151 Seiyuu: From Hirano Aya to Wakamoto Norio

[CrimsonRyu17]

Canaan - Alphard
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance - Mari Illustrious Makinami
Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners - Shiki Ryougi

O hay I can actually say something in this thread. Sakamoto Maaya would probably be my favorite seiyuu if only because she voices the very few female characters I actually like and voices them perfectly. I think it's because she doesn't sound like she's on helium and her voice feels rather natural. Her job with Mari was especially outstanding.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard much of her earlier work and I haven't listened to her music because I was unaware of it. I will be fixing that though.

[Atria35]

This lady is my favorite seiyuu of all time. I adored her in Macross F, and I LOVE Escaflowne and KnK! She is both a fabulous VA and singer, and her work just excites me to no end!

[MasterDias]

Yeah, Sakamoto's an awesome actress. But Canaan and Soul Eater are the only shows on that list I've actually seen to completion. I'll really have to rectify that in the future.

Kara no Kyōkai: The Garden of Sinners
Shiki Ryougi - Movie 1 Fight Scene(Fairly intense so PG-13 warning on this one.)
Canaan
Alphard knocks Canaan around
Soul Eater
Crona & Maka have a talk(She must really have had a lot of fun with this role.)

[Kaori]

Ah, Sakamoto Maaya. ^^ I'm another one of those who are more familiar with her singing than her anime roles--it seems that Hitomi in Escaflowne is the only one of her roles I've been exposed to. I think she has a great singing voice, anyways, and the fact that Youko Kanno composed several of her songs certainly doesn't hurt anything. Besides the songs that Roy Mustang already linked to, here are some of my personal favorites:

Ongaku (from RahXephon--the sound quality in this video is pretty bad, which is a shame because it's a great song)
Birds(from the album Easy Listening)
Inori (also from Easy Listening)
Ame ga Furu(from the album Kazeyomi)

Also, I agree with Japan's assessment that Ultimate Diamond is really good. It's between that and Great Activity for my favourite Nana Mizuki album. BUT, ETERNAL BLAZE will always be my favourite of her songs. It really gets the BURNING SPIRIT going.

After listening to a few of her songs, I now know what to do the next time I have two or three thousand yen to spare.

[blkmage]

I think that Kara no Kyoukai features Maaya's best and most important role in the last decade. Not only that, but the Kara no Kyoukai movies are among the best anime of the last decade. So yeah, I definitely recommend Kara no Kyoukai if you're looking for something to beef up your list of works featuring Maaya Sakamoto that you've watched.

[Falx]

Maaya is proof that being a genuinely good actress can trump range to a certain degree.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Ouran High School Host Club - Haruhi Fujioka
Soul Eater - Crona

Yes yes yes yes. While Haruhi is a great job, I think she made Crona's character for me.

This also reminds me that I need to go watch Kara no Kyoukai.

[minakichan]

I have to say that I have more affinity for Sakamoto's roles than her performance, and while for a lot of seiyuu fans this is enough, for me this might make me anticipate series that she is playing in because I like the type of character, but I won't idolize her as a seiyuu.

Basically, as blkmage pointed out, her range is kind of narrow. Furthermore, I think that she doesn't really add much to her characters-- she plays them straight and emphasizes one or two characteristics of their personality, and generally the tamer ones. I would almost say that this flattens the character; for instance, with Haruhi, I think she up-played the character as someone who is sweet and girlish rather than the slightly snarky deadpan tomboy that is also her personality. Ironically, one of the roles that she played that I thought best represented the character is Nino... and... It REALLY does not take much to play a good Nino.

So sorry to not be a huge fan... I do like her singing voice though, and it's not like I hate her. At least her female roles are not annoying, as so many are nowadays. I just don't feel that there is too much special about her delivery.

[blkmage]

Yes yes yes yes. While Haruhi is a great job, I think she made Crona's character for me.

This also reminds me that I need to go watch Kara no Kyoukai.

On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, every time I watched Soul Eater, I would shed a tear because Maaya would have been tens of thousands of times better than Omigawa Chiaki as Maka.

[Lilac#18]

[color="Plum"]I like Mizuki Nana as Hinata. I haven't seen all the other animes she's voiced except a few episodes Lyrical Nanoha a couple of years ago (which I'll go back and finish all the seasons whenever I can) and a couple of episodes of HeartCatch PreCure! which I'll have to find a site where I can watch the rest of the show. (If anyone know where I can watch those episodes, please let me know. I'd appreciate it.)

What I didn't know was that she is a singer. I might have to check her music out. And I just found out she talked on Tenchi Muyo! GXP which I have seen in japanese yet.
[/color]

[ShiroiHikari]

I love Sakamoto Maaya for the song Kiseki no Umi. <3 I should check out some of her other songs.

[Yamamaya]

Yeah, who the heck is Inoue Nana?

Mizuki Nana is one classy lady. Lovely voice quality that just eludes too many of the generic female seiyuu. Also, can't forget her role as Nanami Madobe. I feel like that kind of character would normally be way too nasal and squeaky, but she did a great job at being cute and bubbly and not annoying.


Anyway yeah. Seiyuu have stalkers, but BEST is Japanese-illiterate Canadian guy who thinks he's married to Mizuki Nana and the Japanese government is keeping them apart www

Who is this crazy Canadian? Link? I need a good laugh.

Also three cheers for Maaya. She was quite epic as Mari in Eva 2.0.

[minakichan]

Dare i post it? I think i dareth:

http://myanimelist.net/blog/Kira01

The amount that you read of this is about directly proportional to both the amount of enjoyment and the amount of pain you shall receive. Also, just FYI, like the next 100 pages or some ridiculous number are ALL THE SAME THING.

[Nate]

Well that was a good waste of about 5 hours.

Fortunately I learned how to page skip fast since going through 400-some pages at 6 entries apiece would have driven me mad.

First the guy sucks at video games. Flat out sucks hard. He whines about Nocturne CONSTANTLY and obviously doesn't know how to play the game, and his playthroughs of the other Megaten games were on Easy mode. EASY MODE. It's like, gee, when you want to be a man you can come back and play the game for real. He also uses CWCheat on his first playthroughs of the game. Seriously...how much of a pansy loser do you have to be to cheat YOUR FIRST TIME PLAYING?

He keeps saying his parents are in the mafia (ha ha) and that he's the target of right-wing conspiracies (HA HA), except later it changes to left-wing conspiracies and Chinese people. He's clearly paranoid schizophrenic as he says in almost every entry that he's constantly followed by spies. He also has no clue what the word "troll" means and overuses it ad-naseum, which is only slightly less annoying than his overuse of *chuckles* which for some reason makes me rage uncontrollably.

But it's okay because he's Internet Tough Guy and constantly talks about how he isn't REALLY scared of the spies and the mafia that want to kill him because he can totally take them in a fight. It amuses me more that he says that the spies follow him every time he steps out of the house so he has to stay at home...like the mafia and spies wouldn't know where he lives? But yeah his first couple of hundred pages are boring video game talk about how much he sucks at video games and politics and the mafia is trying to kill him! Oddly, he mentions Nana in passing a couple of times in the early entries but says nothing else. At this point he was not yet creepy obsessed stalker I guess.

Then later he starts talking about vampires and drops hints as to some sort of relationship with Nana but doesn't use her name, he uses some dumb "pet fairy" talk and refers to her as "Rumi-san" and "Hotaru."

Then he launches into full "I AM CLINICALLY INSANE" talk about how Russian spies and government conspiracies and leftists and Chinese supporters are preventing him from being with his beloved and trying to kill him, along with talk about how he will be murdered if he goes to Hong Kong so he'll kill himself before he has to go. Which he doesn't of course and then he starts email spamming CSIS and the Prime Minister of Canada to help him escape Hong Kong because he's about to die! Except he isn't. Then he goes back to Canada. And it appears his most recent updates are about him being in Tokyo and how the Japanese government will arrest Nana if she tries to visit him even though she's totally his waifu and now they're all spying at him at his hotel room. He hasn't updated in a couple of weeks though.

Still he says in earlier entries that the wedding is definitely going to be September 3 so I may have to check back on this guy in a few weeks to see what crazy conspiracy theories he comes up with next.

[blkmage]

I feel like talking about these two.

[SIZE="5"]6. Asumi Kana (阿澄佳奈)[/SIZE]

Asumi Kana is pretty new, but it wasn't long until she got her first major role as Yuno in Hidamari Sketch in 2007. But while her role as ( X ╹　‿　╹ ) is super popular, she hasn't really done anything more major than some supporting characters. Her voice is pretty distinct, to the point where me and my friend burst out laughing when her character said "TAKANASHI-SAN" in Black Rock Shooter because it sounded exactly like her "KATANASHI-KUN" in Working!.

Major Roles
Hidamari Sketch (x365, Hoshimittsu) (2007–2010), Yuno
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007), Kiyal
Bokurano (2007), Kana Ushiro
Shugo Chara! (2007), Ran
Working!! (2010), Taneshima Popura
Amagami SS (2010), Miya
Black Rock Shooter (2010), Yuu/STRength

[SIZE="5"]7. Ueda Kana (植田佳奈)[/SIZE]

Ueda Kana's voice is also distinct, but, unlike Asami Kana, she seems to be capable of changing her voice. Of particular note is her apparently strong Kansai accent, which I can't really pick out, but I'm sure people more familiar with some form of Japanese would be able to. It's most noticeable when when she's Sakuya in Hayate the Combat Butler, simply by virtue of her character being from Kansai.

She's had a slower popularity curve than Asami Kana, having several years of odd roles before getting her major breakout roles. But between the Nanoha A's and the Fate/stay night crowds, I think she has a pretty sizeable fanbase now.

Major Roles
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (Hayate Yagami)
Pani Poni Dash! (Kurumi Momose)
Fate/Stay Night (Rin Tohsaka)
Hayate the Combat Butler (Sakuya Aizawa)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Kinon Bachika)
Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed (Fumika)
Saki (Saki Miyanaga)

[blkmage]

Which he doesn't of course and then he starts email spamming CSIS and the Prime Minister of Canada to help him escape Hong Kong because he's about to die! Except he isn't.

This was my favourite part.

[minakichan]

Long thing about Canadian crazy guy.

This should be in its own thread, not because you're being off topic but because THAT GUY. THAT GUY.

THAT GUY.

What? Anyway.

[Yamamaya]

This should be in its own thread, not because you're being off topic but because THAT GUY. THAT GUY.

THAT GUY.

What? Anyway.

Posted the thread.

Make sure you never become an extremely popular seiyuu minakichan or you'll also have a crazy man like this. It may not be a Canadian, it may be a Russian or perhaps a Turk.

Speaking of Asumi, I need to watch Hidamori Sketch.

[the_wolfs_howl]

A question: All these seiyuu names are with the surname first like in Japanese, I'm guessing? I can never tell DX

Sakamoto Maaya is the only one so far that I've ever heard. I never really noticed her voicework as outstanding, but her music is pretty good. I especially like "Gravity" from Wolf's Rain. I find it interesting that, although rhymes aren't important in Japanese poetry/songs, "Gravity" rhymes, I suppose since it's in English.

[Falx]

A question: All these seiyuu names are with the surname first like in Japanese, I'm guessing? I can never tell DX

Yep. Read Japanese names long enough and you'll start to easily tell what sounds like a surname and what is obviously a name... just like Western names.

[ich1990]

Yeah, Sakamoto's an awesome actress. But Canaan and Soul Eater are the only shows on that list I've actually seen to completion. I'll really have to rectify that in the future.

Kara no Kyō]Shiki Ryougi - Movie 1 Fight Scene[/URL](Fairly intense so PG-13 warning on this one.)
Canaan
Alphard knocks Canaan around
Soul Eater
Crona & Maka have a talk(She must really have had a lot of fun with this role.)

Thanks, all, for the links. I haven't seen most of these shows, so hearing bits of their work helps quite a bit.

Also, I like Sakamoto Maaya's voice quite a lot. Like others have said, it sounds more believable to the Western ear than the "squirrel on helium" sounds that a lot of VA's seem to go for. The fact that she is in Kara no Kyoukai is icing on the cake, because I have wanted to see those movies for a long time.

[blkmage]

[SIZE="5"]8. Oki Kanae (沖佳苗)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="7"]?[/SIZE]

She hasn't really done much beyond Cure Peach in PreCure. Welp.

[SIZE="5"]9. Itou Kanae (伊藤かな恵)[/SIZE]

Itou Kanae is another one of those relatively new seiyuu who score a large role or two and a few side roles here and there. She tends to voice younger or shorter girls, with her most notable role being Hinamori Amu from Shugo Chara, although she's also done characters like Saten from Railgun who don't exactly fall into that character type. It looks like she'll be around for the next while. There's not really anything outstanding she does, I mean, I guess she was fine as Koume in Taishou Yakyuu Musume.

Major Roles
Asobi ni Iku yo! (TV) as Erisu
Mayoi Neko Overrun! (TV) as Fumino Serizawa
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi (TV) as Ringo Akai
Shugo Chara! (TV) as Amu Hinamori
Sora no Manimani (TV) as Mihoshi Akeno
Taishou Yakyuu Musume (TV) as Koume Suzukawa
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (TV) as Ruiko Saten

[SIZE="5"]10. Kobayashi Sanae (小林沙苗)[/SIZE]

Here's a neat change. Kobayashi Sanae is not new. And in fact, it seems that she does a variety of roles. It turns out some of her best known roles are for shounen characters, like Allen Walker from D.Gray-man and Touya Akira from Hikaru no Go. But, she's not a one-trick pony, doing a variety of roles like Lucy in Elfen Lied, Satsuki in Ichigo 100%, Kiyora in Nodame Cantabile, or Ennis in Baccano.

Major Roles
Allen Walker in D.Gray-man
Akira Touya in Hikaru no Go
Ennis in Baccano!
Lucy/Nyuu in Elfen Lied
Reiko Natsume in Natsume Yuujinchou
Satsuki Kitaouji in Ichigo 100%
Kiyora Miki in Nodame Cantabile
Yagiri Namie in Durarara!!

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Aha! This reminds me that I still need to see Baccano! subbed, but I can comment on this one. Namie was pretty great. She hit the crazy factor pretty well during her monologue about how her love was pure and all that. Again, it's a nice contrast to what ich just called the "squirrel on helium" voice a lot of seiyuu go for.

[minakichan]

Yaaaaaaay for people with range \o/

Yeah, that song really could use more not-girls, but I suppose there AREN'T TOO MANY MALE NAMES THAT RHYME WITH ITOU KANAE.

[Wyntre Rose]

I can't believe I missed Sakamoto Maaya!

I agree with everyone that says they like her because she doesn't have one of those annoying voices that pierce the stratosphere (and it is probably also the reason why the vast majority of the female seiyuu that I like all have gender-bender roles in their repertoire, or roles that are at least gender ambiguous). She first really showed up on my radar when I heard her as Haruhi, and then realized that I'd seen that name somewhere before, and discovered she played the main role in another favorite anime of mine: Escaflowne. And I LOVED the song she sang for Wolf's Rain. Plus, her Chrona was pitch perfect. She's definitely high on my list of favorites.

Most of the more recent names in here I've never heard of, but Kobayashi Sanae is another favorite of mine. Though the list of her roles makes me realize that I've only ever heard her voicing young men - Allen Walker in D Gray Man and Touya Akira in Hikago - so I think I may need to rectify that. Yet another reason that I need to see Baccano! subbed.

[blkmage]

[SIZE="5"]11. Chihara Minori (茅原実里)[/SIZE]

And we're back to newfolk, but Minorin is a pretty popular newer seiyuu. The role that launched her popularity? The Ayanami Rei-clone from Haruhi, Nagato Yuki. In addition to voicing an extremely popular character, she is relatively pretty, compared to other seiyuu. All this adds up to being super popular. She may not have crazy Canadian stalking her, but she's popular enough to have some blogger steal her water bottle from the stage. I guess she's still got a ways to go.

As for her voice, it's kind of in the lower range as well, but with a weird distinct thing you can hear. It's especially noticeable in her singing and in her roles where she's not soft and emotionless (that is, like, say Chiaki from Minami-ke or Sakutarou from Umineko and not Yuki). It's the kind of thing that makes her voice really noticeable and easy to pick out. Speaking of singing, she has done a bunch of anison, but I wouldn't say she's quite that popular from singing, and definitely nowhere near as ubiquitous as Mizuki Nana or Sakamoto Maaya.

Major Roles
Tenjho Tenge (Aya Natsume)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Yuki Nagato)
D.C. II: Da Capo II (Shirakawa Nanaka)
Lucky Star (Minami Iwasaki)
Minami-ke (Chiaki Minami)
Ga-rei -Zero- (Kagura Tsuchimiya)

[minakichan]

Chihara Minori is SOOOOOOOOOOOO SEXY. She is so beautiful, I want to marry her.

She's coming to NYAF! I am going to stalk her there.

Although I have to say I'm not a huge fan of her roles HAHAHA I'm not interested in the kuudere type, so I'm not impressed by Nagato.

[CrimsonRyu17]

Ga-rei -Zero- (Kagura Tsuchimiya)

Only time I've heard Chihara Minori and the main reason I adored GRZ was the characters and how they dealt with what was going on around them. I'm kinda surprised to hear she VA'd emotionless characters as she really gave Kagura very decent (especially at the end, my goodness) emotion.

And she is definitely a very pretty lady.

[blkmage]

She definitely doesn't look like what her voice sounds like.

[blkmage]

[SIZE="5"]12. Harada Hitomi (原田ひとみ)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="7"]?[/SIZE]

Unlike some of the previous unknowns, Harada Hitomi is actually really new. Still, she's landed a few relatively big roles, in particular as Himeji from BakaTest and Nori, one of the new first years in the new Hidamari Sketch. Those two characters actually sound pretty different, so I guess she can act. And I guess someone else must think so too, because she's going to be playing Azuki in Bakuman.

Major Roles
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu as Mizuki Himeji
Hidamari Sketch × Hoshi Mittsu as Nori
Sasameki Koto as Tomoe Hachisuka
Bakuman as Miyuki Azuki

[SIZE="5"]13. Nabatame Hitomi (生天目仁美)[/SIZE]

Nabatame Hitomi is another one of those not-new class of seiyuu. The only kind of her roles that I actually have heard are her as the older sibling character, as in Nobue in Ichigo Mashimaro or Yukiji in Hayate the Combat Butler. While the two are pretty different in personality, their tone of their speech is pretty similar. She does have an extensive credits list as a variety of side roles and supporting characters.

Major Roles
Akira Toudou in Special A
Arcueid Brunestud in Shingetsutan Tsukihime
Margery Daw in Shakugan no Shana
Nobue Itoh in Strawberry Marshmallow
Sena Aoi in Chaos;Head
Yukiji Katsura in Hayate the Combat Butler
Mikoto Suō in School Rumble
Kei Kishimoto in Gantz

[SIZE="5"]14. Shiraishi Minoru (白石稔)[/SIZE]

Ah, Shiraishi Minoru. For someone with very few major roles, he's gained quite a following. Essentially, his popularity can be traced to his WA WA WA WASUREEEMONOOOOO song in Haruhi when he walks in on Kyon and Nagato. That soon became a 2channel meme and was taken to its logical conclusion in Lucky Star with a live-action PV of the song as one of the ED sequences.

Major Roles
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Taniguchi)
Lucky ☆ Star (Himself)