Goto Yuko…. Who’s That? Japanese Media Confused by Seiyuu’s Blog’s Popularity
A Japanese MSN news post a few days ago bore the headline
後藤邑子ってだれ？謎のブログ人気急上昇 ガッキーら上回る勢い
“Who’s Goto Yuko? Mysterious blog suddenly gains popularity, overtakes Gakki (Aragaki Yui).”
Turns out that Goto’s TSUBUYAKI blog had overtaken popular talento Aragaki Yui’s blog on the Ameba Blog rankings, despite nobody but hardcore Haruhi maniacs knowing who she is. So the article went on to explore Goto’s background, giving the details that all seiyuu fans already know; her love of drinking and bikes, that her English is pretty good, and that she won a Seiyuu Award last year.
Here’s the chart I captured an image of earlier, showing a peak ranking of No.2 behind actor Kamiji Yusuke and ahead of Sugiura Taiyo, better known as ‘that dude who got Tsuji Nozomi pregnant’. At the very moment I’m writing this, TSUBUYAKI has dropped to No.3
Goto-sama herself was pretty bemused by the sudden surge in blog visitors, with her latest entry revealing that she had gotten lots of mails asking ‘….So what do you actually do for a living?’ And her answer was simple.
えーと。声優です。よろしくお願いします！！
“Erm. I’m a seiyuu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!!”
Being a seiyuu fan, I was of course incredibly bemused by this for various reasons:
1. Nobody knows who/what a seiyuu is apart from anime maniacs. Is that surprising?
2. I regularly read TSUBUYAKI, but I can’t comprehend why it’s suddenly shooting up in popularity. Somebody please tell me? Can’t believe she’s getting more hits than Gakki, Leah Dizon, Thelma Aoyama or Tomosaka Rie. The world has gone mad.
3. It’s pretty amazing though, to see the number of comments Goto gets for each post increasing ten-fold from 30+ to 300. Mostly from noobs wondering what all the fuss is about though :/
Here’s a nice Goto Yuko with Hidamari Sketch cast pic, for people who do not yet know her (the one with the big ears/mouth). No really, I seriously do love Gotuza-sama.
L-R:Goto Yuko (Hiro), Mizuhashi Kaori (Miyako), Asumi Kana (Yuno), Shintani Ryoko (Sae), Matsuki Miyu (Yoshinoya-sensei)
February 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
I hate her for Kaede from Shuffle!… but I’m giving the anime a second chance so let’s see how this goes =P
February 21st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
ルンララ～ I liked her from Mizuiro and of course Fushigi-hoshi no Futago Hime. Like and hate really, her voice grates sometimes. I’d like to hear her english though, does her voice drop?
I am liking your seiyuu blog posts. Thanks.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 am
lol, I’m amused that Yuko was bemused. ^^
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:10 am
I’m bemused, myself. Did she climb gradually or was it sudden? Was she linked to from some other popular place?
I’ve loved her work since Lamune and Mizuiro. To tell the truth, I still like that over-the-top squeaky ero-game voice best.
She is really rising, now getting a chance to star opposite Fukuyama Jun in this spring’s SA - Special A, where she is a “hyper-genki but blockheaded” girl who enters a school to compete with the guy who defeated her in wrestling when she was little and loved pro wrestling.
If her agency is with it — as you’d expect Production Baobab to be — she’ll be making some TV appearances in the near future.
April 5th, 2008 at 8:57 am
[...] ・houkoholic kills Ueda Kana. ・Hasegawa Shizuka shuts down blog after harsh comments. ・Goto Yuko’s blog’s sudden rise in popularity. ・Bandai USA get Code Geass seiyuu names wrong (Taeko Chiba? Junko [...]