Reboot

I’m dumping most of the site and starting again with an almost clean slate. Will update with what’s to come.

Nabatame Hitomi

Today is August 4th and it is Nabatame Hitomi’s birthday, which gives me the perfect chance to highlight another amazing seiyuu. Since her debut as Arcueid Brunstud in Tsukihime, Naban-chi has been very busy. The serious-sounding head of the student council in Gokujo Seitokai, Strawberry Panic and Maria-sama ga Miteru, down-to-earth in Ichigo Mashimaro and School Rumble, grown-up and adult in Shakugan no Shana or crazy and weird in Noodle Fighter Miki. There is practically no season without her in at least one anime.

Mitsuhashi Kanako

Mitsuhashi Kanako has got to be one of the rising stars of voice actresses. Her soft sound makes her instantly lovable and I can’t get enough of it. Her two big anime of 2005 are still ongoing and should bring her to the attention of loads of fans.

Kobayashi Sanae

Kobayashi Sanae was the first seiyuu I became actively interested in, starting with her schizophrenic performance in Elfen Lied. She only makes cute sounds as Nyu and hardly ever speaks as Lucy until very far into the series, yet I was instantly attracted to her voice. She just does such a convincing job of conveying the guilt and desperation that plague the character.

Long before Elfen Lied, I had actually heard her voice a lot in Hikaru no Go. But at that time, I just was not as into seiyuu as I am now. The character, Touya Akira, is also male and it always sounds weird to watch a boy talking with the voice of a woman, especially when you know how she looks like.

She voices the titular character in Madlax. While I can’t say anything at all about the anime itself, I thought her voice sounds rather bland and don’t regret having skipped this show.

In Mai-Hime, she only has a small part as the cross-dressing Hime Okuzaki Akira. While the show is good, her character does not get a lot of screen-time, and reminded me too much of Touya Akira in Hikaru no Go. Maybe it’s just the similar names.

Her role as Eleanor Campbell in Victorian Romance Emma is not much bigger. Touma Yumi gives a solid performance as the heroine, but I can’t imagine her to be one of my favorites, not when Kobayashi Sanae makes Eleanor sound so cute, that I couldn’t help myself not to root for her.

She was cast again as a boyish character in Ichigo 100%, where she lends her voice to the very sexy Kitaouji Satsuki. The art and story leaves a lot to be desired, but it features fantastic voices and Kobayashi Sanae fits right in.

Satsuki from Ichigo 100%

Right now, she can still be heard in Glass Mask, either a remake or a second adaption of an old shoujo manga. She voices the main character Kitajima Maya, and it runs for a full year or 52 episodes. I have not yet had the chance to find out, if it is a worthy use of her talents, but I don’t want to loose such a big performance and I’m hoping for the best.

Notable roles

2001 Hikaru no Go
2004 Elfen Lied
2004 Madlax
2004 Mai-Hime
2005 Victorian Romance Emma
2005 Ichigo 100%
2005 Glass Mask

Links

Official Homepage of Kobayashi Sanae
Artist Page at her Agency
Encyclopedia entry at Anime News Network