Off-topic post: Seiyu Awards

This is not a post related to any of my projects. However, as part of being a fan of anime, I do follow Japanese voice actresses (I don’t follow male actors mainly because of the kinds of anime I am interested in, which typically have primarily female casts). A while ago, the 10th Annual Seiyu Awards was held, and they have announced the winners for their respective categories. In particular, I congratulate Inori Minase for taking out the Best Lead Actress award. She obtained her award for her roles as Yuki Takeya of School-Live! and Jun Naruse of The Anthem of the Heart, among others. I will detail some of the winners below (as mentioned above, I don’t follow male actors, so I won’t mention them).

Best Lead Actress: Inori Minase (水瀬 いのり) – Sony Music Artists Inc.
Roles considered: Yuki Takeya (丈槍 由紀) of School-Live! (がっこうぐらし!) (TV anime) and Jun Naruse (成瀬 順) of The Anthem of the Heart (心が叫びたがってるんだ。) (movie), among others

Inori Minase (born December 2, 1995) is a 20-year-old voice actress and singer from Tokyo. She made her voice acting debut in 2010. Her first major role in anime was Suzune Tanahashi of Love Lab (2013), and she later went on to voice Chino Kafū of Is the Order a Rabbit? (2014-2015). Other notable roles include Noel of Celestial Method (2014) and Hestia of Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (2015). On December 2, 2015, her 20th birthday, she released her debut single “Yume no Tsubomi” (夢のつぼみ, “Flower Bud of a Dream”). She appears to be a fan of singer/voice actress Nana Mizuki (as seen on her old Twitter account). She appears to have a good relationship with fellow voice actresses Ayane Sakura (who has worked with Minase in a number of anime, including Love Lab and Is the Order a Rabbit?), Saori Ōnishi, Ai Kakuma and the members of Rhodanthe* (Asuka Nishi, Manami Tanaka, Risa Taneda, Yumi Uchiyama, Nao Tōyama, all of whom voice the main characters of Kiniro Mosaic).

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Best Supporting Actress: Shizuka Itō (伊藤 静) – Ken Production, and Saori Hayami (早見 沙織) – I’m Enterprise

Shizuka Itō (born December 5, 1980) is a 35-year-old voice actress and singer from Tokyo. She made her voice acting debut in 2002. As she has been in the industry for over 13 years, her notable roles are too many to list here (the same with the other voice actresses, so I only list a few of their roles). Itō is friends with a number of her fellow voice actresses, including Hitomi Nabatame (with whom she has formed a voice acting unit), Yuka Inokuchi, Rie Kugimiya, Mamiko Noto, Yūko Kaida, Ai Shimizu, Ami Koshimizu, Ryōko Shiraishi and Mikako Takahashi.

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Saori Hayami (born May 29, 1991) is a 24-year-old voice actress and singer from Tokyo. She made her voice acting debut in 2007. Some of her more notable roles include Ayase Aragaki of Oreimo (2010-2013), Yotsugi Ononoki of the Monogatari series (2012-2015), Yukino Yukinoshita of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (2013-2015), Haruka Ogasawara of Sound! Euphonium (2015) and the titular character of Snow White with the Red Hair (2015-2016). On August 12, 2015, she released her debut single “Yasashii Kibou” (やさしい希望, “Bright Hopes”), with its title song being used as the opening theme of Snow White with the Red Hair.

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Best New Actress: Sumire Uesaka (上坂 すみれ) – Space Craft Entertainment, Rie Takahashi (高橋 李依) – 81 Produce, and Aimi Tanaka (田中 あいみ) – 81 Produce

Sumire Uesaka (born December 19, 1991) is a 24-year-old voice actress from Kanagawa Prefecture. She made her voice acting debut in 2011 (in case some may be wondering, anyone who debuted in the past five years is eligible for the Best New Actor/Actress award). Some of her more notable roles include Sanae Dekomori of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (2012-2014), Fubuki (among others) of Kantai Collection (2013 for the video game, 2015 for the anime) and Anastasia of THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls (2015). She has been a part of the web radio program A&G NEXT GENERATION Lady Go!!, working alongside Mikako Komatsu, Rumi Ōkubo, Natsumi Takamori and Shiori Mikami. She shows an interest in Russia, and in November 2013, finally visited the country.

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Rie Takahashi (born February 27, 1994) is a 22-year-old voice actress from Saitama Prefecture. She made her voice acting debut in 2013. Some of her notable roles include Futaba Ichinose of Seiyu’s Life! (2015), Miki Naoki of School-Live! (2015) and Mirai Asahina/Cure Miracle of Maho Girls Precure! (2016). She is a part of the unit Earphones, named after the unit of the same name in Seiyu’s Life! and consisting of herself, Marika Kōno (who played Rin Kohana in the anime) and Yuki Nagaku (Ichigo Moesaki).

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Aimi Tanaka (born April 28, 1992) is a 23-year-old voice actress from Tokyo. She made her voice acting debut in 2012. Her most notable role to date is the titular Umaru Doma of Himouto! Umaru-chan (2015).

Wikipedia (English)
Wikipedia (Japanese)
Anime News Network profile

Sources:

My thoughts

Overall, I think these awards are deserved (at least, when it comes to the females). While I admit I am a huge fan of Inori Minase, I do think she was good enough in the previous year to take out the Best Lead Actress award. In particular, I really enjoyed hearing her as Yuki, and later, as Chino (I can’t say anything about her other roles for the year, as I haven’t seen those anime). I have to admit, I was initially a bit surprised when Sumire Uesaka was considered eligible for the Best New Actress award, considering she has had major roles as early as 2012, only about a year after her debut. I can’t help but have a laugh at the irony of Rie Takahashi winning an award for her voice acting when Futaba Ichinose struggles with her job as a voice actress.
As for the males, well, I don’t have much to say; as I said, I don’t follow male voice actors (particularly Asian ones; I may follow some Western male voice actors). However, I have heard people complain about the winner of the Best Lead Actor (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) voicing the same cookie-cutter harem lead in the same cookie-cutter light novel harem adaptation (the kinds of anime I avoid like the plague) over and over again. On the other hand, I wonder who will win the Most Votes award next, since Hiroshi Kamiya has been inducted into the Most Votes Hall of Fame (meaning he is no longer eligible) for winning the award five times straight.
By the way, is that a minion in the group photo? He’s on the right side of the photo, if you’re wondering.

P.S. It’s Umi Sonoda’s birthday today! Happy birthday Umi-chan!

Edit (24/3/2016): correct typo; original version published on 15/3/2016


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