Danny’s Picks – Anime Seiyuus

January 21, 2012 1 comment

Hello and welcome to this week’s Danny’s Picks, today I’d like to share my first seiyuu video! What is a seiyuu you ask? Seiyuu is the Japanese term for voice actor and in the west often refers specifically to anime and video game voice actors. Here’s a quick excerpt from wiki to give some backdrop:

Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan’s large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or seiyū (声優), are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.

Besides acting as narrators and actors in radio plays, as well as performing voice-overs for non-Japanese movies and television programs, the voice actors are extensively employed as character actors in anime and video games. Popular voice actors — especially voice actresses — often have devoted international fanclubs. Some fans may watch a show merely to hear a particular voice actor. Some Japanese voice actors have capitalized on their fame to become singers, and many others have become live movie or television actors.

Today’s video is a compilation of a few different clips so I won’t name all the individual seiyuus or anime titles, although you’ll probably recognize a few of them! It features both actual recording sessions and a few live performances on a tv show. Enjoy!

I’m sure many of you recognized Light from Death Note and Chihiro from Spirited Away, but for me the star of this video is Kugimiya Rie, who is one of, if not my favorite, seiyuu! She’s the one at 0:25 – 2:45. She’s voiced many popular characters such as Shana in Shakugan no Shana (which you saw her do in the video at 1:25 – 2:25), Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, Happy in Fairy Tail, Kagura in Gintama, Nagi Sanzenin in Hayate no Gotoku!, Taiga Aisaka in Toradora!, more recently Lotte in Astarotte no Omocha, Aria H. Kanzaki in Aria the Scarlet Ammo, and of course Louise in Zero no Tsukaima - which is the character in the genga I bought at Otakon! I’ll be posting many more seiyuu videos in the Picks to come, sharing all of my favorite seiyuus in due time. Stay tuned! KUGYUUUUU~~~<3<3<3