What was supposed to have been a ‘year in review’ piece has turned into a ‘Whoops! Christmas cheer got the better of me (again)!’ list of lists. Happy new year and may all your resolutions be ever kept!
12 seiyuu performances I’ll remember
1. Otsuka Hochu as Sato (Ajin)
2. Ishida Akira as Yurakutei Yakumo VII (Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju)
3. Yamadera Koichi as Yurakutei Sukeroku II (Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju)
4. Ono Kensho as Tanaka (Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge)
5. Koyasu Takehito as Roswaal L Mathers (Re:Zero)
6. Tsuda Kenjiro as Fango (91days)
7. Hosoya Yoshimasa as Epizo Evans (Bubuki Buranki)
8. Yuki Aoi as Hinazuki Kayo (Boku dake ga Inai Machi)
9. Kamiki Ryunosuke as Tachibana Taki (Kimi no Na wa)
10. Kanemoto Hisako as Uasaha (Jakusansei Million Arthur)
11. Kimura Subaru as Tendo Satori (Haikyuu!! S3)
12. Ando Mabuki as Ujibe Nagisa (Keijo!!!!!!!!)
10 favourite seiyuu moments
1. Handa-kun’s eraser song: Hondo Kaede – I don’t want youuuuu to get dirtyyyyyy
3. I am a voice inside a paper bag: Sakurai Takahiro
4. Step on them idol wota pigs! (says Uchida Maaya)
5. IT’S JJ STYLE (courtesy of Miyano Mamoru)
6. SEXUAL HARASSMENT!!! (by the seiyuu who is doing that to everyone else)
7. Crab song (from the anime nobody watched)
8. Nyan shogi (by the 3 cutest seiyuu cats)
10. The Tanaka shorts are the cutest things ever
8 seiyuu I had tremendous love for, for various reasons
1. Senbongi Sayaka – She’s improved so much since Kitakubu
2. Hondo Kaede – Real-life Yae, the type who unwittingly offends others
3. Lynn – I used to think she was just a boring, generic heroine voice but Keijo changed that
4. Onishi Saori – 2016 has been great for Saorin but 2017 will be even better.
5. KENN – I loved his Gieve, and I loved all his idol animu charas even more cos that meant he’d have plenty of idol songs to sing *swoon*
6. Taneda Risa – Get well soon! I never knew how much I’d miss your voice!!
7. Hosoya Yoshimasa – I can never not love a Hosoyan character (except maybe well…read somewhere below)
8. Okamoto Nobuhiko – Only he can make fatty Nikaido sound so sawayaka
6 rookie seiyuu on my watchlist
1. Kito Akari
2. Horie Shun
3. Toki Shunichi
4. Fujita Akane
5. Tomita Miyu
6. Takada Yuki
4 miscasts
1. Hanae Natsuki as Mythos in Active Raid – Mythos is supposed to be some mysterious genius with a cherry tomato fetish but Hanae couldn’t make it work for me; instead, I burst out in laughter at that bitch imouto tomato scene.
2. Hosoya Yoshimasa as Haruhiro in Grimgar – Cool refreshing Hosoyan voice is a totally bad fit for an emo teenager.
3. Hanae Natsuki as Kusakabe in HaruChika – I don’t mean to pick on Hanae specifically but…he just doesn’t sound right as Kusakabe, who’s meant to be some brilliant teacher that the kids worship – he comes off sounding more like a condescending asshat.
4. Aoi Shota as anyone in anything – The guy really can sing but man his acting! His 滑舌 skills are close to zero and he appears to be able to produce only one type of voice – dead. It’s like listening to a talking tsundere corpse…
2 favourite seiyuu radio shows
1. Sakura to shitai Onishi (Sakura Ayane, Onishi Saori) – I didn’t think listening to seiyuu talk about random anime-unrelated stuff could be interesting, but these two have a kind of ‘chemistry’ that just works. I love chalk and cheese personalities! (why does Onisshi keep getting put together with people who are so different from her….) Also, I thought Morse Shingou was the worst idea ever, before it turned into the best segment ever.
2. Shadowverse Channel (Yuki Kana, Sakura Kaoru, Ishigami Shizuka) – Like Blazblue Radio Mk II with the plus point for me being that I actually kind of play Shadowverse so I have fun watching the match-ups too. Please bring Ogura Yui on to a Nama and let her be corrupted!
Seiyuu+ 
Ah, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks Aoi Shouta is terrible. Yes yes he can sing really well, but his acting skills are nonexistent, and he’s so terribly, terribly wooden. I get unreasonably irritated whenever I see him in the cast of a show, because he’s taking a role from someone who likely would have been much better.
(And I know I’m being malicious, but there’s there’s no way he actually earns non-singing roles by auditioning…)
For the record (nobody asked) one of my favorite performances this year is probably Nakamura Yuuichi as Toyohisa in Drifters. I can’t speak for how accurate his not-actually-Satsumaben was (he clearly worked hard on it, bless his heart, but I suppose as with most strong dialects it probably didn’t sound all that natural to native speakers), but that aside I think he did a really good job, balancing having to sound reasonably cool with using a dialect that’s the definition of “uncool”, while playing a character from a Hirano Kouta manga.
Haha, It’s true about Aoi Shouta, I watched things like Tsukiuta and Magikyun lately and zomg he just sounds so wooden I can’t even tell if his chara is supposed to be happy or sad….
Thanks for mentioning Nakamura. I only managed to catch one episode of Drifters and I really need to hear more of that! Enjoyed his work in Lostorage and Amaama this year!
I first heard Aoi in UtaPri where his character is in fact a robot, so at first I thought he was doing it on purpose… and then I heard him in other shows and realized that no, this is actually how he “acts”, heh.
For Nakamura this year he had his 4th role where he plays a single dad/father figure with a kid (Clannad, Papa to Oyaji, Amaama, Udon no Kuni). There’s something about his voice and delivery that makes this setting really work…
Do check out Drifters! The seiyuu cast is doing such a good job, and the main three have great chemistry and play off of each other really well.
i love crab song..haha..
and i watched Hatsukoi Monster
The rating isn’t really good, but i think this anime is funny somehow, especially Sakurai Takahiro who did a great job voicing the fifth grade Kanade.
I only watched a few episodes…it was funny sometimes but mostly too silly for me too >_<
I totally agree with most of this post! Happy new year!
Talking about Taneda Risa reminds me also how much I miss her voice (now), but it makes me wonder if her domination of that particular character role archetype meant some others now have a chance to shine in her stead…? I don’t think any of her direct replacements are actually using those opportunity (although I guess Fate is going asymptotic in terms of exposure in 2017 is a bummer for Taneda).
It’s a bit like how I think eventually Takamori will just slot into Asumi’s roles where apropos…
I’ve been listening to Dareraji a lot this year and it’s my favorite seiyuu radio of the year.