Inoue Marina Moves Agencies
A quick update - just a couple of days ago, I posted in my Seiyuu Review of 2007 about how seiyuu are moving agencies as often as I change my underpants. And this is the first big one of 2008 - Inoue Marina moves from Voice & Heart to Sigma 7. That means she is no longer stablemates with Asumi Kana, but now joins the likes of Wakamoto Norio, Mizuki Nana, Takagi Reiko and Yoshino Hiroyuki.
At the same time her blog has also shifted from Playlog to Yaplog. I don’t really know what moving agencies entails for Inoue, but V&H had close ties with Sony/Aniplex and Sigma 7 with Starchild/King Records so either way she looks set to continue juggling singing & voice acting.
EDIT: Now I’ve got a bit more time to look up both V&H and Sigma 7, here’s a few facts.
VOICE & HEART are a company jointly formed by Aniplex (anime & music production company) and Road and Sky (singer Hamada Shogo’s music agency) for primarily for the purpose of seiyuu & artist management. Both Aniplex & Road and Sky are under the Sony entertainment arm - in a way V&H are very similar to Sony’s other seiyuu agency Music Ray’n (home to Takagaki Ayahi, Tomatsu Haruka & Toyosaki Aki).
They haven’t got much experience at handling seiyuu, and now that Marina has left Asumi Kana is the only other ‘big’ name on their books - the other seiyuu are all successful applicants from auditions held in 2006 - none of them have done much of note. Why do I get this feeling Asumin won’t be sticking around at V&H for much longer?
Sigma Seven on the other hand, are a full-blown seiyuu agency with their own voice training school (DOA) and a huge stable of big names. Their actors are not only active in anime voice acting, but also do narration, voiceover and radio works. Maybe Marina wants an agency who can handle her career better, get her different projects…. who knows? Or maybe she’s just lonely and wants to attend bigger company parties 
Or maybe she’s got some thing going on with Mizuki Nana, who seems to coincidentally be in half the shows Marina was in ^^;;
Regardless of all these changes, hopefully 2008 will still be as good a year for her as 2007 was. 以上！
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 am
Well should I just start off with “ktkr”? It’s strange that with Marina’s popularity her exposure as well as her homepage has been so static and barebone. I’m going to be especially interested in Marina’s music side of things now that she’s moved to Sigma Seven.
Speaking of seiyuu agencies, I don’t know if you notice but there’s definitely a trend in there. Agencies such as V&H, Spacecraft and even Avex - mainly the mainstream agencies trying to branch into the otaku word has all failed quite miserably. You would already know about V&H with Marina, Spacecraft is showing their ignorance of the otaku world through Chiba Saeko, Nanri Yuuka and now Hirano Aya (you would think they’ve learnt their lessons after 3 goes), Avex just barely woke up in time with Minorin and reworked their approach, but her original handling was a total mess. It shows how the two sectors really don’t crossover.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Yeah, I’d been wondering why her website was always so out-of-date. You’re right, it’s gonna be interesting to see how her music career develops - she’s one of the better young singers in the seiyuu world IMO.
Again, I agree with the hopeless mishandling of ppl like Hirano Aya. Hasegawa Shizuka is another (less extreme) example. OK, she got a bit of exposure in Airantou & Lucky Star + a few TV gigs, but whats the next thing they do? Stick her in live-action Negima. Way to go, Space Craft. Granted, she can’t actually sing to save her life anyway, but…. y’know, they could try and make her the next Aipon or something instead of targetting…. God knows who, really.
It seems that despite the supposed dire working conditions of the traditional agencies they are still the best at maximising a seiyu’s potential, getting them the right gigs etc. Makes me wonder how long Asumi Kana will stay on at V&H now. And also makes me a bit worried how Sony will handle the likes of Takagaki Ayahi & Tomatsu Haruka…..
Still, better than not having an agency at all - it must be tough to manage a career without an agency acting as the middleman. There are so few truly successful freelance seiyuu around (maybe Nazuka Kaori, Kaida Yuki?) that I can’t see ppl like Morinaga Rika & Kobayashi Yumiko remaining so for much longer.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I liked what I heard from Marina and her colleberation with Kajiura Yuki, but not so much her Minna stuff. Marina’s singing voice is quite unique since her voice tends to be at the deeper end of the spectrum so I think she would make an interesting addition to the list of seiyuu singers.
I hope things works out for Tomatsu Haruka, she was cute as a button when I saw her at TBS Festival last year, plus she has much untapped potential. Would be sad to see her disappear just due to poor management. I’m not sure about her doing live action drama is going to help though…. definitely not a vote of confidence on the management side of things. orz
Freelance is probably not the way to do things in Japan, when everything is so much about networking and knowing the “right people”. Kinda sad really, but just how things work here.
January 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Being a seiyuu fan myself but I never really pay attention to stuff like the agencies and stuff.^^; Still, this for sure is a great opportunity for her to finally be more well known to the public.(plus maybe she’s sick of V&H getting her too many boy roles?^^)
Speaking of blog, this probably would mean Asumin’s won’t feature that many Marina’s cute pictures from now on.>_<
April 5th, 2008 at 12:51 am
[...] ・Inoue Marina moves agencies. ・Voice & Heart agency mass exodus. ・Minorin says the word ‘j1m0ne’, j1m0ne [...]