branchandroot

Ogata Megumi (Pharoh-First Yuugi-ou Series, Uranus-Sailor Moon, Yukito/Yue-Cardcaptor Sakura, Kurama-YuYu Hakusho): Because, for someone who doesn’t put a huge variety of expression into her voice, she’s absolutely amazing at expressing wildly different characters. And also making them hot like fire.

Onosaka Masaya (Vash-Trigun, Momoshiro-Tenipuri, Shinji-Bleach): Because he has the gift of moving from Total Spaz to Dead Serious in a breath, and that can give his characters a lot of depth. Besides which, his Dead Serious voice is also dead sexy.

Suwabe Jun’ichi (Seymore-FFX, Atobe-Tenipuri, Grimmjow-Bleach, Fuuma-X): Because he can do rude, arrogant villains and smooth, charming villains and, really, all sorts of villains and pull them off perfectly. And a good anime needs a good villain. He does pretty good heros, too, come to that. Also, incidentally, dead sexy.

Paku Romi (Ken-Digimon, Ed-Fullmetal Alchemist, Ren-Shaman King, Hitsugaya-Bleach): Because any role she does, she does with intensity. Her psychotic characters are clearly around the bend on two wheels, her short-tempered characters are clearly barrels of emotional gunpowder, her cold characters could power an industrial freezer. And husky is sexy. If you think you’re seeing a pattern, here, you’re entirely right.

Minagawa Junko (Echizen-Tenipuri, Ritsuka-Loveless): Because sexiness is its own excuse.

Takeuchi Junko (Naruto-Naruto, Gon-HunterxHunter, Takuya-Digimon): Because she does earnest characters so adorably well. I give the artists their due, but Takeuchi’s voice lends a lot of depth to the self-evident pure-heartedness of her characters.

Morikubo Shoutarou (Ginji-Getbackers, Shikamaru-Naruto, Kirihara-Tenipuri, Kadaju-Advent Children): Because he’s got a very expressive voice and a fine touch with characterization. All of his characters are wonderfully vivid.

Okiayu Ryoutarou (Byakuya-Bleach, Tezuka-Tenipuri, Dark-D.N.Angel, Shigure-Fruits Basket, Yuu-Marmalade Boy): And we’re back to the sexiness, especially when he’s doing villains. Which makes it all the more impressive that he does very good Silly, also.

Seki Toshihiko (Duo-Gundam Wing, Lui-Miene Liebe, Mousse-Ranma1/2, Legato-Trigun, Isshiki-RahXephon): Speaking of which, Seki does lovely ambiguous characters. He’s got a bit of that swoop and flex in common with Suwabe, and it makes for very expressive voice acting. He’s especially good at doing it in a subtler register.

Seki Tomokazu (Keisuke-IniD, Ryuuki-SaiMono, Ogata-Angelic Layer, Chichiri/Kouji-Fushigi Yuugi, Touya-Cardcaptor Sakura, Chiaki-Nodame Cantabile, Van-Escaflowne): Because he has the most amazing range. I mean, it’s absolutely astonishing.

Special case: Koyasu Takehito (Aya-WK, Ryousuke-IniD, Pesche-Bleach, Freyr-Matantei Loki, Sakujun-SaiMono): See, the thing here is, I only like him when he’s voicing a total fruit. I like the way he does absurd characters. This is quite likely a personal quirk and mostly due to his obvious Issues about women. Actually, I also thought he was just about right for Sakujun. He’s good at other kinds of characters; it’s just his performance there doesn’t distract me enough from snarling at him personally.