Posts Tagged ‘seiyuu’

Japan Otome Festival

Boo, my B’s Log didn’t come today, but I really didn’t have time to read it anyways.

I did find THIS: Japan Otome Festival 2, happening late February.

I know there are lots of events for otome games in Japan, though I’ve never been to one. This one though, is a collaboration between Neoromance and Otomate and B’s Log, so it’s pretty big. It’s basically a two-day stage show, with a HUGE number of seiyuu doing live sketches in character, songs, and some discussion (in their own personas).

Here’s the list of seiyuu (and the characters they’ll be performing as underneath):

伊藤健太郎 Kentaro Ito
土浦梁太郎（金色のコルダ）

井上和彦 Kazuhiko Inoue
橘 友雅（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 梶原景時（遙かなる時空の中で３）

岡野浩介 Kousuke Okano
鴉取真弘（緋色の欠片）

置鮎龍太郎 Ryotaro Okiayu
アクラム（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 白龍（遙かなる時空の中で３）

下野 紘 Hiro Shimono
桐生 祟（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ ルシア（猛獣使いと王子様）

関 智一 Tomokazu Seki
森村天真（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 源九郎義経（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋直純 Naozumi Takahashi
イノリ（遙かなる時空の中で）/ ヒノエ（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋広樹 Hiroki Takahashi
レイン（ネオ アンジェリーク）

津田健次郎 Kenjiro Tsuda
風間千景（薄桜鬼）/ 無責任番長（ビーズログTV 恋愛番長）

寺島拓篤 Takuma Terashima
桐生 瞬（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ シルビオ（猛獣使いと王子様）/ ヤス（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）/ 貴樹（闇の皇太子）

鳥海浩輔 Kohsuke Toriumi
藤原泰衡（遙かなる時空の中で３）/ 英 円／ビショップ（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）/ 斎藤 一（薄桜鬼）/ セクシー番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

浪川大輔 Daisuke Namikawa
海棠鷹斗／神賀旭（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

成田 剣 Ken Narita
アリオス（アンジェリーク）/ レヴィアス（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）

野宮一範 Kazunori Nomiya
狗谷 遼（緋色の欠片）

平川大輔 Daisuke Hirakawa
ベルナール（ネオ アンジェリーク）/ 大蛇 卓（緋色の欠片）

堀内賢雄 Kenyu Horiuchi
オスカー（アンジェリーク）/ 闇皇<御門>（闇の皇太子）

前野智昭 Tomoaki Maeno
不動翔麻（100万人の金色のコルダ）/ ヨハネ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 加納理一郎／放浪者（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

森川智之 Toshiyuki Morikawa
エルンスト（アンジェリーク）/ カイン（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ ホスト番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）/ 安倍晴明（闇の皇太子）

森久保祥太郎 Showtaro Morikubo
沖田総司（薄桜鬼）/ ジョヴァンニ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 恋愛番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

森田成一 Masakazu Morita
火原和樹（100万人の金色のコルダ）

吉野裕行 Hiroyuki Yoshino
藤堂平助（薄桜鬼）/ ヤンキー番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）

代永 翼 Tsubasa Yonaga
天神 后（闇の皇太子）

Huge, right? For this event, they do 4 shows, 2 each day, and each one focuses on different titles. Tickets range from Y4800 to Y8800, holy expensive! But I guess for something that’s so rare, maybe it’s worth it. I’ve seen DVDs of these events as well, I wish I’d gotten them when I saw them. I wonder if they sometimes use the sketches later in drama CDs or something – it seems like a waste not to.

Anyways, I just saw this while I was lamenting the delay of B’s Log and thought I’d introduce one more thing we miss out on outside of Japan

Cast announcements!

Seiyuu info on Kurayami no Hate de Kimi o Matsu (coming out for the DS) has been announced:

Aoi Mio CV: Takahashi Hiroki

Sakuraba Katsumi CV: Iwata Mitsuo

Kazano Tarou CV: Fujiwara Yuuki

Honami Yousuke CV: Saiga Mitsuki

Akiyama Tomo CV: Sakaguchi Shuuhei

Kousaka Takahiro CV: Narita Ken

And Signal also has its cast out:

Nakazawa Artur Kouga CV: MIdorikawa Hikaru

Fujimiya Rui CV: Ishida Akira

Takashima Hayato CV: Morikubo Shoutarou

Toudou Yuuki CV: Miura Hiroaki

Houshouin None Yamato CV: Morita Masakazu

Iwato Kazuhiro CV: Satou Michiru

Oda Jin CV: Nakai Kazuya

Kuromine Touya CV: Kondou Takashi

Kanuchi CV change

Nooo, the person I was most looking forward to in Kanuchi Kuroki has been changed – Akuto, Clato’s brother, will now be voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru.  Don’t get me wrong, MH is great, but once I’m used to someone’s voice as a character, it throws me off to hear a different one – it gives a totally different feel.

I don’t know why the change was made, but I’m kind of sad about it

What’s your seiyuu style?

Who doesn’t have a favourite seiyuu (voice actor) or character? Many otome fans have 3…or 4…or more. Apart from the obvious appeal of a character’s design and actions within a plot, a character’s voice makes a huge difference to how players perceive him. Is his voice low and gruff? High and nasal? A voice makes a huge difference – both voice quality (the sound of the voice) and tone (the feeling an actor puts into each line).

So, what kind of character voices are your favourite? I have to admit, my knees go weak for a deep voice, whether it’s smooth or rough. Other types I can grow to love, like a quieter, more modulated voice.

But all these adjectives don’t mean squat if we’re thinking of different things, do they? Let’s use the magic of the Internetz and listen to some samples!

High:
I know several seiyuu who often do what I consider high voices. Some examples are Hoshi Souichirou (Harutoki’s Eisen/Atsumori) and most of Ishida Akira’s voices.
Fukuyama Jun as the twins in Alice

Miyano Mamoru in Bakumatsu Renka 2

Ishida Akira in Arabian’s Lost

Sakaguchi Daisuke in VitaminX

Medium:
I categorize voices as medium when they’re either consistently in the middle range, or they’re mostly even with highs and lows throughout the role. The choice of moderation

Hirakawa Daisuke in Alice

Kamiya Hiroshi in Dear My Sun!

Miyata Kouki in VitaminX

Seki Tomokazu in Dear My Sun!

Taniyama Kishou in Bakumatsu Renka 2

Low:
For whatever reason, I love deep voices in my characters. They often go with older characters (probably partly why I love ‘em!). Some examples:

Inoue Kazuhiko in VitaminX

Itou Kentarou in Dear My Sun! (and here he’s one of the sons! But it’s the ‘cool’ son

Midorikawa Hikaru in Arabian’s Lost

Suwabe Junichi in Bakumatsu Renka 2

So many different types of voices!

As an otome game fan, you’ll probably recognize at least one of these clips pretty easily. But seiyuu are versatile, and often change their voices or delivery so much for a certain role that you might never guess who it’s by. I remember when I first realized that LizVaan in Harutoki 3 was Ishida Akira, I was SHOCKED. He totally changed his voice!

Here are a couple other pairs of roles with the same seiyuu:

Sugita Tomokazu: Usually I can recognize his voice immediately, but he does change it quite a bit between these two roles:

Heart no Kuni no Alice
and

VitaminX

Part of the change can be personality rather than voice, and sometimes it’s a combination, like Yoshino Hiroyuki’s transition from Bakumatsu Renka 2 to VitaminX (yeah, he sounds pretty much like that for the whole game ).

To finish off, I’ll post one of my favourite characters – Konokage-sensei in VitaminX. I love his whole persona – he’s very tall and imposing with a shaved head (he’s often mistaken for a yakuza), but he also really likes flowers and comes from a family well-known for ikebana or kadou (花道). And his voice is perfect for the role.

素敵! Is it getting hot in here?

Do you have a certain type of voice that predisposes you to like a character more? Is there a certain seiyuu that you love no matter how they change their voice?

Oh, and sorry for the kind of limited selection of games – D3 had a bunch of clips available so I mostly used theirs. Tried to get some Neoromance ones, but theirs are all Flash (boo!)