May Seiyuu News Round-Up
Your monthly dose of pointless seiyuu news is here. Except that it’s rather dry this time around, there haven’t really been that many newsworthy articles (or I probably missed them having been away for a while) so it’ll be a ragtag collection of silly news and blog pictures.
Sakamoto Maaya Creates Chart History, May’n Follows on Strongly
Congrats to Maaya for being the first seiyuu ever to have a single or album release chart in the Oricon Top 10 for 4 consecutive weeks. Of course she owes a lot of that success to Macross as does Nakabayashi May, whose career has more or less been rescued by her transformation into May’n. Wonder if she’ll be returning to her urban roots after the Macross fuss is over? May’n will be appearing at Animelo this summer but she’s signed to Horipro, one of the agency juggernauts in Japan so I figure she’ll go down the modelling/acting route eventually. Oh, and Diamond Crevasse’s sales (75,026) have already passed Triangler’s (72,024) despite being released two weeks later. In the overall sales chart for the month of May, Maaya comes in at No.7 behind Aqua Timez’ Niji and May’n just behind at No.8.
Sakakibara Yui Bans Otagei at Her Live Shows?
Singer/seiyuu Sakakibara Yui caused a mini-outrage after writing in a blog entry that she intended to ban the ‘Otagei’ culture at her live events. Otagei are those rabid idol/seiyuu fans who do choreographed dances at live shows (see here for some explanation) - Morning Musume and Momoi Halko are examples of acts famous for having overly enthusiastic fans. In the lengthy rant, Sakakibara described otagei as being a ’source of annoyance’ and that they shouldn’t be able to get away with it ‘just because they’re otaku’, pointing out that they’d probably get thrown out if they attempted it at a major artist’s performance. She first noticed otagei when people ‘jumped violently’ at her shows but the straw that broke the camel’s back was somebody throwing a light stick onto the stage while she was singing.
As a Yui-nyan fan, I rolled my eyes when I read the blog post cos I could more or less visualize the sort of reaction the internets would have. Her ‘explosive’ comments have made it to Yahoo News, IT Media News, ORICON News, livedoor News and countless other blogs & news sites; she’s been both attacked and applauded and I personally find the whole affair hilarious. Otagei are entertaining…for all of 3 seconds. Then I start to wish they’d shut up and go away. Congrats to Yui-nyan for taking a stand against this kind of thing, even if otaku get mad at her - just think of the problems Tamura Yukari and Chihara Minori concerts have faced with misbehaving fans in recent years. I certainly wouldn’t want my fave idols to get blacklisted at live venues because of an idiot minority.
Watch: Otagei performance
Watch: Sakakibara Yui performing Eternal Destiny live (hear the otaku drown her out!)
Inoue Marina is a giant…
…when standing next to poor Ito Kanae anyway. Marina at 162cm (around 5′2 1/2″) is 20cm taller than Kanae (4′6″), but I mean…162cm is hardly tall. Amusingly, Ito Kanae isn’t the shortest seiyuu around (excluding children) - that honour goes to Shimura Yumi, who stands at a ceiling-busting 138cm. The tallest female seiyuu on record I believe, is Honda Takako at 173cm.
Kuwatani Natsuko is a Narutard
Five years after anyone with half a brain stopped watching Naruto (yeah, I used to have half a brain..), Kuwatani Natsuko has suddenly developed an interest in the kids’ ninja show; dedicating an entire post raving about her newfound love, even to the point of sketching Sakura. The post ended up being so long I scrolled through most of it until the end where Nacchan compiled a list top 5 favourite Naruto characters.
1.Uzumaki Naruto
2.Hatake Kakashi
3.Tsunade
4.Namikaze Minato (…who? Sorry, I gave up reading the manga when Sasuke crossed over to the dark side)
5.Yakushi Kabuto
But anyway, it’s lame being into Naruto. She could at least have chosen something like One Piece; there’s more famous people who happen to be fans (such as Bump of Chicken & Hirahara Ayaka).
Horie Yui & Kanda Akemi go on a date to Toshimaen Water Park
Toshimaen? I wonder why not Disneyland or Disney Sea… Anyway, Kanda titled her blog post on the subject ‘Hocchan Kanchi no RabuRabu Toshimaen’. There you go, your yuri fix for the month. You can also cycle through Horie’s blog to the 19th May entry for a picture of the ice-cream she ate.
Random Blog Image Corner
Minami-ke mascots… (via Inoue Marina’s blog)
Chiaki & Kana. Why no Haruka? Because Haruka only had her sisters’ mascot dolls hanging off her bag.
A sketch of the Special A seiyuu cast by Nabatame Hitomi (via Goto Yuko’s blog)
Yuko’s the one at the top left-hand corner, apparently. Have fun guessing which one is Fukuyama Jun! (Hint: it’s not the one in the middle)
Zettai Karen Children cast get-together (via Shiraishi Ryoko’s blog)
Another one of those ‘Our faces are too ugly so lets take pics of our hands’ thingies. Clockwise from top left: Sato Rina, Otake Miyu, Nakamura Yuichi, Yusa Koji, Shiraishi Ryoko & Tomatsu Haruka. Er yeah, Hirano Aya’s missing - too busy maybe?
Nazuka Kaori in 5th grade (via Kaori’s blog)
Chiyo and Tadakichi?
Kuribayashi Minami sings her own songs at karaoke (via Minami’s blog)
And only scores 95 points.
Kadowaki Maii plays Fate/unlimited codes arcade game (via Maita’s blog)
As part of an interview for Dengeki G’s magazine. Her opponent was TYPE-MOON co-founder/artist Takeuchi Takashi.
Sato Rina & Arai Satomi go bananas (via Tanaka Atsuko’s blog)
Apparently Tanaka Atsuko’s never seen a banana case before…well, I have.
Horie Kazuma’s family
No, he’s not related to Yui in any way. Anyway, the Horie family evidently has talent running through their genes - [from left to right] mum Machiko is an opera singer, and her two sons Kazuma (actor, seiyuu) and Kei (film director) are both in showbiz. Kazuma can currently be heard in Special A as Ryuu, and will be in this summer’s Natsume Yujin-Cho.
Sugita Tomokazu… (via Suganuma Hisayoshi’s blog)
…charming as ever, that Sugita fellow.
Okamoto Nobuhiko in a bear costume (via Okamoto’s blog)
I don’t think that helps his ‘manly’ image one bit…
and finally…
A Soul Eater biscuit (via Koyama Rikiya’s blog)
Upcoming Seiyuu CD releases:
[S]Miyano Mamoru - DISCOVERY [PS2 Fushigi Yugi Suzakuibun OP] (2008/06/04)
[S]Ochiai Yurika - Akai Tori (2008/06/25)
-Part 2 of her 12-month consecutive single release plan.
[S]Hayashibara Megumi - Plenty of Grit/REVOLUTION [Slayers REVOLUTION OP-ED] (2008/07/23)
[S]Kuribayashi Minami - unripe hero [Blassreiter OP2] (2008/07/23)
[S]Kitamura Eri - [untitled 1st maxi-single] (2008/07/23)
[S]Ochiai Yurika - [untitled 3rd single] (2008/07/30)
[S]Chihara Minori - Ame Agari no Hana yo Sake (2008/08/06)
[S]Ono Daisuke - [untitled] (2008/08/06)
[S]Shiraishi Ryoko - [untitled 3rd single] (2008/08/06)
[S]Shiraishi Ryoko - [untitled 4th single] (2008/09/10)
[A]Nakahara Mai - [untitled 2nd full album] (2008/06/25)
[A]Hayashibara Megumi - Slayers MEGUMIX (2008/06/25)
[A]Hirano Aya - Riot Girl (2008/07/16)
[A]Iizuka Mayumi - Stories (2008/07/23)
*[S]=single, [A]=album
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:31 am
Why are some of my favorite seiyuu so tall…? Seiyuu have been really busy this month! Sugita looks possessed in his picture. He’s so funny ><. That Soul Eater biscuit looks yummy. And so does that…banana…jk!
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Aa.. no Makkun for Slayers Revolution? Boo. >_>
July releases looking good, also with Yukarin’s Budokan DVD coming..
and that’s a really cute Minami-ke mascots~ <3
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 am
I lol’ed when I saw the Soul Eater biscuit…
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
Haha, I’m guilty of recently becoming a Narutard too… After so many years of refusing to read or watch Naruto, I finally lost half my brain. -_-
The Random Blog Image Corner amused me to no end. Your writing is the best!
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Soul Eater biscuit making me hungryy….
Lol at Inoue Marina being ‘tall’, reminds me of Iku in Toshokan Sensou
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I’m no supporter of Otagei, although I think there is some value to a little bit of fan coordination. Then again, that kind of thing are a turn-off for Americans in general.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Glad to see some more male seiyuu coverage here - most places I’ve seen seem to focus on either male of female seiyuu exclusively.
As for Maaya, I wonder for how much longer we will be able to call her a seiyuu, since she’s obviously moving away from voice work. Her last major role I remember is Kyou in Binbou Shimai Monogatari, and that was back in 2006.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I do try to provide as balanced a coverage as I can, but seiyuu-related media generally tips to the female side unless you’re a BL or bishonen fan (neither of which I am), and male seiyuu blogs are almost non-existant - almost none of the most popular ones (Ishida Akira, Suzumura Kenichi, Fukuyama Jun etc) have their own whereas the girls mostly do.
Regarding Maaya, she was never really attached to seiyuu work from the start but she does pop up a lot more shows than you think - Death Note, Kara no Kyokai & Soul Eater are the ones I remember that came after Binbou. And there’s World Destruction plus Blade of the Immortal still to come, so I wouldn’t say Maaya is ‘moving away’ from voice work - I’ve always seen it as a sideshow to her main musical and theatrical pursuits.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Whoa…they do drown Sakakibara out a lot, those otaku.
Aww, I find Natsuko being a recent ‘Narutard’ quite adorable. lol (I’m still not going to go back on it.)
And umm…how could you tell which hand is whose…?
June 6th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Oh, snap. Soul Eater biscuit! Now that’s something I’d like to “itadaku.”
June 7th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I think Minato is Naruto’s dad? lol I don’t know either xD And come on, at least Naruto > One Piece right? xD
You know I don’t know what’s so good about the Macross songs. I listened to them and they all seem pretty average to me, they’re ok but I’m surprised that they’re doing so well. the power of anime xD
July 1st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
[...] skip the serious stuff and move on to the blog pics… After the Soul Eater biscuit last month comes the Soul Eater cake, made to celebrate the June birthdays of Miyano Mamoru (Death the Kid), [...]
July 29th, 2008 at 1:33 am
[...] was doing it on the screen. It was hilarious. For why the fuss and info on what otagei is, go here for j1m0ne’s coverage on the story [Sakakibara Yui Bans Otagei at Her Live [...]