Toradora! - Voice Actor Appreciation & Discussion
 

The purpose of this thread is to discuss, critique and idolize the Voice Actor cast of Toradora. Please remember that the discussion should center on their performances as professional voice actors and not on the show content (which can be discussed in the various Episode threads). Please remember this simple rule when critiquing a VA's performance or reading another forum member's critique:

• - Don't take it personally.
  In other words, you’re free to disagree with another person’s opinion, but don’t flame them if they offer a well written and well thought out analysis that differs from your own opinion. Keep it civil.
  
  
• - Voice Actors are humans.
  Yes, it’s true. They’re human. Therefore, don’t just indiscriminately rip them and their work apart as if they’re inorganic objects. You don’t have to praise them non-stop, but be thoughtful in your criticism.

This thread might duplicate some discussion in the Episode threads, but it can also serve to demystify various VA roles, disseminate VA information (VA Bios, VA photos, etc) and provide cast information of various types as well as discussion about performances.

I don't know the VA's names apart of Rie, so I will give my appreciations on the characters they voice:

The homeroom teacher: she had only a few lines so far, but her fast paced staggering voice when confronting Ryuji/the class/her mistakes is just so moe....

Taiga: ZnT similarities aside (I used to hate Louise...), I like the tone Rie uses when expressing seriousness or worry. And the RAWR!

Ryujii: my favorite line is his: "kabiten, kabiten, kabiten...": I just find great how the VA was able to portray both his irritation and his obsession of cleanliness.

Orange-haired female classmate: I don't remember her name yet, but hearing one of the voices (Kafuka IIRC) from the SZS cast is delightfull.

For the rest of the cast, no appreciations so far.

Voice actor appreciation, eh?

Yui Horie rules UGUU!!!

:heh::heh::heh:

First, a run-through on seiyu in other light-novel-turned-anime series.

1) Kugimiya Rie: ZnT's Louise, Shana and of course, Taiga
2) Nojima Hirofumi: Kitamura and one of the two dudes following Margery Daw in Shana.
3) Hino Satoshi: I missed him so far, but he's Noto here, and of course Yuji from Shana and Saito from ZnT.
4) Horie Yui: Minori, and Siesta from ZnT

Others:
1) Ohara Sayaka (!): From Milly in CG to Takasu. She must be really hard to break the "mysterious woman" typecast due to her run in XXXholics.
2) Nonaka Ai is the lady whho did Kafka in SZS.
3) As with Kugimiya Rie, my TV network decided to add Inoue Marina to the broadcast list, with Skip Beat.

The official Rie love/hate fest thread?

Not really. There ARE other VAs with screentime. Horie Yui fans should come in soon.

Call me old, but I kinda miss Horie Yui doing other roles apart from the Genki Girl type. Her bit as Naru in Love Hina was part of the saving grace for the Love Hina anime (the VA cast), and it seems that she's not doing that type of roles anymore. Also, her limited lines as the transformed Jiyu in Jubei-chan 2 was really good. I didn't think that she could deliver serious lines so convincingly.

They're already here!

I don't see Ayu from "Kanon" as a Genki Girl type, really. I think that was one of the virtuoso seiyuu performances of the last few years.

..... Maybe I SHOULD be watching anime based off visual novels. Missed Kanon.

But, truth be told, I can't really tell the ladies apart. As for gents, I could usually do so. The ladies which I can tell with reasonable confidence/accuracy are Rak Romi, and Noto Mamiko. The rest involves quite a bit of guesswork, especially if the characters are playing-against-type ones.

Take Kugimiya-san. I could not have guessed that she did Alphonse in FMA.

Kanon>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Clannad. 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

I didn't watch either one. After Lucky Star and Claymore, somehow, I crave shows with more men than women on-screen.

Maybe you should go watch Inukami.

Even if there are more women in the show, you wouldn't want any more men in there...

The characters in this show should give each VA a chance to do some things a bit differently than the sort of thing they're normally typecast as. Based on the first 3 episodes so far, each character's development veers away from the "cardboard basics" pretty quickly it appears.

Words do not express how much I agree. Then again, I've never wanted a show with more men in it. >:P

I actually haven't heard Rie in any of her other tsundere roles... I mostly remember her as Kagura from Gintama, Alphonse from FMA and Ikuto from Digimon... this is very different from what I'm used to. Though to be fair, Kagura does a fair amount of yelling.

In this series, Rie is getting to do a lot of variety in her emoting - from her trademark "URASAI!" to the panicky whispery little stutters of cookies and confession to abject sadness after failure to .... well its quite nice for her to be able to show more flexibility.

Not a complete leap away from her other recent "loli-tsundere" roles but one that lets her run the gamut of emotions within a single episode.

No, Hirofumi voiced Hayato Ike; his younger brother Kenji voiced Keisaku Satou (he's "one of the two dudes following Margery Daw").


Also, Ryuuji and co's teacher? She's voiced by Rie Tanaka. (Suigin-tou in Rozen Maiden, Minna in Strike Witches, Maria in Hayate no Gotoku,...well huh. Apparently she voiced Chi in Chobits as well. Didn't realize that.)

Thanks for the heads-up.

Mentioning Tanaka-san without bringing up Lacus Clyne/Meer Campbell is sacrilege, IMO, and she voices Chii AND Freya in Chobits.

I was wondering whether I should mention Lacus or not. XD

Also, it would kind of make sense that Chii and Freya would have the same voice, kinda being twins-of-a-sort.

She seems to enjoy talking to herself. We have Freya talking to Chii a few times, Lacus and Meer talking in Destiny, and her run in the first season of Jigoku Shojo.

xyz must die
 

Chalk me up as another "I've only heard of Yui Horie" person: Multi, Tohru Honda, etc... I think she is doing a good job with Minori-chan.

I haven't really noticed anything special about the other performances as yet. In some anime the emoting etc really stands out, the ability to paint a whole character picture with a single word... however that also calls for finely honed scripts, and apart from the japanese word play (which is mostly going over my head) I'm not seeing anything special for the actors to get their teeth into at this stage, no real subtle nuances or anything.

I'm not a huge fan of Horie Yui, but I think her Minori is a very interesting character. I like the way you can begin to feel that her genki is covering something sad. And I thought her Ayu in Kanon was good, too. I agree with the Kanon>>Clannad statement, as well, although maybe without quite so many >>'s.

But this is the best I've ever liked Kugimiya Rie, I think. The tsun is more tsuntsun and the dere is more nuanced. I find Taiga a fascinating character. I like the nuances Rie's giving her character in Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, too.