’s a pretty decent seiyuu on the side, even if her singing somewhat makes me ill. Be mine, Shizuka-sama? I’d let you grope my (airline runway-like) boobs anytime…..
02. Orikasa Fumiko
-She may not have much of a public presence outside of her seiyuu work, but boy is she good at what she does. Extremely versatile; young girls, annoying twerps, haughty teenagers, sexy middle-aged women…. Oririn can do the lot. Loved her the first time I heard her sweet, sweet voice in GTO… and her voicing the sulky, overly serious Meia Gisborn sealed the deal for me. Her CV reads like a dream: Chise in Saikano, Rukia in Bleach, Miu in Ichigo Mashimaro, Seras Victoria in Hellsing….and now she’s Yasako in my new favourite anime Denno Coil. Her singing is OK but her songs send me to sleep.
03. Mitsuishi Kotono
-One of the first few seiyuu I liked early on in my anime watching history thanks to Excel Saga, Evangelion and Noir. She’s not that active nowadays - when she is it’s normally as bit part roles (XYZ’s mother, Narrator No.235 etc) which is a bit of a shame cos she’s an absolute legend. Just listen to Excel shooting her mouth off for God’s sake and tell me that’s not talent. Oh, and of course….she’s Sailor Moon ^_^
04. Toyoguchi Megumi
-I like the Vandread series cos it was an introduction point to many of my fave seiyuu these days; including Orikasa, Ohara Sayaka, Yoshino Hiroyuki, Ishige Sawa and of course, Toyoguchi Megumi. I don’t really think she has that many male fans mainly cos she’s not cute or sexy, doesn’t really have a moe voice, has ugly teeth, thin as a bamboo stick and is also a bit of an otaku. But I like her; she’s bright and cheerful, has a sunny disposition and is SATOU SEI. Ijou.
05. Iwao Junko
-Another sentimental favourite due to my love for Card Captor Sakura. Tomoyo in CCS, Key in Key The Metal Idol, Ceres in Ayashi no Ceres - that’s all you need. So OK, Iwao may not be the most versatile of seiyuu 0 more or less limited to the sweet, shy types these days but she has the singing voice of an angel. Truth be, she’s more of an idol singer than a seiyuu but I love her to bits.
06. Kuwashima Houko
-Yet another semi-old fave, Oh noes, I’m beginning to sound like someone who’s stuck in their own whimsical nostalgia. But seriously, next to Orikasa, Hou-chan’s probably the next most versatile female seiyuu around. Isn’t one for the limelight either, preferring to let her work do the talking. An unforgettable debut in Nadesico as Yurika, then a string of top-notch roles - Kirika in Noir, Sango in InuYasha, Flay Alster, Stella Loussier, Kisaragi Quon, Bocca Serenade, Shuurei, Hattie, Kaitou Jeanne etc - what a list.
07. Tamura Yukari
-OK, I really don’t care for her voice acting which falls somewhere in between shockingly squeaky and nasally nauseous. Yukarin’s sense of humour is what makes me love her so much though; wit sharper than Kenshin’s sword, plus she’s not afraid of offending anyone outright ^^; In person, Yukarin looks and sounds like she’s on magic mushrooms or some serious crack; fidgeting and twitching about. Oh and of course, Nakagawa Shoko called her God, which she pretty much is.
08. Kobayashi Sanae
-Probably too often dismissed as yet another one of those ‘female seiyuu who does lots of shonen characters’ (Touya Akira in Hikaru no Go, Allen Walker in D.Gray-man. Sanae is my favourite Kobayashi, much more so than Yu (who seems to appear quite a lot in my blog). Sanae’s actually got a pretty extensive credits list, ranging from Lucy/Nyuu in Elfen Lied, sexy Satsuki in Ichigo 100%, the lovely Eleanor Campbell in Emma and more recently, Kiyora in Nodame. So why don’t people like her more? The mind boggles.
09. Nakahara Mai
Mmmmm why do I like Nakahara? She’s not incredibly versatile, has a nasally singing voice that reminds me of a leaking balloon and has roles in many anime that I’m not too fond of. I do think Mai’s voice, though limited, is very lively and sweet and she does a great job bringing out a character’s expressions and personality. Or maybe it’s the fact that she resembles Takamizawa, or maybe it’s the Shimizu Ai factor. Though obviously they’re about as yuriyuri as Mother Teresa is - her ideal man is Nojima Hiro (maybe that’s cos younger brother Kenji is already taken ^^;).
10. Hisakawa Aya
To round it off, another oldie (YAY). Again, her body of work speaks for itself. Sailor Mercury, Kerberos, Skuld, Souma Yuki, Yoko in 12 Kingdoms… the list stretches on for a mile. Has been usurped lately by all those Osaka accent wannabe types but nobody comes close to Hisakawa IMHO.
Others hovering just under:
-Mizuki Nana: I love your singing and will always buy your CDs, but you don’t do enough anime roles.
-Inoue Marina: A recent favourite. She’s the most likely to shove someone out of my top 10 in the near future.
-Konishi Hiroko: Her circumstances that ‘forced’ her out of the seiyuu business still grates.
-Tanaka Atsuko: Kusanagi Motoko. Nuff said.
-Kawakami Tomoko: Just missed out too. Another fantastically versatile seiyuu with a lot of memorable roles.
The male list in a separate post or else it’ll get too long….
Edit: Fixing typos and some other bits…..
June 9th, 2007 at 12:22 am
You had a bunch of my own favorite seiyuu on your list. ^^ Itoh Shizuka, Toyoguchi Megumi, Iwao Junko (despite only really hearing her as Tomoyo ^^;;), Kuwashima Houko and Hisakawa Aya. I think Itoh Shizuka would probably top my list too, though yours was in no particular order. Does this list mean that you’re putting an end to those seiyuu profiles? I hope not because I’m looking forward to reading something on Itoh Shizuka. ^^ Seriously, I worship her wild side too.
Also, I sorta thought that Nabatame Hitomi would be on your list for some reason…
And finally, I did think you were a guy! My bad. XD I read your male seiyuu list first and saw your comments on Johnny Depp and got a little confused, but this post clears that up. XD I enjoyed reading your lists. ^^
June 9th, 2007 at 4:23 am
No, not abandoing the seiyuu profile thing yet…. just a bit stuck in a rut with the two I’m working on at the moment…. plus I’m also making my way slowly through a swarm of backlogged anime ^^;;
Naba, hmmm… I dunno, never thought of her as being a particular fave. Maybe her voice is a bit too bland for me….
June 9th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Toyoguchi Megumi has been around earlier than Vandread you mentioned though. I know that since I liked her since her female lead debut in Dual! with Tanaka Rie who was also debut in that series. (Double Mitsuki! Although I have to say I like Tanaka Rie’s Mitsuki-nee a bit more.^^ Pretty much my all time favorite female character. Too bad she doesn’t play that type character much now so it’s quite memoriable for me. The series is also one of my all time favorite.) So both of them are in my fav list.
Nabatame Hitomi’s voice blend?! That comment is a bit surprising to me since I thought her voice is pretty unique and quite like it. She’s pretty vesertile too I thought even though she does mostly genki or laidback type character nowadays. I remember the first two roles she did when she started in Tsukihime(debut…same goes for Itou Shizuka and alot others. Although obviously playing the lead stands out more and the rest didn’t get much scene.) and Maburaho(eh…not so great series.) were totally different and that caught my attention alot. I thought she’s pretty intersting too after checking out school rumble nigakki extra when she mentioned her future dream is to run a dagashiya. Speaking of that, those extra are pretty amusing I thought along with Shimizu Kaori&Noto Mamiko’s mousou talk…^^ Maybe I’ll pick up the dvd next time going to Japan. Never finished watching that series too even though I love it… Stupid trusting half ass fansub group…made me miss out on it.
Not too sure if you guys know this but there are alot rumor that Itou Shizuka gotten alot better compare when she debuted because she does quite a bit of eroge.^^; Not too sure if she got alot practice from those but she really did quite a bit of them and still also. Nabatame did too but not for quite a while now though.
I like most of them you mentioned although I’d probably take Neya Michiko over Mitsuishi Kotono since their voice is quite alike. Around same level as say….Sanada Asami and Chiba Chiemi.(I really think they did that on purpose casting both in Nanaka 6/17.^^)
The reason Kobayashi Sanae isn’t that popular “probably” has something to do with her look…say…her teeth?^^; She is pretty talented though. I can’t remember at the moment but there’s another one has similar voice I sometimes get mixed…hmm…who was it…can’t remember now.
My list is obviously way longer but I guess I don’t dis most of them unless some really bad one or something about them I can’t quite put my finger on why I don’t like them….ie. Shimizu Ai, Momoi Haruko…^^;
One of my new favorites is Asumi Kana, you really should check out the radio programs she’s in. Very intersting I thought. She doesn’t really plan whatever she say alot so quite funny. Too bad the monthly Hidamari radio is over now with the author Ume sensei as the special guest. Busou Shinki one is prety interesting most of the time since she bullies Kitamura Eri quite often.^^; Haven’t checked out that one with her and Saitou Chiwa yet.
June 9th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Oh dear, oh dear. You like many of the same people I do. I can’t read this without squealing, except that wouldn’t be expressive enough, so I can’t. ^^;
I so wish Iwao Junko would take on a challenging role again, even a bit part. I’ll never forget her Fudo Jun in Devilman Lady. That was… unspeakable.
And I’ll watch absolutely anything with Mitsuishi Kotono in it. Sigh.
Mizuki Nana - Not only doesn’t she do enough roles, she hasn’t really proved herself as a seiyuu yet, IMO. Are those adult woman characters helping at all?
ToyoMegu seems somewhat underrated. Flies under the fan radar very often.
Hmm. Who else isn’t here…. Not that I like her (doesn’t leave an impression even though she’s everywhere), but, what about Ueda Kana?
June 9th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Mizuhashi Kaori, Kanda Akemi, Kurata Masayo, Michizuki Hisayo, Morinaga Rika(I always thought her voice is quite like Saitou Chiwa.^^;), Sawashiro Miyuki, Kanai Mika(well can’t mention her without Koorogi Satomi since they’re two of the kind in that voice genre.^^)…? For me Terada Haruhi seems to slip my mind the most as she somehow does minor roles mostly.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
For me some of the more glaring omissions would be old-timers like Yokoyama Chisa, Orikasa Ai, Touma Yumi, Araki Kae and Tsuru Hiromi - they’re legends in my book but they do so little these days that I tend to forget they exist ^^;
For the ‘younger’ bunch - Saito Chiwa, Nanri Yuuka, Hirohashi Ryo, Kuwatani Natsuko & Tanaka Rie I suppose are the ones I had a long hard think about.
Naba -> LOL. First experience of her was Tsukihime, then Maburaho as well. Neither show which I particularly liked, so can’t have been a good impression. Problem is, I can’t really name a character she’s played that I really like; + the freshest memory I’ve got of Naba is Feena trying to chop the damned cabbage
Ueda Kana -> I like her, but I’d like her a lot more if she
a)did less Kansai-ben roles
b)sounded more convincing as a guy (see Hazumu in Kasimasi)
Mizuki Nana -> she’s done some stuff that I quite liked i.e. Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist & Kururu in Bottle Fairy but a lot of her roles have been pretty generic. Kirihara in DtB is a little different for her, Yuno in KissDum too but that show is too much of a mess & a waste of all that seiyuu talent. Nana seems to be doing quite a bit more this year - there’s a lead role in Rosario + Vampire coming up plus another support role in GONZO’s Dragonaut. Nice to see that she’s making an effort to be a ’seiyuu’ ^^;; but I hope that doesn’t mean she’ll be releasing less music….
Neya over Mitsuishi? NO WAAAYY ^^:;;;; Misato + Excel + Maze + Celsia + Ebichu + Mireille + Juri + Sailor Moon cannot be beaten by uh…er… Melissa Mao & Risa Hawkeye? Those are the characters I immediately think of when Neya’s name is mentioned. I also tend to mix her up with Hiramatsu Akiko too…
June 9th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Hmm…I don’t really rate them by the roles they did much since there are bound to have some role you hate somehow.^^; Like with Shimizu Ai and Momoi Haruko, I do like quite a bit of roles they did but still I don’t care about them much.^^; I thought Nazuka Kaori is pretty talented and do like many roles she did yet I only like her ok.^^
Here are few more seiyuu that’s been around for a while now and do have distinct voice yet sometimes just can’t think of their names quickly.^^ Shiratori Yuri,…(can’t think of more at the moment.^^;)
Those I like and been around for a while and on long running series still….Yamazaki Wakana, Ootani Ikue, Okamura Akemi.(hmm…might as well mention Takayama Minami.^^)
There are also quite few I like but don’t appear much lately or only minor roles, Minaguchi Yuuko, Kouda Mariko, Suzuki Mariko, Takahashi Chiaki, Nakayama Sara, Kurata Masayu Sakuma Kumi, Sakuma Rei Iizuka Mayumi and Imai Yuuka. Guess Honda Takako sorta count since no major characters lately.
Nabatame’s debut performance was pretty good I thought but the series itself has problem… The more recent roles I liked are Nobue(Ichigo Mashimaro. Not into loli much but damn I love most of main characters. So cute.^^), Mikoto(school rumble) and Miki.(Muteki Kanbanmusume)
Ueda Kana’s boy roles are ok. Not that big a fan of those but they aren’t any worse than Noto Mamiko, Mizuki Nana’s I thought.
Hiramatsu Akiko mixed up with Neya or Mitsuishi? I thought her voice is quite different from those two but her name tend to slip my mind when I try to think of the name when watching something she’s in.^^;
For me the more of legend level female seiyuu would be…Sakakibara Yoshiko.^^
Have you heard Kouda Kaho’s voice before? Tanaka Atsuko and her voice are very much alike. Oops…getting drifted away…hehe. We oughta have a similar voice seiyuu discussion sometimes.^^
June 11th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
>Kouda Kaho - recently, the only thing that comes to mind is one of Alice’s older sisters in Pumpkin Scissors. Though a quick flick her credits & I recognise 3 characters, all of which I liked - Kanoe in X, Karasuma in WHR & Cher in Wolf’s Rain.
Oh, and I watched (or tried to anyway, cos it bored me to death) Dual! after Vandread so I didn’t know Megu before that.
For me, characters do have a lot to do with how much I like/hate someone - Takada Yumi’s Ayeka in Tenchi makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall & I’ve never liked her since.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Ueda Kana -> I like her, but I’d like her a lot more if she
a)did less Kansai-ben roles
b)sounded more convincing as a guy (see Hazumu in Kasimasi)
I think I only like her when she does that accent. ^^;;
Let me see. “Hazumu is a guy.” “Hazumu was a guy.”
Nope, both statements are bringing up blanks.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Kinda surprising you like Vandread quite a bit. All the memory I can recall from it was there were Kakazu Yumi(I think she got more popular after it), Oohara Sayaka(I think), Orikasa Fumiko(not long after she started I think), Asakawa Yuu and Neya Michko in those…that’s about it for me. I think it was pretty fun but not really that different than alot of male targeted harem series before it.^^;
I guess it’s depend on how you want anyway. For me I thought linking the characters isn’t too fair as the roles are decided by the staff. I doubt you’d like some character you hate in the first place like from original manga then when it turned into anime played by someone you love and start to like the same character.^^;
Personally I don’t really dis Ayeka or Takada Yumi since she actually fit quite well with the super jousama role. Anyone else would be…well less.^^ Besides she’s be around really long now.
June 15th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Whatever happened to Kotono Mitsuishi anyway. I wish she would come back among others such as Mika Doi, Yuko Minaguchi and Ai Orikasa. There’s far to many talentless people these days like Chihara Minori who get work based off their looks and marketability and far to many great voice actors who haven’t seen work in ages. Also I would have worked Yukana, Rie Kugimiya and Romi Paku into this one.
Still increbile list. Glad to see someone who knows his talent from his heavily promoted idol types.
June 15th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
The last time I heard Doi Mika was in Mushishi. That wasn’t too long ago. As for Minaguchi Yuuko and Orisaka Ai, both of them are in one currently on air series at least.(Minaguchi Yuuko in Kabutsu Oujo and Orisaka Ai in Kono Aosora ni Yakusoku o.) Mitsukishi Kotono appears quite often here and there though. Can’t remember what those wer….
Chihara Minori is good looking?! That’s a first time I’ve heard of it.^^; I like her ok myself. I actually think her debut role(Aya)’s voice is alot more memorable than her other type voices which are pretty generic I though.^^;
June 16th, 2007 at 2:57 am
I don’t care much for Minorin’s voice work really - I think her role as Natsume Aya was ‘memorable’ in that it was absolutely horrible ^^;; I like her singing though, and I did enjoy listening to her old radio show.
Looks wise… well, I always thought she was prettier than Hirano Aya or er… Goto Yuko but what I do I know anyway eh? ^_^
Plenty of those 90s seiyuu have done less & less in recent years (Minami Omi, Tamagawa Sakiko etc) but I guess you can look at Itou Miki who had a pretty dry period around the late 90s/early 00s but has seen quite a bit of action lately. And it’s the same reason as why Kotono, Hayashibara Megumi, Iwao Junko + a few others did less work - they got married (& some had children too).
Except Iwao Junko who just recently divorced composer Yamamoto Harukichi. Maybe she’ll be more active from now on; she’s already taken on some radio work, something she hasn’t done in a long time. Hope things go well for her in the future ^_^
June 16th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Hehe…I acutally thought Chihara Minori’s debut role wasn’t that bad.(at least it’s not as bad as those horrible first timers I’ve mentioned before.) I guess I sorta get used to it after a while plus I thought it was kinda cute. Don’t think she use that voice much nowadays.
As for her look, at least those Haruhi interview photo I’ve seen from the magazines were pretty bad to me. I actually thought Goto Yuuko isn’t too bad looking.^^ I do know it’s alot older…hehe
There sure are more seiyuu magazines in the market recently. Was just checking out newsletter Amazon JP sent me since I bought some seiyuu magazines before. At least two new one came out last few months, Pick-up Voice and Voicha. Since I don’t really bother with female oriented all guy seiyuu magazines so no idea if there are more now.^^;
March 19th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
[...] like both female and male seiyuu equally. Top 10 favourites here and [...]
March 31st, 2008 at 11:47 pm
[...] I thought profile #10 should be reserved for someone special so I decided to choose someone from my top 10 favourite female seiyuu list. Someone who’s preferrably young, hip and visually pleasant - that narrowed my list down to [...]
May 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Nice one with Fumiko Orikasa, Houko Kawashima and Aya Hisakawa. All of them are incredibly talented seiyuus. Especially Houko-chan’s… Can you please make a seiyuu profile on KAWAKAMI TOMOKO. Haven’t heard about her for a while… I am such a fan of hers. I think she’s one, if not, the most talented yet overlooked seiyuu in the entire biz. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Have to agree with you, though Mai-chan quite resembles a dude… SHE’S STILL HOT!