j1m0ne's blog

The seiyuu industry churns out so much new talent each year that it’s hard to keep up. Shake a tree and a new seiyuu falls out. Every new anime season turns up some unfamiliar names and I’m always scratching my head and thinking ‘Who on earth is that?’

When I first started watching anime people like Noto Mamiko, Ueda Kana and Shimizu Ai were still relative unknowns ; and it’s been quite a ride watching them progress from voicing support characters to regularly headlining anime series. Likewise it’s been cool to see some like Nazuka Kaori, Shimizu Kaori, Koshimizu Ami, Hirano Aya & Irino Miyu grow up from awkward-looking teenagers to ‘proper seiyuu’ ^_^

It doesn’t always turn out that way though – there’ve been some seiyuu I thought might go on to bigger things but never really did; Yoshida Sayuri, Asano Ruri, Katou Nanae, Tasaka Hideki & Hoshino Takanori have sort of fallen in between the cracks and haven’t quite had the sort of impact I initially thought they would.

Anyway, here’s a list of 10 seiyuu I think (or blindly hope) that in five years’ time will have achieved success of Noto Mamiko proportions ^_^ The brick wall I faced doing this post was finding half-decent pictures of the seiyuu since most of them haven’t been around for too long. And the list appears to heavily favour the girls… where have all the talented young guys gone? ^^;; Note: I deliberately left out Kitamura Eri & Inoue Marina, cos I don’t want to sound like a broken record talking about them all the time…

1. Yonaga Tsubasa

One of Ken Production’s biggest young hopes – Yonaga is one of the most recent graduates from their seiyuu academy School Duo (also attended by other KenPro heavyweights like Nabatame Hitomi & Itou Shizuka). Already he’s landed two lead roles (Ren in Ookiku Furikabutte & Shingo in Gigantic Formula), something many of his seniors (Kakehashi Atsushi, Mogami Tsuguo etc) haven’t quite managed to do. It probably helps that Yonaga’s voice is pitched pretty high (to me, he sounds a lot like Sakaguchi Daisuke) & hence he’s able to voice young male characters. Actually if you listen to the voice sample on his agency profile you’ll find he’s got reasonable range. Looking forward to hearing more of him in the future.

2. Tomatsu Haruka

Her debut performance as Corti in Polyphonica left a good impression on me even if the show itself didn’t. A mere 17-years old and still in school, Tomatsu commutes to Tokyo from her Nagoya home every week for seiyuu work. Haruka-chan is…………SUPER HYPER GENKI. Just listen to Polytalk (Kari), the mini shows she hosts on the Polyphonica website – she’s like an Energizer bunny ^^; Tomatsu may be young but she manages to hold her own against all her experienced costars, her chats with Konishi Katsuyuki and Satou Rina were pretty fun. She also had a small role in Bokurano as Daichi’s sister Futaba, and do look out for her next major role in Moetan as Ink’s classmate Sumi (she also sings the opening theme with Nazuka Kaori & Tamura Yukari). I have high hopes for Haruka ^_^

3. Hasegawa Shizuka

Technically not a newcomer; like Hirano Aya (they’re both signed to the same agency Space Craft, which also has Chiba Saeko & Nanri Yuuka on its books) the 18-year old Hasegawa made her anime debut in Tenshi no Shippo back in 2001 when she was just 13, but she’s been a child model since…. she was born ^^; Since she was 2 months old in fact (she mentioned this on Takahashi Mikako’s radio show, who called her Dai-senpai) though she only signed up to Space Craft when she was three. Mainly voices young girls – Ruru in the Futakoi series, Tomohane in Inukami!, and currently Yukino in Airantou & soon to be in Lucky Star as Konata’s cousin Yutaka. Shizuka likes eating bananas with mayonnaise on top, she’s said that a few times on various radio shows now ^^; Plus she has the most infectious/irritating laugh, depending on how you look at it.

4. Kakihara Tetsuya

He’s maybe less of a newcomer now after all the publicity he got on the back of his surprise win in the inaugural Seiyuu Awards, but Kakihara only made his debut in 2005 as Bright in Futagohime. Born in Germany, the 24-year old is a graduate of Amusement Media’s seiyuu training school (classmates include Kadowaki Mai & Hatano Wataru) and is now signed to 81 Produce, one of the bigger seiyuu agencies around. His voice is like Yonaga’s, a bit higher than most male seiyuu but he can do serious characters like Mercutio in Romeo X Juliet in addition to the screaming shonen types (Simon in Gurren Lagann), plus the 5 inanimate objects he voices in Nanoha StrikerS (some in German). Kakihara’s stock has certainly risen since the Best Newcomer award, and he’s got a role in GONZO’s autumn anime Dragonaut a.k.a. The S.O.S-dan reunion ^^;; And he appeals to the female fans too ^_^

5. Fujita Saki

To me she really is a carbon copy of Tamura Yukari both in looks and sound. But I do like Sakki, her blog’s part of my daily to-read list and I listen to her weekly radio show/podcast (when I remember). Mentioned in the KitaEri profile that she got a special prize in the V&S AUDITION; after which she enrolled in Nichinare (ARTSVISION’s seiyuu training school), graduating in March this year. Sakki had a small role in Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle as Momo and then got her first major role in Tsuyokiss as Kanisawa Kinu, followed by the imouto-type Yayoi Mina in Tokimeki Memorial and the complete weirdo Momo-chan in Manabi Straight. She hasn’t got anything on at the moment apart from that radio show… though she did go to Disneyland with Inoue Marina earlier this month ^^;

6. Goto Mai

I’m not sure of how versatile Goto is – the sample on her agency profile doesn’t really show much range but her voice has got that sweet and soothing feel to it; reminds me a lot of Satou Rina (someone whose voice I could listen to all day long). She could find her niche playing moe characters in visual novel to anime conversions ^^; Her current credits list reads: Asagiri Mai (Tatsuya’s sister) in Yoake Mae etc etc and Kohinata Sumomo in Happiness! And up next are roles in Nanatsuiro Drops and ef – a tale of memories which are both anime adaptations of games as well…. guess she’s already being stereotyped.

7. Fujimura Ayumi

Clockwise from Top Left: Suara, Yuumao, Ito Shizuka & Fujimura Ayumi
Another one of Ken Production’s bright young stars. Ayu first got in the spotlight with her role as the mighty morphing Iokawa Karada in Asatte no Houkou, though she did have a supporting part in Nishi no Yoki Majo prior to that. Being a first-timer on Asatte, Fujimura mentioned on the radio show how she constantly fluffed her lines (up to 50 retakes once) & was generally a nervous wreck ^^; As Karada she did get to show off her ability to voice both little girls and teenagers and I thought she did a good job on the radio show and singing the character songs as well. Since then Ayu’s had a lead role in Bartender, and is now in Touka Gettan as the maid Nene and in Kaze no Stigma as the tsundere joshikosei (with flaming pink hair) Kannagi Ayano.

8. Okamoto Nobuhiko

Okamoto (front, centre) with the rest of the cast of sola
Funnily enough, the three guys on my list possess similar sort of voices, squeaky high. Maybe there’s a shortage of such male seiyuu, which is probably why the young male characters often end up being voiced by females. Okamoto’s debut was in the rather underrated Ghost Hunt as John Brown, the gaijin priest with a funny Kansai accent but he’s probably gained a bit more attention as the lead character Yorito in sola. Okamoto will be in Potemayo this summer voicing Natsu Yasumi (which translates to Summer Vacation), who earns my vote for second stupidest character name of the season (after Osana Najimi a.k.a. Childhood Friend from Doujin Work).

9. Asumi Kana

The cute-as-a-button 24-year old Fukuokan wormed her way into many hearts with her performance as the similarly cute Yuno in Hidamari Sketch. Signed to Voice & Heart, the same agency as Inoue Marina; Asumi can currently be heard in Gainax’s Gurren Lagann as Kiyal (one of Kittan’s 3 sisters) and in Bokurano as Kana, the obnoxious Jun’s little sister. At the moment, she’s also co-hosting Busou Shinki RADIO RONDO with Kitamura Eri (she voices the MMS Angel Type Arnval in the game) and the Hidamari Sketch radio show just finished not long ago. Her blog is updated pretty regularly too.

10. Endo Aya

I guess her voicing meganekko Takara Miyuki in Lucky Star has gained her a few more fans, but Endo has been under the radar for a while now. First heard her in Okusama wa Joshikousei (for some reason, I quite liked the manga but the anime was a bit of a turn-off) as one of Asami’s best friends, then forgot about her until she popped up in Inukami! as Imari (one of the twins). Endo was also on the ‘infamous’ Oshikari and Kokuhaku CDs and actually formed a unit called Plume with two of the other seiyuus on it, Kawaragi Shiho and Mizuno Manabi – they have a radio show and a blog. She’s currently voicing major roles in two spring anime, Noa in the it’s-so-bad-it’s-good KissDum & of course, Lucky Star. Hopefully she’ll get more roles after this….

There are a few others worth keeping an eye on; the bubbly Katou Emiri (Kagami in Lucky Star), Hashimoto Mai who sounds really cute, and Nakao Eri (Escartin in Getsumen to heiki Mina) who is bizarre but fun, plus she possesses a deep, scratchy voice rarely heard amongst female seiyuu. Also Kano Yui, Takagaki Ayahi, Sasaki Nozomi, Hatano Wataru, Terashima Takuo, Akesaka Satomi, & some others who in my mind have been around for a long while but are actually pretty new (Yahagi Sayuri, Mizusawa Fumie, Tsuji Ayumi, Kawamoto Naru etc).