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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Two New Seiyuu:

I haven't updated my anime voices for a while, so let's go about adding in some previously unrecognized talent.  This time it's exclusively on the boy's side:

Souichiro Hoshi has a voice halfway between badass and annoying.  This works really well for frivolous characters, like the male lead of Sora no Otoshimono, Tomoko Sakurai, who can get serious when it matters.  The most obvious example of this is when he plays the protagonist of Higurashi, Keiichi Maebara, known for his masterful control of water pistols during school after hours games and beating people to death with baseball bats.  Other examples are the playful Gino Weinburg from Code Geass and Rygart Arrow from Broken Blade.  Cold blooded masterful killers at some times, and at other times overactive kids who climb trees or make giant pizzas for fun.  Souichiro just has this role down pat.  No one can beat him at it, and his voice is so distinct from everyone else's that he always grabs your attention when he's on screen.

The other entrant in my list is Kenjiro Tsuda.  His dry voice is perfect for comedic roles.  Sort of like how the teller of jokes must always keep a straight face, the straight pitch and low tone of Kenjiro Tsuda is perfect for delivering lines meant mainly to be laughed at.  His role as the comedic straight man really only takes center stage in Baka to Test as the narrator and in Prince of Tennis as Inui Sadaharu, but he also plays a lot of minor roles, like Bacchus in Fairy Tail, who also tends to be the butt of jokes.

Whether it's Souichiro or Kenjiro, both of these men lean towards the more comic side of stories, while the more dramatic voices are left to the likes of Norio Wakamoto or Jun Fukuyama.  But their unique talents can't be replicated by anyone else and so they're a great addition to the anime voices talent pool.

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