Chuunibyou - Voice Actor Appreciation & Discussion

[Kairin]

The purpose of this thread is to discuss, critique and idolize the Voice Actor cast of Chuunibyou. 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 human.
  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.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Early this morning (actually Thursday evening Tokyo time) there was a live broadcast of an open recording of the show's radio program, featuring the four main female seiyuus. They all showed up in full gothic lolita outfits.

All but Uesaka Sumire seemed a bit embarrassed by what they were wearing, especially Asakura Azumi (Kumin). Sumipe, of course, entered grandly, in true chuunibyou style. Unfortunately, I could only watch a few minutes of the show. Here are three screencaps, a pic from Asakura Azumi's blog, and a closer look at Sumipe's outfit, from her twitter feed:

Images

Chuunibyou seiyuus at live radio show

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Uchida Maaya has such an attractive face and expressions. For more pics and info about the seiyuus, see my characters/seiyuus page.

[ChronoReverse]

I am particularly impressed by Rikka and Shinka's VA's so far. Rikka makes the cutest noises (especially when bopped) while Shinka's frustration is absolutely palpable.

[houkoholic]

Not sure why Uchida Maaya would be embarrassed - since it's a fairly known fact that she used to be an underground model and cosplayer for hire (hence why you would find those revealing bikini and Haruhi cosplay photos of her on the net). She's got a cute voice and she can act (even live action as with her role in Akibaranger) but I'm not so sure about her as a seiyuu personality yet, seems a little, for the lack of better description, Shinka-fake with her. Actually kinda makes me want to see what she's REALLY like.

On the flip side Uesaka Sumire is actually more Rikka-like in real life - she's able to do these crazy things that seems to fit her outside image of a chuuni but in fact she gets embarrassed easily - not unlike how Rikka goes in the show when she snaps out of her chuuni personality - so much so that even if someone compliments her she flutters, they even made it into a penalty game with both the listeners and staff setting traps to make her flutter, hilarious. Knowing how she really talks in real life and as a radio personality - quite timidly - it makes her portrayal of the hyper-active Dekomori all the more impressive because it must've taken a lot of courage to act so crazy, so I sense more professionalism and dedication from her in this role in general compared with the other 3 main female seiyuu in the cast.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Uchida Maaya's little noises and some lines are extremely effective, but I'm not sure yet -- as I wasn't after Sankarea. But gosh, is she pretty. I think the apparent embarrassment was a combination of things: not used to that kind of outfit, coming out first in front of the assembled otaku, being the star, just an act, etc. I'd love to connect people with the full range of her photos from 2010 or so, but the best page I know of is on a porn site (though her photos are not porn at all, and just include some sexy bikini and sleepwear shots). Feed her name 内田真礼 into Google Images and quite a few of them show up. When I put the images together with how she sounds in public (as much as I've heard), I think there is a nice wild/weird side there that has yet to emerge fully in public.

Uesaka Sumire is a revelation to me. I didn't follow either of her main previous shows (Listen to me Girls, and Sengoku Collection), but she has something, for sure. At first, I was put off by the similarity of the voice she's using here to Arai Satomi's funny style. But it has differences, and she uses it so well. "Creates a character" is the kind of praise I want to give any seiyuu. I think her timid speaking voice makes her even more chuuni, breaking forth from that timidity into her pro-Soviet fantasy and her role here. Asked in an interview what time she would like to live in, if she had a time machine, she said Russia in 1917. As I believe houkoholic has mentioned before, she majors in Russian and loves all things Russian. There are bits of Russian in many of her blog posts.

I found an interesting page purporting to show Sumipe's home: which looks like a semi-mansion, a big house in Japan's equivalent of the London "stockbroker belt." Must be her parents' home. Wealth allows fantasy? She is from somewhere in or around Kamakura, and went to the junior and senior high schools attached to Kamakura Women's University. Wikipedia says she was scouted by the Spacecraft agency at the age of eight, when she was coming home from English lessons, and appeared in a commercial for Vidal Sassoon.

She also appears to be similar to Dekomori in being smart: she won an award in July as one of the 139 top students at her 10,000-student university, the famous Sophia University in Tokyo. More pics of her here.

I, too, am impressed by Shinka's seiyuu, Akasaki Chinatsu: her voice, her comedy. And I think I hear and like her singing voice in the ED.

[Kanon]

I wish I had seen that broadcast. Thanks for posting, Kaoru.

Maaya Uchida is indeed incredibly attractive but I think Sumire Uesaka is also very pretty (perhaps it's the gothic lolita clothes that appeal to me). These two happen to be the seiyusu that have impressed me the most in this show.

I was only familiar with Maaya Uchida thanks to Akibaranger and had no idea how good a voice actress she was. Her portrayal of Rikka has been spot-on in my opinion. She nailed most of her lines and the little sounds she makes are incredibly cute.

Sumire Uesaka seems like a total chuunibyou in real life lol (I spend a little while exploring her photo gallery on her blog and she's rarely dressed "normally"). I can't really tell how talented she is as a seiyuu but her voice definitely stands out. She made quite a powerful impression on me (I adore her way of pronouncing desu/death). I'm looking forward to hearing more of her work, hopefully in a different register.

[Midonin]

There's a lot more people in here who've been exposed to Uchida through Akibaranger than I thought. Wasn't aware of how far the show really spread. Her Rikka voice does seem pretty similar to her Aoi voice, though they're also distinct enough that I could tell them apart. As long as we're discussing Uchida's roles, she was also the much, much younger, and much more deadpan Mari in Yuru Yuri. Got a decent range on her, and, as "Heroic lily" shows, isn't too bad of a singer either. That's why I'm looking forward to her character song.

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I wish I had seen that broadcast. Thanks for posting, Kaoru.

You can still see it on nicodouga, and I don't mean using time shift *coughcough*.

The lolita outfits (they aren't all gothloli, only Uchida Maaya's is gothloli technically) were actually all chosen by Uesaka Sumire for the cast. Since Sumipe also does modelling work for lolita fashion magazines obviously she's got a good eye for this. What's interesting is that she herself picked something that is more like something which the Dark Flame Master would wear and she made a good impersonation of the DFM during the entrance using a very deep voice, and then switched quickly and added DEATH in Deko-chan's voice, very funny.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Midonin

There's a lot more people in here who've been exposed to Uchida through Akibaranger than I thought. Wasn't aware of how far the show really spread. Her Rikka voice does seem pretty similar to her Aoi voice, though they're also distinct enough that I could tell them apart. As long as we're discussing Uchida's roles, she was also the much, much younger, and much more deadpan Mari in Yuru Yuri. Got a decent range on her, and, as "Heroic lily" shows, isn't too bad of a singer either. That's why I'm looking forward to her character song.

I had forgotten she voiced little Mari. She does have a pretty good range, I can hardly recognize her in that role. I wish she had had more screentime in the second season...

Originally Posted by houkoholic

You can still see it on nicodouga, and I don't mean using time shift *coughcough*.

The lolita outfits (they aren't all gothloli, only Uchida Maaya's is gothloli technically) were actually all chosen by Uesaka Sumire for the cast. Since Sumipe also does modelling work for lolita fashion magazines obviously she's got a good eye for this. What's interesting is that she herself picked something that is more like something which the Dark Flame Master would wear and she made a good impersonation of the DFM during the entrance using a very deep voice, and then switched quickly and added DEATH in Deko-chan's voice, very funny.

You're right, found it. Thanks. Damn, it's almost a hour long. Thought it'd be shorter than that.

Sumire's outfit does seem pretty Dark Flame Master-ish, and her impersonation was pretty good (complete with the pose).

[Kaoru Chujo]

Good point from houkoholic that the four seiyuu were not all wearing the same kind of lolita fashion. For anyone interested, here are a couple of pages/sites about lolita fashion and its variants: broken dolly, lolitafashion.org.

Just for fun, here are some more pics from Sumipe's recent blog posts:

Images

of and by Uesaka Sumire

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[houkoholic]

Kaoru Chujo, the other twin tail character in the illustration is actually Tsukisato Kirari from Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter this season, whom is also voiced by Sumipe.

Images

pic of the cast

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From this picture you can tell who the models are as they just emit a different aura from the "normal" seiyuu.

[Kaoru Chujo]

@houkoholic -- Thanks for that. I wondered. Another show I'm not watching (should I be?). Keep the info coming, please. It was good to put "normal" in quotes, especially when referring to Sumipe.

[Kanon]

Sumipe's second drawing is almost as scary as Yuu Kobayashi's infamous scribbles. I still have nightmares about them sometimes.

[Klashikari]

At least, with Sumire's, you can call head or tails about few details, and even determine -shapes-, which is an unlikely luxury with Kobayashi's... "doodles".

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

@houkoholic -- Thanks for that. I wondered. Another show I'm not watching (should I be?). Keep the info coming, please. It was good to put "normal" in quotes, especially when referring to Sumipe.

Actually the "normal" seiyuu here would be Asakura Asumi and Akasaki Chinatsu. Although Asakura Asumi is an idol seiyuu whom had done a lot of limelight work (hence I put normal in quotes) but you can still tell that she's not quite comfortable trying to pretend to pose as a chuuni here. Asakura Asumi is quite cute herself but being an idol seiyuu she's more used to acting cute rather than cool so she's not able to show her strengths across in these photos. Look at this two-shot of her with Uchida or this picture and this one, Asumin is not far in terms of looks from Uchida, she's got a particularly cute smile IMO.

On the other hand you can tell that both Uchida Maaya and Uesaka Sumire, whom are models, were more comfortable in the posing in that picture. Sumire's pose used the fake roses well - even though it covered up part of her face you can still see her eyes right though the roses, no doubt it's because she's trained to be aware of the camera as a model even when using little props and items.

Akasaki Chinatsu is just totally out classed here though since she's the newbie.

[houkoholic]

Found an interesting piece of work "Z/X Player Voice Device" - an application of the characters of a table-top card game call "Z/X" featuring both Uchida Maya and Uesaka Sumire. Check out the voice samples with Uchida Maya voicing Aoba Chitose (the furtherest right of the top row) and Uesaka Sumire voicing Sento Reia (second from the left of the bottom row). You get a bit of Rikka from the "Ignition overdrive!" of the first voice sample of Aoba Chitose, whereas I think you'll all be surprised with Uesaka Sumire's hot-blooded boy voice which is nothing like anything she's done before (Sora of Papakiki and of course Deko-chan). Would be interesting to keep seeing more jobs from the two from now on.

Also check out this picture of Uchida Maya and Asakura Asumi, with them not having to "play" to their Chuunibyou characters of the shots you usually see of them together in the recent magazine promo shots you can see Asakura Asumi is really very attractive too, almost a typical idol look from her.

[Kaoru Chujo]

@houkoholic. Great stuff. Thanks. Sumipe's boy voice #2 was exciting. As was that little symphony #2 from Uchida Maaya. I'm coming to appreciate her work more as the show continues. But forgive me for being most struck by Ishihara Kaori's version of Endou Aya (sample #2 in middle of lower row).

I enjoyed listening to all the samples -- Sawashiro Miyuki; Ogura Yui; Nakamura Yuuichi; and Taniyama Kishou sounding pretty good to me. I'll just lay out the whole matrix for those who don't read Japanese names:
top - Nakamura Yuuichi, Ogura Yui, Shimono Hiro, Sawashiro Miyuki, Uchida Maaya.
bottom - Kanemoto Hisako, Uesaka Sumire, Ishihara Kaori, Taniyama Kishou, Hosoya Yoshimasa.

You got me roaming around that photo site looking at Asakura Asumi pics. Here's a search of them all on that site, which is the best site I know of for seiyuu pics.

[houkoholic]

So the third nicodouga live stream came and went (and there'll be a fourth), you can watch it on nicodouga now. A listener send in those bags which Dekomori has on the end of her twin tail and Sumipe also had her hair into twin tails and had the bags on them on for the entire broadcast, so as usual Sumipe is the most "in character" out of the entire cast. She even tried spinning them around like Dekomori and smacked herself in the head later in the show which was really cute. It was hilarious that Sumpie took the opportunity of acting out the PV script to literally prey the Mauser air gun from Asumin's hands and then took it back to her seat, and were examining the detail of the gun when Maaya was trying to explaining the rules for their "win budget money for the PV of Inside Identity game corner" for this time, completely ignoring what Maaya was talking about, being a military otaku she must've been itching to play with the gun when Maaya brought it out as prop at the beginning of the show. On the other hand when she was handling the Mauser she also knew not to put her finger to the trigger which the other girls did - that's a safety knowledge that's not known to common people when it comes to handling guns (real or airsoft) and again shows that Sumpie is the real deal when it comes to these kinds of stuff. Also Sumpie inventing the chuuni rock-paper-scissors too (where they have to make a specific chunni-looking pose for each move), Sumipe's strength in making interesting radio shows really shows and she's also got the chunni character down to a T here.

On related topic I guess most people would have heard the cast version of Inside Identity by now. I have to say I like Akasaki Chinatsu's Mori Summer voice (not the pretend cute Nibutani voice which is just a tad higher in pitch, but she used the huskier, bad girl Mori Summer voice) to fit this powerful rock metal song the best. I'm probably bit biased against Asakura Asami here since I've got to get a pretty good grasp of her singing skill ever since she entered into the Idolmaster franchise as the replacement seiyuu to Yukiho and I know her "weak" character voice would be a disadvantage in singing this type of songs and true enough that was the case, lacking punch in the delivery in most cases. I also found Uchida Maaya struggling to keep in character voice when singing which is a bit of a shame as I think seiyuu not only need to sing well but also needs to be able to sing in their character voices as well. I really hope they would release individual seiyuu versions, I love hearing different seiyuu sing the same songs as it really gives you lots of chances to compare them.

[Arturia Polaris]

I just want to say that Shinka's VA, in the Black Raison D'Etre single, sounds absolutely sexy to me. (not to mention being the centerpiece of the 2nd part of the song, 1st part being Rikka's)

Arty

[Tyabann]

Yeah, she's really something. Probably the most distinct out of the whole cast.