j1m0ne’s blog

Someone a little more established this time. The baby-faced assassin has been a personal favourite ever since I heard Hirohashi debut in one of my most loved anime Haibane Renmei. Her performance as the innocent, shy Rakka tugged at my heart (I’m just a sentimental fool ^^).

Hirohashi can do cute, loli-bait characters, impossibly cheerful teenage girls, deadpan, and yuri-yuri ninjas. Oh, and she was a mahou shoujo in Magical Canan but I doubt anyone watched that.

Vital Statistics

Name: 広橋涼 (Hirohashi Ryo)
Date of Birth: 5th August 1978
Hometown: Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan
Agency: Aoni Production
Height: Unknown - probably somewhere around 155cm based on photos
Weight: Unknown
Blood Type: O
Hobbies & Skills: Reading, Playing pachinko, Cooking, Illustrations
Key Roles: Rakka from Haibane Renmei, Naegino Sora from Kaleidostar, Alice Carroll in ARIA, Koyuki in Keroro Gunsou

Early on
Hirohashi first wanted to become a seiyuu after hearing a radio show and thinking ‘That was pretty cool’ - though she unfortunately cannot remember which seiyuu it was. Apparently Ryo grew up in a pretty strict household (she’s mentioned that her family lived in a temple), and her parents weren’t, and still aren’t, keen on her being a seiyuu - even attempted to stop her from going to seiyuu school.

Those comments arose from a listener on Ashitahe asking ‘What were people’s reactions about your wanting to become a seiyuu?’ Hirohashi said that most thought that she was going to work in the departmental store Seiyu whilst Minagawa Junko said that when she told people she was going into the seiyuu (声優) business, her friends thought that she was going to work in an oil refinery [製油, seiyu - oil refining] instead. Definitely not a glamorous job, voice acting.

Hirohashi attended Aoni Juuku (Osaka Branch), graduated in 2000 and is now signed up to the parent company, Aoni Production. Ryo-chan became a junior in April 2001, rose to ‘associate’ level (準所属 - Junshozoku) in 2004, and this year - got promoted to Aoni’s top tier (called 正所属 - Seishozoku) at the beginning of 2007 (at the same time as Shiraishi Ryoko & Nonaka Ai), joining the likes of Onosaka Masaya, Shindoh Naomi and Okiayu Ryotaro on the Osaka list.

Another boring aside:
A seiyuu agency is really, like any other company. You start from the bottom, go for training; and based on your performance/achievements, get promoted. There’s a very informative article about anime seiyuu and animators over at Riuva which I’m sure most will have already read by now, that outlines the process of becoming a seiyuu and why promotion is not necessarily the most desirable thing for a seiyuu. And that the job pays peanuts and you’d probably be mad to want to be one.

Onwards and Upwards

As with all junior seiyuu, Hirohashi started off doing the odd role here and there, her first was playing ‘Girl’ in Aquarian Age (what a load of rubbish that anime was). Then came a couple of bit-part roles in stuff like Chobits, Gun Frontier and Ai Yori Aoshi before Haibane Renmei came along.

Since then she’s had a number of memorable roles, most notably Sora in Kaleidostar and has also done her fair share of radio work - until recently, she and Minagawa Junko had their own show on JOQR called Junko to Ryo no Ashita he Strike!, which ran for almost four years. Ryo was also an assistant on Inoue Kikuko’s (now ended) radio shows Shiitake Radio and Caramel Town, presented the first ARIA radio show with Hazuki Erino and Saito Chiwa and is now doing the KimiKiss radio show with Mizuhashi Kaori.

Roles

Clockwise from top left: Sora from Kaleidostar, Rakka from Haibane Renmei, Koyuki from Keroro Gunsou, Tails from the Sonic series, Alice from ARIA and Franca from Coyote Ragtime Show

What’s up next

This season, Ryo-chan has a few minor roles - mostly kids - in anime that are well worth checking out. She voices Antonio in Romeo x Juliet and Saya in Seirei no Moribito, both of which are near the top of my to-watch list. Hirohashi also reprises her role as Elwing in the underwhelming Shining Tears x Wind anime, and is also Marucho (nerdy, small, blond) in the anime version of Sega’s latest toy franchise Bakugan Battle Brawlers. You probably won’t want to watch that unless you’re still (secretly) collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! booster packs….

I’ve mentioned that I was bitterly disappointed that Kyoto Animation chose to replace Lucky Star’s drama CD cast with a bunch of newcomers; they’re doing a pretty good job but I would’ve loved to hear Ryo voice Konata in the anime. Instead, we get Hirano Aya. Boo. It’s no big deal to be honest, seiyuu often change from drama CD to anime - some of the other roles Ryo did the drama CD voice for but got replaced in the anime are Maaka Karin in Karin (Yahagi Sayuri got the role instead) and recently, Seto no Hanayome’s Zenigata Mawari (Morinaga Rika).

So KyoAni didn’t retain Ryo for Lucky Star, but thankfully they did for their much-anticipated autumn anime, Key’s Clannad. She returns in the role of Fujibayashi Kyo (who Ryo also voiced in the PS2 version of the game), lead chara Tomoya’s loud, warthog-owning schoolmate. Presumably Hirohashi will also be returning for the ARIA~Arietta~ OVA….dead excited about that too. I guess you can tell I’m an ARIA fan by looking at the banner up there ^^

Trivia

1*Hirohashi is another sake-loving female seiyuu - perhaps even able to rival the likes of Ito Shizuka and Ueda Kana. She once went on an 8-hour drinking spree (from 5pm to 1am) but still managed to get home safely ^_^
2*Talk about looking young - an Ashitahe listener sent in a mail describing her as a loligao (loli-face), and saying that he couldn’t believe Hirohashi was any older than Hirano Aya ^^; (Hirohashi is in fact, 9 years older than Aya)
3*Has a wide range of nicknames, ranging the from the dull (Ryo-chan, Ryo-chin) to the odd (Helmet - because of her hairstyle, Chuugakusei [middle schooler] - because of her face)
4*Is good friends with Saito Chiwa. The thing they share in common? Director Sato Junichi (who appears to have a lot of favourites really, the main cast members of ARIA have all appeared in at least two of his projects - go ahead and find out which ones). Hirohashi is in three of Sato’s most recent projects (Kaleidostar, Keroro Gunsou, ARIA) and Saito in Keroro and ARIA. The pair were also in PaniPoni Dash!, Chiwa voicing Becky Miyamoto and Hirohashi voicing Suzune (Otome’s friend, the one who likes to hit people). Incidentally, Ryo voiced Anya in XEBEC’s Negima but was replaced by Chiwa in the Shaft version.
5*Holds licenses to teach Japanese at middle and senior high levels (I’d probably be freaked out if I had a teacher who looked as young as Ryo), but doesn’t have a driving license.

Useful Ryo links:
Agency profile
Web Archive of fansite Hirohashi.com

No.4 - Tai Yuuki. Will probably take some time to do that one though.

Edit: My God, Blogger hates Opera. I tried to make a quick fix and the formatting went haywire….

Posted on April 10th, 2007 under profile, seiyuu • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback