Soramimi Project #9: Yajima Akiko 矢島晶子

First heard: Announcer (Shinseki Evangelion)

First noticed: Kohaku (Inuyasha)

Memorable characters: Relena Peacecraft (Gundam Wing), R. Dorothy Wayneright (The Big O), Kohaku (Inuyasha)

Image character: Relena Peacecraft (Gundam Wing)

Discernment rate: average to above average

Number of works seen: 30

Back in the days, people who watched Gundam Wing in English despised Relena, and Relena bashing was almost the norm. But the Japanese audience seemed to love her. The only difference I could see, beside it being two different cultures, would be the voice acting. Before I even had a chance to experience Japanese seiyuu, I was already made aware of their existence.

I'll confess that I used to be a huge Gundam Wing fan (still find the concept interesting, just not how it's executed), since it's my first anime after almost eight years of blankness. And I actually made a secret resolution a few days ago to finish all my GW fanfictions in 2010 *crosses fingers*. So it was with much anticipation that I played the Gundam Wing DVD, eager to hear the voices of those famed names. I was not one bit disappointed, and I came to understand the mixed reception of the character of Relena. I had since switched from don't-really-care to like-her, btw.

Yajima Akiko's voice has a rather neutral feel and doesn't usually leave a strong impression, but she's able to manifest a sense of prestige and authority, yet at the same time being innocent and modest. I enjoy it when she plays young boys, but I also like her being impartial and imposing women. Kohaku is where I started noticing her, R. Dorothy is when I warmed up to her, and Relena is who I'll always remember her by.

I'm able to distinguish her voice most of time after hearing her female and young boy pitches, but I haven't really heard very many of her works where she plays a lead or major character. Needless to say, I'm kind of surprised of the high number of works seen. Yajima Akiko is not a seiyuu I'd actively seek out works to watch or listen to, but I definitely enjoy her voice acting and would love to hear more of her.

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As promised, here's the Soramimi seiyuu acquaintance rank of 2009, from the most number of works heard to the least. This has nothing to do with how familiar I am with the seiyuu nor how much I like the seiyuu, but rather a statistic on how many chances, including nameless extras, I've had of that seiyuu.

2009 Soramimi Seiyuu Acquaintance Rank:
Yajima Akiko 矢島晶子 - 30
Nagasawa Miki 長沢美樹 - 27
Nakai Kazuya 中井和哉 - 25
Maeno Tomoaki 前野智昭 - 16
Yao Kazuki 矢尾一樹 - 15
Nakao Ryuusei 中尾隆聖 - 13
Tai Yuuki 泰勇気 - 10
Aizawa Masaki 相沢正輝 - 9
Aizawa Mai 相沢舞 - 8

Soramimi Project #8: Nagasawa Miki 長沢美樹

First heard: Ibuki Maya (Shinseki Evangelion)

First noticed: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series)

Memorable characters: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series), Monique Cadillac (Gundam MS IGLOO), Helen (Claymore)

Image character: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series)

Discernment rate: below average

Number of works seen: 25

(Another seiyuu whose name starts with an N... My 3rd one, actually, out of a total of 8 so far. What's the odds of throwing even-odd-odd combos three times out of eight?)

I'm rather surprised of the number of works I've seen with Nagasawa Miki as I only started to recognize her in the past few years. I'll probably recognize her when I watch the new Evangelion movies...

I first noticed her name from watching a commercial on animate.tv for a stage show of Anime Tencho. Seki Tomokazu dressed up as Anizawa and Nagasawa dressed up as Ramika, complete with the hair-do. That short clip gave me quite an impression (or shock), that her voice and name had stuck in my head ever since. Out of the 25 works I've heard her, 4 are Anime Tencho drama CDs.

Nagasawa's voice is a bit on the coarse side, but she has good acting skills. It's not unusual to see her character from any series to go from composed to angry to crazy to normal again, and still be in character. Monique from MS IGLOO is probably my favourite Nagasawa character. She really gave life and added spice to the otherwise deathly pale looking 3D doll.

Despite having seen many of her works, my discernment rate for her is somewhat below average. If she speaks close to her normal pitch, I'll probably recognize it, but if she smooths out the characteristic coarseness, I might not be too successful. Even now, I'm still having trouble connecting her voice to Ibuki Maya from EVA. Hopefully I'll her pitches down in the near future.

A few days ago I received a parcel pick up notice. But I didn't get any shipping notification email from Amazon.ca, so who could possibly be sending me stuff? Since I was planning to drop by friend-I's place today, I thought I might as well go pick up this mysterious package.

Half way to the post office in this beautiful, sunny, and freezing afternoon, I regretted not taking friend-P's offer for a ride there. My legs felt like being pricked by a thousand needles, and the thought that I also had to walk from the post office to friend-I's then back to my place, made my heart sink even more.

But in the end, the long trek was well worth it. Not only did I successfully complete the retrieval mission in one piece, upon opening my mailbox, I discovered the delirious? CD I ordered (no walking to the post office for pick up!). Double presents! :D

With my legs still under the freeze spell, I opened the mysterious box (okay, maybe not so mysterious now that I knew where it was mailed from) to find a card and carefully wrapped... furry slippers! And it's purple, too! XD

My dear sister back from the home church is a sweet and loving woman, indeed. :D

I just had half a tub of strawberry-flavoured Häagen Dazs as dessert. I'm going to take a nice hot shower (my limbs are going to sting from the walks), change into my warm reindeer-patterned pyjamas, slip on the pretty purple slippers, and read. That's a good way to spend my last moment as a 29-year-old, eh? XD

Soramimi Project #7: Maeno Tomoaki 前野智昭

First heard: passer by (Kiniro no Corda ~primo passo~)

First noticed: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Memorable characters: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Image character: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Discernment rate: low to below average

Number of works seen: 16

Maeno Tomoaki is a new seiyuu to me. Even though I've heard him in 16 works, he's only played named characters in five of them, including one where he just appeared in the tricky first episode *cough*Ga-rei Zero*cough*.

According to my favourite source (ja.wikipedia.org, in case you haven't noticed), he was mainly doing dubs and essentially made his break in anime with Toshokan Sensou. Doujou Atsushi is what I remember him mostly by, and both Neko-tan and I were rather impressed by his performance in Toshokan Sensou. Doujou Atsushi is both rational and angry, leaning more toward the angry side when it comes to Kasahara. If he weren't so slow in love, he might even be branded as tsuntere. XD

Speaking of Toshokan Sensou, I mentioned before that it reminded me of GunParade March. Both seem to be battle-oriented at first glance but are love comedy in actuality (okay, so GPM has a lot more grimness and death). Both have really clumsy (in love) lead males regardless of how adept they are in battles, and both have strong-headed lead females that recognize love quicker than the guys and are not afraid to face it. The colour palettes and tones are completely different for both, but the art styles are both simple and clean. Both made me wanting to play/read the original work they're based on. Unfortunately, the Toshokan Sensou novels I have partially managed, but the PS game GPM is simply beyond my reach.

Due to the strong impression of Doujou and the Toshokan Sensou web radio show which Maeno-san co-hosted with Suzuki Tatsuhisa, I've got his solid pitch and real voice down, but I haven't been very successful if the character is soft spoken or calm. I do have high expectations of him so hopefully I'll get to hear him more!

I've been pondering whether to separate "Games" from "ACG" for the labels, and I finally went ahead with it today. I also made a few other changes regarding the labels.

- Created "Games" to incorporate "NDS" and "MUD", as well as game-related posts formerly under "ACG"
- "Dramas" posts are incorporated into "TV"
- "Travel" posts are incorporated into "Life"
- Created "Sports" to incorporate "Baseball" and "Hockey"
- "Novels" is renamed "Novels/Manga" and contains manga-related posts formerly under "ACG"
- "ACG" is renamed "Anime"

Now that that's done, time to return to my attempt at the UC Gundam Quest, since I only less than one week before the deadline...

Soramimi Project #6: Aizawa Masaki 相沢正輝

First heard: Takatori Hirofumi (Weiss Kreuz)

First noticed: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Memorable characters: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Image character: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Discernment rate: low

Number of works seen: 9

Another seiyuu of whom I recognize the name but not the voice... orz

Sometimes I might look up the seiyuu in the end credit roll when I hear him in an episode, but I have yet to pinpoint his voice. The main reason for this can probably be attributed to him playing a lot of nameless or minor characters in the works I've seen. I think Weiss Kreuz (out of which I only remember five voices since it's my first anime in Japanese) and Juuni Kokuki might be his most prominent works with the exception of Death Note, where he played six characters.

I quite liked him as Shouryuu, though. A wise and excellent emperor on the throne over 300 years and being called idiot(馬鹿), reckless(無謀), foolhardy(猪突), and crazed(酔狂) by his kirin and retainers. Needless to say he is one of my favourite characters from Juuni Kokuki. That's when I started to recognize his name whenever it appeared in end credits.

Aizawa Masaki's got a nice deep voice, which might explains why he does a lot of dubbing work. I'm usually not a big movie fan, having been spoiled by the extremely diverse themed anime, but I would definitely like to watch a Japanese dubbed movie if it's got a good seiyuu cast.

At the moment, my only Jap-dubbed experience consists of 1.2 movies, where 1 is 17 Again, and the .2 is He's Just Not That Into You. The plane landed before the .2 finished playing. But I was really just using Namikawa Daisuke's voice as background music while I read Saiunkoku Monogatari anyway. I gave up the movie after about 10 minutes and only recognized Namikawa during that time. One seiyuu does not a good seiyuu cast make, unfortunately.

機動戦士ガンダムＵＣ Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Where to start... The first of the OVA won't be out until March of 2010, but I'm already jumping with anticipation. It's great to know that it'll be a world-wide release, shortly after the Japanese release! I'm seriously considering getting the BD version, and hoping that PS3 might follow in the second half of 2010.

Let's talk about first impressions. Now, I knew Unicorn started as novels but never got a chance to read it, so I'm basing everything from the two PVs and the official website.

I don't typically pay attention to production staff and therefore don't recognize most of the names, but I got excited when I saw Sawano Hiroyuki as the music composer. It definitely sounded like him in the 40-second PV, too. XD

Character design is usually misleading when judging from static shots on websites so I'll refrain from commenting too much for now (Syam Vist can totally pass as the head of a religious cult!), but I do have to point out one thing that bothers me: hair styles. And names.

What's with the retro hair? The most glaring examples of which are demonstrated by Mineva/Audrey, Micott, Marida and Full on the character page. And the names! Why are you walking down the same horrible path of English spelling names as SEED (How do you spell Maryu with Murrue??) when you are a Universal Century series?

And Full Frontal? I assume his name signifies something in the series, but it just sounds so stupid in English. -__-

Character-wise, Banagher (another failed English spelling when it's pronounced Banaaji) seems promising. His bio reminds me of Kira, along with his school mates from the AE Industry Technical School. I also have high hopes for his seiyuu Uchiyama Kouki, based on his performance in Soul Eater and the PV.

Mineva's alias Audrey Burne is obviously gotten from Audrey Hepburn, and her hair also kind of tips her off. I've actually never seen any of Audrey Hepburn's works except for a few images, but somehow I immediately associated Mineva's alias to her from looking at the hair. I was slightly worried when I first saw Fujimura Ayumi's name because her image as Kannagi Ayano and Cecily Cambell came off a lot stronger than what I'd imagine Mineva to be, but after hearing her in the PV, I'm fully relieved. She still sounds quite a bit older than Banagher, but I can attribute that to her experience in wars. And the hair.

My first thought when I saw Full Frontal was "Char", yet at the same time there's this sense of incongruity. His hair style (again with the hair) reminds me of Neo, but the vibe he gives off is closer to that of Rau's. Char's Counterattack was supposed to be the end of the original Gundam saga, so I'm not sure what to make of this masked blond when Char is dead. Even if Char isn't dead at the end of CCA, I doubt he would stage something like this after what he witnessed during the failed attempt to drop Axis. It's probably safe to assume that there's secrets and/or conspiracies behind his name and his voice. I don't think Ikeda Shuuichi would voice another character in the UC timeline if he isn't connected to Char in some way, though... Oh, and the Neo Zeon's uniforms look so OZ. XD

Mecha-wise, Unicorn Destroy Mode looks pretty good, albeit the colouring sort of reminds me of Astray. It's interesting to finally see a Gundam model being mass produced, but the lack of the signature white likely predestines the models to be secondary. And why is everything green? Are both E.F.S.F. and Neo Zeon trying to be eco-friendly in this time and age? (Sorry, cold joke)

Sinanju looks (not listed on the website at this point, judging from the box art of the model kit) majestic and, seeing that it's red, is probably piloted by Full. The Kshatriya looks pretty ugly to me; the 666 model number might mean it's the "Devil Gundam" of this series? I like how the Neo Zeon MS all wear bibs and sleeves, though. XD

It might look like I'm complaining a lot, but don't get me wrong. I'm itching to see it. I just don't want to be disappointed and have my experience hindered by little details.

Omake: I almost didn't recognize Namikawa Daisuke in the cast photo. He's at least two shades darker and looked like a wild man! XD

Oh yeah, I definitely will have to re-watch Char's Counterattack to refresh my memory.

And I'm dropping Victory Gundam from the UC Gundam Quest for my birthday. I'm going to just finish series that pertain to the original Gundam saga. Victory is technically a UC series, but it's so far into the future and no one from the 1st Gundam generation is around. I'm still going to watch it, of course, probably before Unicorn comes out.

Soramimi Project #5: Nakao Ryuusei 中尾隆聖

First heard: Jei Farfarello (Weiss Kreuz)

First noticed: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Memorable characters: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Image character: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Discernment rate: average?

Number of works seen: 13

I don't have much experience with Nakao Kyuusei beside BLEACH (4 out of 13 of the works seen are BLEACH), so it's probably obvious that his image character is Kurotsuchi Mayuri. I know Nakao-san also voiced/voices Freeza, but I haven't seen Dragon Ball Z and dropped Kai due to time constraint, so I only heard one scene of Freeza in the first episode of Kai. 'tis really a shame.

Because I have limited encounter with Nakao-san, I'm going to say that my discernment rate of him is average. Mayuri is a pretty impressive character so I'll likely recognize his voice if he acts along that pitch or style. Haven't heard him in a different pitch so I can't say if he changes his voice.

I first heard him in Weiss Kreuz, but I don't really remember anyone except for the actual Weiss group since it's the very first anime I ever watched in Japanese (actually the first anime after moving to Canada, too). This is both a good and a bad thing. I most likely wouldn't be able to stand the lame plot now, but I'd probably still watch it for the seiyuu. It was such a waste since I didn't know anything about anime and seiyuu back then, and the episodes my cousin had included the seiyuu interviews at the end!

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I just watched four episodes of One Piece online, and I have to say that Zoro sounds so cute! Yeah, I wasn't ever planning to touch One Piece, but my interest was piqued when I read how popular Nakai-san's Zoro is on the wikipedia, so I decided to give it a try since it's streamed online. I'm liking Nakai-san the more I hear him. XD

BTW, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I heard Ikeda Shuuichi as Shanks! He sounded so casual and humourous that I almost doubted my ears. It's so... un-Char-like! XD