j1m0ne’s blog

Wow, a seiyuu profile - something I haven’t done in a really long time (the last one was in August’ 07). I knew I said I’d do one for Ito Shizuka a long, long time ago so rejoice, Shizuka-sama fans! I’ve finally got it done ^^;

Warning: Image Heavy.

The focus of this post is Ito Shizuka’s harem. But first, a little intro to the woman behind all those sexy voices.

Vital Statistics

Name: 伊藤 静 (Itō Shizuka)
Also known as: 三咲 里奈 (Misaki Rina) [for eroge]
Date of Birth: 5th December 1980
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Agency: Ken Production
Height: Unknown - from looking at photos, roughly 163cm
Blood Type: O
Hobbies & Skills: Drinking, drinking, drinking, scuba diving, pro wrestling, drinking, sexually harassing women
Key Roles: Hasekura Rei in Marimite series, Kosaka Tamaki in ToHeart2, Katsura Hinagiku in Hayate no Gotoku!, Wirhelmina in Shana series, Alice in Pumpkin Scissors, Lenalee in D.Gray-man

Just look at those roles listed there; it’s a mind-boggling CV. Although famed for voicing older-sister type/strong characters, Ito can also do the sweet types like Himawari in xxxHOLiC and Lenalee and of course, ero-type voices - she’s already the veteran of some 30+ eroge titles. Albeit under a different name. The only types of voices Shizuka-sama can’t do are the ones that people like Tamura Yukari and Ueda Kana are good at; cute, young girls - her voice is too low for that. I dunno if she can do guys, never heard her try. She can do a pig though ^^; (Boota in Gurren Lagann).

Background Story

There’s a reason why her forte is voicing snobbish ojou-sama - Ito herself comes from a privileged background (Her family is in the real estate business IIRC); often going on holidays abroad as a kid and getting Gucci purses as presents when she was in high school.

After graduating from high school, Shizuka was a freeter for a year, working at a friend’s game center and also doing some cosplaying on the side (something she’s embarassed about) before enrolling in her current agency Ken Production’s School Duo voice training academy - sometime around 2000-2001. She was in the same class as Negima cheerleading compatriot Omae Akane (who voiced Sakurako to Ito’s Misa), the year above Nabatame Hitomi and a year below Inokuchi Yuka and Kaida Yuko.

Something perhaps not a whole lot of people know is that Shizuka struggled throughout seiyuu school, and early on in her career with one slight problem - she was/is deaf in her right ear. It was mentioned that Shizuka had an operation to try to fix it after realising that it’d be a bit troublesome if she was recording lines in the studio and she couldn’t hear what the person standing to her right was saying. Apparently she still doesn’t really hear that well in that ear; unfortunately not much else has been made of the issue - she just spoke about it once on School Duo radio and nothing else since.

Roles

Anyhow, deaf or not, Shizuka’s established herself pretty firmly as one of the top female seiyuu in the game. Her official debut was in Texhnolyze as Ran, the seer with the white fox mask and quickly followed by the short-fused Akiha, sister of protagonist Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime - her first collaboration with Nabatame Hitomi (Arcueid) and Ueda Kana (Kohaku, one of the maids).

Then came Marimite, a series she’s still heavily involved with today. Again, Nabatame (Rose Foetida/Eriko) and Ueda (Yumi) were in that too. And after that, Negima - though it was just as one of the minor characters; cheerleader Misa.

One of her best known roles. Sadly, Wirhelmina rarely crosses swords with Nabatame’s Margery Daw and spends more time trying to make her cooking appeal to Shana.

Stekking makes Alice’s hair go haywire in Pumpkin Scissors.

Hinagiku’s quite possibly the first anime character with pink hair I actually like. Here she watches a snake glomp Hayate.

Shizuka owns Shinra-sama, and makes KimiAru more fun than it actually is.

In Store for 2008

A year’s worth of Yatterman episodes, D.C.II.S.S., Wagaya no Oinari-sama, xxxHOLiC Tsugi and Marimite Season 4.

Anyway, on to the real meat of the post, which is about Ito Shizuka and her collection of….. female friends. Remember, Shizuka’s the seiyuu who claims to know the shape and size of the boobs of every female seiyuu in the business and declared openly that her dream was to build a harem of cute girls from the seiyuu world.

Introducing the harem
Legal Wife Nabatame Hitomi

These two go waaay back. Nabatame’s mother Maruhime (real name unknown) also totally approves of Ito Shizuka. OT, but Maruhime is probably the only mother in the seiyuu world who writes in letters to her own daughter’s radio shows - now is that freaky cool or what?

Despite suffering the ignominy of Naba two-timing her with just about every other Marimite seiyuu (Noto Mamiko, Shimizu Kaori and Koshimizu Ami), Naba and Ito are still in a sort of open relationship. I think that close relationship between Naba and Mamimami was what drove Shizuka-sama to start building her own harem, haha. Nevertheless, they continue to do radio shows together, and still squabble as much in real life as they do on-screen in Hayate no Gotoku! (as sisters Hinagiku and Yukiji).

Keep the home fires burning.

Mistress Koyama Kimiko

They’re Zoids Genesis’s RemiXKotona (a kids’ show from 2005), which marked the official start of their ‘close’ relationship. It was around the same time that Naba started abandoning Shizuka in favour of Noto Mamiko so Kimikimi provided the perfect opportunity to eat her own cake on the side. Then ZG ended, and we got less news of Shizuka and Kimikimi together, sniff.

Reunited late last year on game Twinkle Crusaders, they’re currently hosting the radio show which often descends into somewhat of a lovefest with the first episode featuring such lines as ‘I want to hug you’ and ‘I want to put my face in your boobs’. The problem is that the tables in between prevents Shizuka from glomping Kimikimi during recording.

Kimikimi gladly returns all the attention though, having once told Shizuka that they’ll go somewhere quiet, far away from Nabatame Hitomi and do this and this and that. Kimiko didn’t elaborate on what this or that was unfortunately.

So if Nabatame ever dumps Ito for good, Kimiko’s always willingly waiting in the wings.

Friend with Benefits #1 Ueda Kana

Kana is one of Shizuka’s regular drinking partners, and also claims to be the person in the seiyuu world who holds the most Shizuka-related secrets in her mind, thanks to the her tendency to talk rubbish when she’s drunk. Shizuka likes Kana’s Kansai-Kobe accent, they drop the honorifics when talking to each other and they often express their feelings of love to each other. Too bad they spend most of their time talking about drinking more than anything else - I predict one of them will get liver cancer before too long.

Although Ueda Kana seems to be more interested in video games than romance, she has previously made a bet with Shizuka that whoever of the two got married first would have to fork out on an all-expenses paid holiday for the other. I think the day that happens is when the day when same-sex marriage or marriage to inanimate, electronic objects is legalised in Japan.

Friend with Benefits #2 Yuumao

Shizuka makes regular appearances on Yuumao’s blog - I remember once where she tried to get people to buy an Asatte no Houkou DVD by mentioning that ‘Ito Shizuka + Yuumao hug, Ito Shizuka + Yuumao play the Pocky game, Ito Shizuka + Yuumao do the XXXX’. Too bad there’s always someone else in the way when they’re taking pictures, usually Fujimura Ayumi (as above) or Suara (below). One thing’s for certain, they both share a bunny ear fetish.

The Unwilling Ochiai Yurika

Yurishi was slightly appalled when Shizuka-sama suggested she’d be most happy to date anybody as long as it ‘felt right’, even girls.

There’s a big fuss over in 2channel at the moment over some comments about angels Ito Shizuka and Goto Yuko made on this week’s KimiAru radio show. A listener wrote a crazy letter claiming to be an angel living in Japan, and asked what he could do to get used to living there. And of course, the duo started the insults straight away, telling the ’self-styled’ angel to go to a mental ward and get his head checked.

So what does this have to do with Yurishi? Well, one of her nicknames is DaiTenshi (Big Angel) and the fact that they criticised the ‘angel’ and told him to go to Elf-land supposedly means they were indirectly making fun of the angelic Ochiai. Or so it seems….. I don’t understand 2channelers’ trains of thought at all.

The ‘Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Too’ to Noto Mamiko

Shizuka refuses to let Naba monopolise Mamiko. Everyone wants a piece of Mami, from Kawasumi Ayako to Mizuki Nana to Watanabe Akeno. Oh, and incidentally Ito Shizuka loves Watanabe Akeno too. Or more specifically, Watanabe Akeno’s boobs (and her drinking habits).

Slave/Pet #1 Goto Yuko

Goto Yuko is employed as her personal masseuse. This reminds me of a certain scene from Mai-Otome involving a certain Natsuki and a certain Shizuru, except that the people involved here are fully clothed…. bummer. But Shizuka-sama does reward Goto for her efforts by feeding her a biscuit.

Say ahhhh……..

Woof.

So there was once on KimiAru radio where a listener asked Minamori Shizuka (Yume’s seiyuu) if she’d had any run-ins with Ito Shizuka. Her answer was ‘Ito Shizuka tried to hit on me!’. Goto Yuko then asked her if she’d had her boobs groped yet, to which Minamori said no - and she then asked Goto if she had. Goto answered ‘Yeah, I’ve not only been groped. I’ve been kissed too’. And had her butt pinched in the middle of recording too, when she was standing at the mic…. apparently, she’s gotten used to it now.

In short: You’ve not made it in the seiyuu world unless your boobs have been groped by Sexual Harassment Queen Ito Shizuka.

Slave/Pet #2 Inokuchi Yuka

Santa Inokuchi and Ito the Big-Nosed Reindeer. The duo are on the same agency (KenPro) and have worked together in a few anime including Negima and Kaze no Stigma. Inokuchi is a little on the thick side, which makes her the perfect plaything for naughty Ito.

They’re currently hosting a radio show on Animate Mobile, which of course I don’t get to hear. Boo.

Misc Pics
I know everyone prefers images to me rambling, so I’ll oblige - just click the images for larger versions. I hoard pictures and scans from a million different sources, so thanks to those million different sources (which includes me and my scanner).

L-R: Kugimiya Rie (Nagi), Takahashi Mikako (Ayumu), Ueda Kana (Sakuya), Ito Shizuka (Hinagiku)
With the Hayate no Gotoku! girls, who she’s good friends with……eh? Actually, it’s the Rental Magica cast ^^; There you go, the seiyuu world is so small that they save time by rehiring the exact same people over and over again.

L-R: Noto Mamiko (Shimako), Itou Miki (Sachiko), Ueda Kana (Yumi), Ikezawa Haruna (Yoshino), Ito Shizuka (Rei)
The en boutons and petite souers. Man, that pic is like…. 4 years old now. I can’t believe the first Marimite was that long ago.

with Kobayashi Sanae, who voices Allen Walker to Shizuka’s Lenalee in D.Gray-man.

The Solty Rei cast. I’m sure you can read those words………

Playing a trumpet. For no reason.

Links of Interest:
Ito Shizuka profile at Ken Production
Ito Shizuka fansite (Japanese)
Yabou Jinja radio (with Nabatame Hitomi)

I predict Profile #10 will come sometime before FFXV is released.

Posted on February 17th, 2008 under profile, seiyuu, 伊藤静 • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback