Satou Rina is often overlooked, and in fact, I don’t think a lot of people actually recognise her name at all. And if they do, it’s probably because she voices Negi Springfield. I myself am quite a fan of her voice, and think it’d be nice if people knew a little more about her.

Vital Statistics

Name: 佐藤利奈 (Satou Rina)
Date of Birth: 2nd May 1981
Hometown: Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
Agency: Haikyo
Height: 157cm/5′1”
Blood Type: B
Hobbies & Skills: Archery, Calligraphy
Key Roles: Negi Springfield in Negima series, Tsutako in Maria-sama ga Miteru series, Sophie in Fushigiboshi series, Mudie Holcroft in Gundam SEED CE 73 STARGAZER.

History
During her childhood, Satou’s family moved all over the place - up to the age of 7 she was in Fukuoka, then from 8-14 in Hiroshima & then her high school years were spent in Ehime, before moving to Tokyo to pursue her seiyuu career (her family is now based in Yamaguchi). Satou wanted to become a seiyuu since her junior school days, leaving some of her teachers worried about her education and career prospects ^^;;

And so she went into Haikyo’s Voice Actors Studio training program after leaving school, graduating in 2002. It didn’t take her long to break into the business, with roles as Prime Snowlight in the Divergence Eve series and as camera-meganekko Tsutako in the Marimite series. Still, I doubt anyone would’ve noticed Rina until she was cast as Negi Springfield in Mahou Sensei Negima. Since then her career’s moved from strength to strength, taking on plenty of anime roles and getting her own radio show and a recording contract.

Works

Clockwise (from top left): Sophie in Futagohime Gyu!, Ren-tan in Binchotan, Negi in Negima, Kakunojo in Iroha, Punie in Dai Mahou Touge, Mudie Holcroft in GSCE73 Stargazer, Kiyoh in Gurren Lagann.

Voice-wise, Satou falls in the ‘Noto Mamiko’ category of iyashi-kei - calming, soft and sweet. She has done a range of different voices; the ditzy Sophie in Fushigiboshi (as well one of the angels Kyukyu in Gyu!), the quiet, eternally lucky miko Ren-tan in Bincho-tan and the cute/insane/violent Punie in the incredibly bizarre Dai Mahou Touge. Something altogether different Rina did was the lead Kakunojo in Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed/noticed her performance - partly because I lost interest halfway through the show, and partly because the character was oh soooo dull.

In the year 2007
It’s been a busy year so far for Rina with a bunch of supporting roles in anime like Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (Kozue, Ku’s best friend) and Polyphonica (Prinesca, the purple-haired twin). Currently she’s a regular in 5 anime; as Prome Ou in Heroic Age, Mana in Gigantic Formula, Gentoku Ryubi in Kotetsu Sangokushi, Charu in Saru Getchu (Ape Escape) 2 and Kiyoh [the blond sister] in Gurren Lagann, but also pops up sporadically in Ookiku Furikabutte and Hayate no Gotoku!

Hayate

I was amused when I saw Rina’s name in the Hayate no Gotoku! credits voicing the silly nursing robot Eight & has so far popped up in other bit-part roles in the anime; the defense mecha, weedy-boy Kotaro and scientist Shiori, and she also voices ‘God’ Ormst Naja on the character CDs. The thing is, she sounds so different each time, and it was only as Shiori I recognised as her straightaway. The scene where Shiori tells Eight that it’s not non-combustible but oversized trash (in episode 21) made me smile, since it was basically Rina talking to herself.

Up next
Coming up in the autumn season are roles in BAMBOO BLADE, Minamike and Night Wizard. BAMBOO BLADE is an adaptation of a manga revolving around kendo, and she apparently voices a clumsy meganekko called Satori Azuma. Minami-ke is based on a slice-of-life/comedy manga about 3 sisters by Kyou no 5 no 2 mangaka Sakuraba Coharu - Rina voices the oldest sister Haruka, Inoue Marina is the middle sister Kana, Chihara Minori the youngest Chiaki. The trio are also singing the theme song. Night Wizard is based on a popular TRPG (table talk/top, or to most gaijin, pen & paper RPGs) by Enter Brain, which has also spawned PC games, light novels and drama CDs. Hal Film Maker (ARIA, Saber Marionette J, Slayers Premium) are animating that.

Radio

Rina’s been hosting an internet radio show on Onsen.ag/animate TV since 2004; it used to be called Ano Sora de Aetara (If I Can Meet You In That Sky) but just got a renewal this year and is now named Ano Sora de Aimashou F (Let’s Meet In That Sky F). The former used to be divided into two parts, the ‘O’ side & ‘A’ side with slightly different corners, but now they’ve been merged. The show itself has a very ‘FM’ feel about it, except that it’s not live - Rina answers & discusses listeners’ questions and problems, and also reads letters and poems. (Hmmmm, isn’t that what Noto Mamiko mostly does on her Marunabi radio show too? ^_^)

As a result of her work on her radio show which is sponsored by Frontier Works, Satou gets to meet (and work) with anime-related musicians such as Katakiri Rekka, Sato Hiromi and Suara. Kawai Eri (singer of the Utawarerumono ED theme) after appearing on the show also gave her tickets to one of her live shows. Rina’s signed to indie label Chambers Records, who mainly release game and seiyuu related records and also have Nabatame Hitomi and Ogiwara Hideki on their books. So far she’s released three singles, a mini-album & one full-length CD; and she has written lyrics for many of her own songs.

Clockwise from top left: with Noto Mamiko, with Nabatame Hitomi, with Shitaya Noriko & with Kamiya Hiroshi and Tomatsu Haruka at a Polyphonica event.

Trivia
1*Hates curry with a passion, protesting that ‘Japanese people have got it all wrong, treating it like a national dish… wasn’t it invented by the Indians?’. Has mentioned that her ideal man would be someone who doesn’t eat curry ^^;
2*Is part of a unofficial KAT-TUN (cheesy Johnny’s boyband, for those not in the know) fanclub with seiyuu Nabatame Hitomi, Hirohashi Ryo & Shitaya Noriko. They even have sleepovers at each others’ houses to watch KAT-TUN DVDs.
3*Rina’s a member of Inoue Kikuko’s ‘Forever 17′ club, having been personally to join invited by Inoue herself. Even though she’s only 26 >_>
4*Has appeared with Ueda Kana as a regular in (roughly) 6 different anime. When she was a guest on Ueda’s Marimite radio show, Rina mistakenly called her Yumi instead of Kana. They then went on to talk about how the cast would all say their characters’ names instead of their real names - Itou Miki (voice of Sachiko) never stopped calling both Ueda and Rina ‘Yumi’ & ‘Tsuta-chan’, and Ueda herself kept calling Ikezawa Haruna ‘Yoshino’ ^^;

Interesting Stuff:
Rina as Punie in Dai Mahou Touge (to be on the safe side, NSFW….)
Satou Rina fansite Rinyax
Agency Profile
ANN Profile

Woops. Blogger tells me I started working on this post 2 months ago, so I was determined to finish it up. Banzai for me.