Pointless Exercise #569: A Visual Study of Seiyuu Legs
Ito Shizuka & Goto Yuko
Yes, I seem to be bored again. Now expanding the series of visual studies with a look at seiyuu legs! I would prefer to do buttsize, but nobody seems to want to show off their fleshy posteriors. I wonder why. Perhaps it’s because most seiyuu posses buttocks that rather resemble the household item pictured below:
an ironing board
But I digress.
The Haruhi Leg Wars
Like the rest of the world female population, seiyuu are divided squarely into two groups when it comes to legs – the ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’ group, and the ‘If you ain’t got it, wear a long skirt’ group.
Seiyuu fashion of the 90s?
Seiyuu used to be largely nameless & faceless beings about a decade ago, you really just knew their names and voices and rarely saw any part of their anatomy (for a good reason). However the business has evolved much these days that visual presentation is now an integral part of the job – voice actors are regularly required to promo events, festivals and the like and I’m pretty sure that they (especially the younger ones) would NOT want to be seen as ‘The Fat One’ or ‘The One with Orange Peel Skin’.
The iDOLM@STER seiyuu - spot the fat one
Looking at all the female seiyuu being churned out these days, they’re an almost endless assembly line of wafer-thin DFCs. But seriously, is anyone complaining? I’m pretty sure most people would be more interested in seiyuu if they all looked like Hirano Aya rather than the trio in the picture below.
Kuwashima Houko & friends
And at this point I seem to be moving further and further away from the topic at hand… ahem. Anyway, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and the same rings true for legs. I personally have two rules of thumb when trying to decide whether a pair of legs make me go PHWOOOAR or UGGGGGHH:
#1: Judge (leg) beauty only when there are no clothes in the way.
Guess who?
At first glance, those legs on the right look OK; maybe a little more appealing than those of the person in jeans on the left. Then you look up at the rest of the picture and realise that the mysterious legs on the right belong to a certain Okiayu Ryotaro, and you spit your coffee over your keyboard. It’s Minagawa Junko on the left, by the way.
#2: Thin≠Beautiful
Thinness tends to come with knobbly knees. I don’t like that. Those reeds above belong to (from left to right) Kugimiya Rie, Tamura Yukari & Horie Yui, and Yukarin again.
good knees vs. bad knees
Ideally, pretty legs should be reasonably ‘meaty’ (around the thigh area) and have smooth skin all the way from the top of the thigh to below the knee. A bit like what you see above, but obviously too much meat ain’t a good thing either. I draw the line at something like Fukui Yukari’s legs. She must have a great arse though >_<
Fukui Yukari
My Favourite Legs
Kobayashi Yu
Cheerleading legs
I still consider Yu the gold standard for seiyuu legs. I’m pretty sure her long limbs are one of the reasons she got scouted by a modeling agency when she was a teenager. I suppose Kobayashi is a rarity amongst seiyuu – possessing curves in the right places, sufficient height and limbs that stretch on for miles. Shame that she’s got an IQ the size of a bumblebee…
Inoue Marina
White legs
I never get to see much of Marina’s legs, sadly. Or maybe I’m not looking hard enough? They’re awesome though – Suzuki Tatsuhisa and Maeno Tomoaki will agree with me! *prays hard for Marina photobook featuring leg shots only*
Others
Some random leg shots – some of whom I like and some whom I don’t care for:
Tanaka Rie
Shiraishi Ryoko
Hirano Aya
Ueda Kana
Inoue Kikuko
Mizuki Nana
More Yu
Horie Yui
And that’s all, folks! Next up, a study of seiyuu earlobes. Or maybe a study of seiyuu teeth, or seiyuu nostril size. Otanoshimini!
This post needs moar pictures of legs. And yes I want pictures of Marina legs as well.
Tomatsu Haruka seems to have nice legs too, but her photos are even harder to come by (thus far). I’m sure Kannagi would probably fix that.
Also the younger generation tends to have better legs because Japan had stopped kneeling so much and started to use chairs more. The early 20s group is about your changing point so you are beginning to see the effects now in this generation of seiyuu.
tanaka rie ;_;
Whew… this is EXACTLY what I needed after another long day of school (I’ve got tomorrow off though, thankfully, due to a teacher planning day and the whole McCain-Obama election nonsense). Thanks for coming through in the clutch for us yet again, j1m0ne! ^_^
It’s very difficult to decide, since there are so many excellent sets/pairs here (though the thin, knobby ones are very easy to spot, unfortunately), but I would have to say that my favorites are Goto Yuko (the second picture where she’s wearing the funky white boots and rocking what appears to be a thin-layered bathrobe; the first one, although pretty nice, is nowhere near as meaty), Tanaka Rie (I don’t even think that it needs to be mentioned why), Hirano Aya (once again, the 2nd pic, where she appears to be older and more well-put-together, bending low and clutching/clinging to/caressing the exterior of a bathtub), Ueda Kana (GREAT construction, with or without the sexy motorcycle goddess/mistress imagery), and Inoue Kikuko (one of the original (and still among the best) seiyuu to actually have EXTREMELY nice legs, despite the fact that she was born during what was still the traditional generation of respectfully kneeling). I also love Kobayashi and Marina (the most, without a doubt), but preferred not to speak additional volumes on them, since you already got the job done (Thank you once more!
). Mizuki Nana, on the other hand, looked IMMENSELY famished, due to her stance (arms hanging low and motionless, instead of extended in different directions for unique purposes).
As for the third image, on an unrelated note, I’m not going to say much regarding the subject, except that Sakamoto Maaya DEFINITELY got more beautiful, romantic and lovely when she blossomed into her twenties (her best eras, IMO, were 2000-2002 (back when she had all of the boyish Peter Pan haircuts) and 2006-present (the most full-grown and womanly appearances she’s ever manifested yet)).
“Then you look up at the rest of the picture and realise that the mysterious legs on the right belong to a certain Okiayu Ryotaro, and you spit your coffee over your keyboard.”
Not coffee but rather Hungarian Gulasch soup… and it didn’t quite reach the keyboard. *washes chin and puts pants in laundrybasket*
To me, it’s between Marina, Aya and Yu.
Haruka also got some great legs, and she knows it too.
More Marina legs +Megane in the Sept. issue of Seigura.
KUWASHIMA HOUKO IS AWESOME xD
“some of whom I like and some whom I don’t care for”
lol I wonder who it is you don’t care for… *cough* xD
The horror of knobbly knees!!!
I got to agree, tanaka rie isn’t half bad as well.
Looks wise, Tanaka Rie has to be the most well-balanced seiyuu around. Great legs, great face, great proportions, great everything. Easily beautiful enough to be a model if she was not in the seiyuu industry.
I thought Yukarin’s legs were not bad in her latest Chelsea Girl concert DVDs. Nana’s legs tend to receive the spotlight too in her concerts, with nice short skirts and all.
But Hirano Aya’s legs own them all, it has to be said.
On a side note, I like that picture of Ueda Kana that you put in this post. That showed off way more than just legs.
@Emily:
I definitely cannot read j1m0ne’s mind, but I’d have to guess Shiraishi Ryoko, Mizuki Nana and Horie Yui.
As for everyone else, when I said third image earlier in reference to Sakamoto Maaya, I meant the third one that features people, and not an inanimate object.
>houkoholic
Tomatsu indeed has nice legs, and as a plus point she definitely likes showing them off. LOL at the kneeling thing, I never even thought about it.
I wish my scanner was working so I could get more leggy pics up. As for which ones I didn’t like – the ones with knobbly knees, obviously ^^;
Actually if I was purely looking for legs, I’d go watch tennis or pole vaulting. Then I wouldn’t have to strain my eyes so much, trying to peek under the skirts >_<
I must stop staring at Hoc-chan’s legs…I must stop staring at Minorin’s legs..I must stop staring at Nana-chan’s legs…I must stop staring…I must stop staring..j1m0ne’s post is making me feeling like a perv….j1m0ne’s post is making me feeling like a perv
*repeats mantra 1000 times*
But please…more pictures
And I know you don’t care about Hoc-chan’s legs but more please XD.
I have a very good suggestion for your next “seiyuu <bodypart>” article, armpits.
I know it’s hard to find good ones, but I am sure you can definitely search for one.
@j1m0ne and houkoholic:
I definitely could not agree more. Since I already spoke my piece on “Tomatsu Haruka Blabber #1″ about how nice her legs were, I preferred not to reiterate it here again. But I unquestionably love her architecture, and I’m not going to deny that for a second. She’s, IMO, on the same level as Inoue Marina (but not even close to Kobayashi Yu, although Tomatsu’s got the drive, motivation and potential to get there in the future).
Good call on the tennis/pole vaulting recommendations. And, yes, I can also understand your disenchantment with the doorknob legs additionally (personally, the last picture with Christmas-tree-knees Horie Yui weirded myself out the most… -_-).
Win.
You know this visual presentation thing is nice and all, but I wonder when they’ll get seiyuu for the seiyuu. Yes, the seiyuu who you thought had great proportions and stuff actually was lip-syncing everything.
> Actually if I was purely looking for legs, I’d go watch tennis or pole vaulting.
They have blogs for everything and anything.
> “Reaffirming that all female seiyuu are closet rezbos”
“… in bed” Whoa that just make more sense that way!
but hirano aya is fat(ter) now.
the newest famicom magazine got her as a cover, and few pics inside features her flabby(er) legs. xD i’d scan it once i got back.
I didn’t have any coffee with me when I saw the Okiayu Ryotaro and Minagawa Junko picture, but I did resist the urge to slap myself silly in the face. And those clothes…><
I think Kobayashi Yuu has the best legs out of all the seiyuu featured here. Inoue Marina’s legs look to pale to me.
And have you seen Miyano Mamoru’s legs? They’re pretty lanky if you ask me.
I cannot believe Inoue Kikuko had THOSE LEGS.
My favourite has still gotta be Inoue Marina’s legs.
OMG!! Marina’s leg~ (Drool…) hahaha…
You’ve got fresh topic here lol…love it~
Rarely get to see Marina’s leg hehe
Now that reminds me, http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1048434
Almost the end part where the guy pointed out at Marina’s leg and she shouted “don’t look~” hehehe so cute~
Somehow I really want to see Ueda Kana’s full pic now… All the pictures of her that I saw before were more on the cute side so I was surprised by this one :O
Overall, I agree with Julius Firefocht about Tanaka Rie being the most well-balanced one but I also think that Kobayashi Yuu has the best legs. I also find Minorin to be really beautiful but I was never particularly impressed by her legs – maybe cause she wears long dresses kinda often?
> Elly
Minorin doesn’t have particularly nice legs in comparison to a lot of the others here (not bad, not good, just normal). Though I guess her upper body assets makes up for this particular deficit. XD
I totally second Elly’s request for the full Ueda Kana pic. When I saw it, I could feel the blood slowly dribbling out of my nose and dripping onto my keyboard. Ahhh~ what a beautiful article to read first thing in the morning. j1m0ne, you are my hero(ine) once again <3
You wouldn’t be so impressed if you saw the rest of the Kana pic, I’ve never thought highly of her.. long (horse-like) face? Here you go anyway.
Marina’s legs are pale there cos the photog’s lighting sucks ^^; And Minorin has other parts of her anatomy that are more attractive, I sure would rather look at her face than her legs anyway.
lol This post caught so many peeps’ attention, I’m thinking legs must definately be one very important feature of a woman’s body. @-@ or that you all have the same fetishs.
P.S.: Tomatsu haruka FTW…! ><
OMG, I guess Inoue Kikuko really is 17. By the way, uh, Aya “flabby” (lol)? Three recent photos.
It just occurred to me that legs are about as far away from mouths as you can possibly get. GJ!
Ouch, the Ueda Kana pic indeed looked better without her head ^^;; The hairstyle doesn’t help either! And, agree about Minorin, she’s so pretty that looking at the legs would be a waste anyway!
Hashihime: somehow the first pic scares me D:
I must have like, the opposite taste. I thought that Ueda pic was fine, a little scary aside. And old school Houko dress-up is awesome XD. Knobby knees do kind of bother me and I agree that Kobayashi Yu sets a very high bar for legs.
You know who looks good in a dress but never really shows her leg off much? Maminoto.
..hehe..seiyuu teeth = Japanese teeth. Watch out for yaeba.
Haha! Omg, Okiayu Ryoutarou’s legs certainly are nice. *sniggers*
And I think Gotou Yuuko has nice legs! My friend showed me a pic of her with her motorbicycle and the first thing my eyes zoomed in on were her sexy legs. :p
@hashihime:
Compared to her previous stick-thin body, she looks better in the Famicom pic I saw.
Er… ^^; I said flabby-er, not flabby-flabby.
Must agree that Inoue Marina has nice legs. When I saw her in Comiket 2 weeks ago, it was hard to focus on what she was saying, her cute face, or the legs. @__@
*drooools*
First of all, I’ll get the fanboy out of me: I can’t believe you didn’t choose a better example of Mizuki’s legs. I wasn’t even a fan of her music when I saw a concert of her (I believe it was the song Wild Eyes, performed with silver shorts and boots of the same color) and noticed how good her legs looked. Maybe they are not long and I didn’t even analyze her knees (who would? xD), but omg those thighs. I love when women’s legs show some physical training (from dancing).
Minorin is really good looking, but it’s true that her legs are kind of subpar. I wonder if that applies to “if you don’t have them, wear a long skirt”.
Kobayashi Yu and Tanaka Rie, whom I didn’t know, have pretty nice legs. Looking forward to see more of them xD
Hirano is reaaaally thin, but the “shape” of her bone structure (or something like that) is kind of nice. At least for me.
I need sauce on that Ueda Kana’s leg!!! I mean, literally, and also sauce as in source…. XD
But seriously, do you have the full body shot of that Ueda Kana’s pict… >.<