Favorite Voice Actors / Seiyū? (Key-related)

Key Discussion
#7

Mhm… HanaKana definitely since she voices so many characters that I like (Kanade in AB, Roka in D-Frag, Onodera in Nisekoi, 2 different Kobato’s (Kobato and Haganai), Pururut in Neptunia… and a bunch of others) and I just like her voice in general
Same goes for Asumi Kana (Nyaruko, Komari in Non Non Biyori, Marika in Nisekoi, Kaoru in Tamayura, Blanc in Neptunia…), because her voice is so adorable,
Sawashiro Miyuki (Iwasawa in AB, Kanbaru in Monogatari, Celty in Drrr, Naze in Medaka Box…), I could listen to her voice all day nonstop,
and Saito Chiwa (Kotori in Rewrite, Senjougahara in Monogatari, Uomi in Seitokai Yakuindomo…), just because she’s so good

And in this current season I quite like Takahashi Rie (Futa-futa in Sore ga Seiyuu and Miki in Gakkou Gurashi), she seems to be pretty new but is doing an amazing job

#8

If we are going purely by Key works, my favorites would be Tomoko Kawakami.
Tomoko voiced part of the dynamic duo, Sayuri. She also did Misuzu in AIR, and the sp00ky girl from Clannad. In case you can’t tell from these roles, she’s pretty much the goddess of “wow… that’s the voice of a breaking human being.” The amount of emotion she manages to portray is really surprising, no matter how much I hear it. Look at AIR for example. Every line Misuzu speaks is glorious. I don’t even like the character, but the voice is sad and yet happy.
It’s pretty much the best thing about AIR.
Harumi Sakurai gets an honourable mention though.

Outside of Key… The easy answer would be Kanahana. Kawai from Kawaicom, Shiro in DMWL, and the best role, Kaminagi. That’s only including characters from my top 30 list. She has sooo much more too, she’s a good singer and even her non-anime content is good.

Another easy answer would be Yui Horie. I skipped so many episodes of the Litbus anime that I can’t be agree or disagree with @Pik3rob’s comments, however I do know her roles outside of Key. I don’t think I know anyone who has voiced more characters than her actually. She’s been a prominent voice actor since I got into the anime scene. My favorite role of her’s would be as Anna. My second favorite would also be Anna. HM then K.

The hard answer would be Maeda Kei (or whatever alias you prefer.) Kara no Shoujo is one of those VNs that you have to replay a lot. For some reason, when skipping through scenes, there are moments where one voiced line carries on through the scene transition. One of these lines is a heart-breaker. The first time you hear it is sad enough, but when you hear it over and over, unable to skip through it, every single time you try and reach that ending… And it’s said so well! The first time you hear it, it is the big moment. It’s the moment that you begin to care for this character who really hasn’t been all that of a factor to the story. You then have to live that moment repeatedly… Each time, the emotion of the line changes… to be more intense than the last.
I don’t know if it’s intended, or a problem with moving the VN over to a different engine during localization without the voices in-mind, but it’s an amazing little quirk that the VN has.

For English voice actors, I agree with @Inuconandoyle in that Crispin is good. It’s very generic, but it’s good. He’s definitely not my favorite though.
Quinton Flynn, hands down. Reno, Axel, Raiden. It’s not often I praise KH or FF for it’s English cast, but man, he has some really good moments.

2 Likes
#9

My favourite are probably:
Yukari Tamura (Mai Kawasumi: Kanon, Mine: Akame ga Kill, Michiru: Air), I really like her voice and a lot of her characters sound quite different which is always nice.
Kana Hanazawa (Kanada Tachibana: Angel Beats!, Kosaki Onodera: Nisekoi, Ruri Gokou: OreImo) Pretty much same reasons.
Nao Touyama (Karen Kujo: Kinmoza, Chitoge Kirisaki: Nisekoi) She sounds similar in both roles I’ve seen in her but I like her voice none the less.
Ari Ozawa (Papi: Monster Masume, Kurumi Ebisuzawa: School-Live!, Chiyo Sakura: Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun) I really liked her as Chiyo so I’ve started watching more stuff she’s in and still yet to find a voice she’s done I dislike.
Yoko Hikasa (Mio Akiyama: K-On!, Stephanie Dora: No Game No Life, Izumi Takanashi: Working!!) Again one I just like the voice of.

There’s probably more but those are just five I can think of so I guess my 5 favourite.

#10

another one I forgot, Mamiko Noto. She does that calm quiet voice perfectly. Key fans wouls know her as Ichinose Kotomi from CLANNAD. She was actually the first seiyuu, I had interest in since I was watching Mahou Sensei Negima, where she voiced Nodoka Miyazaki. I now feel really bad for forgetting about her at first.

and same as Taka, also special mention to Harumi Sakurai, because I just have to.

#11

As a loser who reads the VNs with the original voices, and watches the Dubs of the adaptions (except for LitBus. That dub was unbearable even for me) I have to give props to the male cast of Clannad’s dub. I thought Clannad had a pretty damn good dub, but David Matranga as Tomoya, Greg Ayers as Sunohara, Andrew Love as Akio, and Illich Guardiola as Yoshino knocked it out of the park. All of the emotions felt so raw and real. I can’t even put into words how I feel when I watch Clannad’s dub because it all feels so natural. It may partially be sentimental connection as Clannad was more or less my first anime, but that dub will always stick with me.

Also, I will always love Hikaru Midorikawa’s diversity in characters. He’s been everyone from Natsume Kyousuke to Softon to Android 16!

1 Like
#12

Favorite VA is Saito Chiwa, and it’s not because she did Kotori. Her range is just insane. Kotori is pretty good for showcasing that, but my favorite character to use is Becky-sensei from Nourin. I have on several occasions picked up anime simply because of Saito Chiwa being in it; some times it turns out well (Akatsuki no Yona), and some times it doesn’t (Monogatari series).
I’m also really fond Yuuki Aoi: Madoka in Madoka Magica, Hibiki in Symphogear etc. There are so many other I could mention too: Ono Daisuke and Ohara Sayaka, as Battler and Beatrice in Umineko; Shimono Hiro, as Keima in KamiNomi; Nakahara Mai, as Nagisa or Rena(higurashi). There as so many performances that just makes the show for me. It’s not uncommon for me to keep up with a show from just one voice performance, even if I dislike many other things. For Key-specific performances, the audio files topic speaks for itself, I think.

1 Like
#13

It’s the male cast of every other dub too.

#14

There are no female seiyuu I particularly love. As for male seiyuu, Mamoru Miyano will always be my favorite, his voice is perfection. I generally pay more attention to the voice itself rather than the emotion the actor puts into it.
I also love Hikaru Midorikawa (because Marth).
The thing that pushed me to actually watch Little Busters! was finding out Hikaru Midorikawa voiced Kyousuke.

#15

Just keep in mind guys; this is a Key Discussion topic, so it’s specifically concerned with voice actors from Key titles. That distinction should be made clear in the OP, @zetaFairlight. Also spoiler rules~

1 Like
#16

Oh, I didn’t notice that before. I’d assumed it was about voice actors in general :stuck_out_tongue:
Well, I don’t know a lot of Key voice actors, if I’m being perfectly honest. I did love Hiroshi Kamiya as Otonashi the first time I watched Angel Beats!, but now I can’t unhear Levi from SnK.

The first time I watched Kanon I actually watched the dub (which I almost never do, and now I can’t remember why I did so with Kanon). I think Yuri and Ayu share the same English VA. I actually think they did a good job, but I don’t have much to compare it to since I hardly listen to dubs.

I’m currently rewatching Air (I only ever watched it once, and that was a few years ago now) and Misuzu’s seiyuu is my favorite so far. I love when she says gao, it is so adorable ~

#17

Favorite seiyuu, huh… Well I don’t have a favorite per se, but one seiyuu always catches my eye whenever I see her as part of the cast: Mai Nakahara.

I guess I’m a bit biased with her roles in CLANNAD and Symphonic Rain and Mekaku City Actors, but there’s something about her voice that’s oddly calming. Heck, I even enjoy watching Wagamama Fairy Mirmo de Pon because of it! And yes, I did enjoy her being part of Charlotte, in a small way :smile:

Ironically, I haven’t finished watching Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita which is a series that really showcases her vocal skill… Or so I hear

edit: Oh hey I just saw from @HeliosAlpha that she voiced Rena in the Higurashi anime. Having just finished chapter 1 of the VN recently, I would be veeeeery interested to see her in that role!

1 Like
#18

Picked that one up just for Nakahara’s voice, and she is really good as a snarky, deadpan MC. Surprised you haven’t heard Rena, she’s like the biggest meme from higurashi. Spoiler scene.

#19

… I need to find a way to put voices into the steam version of higurashi

#20

You and me both. I don’t like reading VNs without voices. Tried this the other day, didn’t work, haven’t looked further since.

#21

Don’t ignore me ^^;

#22

The Steam forums for the game might be helpful. Pretty sure they advertised a mod like that on there.

Oh, who did Akio’s voice? That was a great performance.

#23

Okiayu Ryotaro, his energy certainly is a great part of Clannad’s humor. I remember him being more impressive in the anime than the VN. That’s actually something I’ve noticed a couple of times. The actors seem to go more all out in the anime versions. Excluding Asaki Risa, I don’t think you can go more all out than that.

#24

Thanks.

IMO Masato from LB is the total opposite though. I vastly prefer his VN performance over the anime performance.

3 Likes
#25

Sunohara too imo. He was funny in the anime, but hilarious in the VN.

1 Like
#26

Whoops, I honestly didn’t read all of the rest of the posts. @zetaFairlight didn’t modify the opening post yet, and that makes it all the more confusing