My 10 favorite seiyuu

I recently noticed that I haven’t talked much about seiyuu on my blog even though they’re an important part of the anime industry. When it comes to people like singers and voice actors, I guess I’m the type of person who could love their work but not look into any further info about them other than that. I doubt I could even recognize any of my favorite seiyuu by looks, which makes me feel a bit ashamed (I think I’m just not good at distinguishing Asian faces 0_o) So today I’m going to focus this post on seiyuu and count down my top 10 favorites…

For each seiyuu, I made an image card featuring up to six characters they voice that I’m most familiar with. My seiyuu cards aren’t that “professional” (got all the pictures from MAL!) but I had fun making them XD

10. Kotono Mitsuishi

Kotono’s been around a long time and has done a lot of voices, from light, funny characters like Excel and Usagi/Sailor Moon to serious ones like Misato and Mireille. She’s great in both ranges, but I actually like her better in comical roles than dramatic ones. Her many hilarious scenes as Excel and Sailor Moon particularly stand out to me. But I also can’t forget her talent in Misato’s final scene in The End of Evangelion.

9. Aya Hisakawa

Aya’s got a unique, easily discernible voice, especially when she’s doing Osaka-ben XD She has a kind of fluffiness to her voice that I simply enjoy hearing both in dramatic roles and humorous ones. She’s also good at a variety of voices; in addition to many different female roles – serious ones like Chloe and funny ones like Nyamo, she’s voiced male characters like Yuki from Fruits Basket and Miki from Utena, as well as animal-like characters like Kero from Cardcaptor Sakura. Actually, her performance as Kero is one of my most favorite seiyuu performances of all and the main reason I like her so much.

8. Mamoru Miyano

Mamoru’s performed voices in a ton of anime I’ve seen. He’s convincing done both serious characters like Light and Kiba, as well as “lighter” ones like Tamaki and Masaomi. He recently joined the Pokemon staff by providing the voice of Dent/Cilan in the currently airing Best Wishes series. I tend to find female voices in anime more memorable than male ones, but Mamoru’s got a smoothness in his voice that’s appealing to me. His voice isn’t noticeably deep nor young and bright sounding – to my ear, it’s balanced between the two.

7. Yui Horie

Yui was one of the first seiyuu I ever heard back in 2001 when I watched some Japanese episodes of Mon Colle Knights. She’s got an easily recognizable voice that’s light and soft but could also be gentle, serious, or lots of other emotions. The gentleness she can convey is best heard in her role as Tohru from Fruits Basket, her hyper voice is Minori (most of the time) in Toradora!, and her talented mix of cuteness and darkness can be heard in Maria from Umineko no Naku Koro ni. She’s a good singer as well – her version of the Fruits Basket opening is just as beautiful as the original.

6. Houko Kuwashima

Houko’s voice has a certain gentleness that I adore. Even when she plays serious characters like Sango or light characters like Kagura, I can pick up that gentleness in her voice. She can even make “dark” characters like Kirika and Clare sympathetic through their voices. But her range is more than this, as she’s also capable of doing evil characters like Medusa from Soul Eater (I had no idea that was her!) Like most great seiyuu, she’s a lovely singer as well. Her performance (in English) of the Slayers Try finale song is still one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.

5. Aya Hirano

I admit that Aya is overrated, but I can’t deny that I love the roles I’ve heard her in (Haruhi! =P) I could do without her hyper, air-headed roles like Misa, but she’s got good range overall – she can do “genki” characters like Haruhi and Lucy as well as more serious, meeker characters like Yuki from White Album and Kurumi from Kimi ni Todoke. Her singing voice for Yuki even sounds distinctly different from Haruhi’s. Even though Haruhi is my most favorite character of all, my favorite role of Aya’s is Konata. She’s hilarious as Konata and her range really shows there, not to mention Konata’s voice sounds way different than any of her other characters.

4. Kappei Yamaguchi

I’m not familiar with many of Kappei’s roles (Inuyasha, Usopp, and L being the main ones) but he’s gotta have the most memorable male seiyuu voice I’ve ever heard. He has this kind of gruff, grinding sound in his voice that takes some getting used to, but once you hear it enough you can’t help but find it unique. I doubt anyone could mimic the utter emotion and enthusiasm that can be heard when Inuyasha or Usopp scream at the top of their lungs (which they do many times in their respective anime). Of course, he’s also capable of doing less wild characters like L. He’s just got a voice you won’t soon forget, especially when it comes to shouting his dialogue XD

3. Rie Kugimiya

Many people say that Rie is only good at doing cookie-cutter tsundere roles…but really, so what if that’s her specialty? She’s darn good at it, and you can’t tell me she’s not good at anything else when she has roles like Al from Fullmetal Alchemist and Happy from Fairy Tail under her belt. Her talent has pretty much defined what tsundere females sound like. Her willful yet child-like voice can convey a wide range of emotions, as can be heard in some of her best roles like Taiga and Al. She’s got quite a fanbase, and frankly I think she deserves it.

2. Ikue Ohtani

A lesser known seiyuu, mostly because her major roles are in kids/family anime rather than otaku-aimed series. She doesn’t have the best range, but her voice itself is simply one of the most unique I’ve ever heard (listen to her singing Chopper’s image song “Rumble Ball“). But the main reason I like Ikue so much is because 1) she provides the voice of my other all-time favorite character, Chopper, and I feel like her voice was made for him – it’s perfect for the kind of character he is and is a huge part of his endearment. And 2) she’s the voice of freakin’ Pikachu, the mascot of Pokemon, my most favorite franchise of all! She’s been going “pika, pika” for nearly fifteen years with a voice that has won the hearts of millions all over the world (since Pikachu keeps his Japanese voice in all dubbed languages). I really wish she would get major roles in non-kids anime so more anime fans can experience her talent.

1. Megumi Hayashibara

I’ve heard Megumi Hayashibara called the Mel Blanc of anime, having done more voices than I think any other seiyuu. She was also an accomplished j-pop singer in the 90s, having released a ton of singles and was known as the “Queen of J-pop.” Since most of her fame as a j-pop singer and seiyuu was in the 90s, newer anime fans have probably never heard of her, which makes me sad. I’ll admit that I’m biased in that I love Megumi more as a singer than a seiyuu, but she’s equally famous in both mediums. Unfortunately she hasn’t had any new major roles in several years, besides continuing as Jessie/Musashi in Pokemon and resuming her roles as Lina and Rei in the recent anime installments of Slayers and Evangelion (and, in over a decade, she’s hasn’t lost a bit of her 90s talent!) I believe the reason she hasn’t been working much in recent years is because she had a baby and has been raising a family. But back in the day, just about every major anime in the 90s had her amongst their cast and she still inspires seiyuu today. I hope she decides to take on a new role or two before she fully retires =)