j1m0ne's blog

Amazingly, I managed to produce another seiyuu profile before the turn of the century. I’ve finally reached double digits! 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 only 2-3 candidates. So after some deliberation I settled on someone who I’ve been a fan of from the very first time I heard her voice. Ladies and gentlemen, the life and times of Nakahara Mai.

Vital Statistics

Name: 中原 麻衣 (Nakahara Mai)
Real Name: Unknown, rumoured to be 阿部 麻衣子 (Abe Maiko).
Date of Birth: 3rd February 1981
Hometown: Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
Agency: I’m Enterprise
Height: 161cm/5’3”
Blood Type: AB
Hobbies & Skills: Cooking, Kendo
Key Roles: Tokiha Mai in My-HiME series, Aoi Nagisa in Strawberry Panic, Ryugu Rena in Higurashi series, Furukawa Nagisa in CLANNAD

Background

Born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, young Mai Real-Last-Name-Unknown (RLNU) spent a big chunk of her childhood living in Ehime (Mizuki Nana’s hometown) with her grandmother, as her parents had jobs that required the family to move around a lot.

Eventually Mai RLNU graduated from high school and moved to Tokyo, where she worked odd jobs at izakaya and a medical clinic to put herself through Artsvision’s NichiNare seiyuu school. That’s the same school that saw the majority of Arts’ and I’m Enterprise’s current and former big names including Hayashibara Megumi, Horie Yui and Tamura Yukari, pass through its hallowed gates.

It seems every seiyuu has this moment of inspiration where they think “Oh, I wanna be a seiyuu!” For Mai, that came when watching an anime called Nanatsu no Umi no Tico which featured a girl called Nanami (voiced by Hayashibara Megumi) and an orca she befriends, called Tico. Or so she claims anyway.

At the end of the day though, Nakahara probably sees being a seiyuu as nothing more than just another job – I recall in some interview she was asked something along the lines of “What was the most important point for you to consider when choosing an institution/academy?” and Mai’s answer was　”お金。” (Money). Turns out she only chose to go for seiyuu training at NichiNare because it was cheap ^^;

Still, Mai was the face of the NichiNare ad for ages – I’m sure anyone who’s ever bought an anime mag over the last 6 years will have seen that page above at least once. Sadly, she’s now been replaced by a bunch of boring signposts. Bring back Nakahara Mai!!

But anyway. Before Mai RLNU entered the seiyuu world, her then agency manager had a brainwave, called her up on the phone and told her “From today onwards, you shall be known as Nakahara Mai”. If her real name is indeed Abe Maiko, I must applaud that manager for his foresight – Nakahara Mai is indeed, a snappier name than boring old Abe Maiko.

Works
Her very first role was as Passerby B in the Parappa the Rapper anime back in 2001 – her only line was apparently “Tamanegi-sensei, BANZAI!!” It did not take long for Nakahara to gain a steady foothold in the business though. Her first named role was as Nana-sama in Shichinin no Nana and by 2002, she was already landing lead roles – as Kaede in the long-running Wagamama Fairy Mirumo de Pon! series and Rena in .hack//dusk, and a long list of well-known characters have followed.

Have a look at all the gallery below and see which ones you recognise.

Yes, they’re all voiced by Mai. Tsundere, clueless bimbos, haughty idiots, sweet & blind girls, yuriyuri etc etc she’s covered a few bases. Though Mai’s never voiced a male character, and I don’t think she ever should – too nasal and high-pitched to pull it off successfully…Oh wait, I forgot. Doesn’t Peppo in Gankutsuou count as a male character? There you go.

Music

Mai also has a moderately successful solo singing career, having put out 4 singles, 2 mini-albums and one full-length album. She is good friends with Yuumao, who also happens to be her principal songwriter and with whom she used to host a radio show.

And of course, MixJuice – a joke group from a joke anime (Wandaba Style). Mai voiced the enka-singing construction worker Himawari, along with her fellow I’m Enterprise colleagues Ueda Kana, Saito Chiwa & Morinaga Rika (who’s since left the agency). They were amusing while they lasted, but years after the project ended people are still making fun of MixJuice.

I still think MixJuice are better than the horrendous PoppinS group (with Shimizu Ai) formed for DearS. They completely freaked me out with their crazy hair and outfits. Oh, and their songs were pretty shit too.

Nakahara Mai’s Complete Music Career Stats:
Singles [release date/title/highest chart position/total sales]
(2004/11/03) Romance [No.140] 877 copies
(2005/03/02) Etude [No.136] 1,465 copies
(2006/02/08) Futari Bocchi/Monochrome [No.77] 2,039 copies
(2007/05/02) Anemone [No.67] 1,890 copies

Albums
(2004/02/04) Homework [No.224] 969 copies
(2005/05/11) Mini Theater [No.192] 1,058 copies
(2006/09/27) Fantasia [No.137] 1,423 copies

Others [date/format/title/chart/sales]
(2002/11/22) [S]Otome ni Sasagu. MixJUICE [?] ?
(2003/04/23) [S]The IJIN-DEN~Tensai no Hosoku~. MixJUICE [No.77] 1,970 copies
(2004/05/26) [S]Koi no JET SHOOTER. PoppinS [?] ?
(2004/08/25) [S]HAPPY COSMOS. PoppinS [No.94] 2,419 copies
(2004/10/27) [A]PoppinS SIZE. PoppinS [No.286] 774 copies
(2006/05/24) [S]Himitsu Dolls. with Shimizu Ai [No.42] 6,974 copies
(2006/08/23) [S]Ichigo Tsumi Monogatari. with Shimizu Ai [No.43] 4,679 copies
(2006/12/21) [A]Chronicle. with Shimizu Ai [No.104] 2,369 copies

People only bought Himitsu Dolls because of the PV that came along with it, no doubt.

What’s coming up:
Nakahara is in a grand total of 0 shows announced for the spring. So you’ll have to wait til CLANNAD After Story unless those rumours of her being in Kyoran Kazoku Nikki turn out to be true (I have my doubts). She is still in Persona though… I think. I never stuck around long enough to hear her in that.

Otherwise, drama CDs are the way to go – the WORKING!! manga finally gets a second CD after the rather amusing first one. Mai’s great as the male-hater/abuser Mahiru in that – I wish it’d get animated. Oh, and there’s also the third volume in the dreadful Nemurenai Series CDs :/ First we had older sisters ordering you around, then we had yandere killing you with their love, now we have younger sisters bugging you to the end of the earth. I’m sure someone out there will love this kind of thing…

Random Bits:

Sisters are doing it for Themselves…Not.
Nakahara has one sibling – a sister who is a year younger than her. Apparently, said sister holds down a regular office job and gets bonuses per normal industry practices, but Mai herself gets paid a pittance…OK, she gets paid by the anime episode. And seiyuu also suffer from all sorts of unemployment issues (i.e. they are unable to attend auditions for upcoming series when they already spend 6 days a week recording lines for currently airing anime), which means her income comes in in ebbs and flows. So she’ll ask her sister to buy her things when she knows she’s gotten her bonus, although she otherwise has very little cash.

But otherwise, Mai does claim to shower love upon her sister too as she regularly buys boxes of cup ramen for her sister to survive on (can’t cook?). Mai’s sister also has a university-going boyfriend, but Mai has not mentioned anything about her own love life bar her uncontrollable rabu-rabu desire for her live-in partner – beloved dog Mocha. She once turned up for a radio show after taking Mocha to the vet, prompting host Asano Masumi to complain that she smelt like a dog.

Oh, and even though Mai lists cooking as one of her hobbies, in truth she only cooks food to feed her dog and not for her own consumption cos apparently, it’s uneconomical to cook for just one person. Nabatame Hitomi claims that Mai once told her that boiling and reheating food was the extent of her culinary skills.

Plastic Surgery? Takamizawa in disguise?
Anyone bothering to read the anti-threads on 2channel will note the many unflattering comments Nakahara gets on her looks. It’s believed that she’s gotten a nose job and had her eyes done. Then again, they tend to say that about anyone who has a sharp-looking nose *shrug* Nobody’s unearthed pics of her before she debuted so it’ll remain a rumour unless someone comes up with some concrete proof.
The frequent comparisons to Jrock band The Alfee’s guitarist Takamizawa Toshihiko is a running joke, even in the seiyuu world, where Fukuyama Jun once poked fun at Nakahara about it on a Tactical Roar radio show. I think I’ve already mentioned this a long time ago, but no harm in rehashing old tales. (Link to audio here.)

A listener asks the three seiyuu to predict each other’s futures.
Ueda Kana: So let’s do Mai first. What do you see in her future?
Fukuyama Jun: Mai, I predict you will look more and more like Takamizawa with each passing year.

The Shimizu Ai connection

Everyone knows about that kiss. Loser fanboys wish that it meant more than what it actually does (which amounts to nothing, really) but the two of them just shrugged it off as ‘one of those things you do for the sake of a job’.

Basically, the PV director put the idea to Ai and Mai, both of them went to ask their respective agencies for permission. I’m Enterprise and 81produce both gave the green light (they probably figured it’d be nice publicity) and so Mai forced herself to kiss a bemused Ai-chan on the second try, after an initial take saw her dissolving into fits of giggles before she’d done the deed (see above). And they both broke out in laughter after the director yells ‘Cut!’

People know they’re good friends though, and there are the occasional sly pokes at their ‘friendship’. I recall how Nabatame Hitomi said in a Strawberry Panic interview that she did get along well with Nakahara Mai (they voice the main couple Shizuma and Nagisa respectively), but that she was afraid of getting any closer or else “Ai-chan will get mad”. Shimizu voices Tamao in Stopani. That kind of reflects their characters in the anime, doesn’t it?

The duo first met each other at a live event for RADIO.i in 2001. First impressions = Ai saw Mai and thought “The NichiNare (ad) girl!”, Mai saw Ai and thought “She looks like a doll!” At that point Shimizu had blonde hair. Mirmo was their first collaboration, sort of. The show had such a large cast I doubt either of them would’ve even said a word to each other. Wandaba Style was the first anime in which they both voiced major roles.

Even More Random Bits

- The Utawarerumono seiyuu are a very tight-knit group, and still occasionally meet up for meals despite the anime having ended 1-and-a-1/2 years ago. Koyama Tsuyoshi (far left in pic above) calls her the ‘Beautiful Seiyuu Idol’. Also mentioned this before, but when asked on Utaware Radio “Which of the Utaware characters could you see yourself getting married to?” Mai answered Nojima Hirofumi the person, and not the character he voiced (Hien).

- Other close friends in the seiyuu circle include Nogawa Sakura, Matsuki Miyu and all the I’m Enterprise girls (Takahashi Mikako, Ueda Kana etc). Mai is also personal friends with the husband-wife team of Iwata Mitsuo & Aikawa Rikako, having hosted different radio shows with both of them. Incidentally, Iwata ended up subbing for his wife for about 5 months on the AiMai na Okapi radio show as Aikawa was on maternity leave.

-Who do you think is Nakahara Mai’s most frequent collaborator? It’s Tamura Yukari, who’s been regulars in more anime together (Higurashi, Onegai Twins etc) with Mai than any other seiyuu. Yukarin is followed by Inoue Kikuko, Noto Mamiko, Shimizu Ai and Shintani Ryoko on the list.

-Mai’s longest running radio show lasted 4 years and 11 months. Showtaro,Mai.CURE HOUSE was broadcast on FUJI-FM from 2002-2007 and yes, Showtaro refers to Morikubo Showtaro. One of her current programs Nakahara Mai no Ikinari Refresher, which runs on cable radio USEN, is on course to beat that record though, having started its run in February 2004. All in all, Nakahara has hosted more than 20 radio shows.

- Koyasu Takehito recalled on a radio show his first encounter with Mai, which was during a mag photoshoot – he was with the Weiss Kreuz crew and Mai was with a bunch of other seiyuu. Koyasu quipped that “I only remember Nakahara Mai cos she was the prettiest one there – she looked like a model. Who cares who the other people were?” When Mai pointed out that those ‘other people’ included Shimizu Ai and Chiba Saeko, Koyasu broke out in a sweat saying “OMG, I hope they’re not listening to this. Better avoid them from now on!”

-Her fanclub is called Marble Scope – mobile page @ http://marble-scope.jp/
As a matter of interest, here’s an outline of what you get if you join:
-Official fanclub membership certificate
-A bi-annual Nakahara Mai voice CD
-Automatic admission to Nakahara Mai fanclub events
-First priority for any Nakahara Mai concert tickets
-Special access to the restricted section in the Marble Scope mobile site
-Access to special Marble Scope mail order merchandise
Pretty boring stuff eh? For all that you’ll have to fork out a ¥500 admission fee and ¥5000 in annual fees. Obviously, only for people living in Japan.

Nekomimi(?) Mai Omake:

Thinking of sending Nakahara Mai fan letters? Here’s the address:
〒151-0053
東京都渋谷区代々木1-14-3 松田ビル2F
株式会社アイムエンタープライズ
中原麻衣様
or
Ms. Mai Nakahara
I’m Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Matsuda Bldg 2F, 1-14-3 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 151-0053

Links of interest:
Nakahara Mai fansite (Japanese)
Official I’m Enterprise agency profile
Nakahara Mai @ Anime News Network

There, I finally dispensed most of the Nakahara Mai trivia that’s been clogging up my brain for the last 3-4 years. I say most, cos there’s this one interesting story I would’ve loved to tell but it got way too long. Let’s just say it involves the possibility of Nakahara going to work without wearing any underwear.