Shindo Kei’s (Not So) Dark Cosplay Days
Hikaru no Go
Inoue Marina’s not the only person with a cosplay history – Shindo Kei (真堂圭), formerly Saito Kei (齋藤圭 and later 斉藤圭), was also a cosplayer in her teenage years using the pseudonym Hisato (央登). Like Marina, there are rich pickings of images from her cosplay days. She/her agency have done their best to bury them but they’re still floating around the Internet, guys! Try harder!
Kei as she is now
And like Marina, Shindo also got into the seiyuu world by winning an open audition for the lead role of Tennozu Kagura in Gonzo’s 2005 production SPEED GRAPHER. That remains her only headliner to date, with only supporting roles in Kodomo no Jikan (Kagami Kuro) and Gundam 00 (Wang Liu Mei) sticking out on her CV since then. Well, Kurookano Shijima/Shiratama (Miharu’s cat) in Nabari too, if you want to count that…Kei’s career certainly hasn’t taken off the way Marina’s has.
Makubex from Getbackers
Shindo used to run a site with her sister featuring cosplay photos and fujoshi-like blog entries around the 2003-2005 period, but it was pulled down shortly before the announcement of her winning the open audition. The blog apparently once featured the legendary line 朝までネットでテニスのホモ同人を読んでいた (I read homo tennis dojinshi on the net all night long).
Well known for being flippant about everything, Shindo was rumoured to have uttered “I’ll never work in a Gonzo production ever again” after her ‘less than satisfactory’ experience working on SPEED GRAPHER. True to her word, she’s not appeared in a single Gonzo show since then… well, actually she’s not appeared in much of anything animated by any studio so it’d be hard to tell if she were ever to track back on that statement.
taiyaki uguu
Gundam and Kojika are the only things going for Kei at the moment, and I doubt she’ll ever break into the ‘big time’. Her voice doesn’t have seem to have any special characteristics about it either, just another generic female seiyuu – what I’ve heard of it so far anyway. But you never know, she may end up voicing some hot, busty gun-toting female and capture the hearts of a million otaku one day. I wouldn’t put money on it though.
Who ya callin a bean?
I’m no cosplay expert, but I think she looks decent enough in these pics…certainly better than Marina did in hers anyway ^^; Anyway, a selection from her catalogue of cosplay pics below:
Lunamaria Hawke
Narutard alert
Ritsuka from Loveless
One Piece
Kyoyama Anna of Shaman King
Syaoran from CCS
as Yoshino with a frickin ugly Rosa Foetida
Kotaro from Papuwa
And some normal, more up-to-date pics:
with Matsuoka Yuki
Shindo K & Marina + dude @ Kite Liberator premiere
Sadly, these days Kei (and Marina) are more into dressing up and nail art and all that jazz. So how did both of them go from being hardcore cosplayers and fujoshi to boring seiyuu who list volleyball amongst their hobbies? In denial, are they? ^^;;