Seiyuu That Weren't Mentioned in the 151 Seiyuu Song

[Nate]

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE. I LOVE DAISUKE NAMIKAWA.

He did the voice of Speedor in Go-Onger!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvHvFyPTCQA&feature=related

And he was totally freaking awesome. I mean okay, maybe not as cool as Birca, but still. TOTALLY SWEET. He was also in the last episode, when all the seiyuu made cameo appearances, he was Sousuke's go-kart mechanic, which can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRNkhukukxg&feature=related#t=4m37s

[AnimeGirl]

Daisuke's role as Fai was really good! His voice matches him PERFECTLY!!!! He totally nails the role, as much as Vic nails it in English.

[Wyntre Rose]

If this post isn't as comprehensive as it could be, forgive me. It isn't that I'm not enthusiastic about our next seiyuu - I adore him - it's because I just spent over an hour working on another seiyuu that I discovered too late was in blkmage's seiyuu song, and therefore off limits for the purpose of this thread. *bonks self in head* So, I'm a little burnt out right now. But enough about me.

Our next seiyuu is none other than the incredibly prolific, and extraordinarily talented:

[SIZE="4"][color="DarkOrange"]Shinichiro Miki[/color][/SIZE]

Shinichiro Miki is known for playing suave, cool characters. Usually flirts, though their success with women is variable. And just check out the number of long-haired blondes that are in this list!

Characters Shinichiro Miki has played:

Allen Schezar from Escaflowne - the first role I ever heard him in, Allen Schezar is the chivalrous, womanizing, but ultimately kind-hearted knight who is the hero's rival for Hitomi's affections.


Kurz Weber from Full Metal Panic! - Kurz Weber is probably more well known as being voiced by Vic Mignogna in the English speaking world, but I have to say, I really enjoyed Shinichiro Miki's performance as this character. He gets a bit sillier than I usually hear him as, and that was really fun.


Shun Aurora in Heat Guy J - A relatively small role, but meaty. Shun ends up being one of the main - if not THE main - catalysts for the whole story, and Shinichiro Miki voices his many faces beautifully.


Lionel Taylor from Pumpkin Scissors - What'd I tell you? That's 4 long haired blondes, now. Lionel is a character that is very ambiguous at first, so he has to be both likeable and unsettling, and he pulls it off with flair. He also has to be both maturely chivalrous, and childishly cruel, and again, it's done very well.


Roy Mustang from FMA: Brotherhood - a lot of people didn't like him taking over Mustang from Toru Ohkawa. And though I agree that Tohru Okhawa's Mustang was great, I also really enjoyed Miki as this character. His face off with Envy was a tour de force, imo. That cold rage of his was absolutely terrifying. And lookit! It's our first role where he's not a blonde!!


Yamino from Matantei Loki Ragnarok - Yamino is a bit different from most of the characters I've listed so far. Though he has his moments of seriousness, for the most part he's a gentle, slightly goofy, subservient guy with a love of mail order products.


Mansairaku from Otogi Zoshi - Actually, he was two characters in this anime. Along with being the very mysterious Mansairaku - in both feudal and modern Japan - he also played Raiko, the gentle, deathly-ill brother that Hikaru is pretending to be. If you listen for it, you can tell they are the same voice, but they are also distinct from each other. And their characters are VERY different from one another.

[Atria35]

Go Roo~oy! Go Roo~oy! Oh yeah! *dancedance* I'm a Roy fan!

[blkmage]

I suspect the lack of enthusiasm for his Roy Mustang largely stems from the fact that most of us had been hearing him as Lockon Stratos for two seasons of Gundam 00 immediately prior to FMA's airing.

[Nate]

Shin-ichiro Miki was Sieg in Kamen Rider Den-O.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpEiTGGS2YY

I notice I'm the only one who's putting up their toku roles. But that's okay. I mean who's heard of a show like Kamen Rider Den-O, which is one of the most popular television shows in Japan? So popular that even after the series ended, it received THREE MORE theatrical movies, including a three-film trilogy that came out last month? I mean, surely nobody's heard of the Tokyo Metro, which had a special promotion related to the Den-O movie trilogy where Rina Akiyama would personally greet the first 200 passengers.

And I'm sure nobody's heard of the Seiyuu Awards where Kamen Rider Den-O won the Synergy Award. I mean, it only stars people nobody has heard of like Toshihiko Seki and Kenichi Suzumura and Shin-ichiro Miki and Houchuu Ootsuka. And Nobuyuki Hiyama, but who's heard of the Zelda games? Or Ryusei Nakao, but Dragonball Z? Talk about an obscure show!

Nope, Otogo Zoshi is WAY MORE INTERESTING than a show that enthralled all of Japan and became a huge cultural phenomenon. By far. :p

I hope this post doesn't come off as like...mean-spirited. XD I realize I'm one of only three toku fans on the site, and you're not going to recognize those series as being absolutely huge popular roles for those actors. It isn't your fault, I realize this! But it IS frustrating. XP

[ShiroiHikari]

blkmage: That, and people tend to not really like change.

[Wyntre Rose]

To blkmage: Well, that's interesting. That's probably the first time I've ever heard that complaint aimed at a seiyuu. Generally it's dub actors that I hear that for, in spite of the fact that there are seiyuu who are much more prolific than most VA's. That would make sense, then. I'm the type of person, myself, who likes to hear the voices I love in multiple things - hence my enthusiasm for this particular topic, and why I enjoy working on this thread - but I understand that I'm probably in the minority as far as that goes. Were they similar characters? I've never seen any Gundam series at all, so I'm not familiar with that role.

And sorry, Nate, I have absolutely no concept of anything tokusatsu related at all, I'm afraid. And as I said in my first post in this thread, these are all roles that I am familiar with, but I'm certainly not going to stop you from being enthusiastic about a genre that I know nothing about, and I'm happy to get your input on their tokusatsu roles. This is just a thread to gush about seiyuu we love, and my posts are certainly not the be-all-end-all of the discussions here. I'm just the catalyst.

[Nate]

I would also post video game roles but most games get dubbed into English with very few exceptions...I think it's neat that they did the roles, but they wouldn't be ones most people would recognize. XD

[blkmage]

In the case of FMA and Gundam 00 it's because they're both highly popular series and FMA took over Gundam's timeslot. So when the switch happened, you'd be hearing him as Lockon in the final episode of Gundam 00, and then the very next week, his voice would be coming out of a different character in the first week of FMA.

And people notice seiyuu get overused all the time. For a few quick examples off the top of my head, you've got Kugimiya Rie voicing J.C. Staff's quartet of tsunderes: Shana (Shakugan no Shana), Nagi (Hayate the Combat Butler), Louise (Zero no Tsukaima), and Taiga (Toradora). You've also got Hiroshi Kamiya being the male lead in the majority of SHAFT shows for the last year or two. And then there's the Sugita Tomokazu Kyon/Yuichi thing from when Kanon aired after Haruhi finished, which is fairly similar to Shinichiro Miki's Lockon/Roy.

[Wyntre Rose]

Oh, fire away, Nate! Especially if you enjoyed their voice work in them. My whole goal in doing this thread was to spread the love for the seiyuu I'm listing here, since they are all going to be seiyuu that I enjoy. (I realize that I could also list seiyuu that I don't like, or have no personal knowledge of, but I'd rather leave those seiyuu to people who are enthusiastic about them, and once we've exhausted my list of favorite seiyuu, I'll leave it open for others to contribute as well.) And if part of your enjoyment of their craft is from playing video games they've voiced, I want to hear that, too.

Also, I do believe that the next seiyuu I'm going to list here - unless something really odd happens - got his start in tokusatsu, so I'll be counting on you to give us some insight into that.

And to blkmage - you know, you're right. I'd forgotten about Kugimiya Rie. I have heard people say that about her before.

[Nate]

If he got his start in toku I'll definitely know about it, so we'll see what happens. XD

[Wyntre Rose]

Here's another seiyuu that's not quite as well known - by name, anyway - as most of the others I've showcased in this thread so far. Having said that, I bet most of you've heard his voice, though.

[SIZE="4"][color="SeaGreen"]Masaya Matsukaze[/color][/SIZE]

Do you have a character that needs a cool, intelligent and irresistible voice? This guy's your man. He's been pretty typecast as that kind of character in anime, actually, though there have been a few roles here and there that don't quite follow that pattern. But hey - if it ain't broke... What makes this rather fun, though, is the fact that, if the videos I've seen of the man himself can be believed, he's actually a pretty goofy, laid back kind of guy. Just about as snarky as his characters usually are, but far less formal and uptight. And Nate will probably go into this more than I ever could, but he got his start in tokusatsu.

Roles that Masaya Matsukaze has played:


Kyouya from Ouran High School Host Club - This is probably his most recognizable role. It's certainly the role that brought him to my attention. At first, since I was trying really hard to understand what was being said in Japanese, and wasn't paying much attention to the sound of the characters voices, I just couldn't figure out why I loved Kyouya so much, right from the get-go. I mean, it took a while for him to get any character development, and the fact that he was the cool, megane character (though definitely my "type") didn't quite explain it. Then, he said something that didn't really have any meaning so my attention went to the voice saying it rather than translating the word in my head, and I had an epiphany: "Oh, of course! He has a sexy voice! Mystery solved..." All joking aside, though, I adored him as Kyouya and became a firm fan after this role.


Mikami Teru from Death Note - Miyano Mamoru may be the reason I started watching DN "for real" but the reason it came to my attention at all was discovering Masaya Matsukaze was in it. At first blush, it's not all that different from his role as Kyouya...but that doesn't last very long. And when this man loses it...well, let's just say that the word "sakujo" will forever sound ominous to me.


Daisuke Aurora from Heat Guy J - This anime is probably more well known for how expensive a license it was - and how poorly it actually sold - than for the seiyuu in it, but I enjoyed his performance in this quite a bit. The special features in this is also where I first saw him in action in person, and realized what a goofball he is...


Ken from Nijuu Mensou no Musume - Noteworthy in that he starts off this role as a hyper young teenager. You'd barely recognize him if all you'd ever heard him voice was Kyouya or Mikami. As the picture would suggest, though, he does grow up, and his adult persona is a little more what one would expect of Masaya.

Now, as I said previously, these are the roles I know him as, and I am just the catalyst for this discussion. Feel free to add to what I've written, or bring our attention to a role that I haven't mentioned, or a genre or medium he's performed in that I wasn't aware of. That goes for any of the seiyuu in this thread past, present or future. Fire away!

[Nate]

As stated, Masaya Matsukaze's first role in anything was as Shun/Megablue from Denji Sentai...MEGARANGER! I say it like that because of the theme song...you have to hear it to understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjD5c2We7w0 Masaya Matsukaze shows up at the 30 second mark. His character, Shun, is kind of a laid-back guy, but wants to be a computer graphic designer.

He's been pretty prominent in Super Sentai even after his appearance in Megaranger. He was obviously in the crossover specials Megaranger vs. Carranger and Gingaman vs. Megaranger, but he was also in Hurricanger (though I have difficulty finding the character he played on a video).

He was in the Go-Onger move Boom Boom! Bang Bang! GekijōBang!! as Gokumaru, one of the main villain Maki's servants, and was the 17th head of the Shiba clan in Shinkenger. So yeah, like I said, he's stayed in the Super Sentai shows.

Oddly enough, he also played Zhane, the Silver Space Ranger, in Power Rangers in Space. For those who don't know, and I realize this sounds weird, Japan takes the Power Rangers shows we make in America, and dub them into Japanese. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBX88lYivxg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3q6Y_OurYU&feature=related (Man Japanese Alpha sounds weird) and even the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgUfSQ9gSIs

So yeah. Weird he didn't voice the Blue Space Ranger but oh well. XD And though most people are only familiar with the dub, I have watched fansubs of the Rockman.EXE anime and Masaya plays Blues/Protoman in those. So there you go. XP

[Wyntre Rose]

Oddly enough, he also played Zhane, the Silver Space Ranger, in Power Rangers in Space. For those who don't know, and I realize this sounds weird, Japan takes the Power Rangers shows we make in America, and dub them into Japanese. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBX88lYivxg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3q6Y_OurYU&feature=related (Man Japanese Alpha sounds weird) and even the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgUfSQ9gSIs

Wait, really?! So...they are dubbing over an American reversioning of their own show? That is pretty hilarious. XD

And oh my gosh, watching those videos takes me back. I used to babysit a kid who loved Power Rangers during the time that particular series was on the air...and who used to try the moves out on me after he watched them. I didn't mind it so much - he was kind of a wimp and he wasn't really trying to hurt me - until one day he actually kicked me in the face. I'm short. Yeah, that put an end to that pretty quickly. lol.

But, back on topic...what is Rockman.EXE? This I have never heard of.

[MasterDias]

Rockman is the Japanese name for the Mega Man franchise. Rockman.EXE specifically refers to what the US got as Mega Man Battle Network or Mega Man NT Warrior depending on whether it's the game or the anime.

[Atria35]

I. Love. Kyouya! Sooooo AWESOME! His voice was perfectly cool, calm, collected... and evil XD I'm gonna have to check out a few of these other ones just to hear him!

[Wyntre Rose]

I have a surprise for you today! Our next seiyuu is...

[SIZE="4"][color="Pink"]Minami Takayama[/color][/SIZE]

Yup. I found a female seiyuu that isn't in the seiyuu song. And she's one of my favorites, too! I'll tell you what, doing research on her brought up some interesing things I didn't know before. Like the fact that she used to be married to Gosho Aoyama - the mangaka of Case Closed. She's known mainly for playing little boys, or androgynous bishies - the crazier the better! - but then, there are other roles....that don't fit that mold at all. Let's see what she's done, shall we?

Roles Minami Takayama has been:


Conan Edogawa from Case Closed - probably the first role I ever heard her in, and definitely her longest running role! I love how she plays Conan, and she displays a lot of range in just this one role. She can be cutesy when Conan is trying to deceive adults and crooks, but also snarky and cunning when he's letting his hair down and being himself. She even cameos as herself sometimes as part of the pop duo Two Mix, which she really is a part of irl. Hearing her essentially talking to herself, and even singing two different voices - one of a popstar, the other of a kid who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket - I find highly entertaining.


Envy from FMA: Brotherhood - Probably my favorite casting change in Brotherhood was Minami as Envy. Not that the others who have played Envy were at all bad, but she's definitely my favorite of Envy's voices. Snarky, twisted, crazy, but also strangely likeable. One of my favorite scenes, the showdown between Mustang and Envy, I'm sure stands out to me so much because of the perfomances of their seiyuu, just as much as the writing and animation. And, yeah, I'm not the kind of person that usually likes watching something that disturbing and violent, but I was completely entranced during those episodes.


Dilandau from Escaflowne - 'K, have I mentioned she does crazy REALLY well? Yeah. And Dilandau is the proof of it. Conan was the first role I'd heard her in, but Dilandau is what really made me a fan of hers.


Kiki and Ursula from Kiki's Delivery Service - have to admit, I never realized she was Kiki, or Ursula, in this movie. And wow, can you say range? These roles are not only very different from each other - and I never would have guessed they were the same actress - but could you get much more different from Dilandau than Kiki? lol.


Moomin from Moomin - most people here probably have never heard of this, since it's actually based on stories by a Finnish author, but this made me happy. I saw a lot of Moomin when I was in Norway, though I never saw it in Japanese. I wish I could hear her in this.

[Atria35]

Shemade a GREAT crazy lady in Escaflowne... AND she's the voice of one of my favorite detectives! So AWESOME!

[CrystalChalice]

Wow, I didn't even know she had other roles besides Conan. What's even more surprising to me is that she voiced Envy of all people.

On Daisuke Namikawa: I have to say I really prefer his Nice Guy roles from his other works. Also, I just found out he's the Japanese dub's Danny Phantom.

[Kaori]

That really is quite a variety. I do remember she did a good job with Dilandau . . .

Moomin from Moomin - most people here probably have never heard of this, since it's actually based on stories by a Finnish author, but this made me happy. I saw a lot of Moomin when I was in Norway, though I never saw it in Japanese. I wish I could hear her in this.

Tangent: This is very popular in Japan; you can find Moomin merchandise easily in malls or in Animate stores and the like. I read one of the Moomin books as a child but forgot the author and title of it, then moved to Japan and rediscovered a forgotten fragment of my childhood over here.

I want to see an episode of that cartoon now.

[Wyntre Rose]

Our next seiyuu is...well, let's just say you wouldn't want to hear this voice in a dark alleyway...

[SIZE="4"][color="Olive"]Nozomu Sasaki[/color][/SIZE]

Nozomu Sasaki has been around for a while. And the roles he's played have been many and varied. At first, he seemed to gravitate towards punk kids or young nice guys. But lately...that's changed pretty drastically. So much so that there were even rumors that he'd had his voice surgically altered. Whatever the case, he's certainly a hard man to pigeon hole.

Roles Nozomu Sasaki has been:


Eriol Hiiragizawa from Cardcaptor Sakura - the first role I ever heard him in, Eriol is a very mysterious boy, and he needed a voice both youthful and mature, gentle and sinister, and boy did Nozomu Sasaki deliver on that!


Mello from Death Note - the hot-blooded, intensely competitive Mello also got his voice from Nozomu Sasaki. He brought a bit of crazy with him this time, too...


Yuusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho - Have to admit, I've seen just a few minutes of this anime, simply because I'd heard Nozomu was playing the main character and thought..."wow, really? I can't imagine Eriol's voice as that boy..." And well, in a way I was right. He sounds NOTHING like the other characters I've mentioned here. I don't know if those rumors about his voice being changed surgically have any basis in reality whatsoever, but I can see why someone would think that, after hearing his Yuusuke...


Johan from Monster - You remember what I said about Eriol needing to sound both gentle and sinister? Yeah, crank that up to 11 for this role. Johan is cold, calculating, evil, and yet, strangely vulnerable, and at times, even tender. He brought this role to life masterfully.

[Atria35]

Eriol AND Johan! Oh, yeah! What a seiyuu! So awesome.

[Wyntre Rose]

Our next seiyuu has a lot of feathers to find...and a few secret identities, as well...

[SIZE="4"][color="DeepSkyBlue"]Miyu Irino[/color][/SIZE]

A newer voice in the anime world, Miyu Irino plays nice guys for the most part. Generally young, idealistic heroes. There are a few exceptions here and there, though.

Roles Miyu Irino has been:

Daisuke Niwa from DNAngel - I first watched DNAngel because Vic was in the dub cast, but certain voices in English made me switch to watching it in Japanese, and Miyu Irino's Daisuke was my favorite performance in the original language.


Syaoran from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles - Another sweet, idealistic hero character, there's not much to say about this except that Miyu is perfect for this role.


Haku from Spirited Away - I'll admit, this startled me. And the more I think about it, the more I think I probably knew at one time that he played Haku, but I'd completely forgotten!


Erenfried from Neo-Angelique Abyss - Ok, so this was not a big role, nor is it an anime that many here have watched. The only reason I bring it up at all is because he's a jerk. Which is pretty entertaining, considering the other roles I've listed here. Of course, it's a reverse harem show and he's pretty, so he gets better.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

These threads keep reminding me to watch subbed anime. I'm not even sure of the last time I watched a dub, and I still have so little to contribute since I don't catch most of these.

[AnimeGirl]

Kyaaah!! Miyu Irino!! His role as Syaoran was amazing, and he did excellent as Haku, too! I actually heard him as Haku first (since it was the first time I tried watching an anime in Japanese), and at the time, didn't pay much attention. When I got into Tsubasa, and found out Miyu was also in Spirited Away, I watched it in Japanese again and was all like "Kyaah!! I love his voice!!"
And he's cute, too!

[Wyntre Rose]

Our next seiyuu does tortured, gentle characters REALLY well...

[color="RoyalBlue"][SIZE="4"]Hiro Shimono[/SIZE][/color]

Hiro Shimono has a sweet, light voice that loans itself well to kind, shy, and sometimes masochistic characters. And he excels at playing them. However, I must admit that I know very little about this seiyuu, and it seems there are quite a few starring roles in anime he's had that I haven't seen. So this is someone I'd especially like some input on if you've heard him in something I don't have listed here. Can anyone give us any further insight? Of course, if you've only seen him as these as well and want to comment, I want to "hear" from you, too!

Roles Hiro Shimono has been:

Subaru from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles: Tokyo Revelations OVA - Sweet, sweet, Subaru. Those of us who have seen Subaru in his other incarnations know that he's the most tortured woobie in all of CLAMP-dom. And considering that this is the team that brought you Fai D. Flourite, that should tell you a LOT. Hiro's voice fits that character perfectly.


Kamina from RahXephon - not to be confused with Gurren Lagann's Kamina. I really need to watch this one again, though. All I can really remember about Hiro's performance in this was that he was great, and there were shades of Jun Fukuyama in his voice. Enough that I had to double check just to be sure it wasn't Jun, after all.


Ken Robbins from Kaleido Star - Yet another one I need to watch again. Well, finish actually. I only saw a few episodes of this one, so I only know Ken from the beginning of Kaleido Star. So I know him as the super sweet, starry-eyed admirer of Sora. What I don't know is if this ever changes at all. Sorry, guys, I'm kinda dropping the ball on this one, aren't I?


Tadashi from Special A - Now this role is pretty different from any of those I've mentioned above. Tadashi is goofy, loud, easy-going and has a much different voice than Hiro's other roles. Could be because, as I mentioned before, he sounds a lot like Jun Fukuyama, and Jun is in Special A as well? At any rate, I didn't even recognize him, and it proves that he can do a type other than gentle, tortured woobie.

[blkmage]

My first contact with Irino Miyu was in Gundam 00, where he played the most irritating character in the entire show. My opinion of him has improved as I saw more of his other roles (he turned out to be a surprisingly decent Koh in Cross Game), but his voice doesn't really change from role to role. I do think he's perfect for Konoha in Bungaku Shoujo. When I read the book just after the movie was announced, I was like oh man, that guy is totally going to be played by Miyu Irino.

I've found Shimono Hiro's roles a lot more varied than Irino's. While Irino can be typecast pretty easily, Shimono has played enough roles to be generalized as young male protagonist. You've sort of got his dumb protagonists (Akihisa in BakaTest, Satoshi in Mitsudomoe), his more average protagonists (Hiro in ef, Jin in Kannagi, Haruka in Yosuga no Sora), and then you've got other characters that don't quite fit. And you've got a range of personalities, like, Tajima in OoFuri is really outgoing, while Tetsu in Cencoroll is really introverted. There's Keima in KamiNomi who's pretty smug and there's Daichi in Sketchbook who's pretty easily flustered. That said, he's not the type to change his voice very much either, so there's a very easily detectable tone in all of his roles.

[Cadence]

Irino Miyu is pretty great as Koh from Cross Game.

As for Shinomo Hiro, I admit I'm not very familiar with this seiyuu, either. I just went and looked up a list of his roles, and I was only familiar with a small percentage of them. None of them huge roles, either. The role I am most familiar with from him is little Tajima the baseball prodigy (from OoFuri), who is outgoing, loud, obnoxious, and somewhat immature. He did a pretty good job with the guy.

[Wyntre Rose]

I've found Shimono Hiro's roles a lot more varied than Irino's. While Irino can be typecast pretty easily, Shimono has played enough roles to be generalized as young male protagonist. You've sort of got his dumb protagonists (Akihisa in BakaTest, Satoshi in Mitsudomoe), his more average protagonists (Hiro in ef, Jin in Kannagi, Haruka in Yosuga no Sora), and then you've got other characters that don't quite fit. And you've got a range of personalities, like, Tajima in OoFuri is really outgoing, while Tetsu in Cencoroll is really introverted. There's Keima in KamiNomi who's pretty smug and there's Daichi in Sketchbook who's pretty easily flustered. That said, he's not the type to change his voice very much either, so there's a very easily detectable tone in all of his roles.

*Bows* Excellent, blkmage! That was exactly what I was looking for! And thanks, too, to Cadence. Big Windup was a role I'd seen he played, but didn't have any info on.