I drink and watch anime

Top Five Voice Actors in My Harem

Irina

We all love a good vice actor right? (Typo and it stays!) They are a huge part of any anime. Do you guys also secretly want to be voice actors?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the blogs I read tend to go on much more about women seiyuus than men. I’m not at all complaining mind you, I’ve done my own share of gushing over the lovely ladies who voice some of my favorite characters. I just think this Friday I would like to give the gents a turn.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that voice acting is simple. That all you need is a great sounding voice and maybe some decent pronunciation and off you go. But you cannot overestimate the acting part of voice acting. A good performance can carry a show and elevated a character while a bad one can sink it. Just look at some of the horrible dubs from pas decades to see just how much impact voice acting has. You can render a great show unwatchable.

So today, I picked five talented actors who’ve not only given some great performances but have also voiced a lot of my favorite characters. In somewhat random order…

5. Junichi Suwabe

A voice actor and singer, Suwabe san has established himself as a fairly renown voice actor over the past 20 years. Starting his career out as Kouji in the classic Great Teacher Onizuka, he’s gone on to voice a ton of great characters, here are just a few:

Not to mention roles in Bleach, Danganronpa, Daily lives of High School Boys, Barakamon, Fairy Tail, Gangsta, Hellsing, Hyouka, Gundam SEED, One Piece, Prince of Tennis and I am skipping a ton.

It may not be all that clear from my list but this man can make his voice sound so commanding while remaining soft spoken. He has something imposing in his tone that makes him great for characters that are supposed to have some form of authority. Really, go see this guy’s resume. I’m willing to bet one of your faves is on there.7

4. Mamoru Miyano

This guy started his career voicing video games at the age of 7, no wonder he’s such a pro. He has also had quite a bit of success as a singer but it’s his impressive resume of anime characters that lands him on this list. All these guys are masters with huge amounts of roles to their names so I’m doing my best to narrow it down to my very favorites but it’s hard to pick, you know!

With notable roles in Ajin, Blame!, Cardfight, D-Gray Man, Days, Death Parade, Eureka 7, Gatchaman, Inazuma Eleven, Inu x Boku, Gundam 00, Overlord, Pokemon, Tokyo Ghoul, Vampire Knight, Wolf’s RainYowamushi, Yuri! on Ice…Again, I’m skipping like two thirds of his portfolio.

This man has a lovely deep background timber to his voice. Like an auditory aftertaste that lingers and brings a lot of depth to the sound, and yet his actual voice is light and clear enough to play younger characters. Look at this range. He seems to have done a lot of shows with Junichi, I wonder if they’re friends.

3. Nobuhiko Okamoto

A multiple Seiyuu Award winner (they may all be actually…) I feel like this guy just seems so sweet and positive. Every time I’ve seen this guy he was hyped up and cheery and just so much fun to watch. Like a sweet overgrown kid, which makes his roles that much more surprising…Here are a very few:

He’s also been featured in March comes in like a lion, Bakuman, Welcome to the Ballroom, Daily Life of Highschool Boys, Durarara!!, Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?, Kill la Kill, Log Horizon, Food Wars, Starmyu, Tiger & Bunny.Of course like a billion more

He has this way of inserting an almost unnerving calm in his voice. He can keep his voice very light and irreverent yet sound menacing and serious. I mean Mikoshiba! I have a huge soft spot for casual sounding voice actors.

2. Takuya Eguchi

Compared to the other men on this list, Takuya is a relative newcommer having been in the business for less than a decade yet he’s managed to wrack up a few juicy roles in that time and hopefully his career is just starting out. A multitalented artist, he’s also written and launched an autobiographical manga called Eguchi Takuya no Gainen Planet, which is just adorable.

You can also hear his work in Binan Koukou, Baby Steps, D-Gray Man, Danganronpa, Darling and the Franxx, Inazuma Eleven, Ino x Boku, Gundam AGE, Ore Monogatori! of course much more.

This guy sounds…well actually he doesn’t ever really sound the same so I’m not sure how to describe it…OK let’s go another way, this guys looks like this:

Yup he’s absolutely beautiful. I almost feel sorry that we don’t get to see him while he works…

1. Daisuke Ono

All right I cheat. You already know this about me… I’ve decided to splitétie my number one among the two hosts of Dear Girl Stories and frequent collaborators, Ono and Kamiya. I just couldn’t pick between them and you will soon find out why…

A little taste of his other roles: 11 eye, 91 days, Air, Blue Exorcist, B-Project, Bleach, Brothers Conflict, Drifters, Gantz:0, IDOLiSH7, Higurashi, Karneval, Kino, Minami-ke, NTR, Norn9, Osomatsu-san, Seraph of the End, Persona 4, Planetarian, Saiki, Prince of Tennis, Tamako Market, Star Blazers, Uta no Prince Sama, Working!!!, Yamada-kun. Ok I actually skipped most of what this guys done. He works A LOT!

As you can see, this man has a nice rich deep voice and tends to go for calm occasionally emotionless character or badasses! I mean how could I leave him out. I couldn’t and I didn’t!

1. Hiroshi Kamiya

The other half of my dynamic voice actor duo, Kamiya won “Best Personality” at the 3rd Seiyuu awards (among other recognition) which really intrigues me for some reason. He has been working consistently in the field since 1992, so you can just imagine how long his credits list is. Here are a few:

You may also know him from Angel Beats, Beatless, Binan, Break Blade, Brothers Conflict, Digimon, Honey and Clover, Inazuma Eleven, Karneval, Macross F, Gundam 00, AGE, SEED, One Piece, Prison School, Saiki, Towa no Quon, Working!!, and just way too many to list.

Try to imagine me realizing the Natsume is voice by the same actor as Izaya, Levi and Yato!!!! I am still picking little pieces of brain off my ceiling!

So what do all these characters have in common? Certainly not their voice. This man is a vocal chameleon. And he certainly seems to know how to pick a role. This is a really interesting career and I’m going to have to keep an eye on him since he obviously chooses anime I like.

So, do you have a favorite voice actor. Or maybe just a favorite performance? Do you go out of your way for certain voice actors? Let me know who I should discover next!

 

Exit mobile version