Best Seiyuu Ranking Selected by 200 Seiyuu

by tsubasalover
Jan 12, 2017 8:33 AM | 61 Comments

TV Asahi announced the best seiyuu ranking based on the poll of popular seiyuu in celebration of one hundred years of anime history on Monday. TV Asahi asked two hundred seiyuu to nominate seiyuu whom they respect.

*1. Kouichi Yamadera
*2. Masako Nozawa
*3. Keiji Fujiwara
*4. Miyuki Sawashiro
*5. Tomokazu Seki
*6. Mayumi Tanaka
*7. Minami Takayama
*8. Ryuusei Nakao
*9. Toshio Furukawa
10. Akio Ootsuka

11. Megumi Hayashibara
12. Toshiyuki Morikawa
13. Hidekatsu Shibata
14. Junichi Suwabe
15. Kotono Mitsuishi
16. Akiko Yajima
17. Yoshiko Sakakibara
18. Kiyoshi Kobayashi
19. Yoku Shioya
20. Shigeru Chiba

21. Noriko Hidaka
22. Akira Kamiya
23. Kaneta Kimotsuki
24. Yuuji Mitsuya
25. Hiroaki Hirata
25. Sumi Shimamoto

TV Asahi also did the same ranking on 2011 but asked one hundred seiyuus last time, as well as similar ranking three months later.

Source: Nijimen

People Awards Seiyuu

20 of 61 Comments Recent Comments

.. Noticing top 2 are the same as last time.

Sep 3, 2020 8:18 PM by SadMadotsuki

I love how most of these actors have come from Rumiko Takahashi's works and have all at some point worked together, some even numerous times. The only person I wish they would've voted for to be there would be Kappi Yamaguchi ha.

But I guess there's thousands that inspire as well that didn't rank just high enough, but I want to say I appreciate them all.

These were the kings and queens that showed the world the importance of Voice Acting in Anime and made it an art form for VA's to come.

Aug 21, 2020 1:13 PM by Inudrew

Glad to see a ranking of veteran seiyuu that shows their influence in the industry. VA like Takayama Minami, Mitsuishi Kotono, Fujiwara Keiji and Hirata Hiroaki have roles in animes I watched. I would have thought Otani Ikue, Inoue Kazuhiko and Inoue Kikuko in the list too.

Feb 1, 2017 6:49 AM by Ashlyne

I'm glad to see Sawashiro Miyuki at 4th place.

Jan 29, 2017 6:01 PM by removed-user

Whaaat okay where's Miki Shinichiro?
He has such a beautiful voice and the way he plays a character's role is amazing. I'm surprised he's not here.

Jan 29, 2017 11:23 AM by removed-user

Mayuka said:
Yes? There's plenty of western fans who like seiyuu not just for their roles lol

I know those people exist. I'm one of them XD

But frankly, judging from the comments here and who tops the favorite people list on MAL, I'd say it's more of a matter of who voices currently popular characters, who looks the best in the magazines or crap like that. The people who are truly knowledgeable about seiyuu history and industry are a very small minority.

The same applies to music. Most younger folks will just listen to what's on the charts and be content with that. I suppose it can't be helped but it's still a little sad.

Jan 19, 2017 1:08 AM by pandora18

pandora18 said:

DateYutaka said:

people who care about seiyuu should care about daijin shes tthe head of the seiyuu union

But do people truly care about seiyuu on here? It seems to me that most are just vaguely interested in who voiced a popular character that they liked. That's not quite the same thing.

Yes? There's plenty of western fans who like seiyuu not just for their roles lol

Jan 18, 2017 5:21 PM by Mayuka

DarklordVor said:
I somewhat glad that HanaKana is not in this list. Don't get me wrong, I love her voice and all, but she's pretty much the same voice in almost every of her character. I mean, her character is pretty much the "waifu voice" (which I obviously love, since she's in my favorites)

For me, I always give her a special pass when she used the same voice again. She also has different voices in Mouretsu Pirates and Nourin. But I normally hate it when I hear the same voice again and again (special mention: Saori Hayami).
But seriously, this is a poll on seiyuus, so the veterans (or the anime characters the veterans voiced) whom the seiyuus looked up when they are young will be expected to top the poll. HanaKana just got popular like less than a decade ago.

Rei366 said:
After reading more commentaries here, I wonder how "anime-fans" can ignore who Hayashibara is (her roles, the fact she was kind of a prototype for the "seiyûs craze" of today).

The seiyuus are polled, not anime fans, so it's expected that the seiyuu craze today (if you mean 2000's or at least late 90's) are less relevant, but it could become more relevant after 10 years. But if you meant MAL comments, I saw one here.

Jan 18, 2017 2:18 AM by crx07

I somewhat glad that HanaKana is not in this list. Don't get me wrong, I love her voice and all, but she's pretty much the same voice in almost every of her character. I mean, her character is pretty much the "waifu voice" (which I obviously love, since she's in my favorites)

Only other time she sounded different was probably playing Kuroneko/Kobato with their weird personality and probably that crazy bitch from Akame ga Kill.

Jan 16, 2017 12:30 PM by DarklordVor

DateYutaka said:

people who care about seiyuu should care about daijin shes tthe head of the seiyuu union

But do people truly care about seiyuu on here? It seems to me that most are just vaguely interested in who voiced a popular character that they liked. That's not quite the same thing.

Jan 16, 2017 2:34 AM by pandora18

pandora18 said:

Rei366 said:
After reading the Anime-now article about it, I want to watch this 3hours long show!

You can watch it on Youtube if you search for 声優総選挙 (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here).

Rei366 said:
After reading more commentaries here, I wonder how "anime-fans" can ignore who Hayashibara is (her roles, the fact she was kind of a prototype for the "seiyûs craze" of today).

Good question. Probably a combination of most MAL members being very young and her having been relatively out of the spotlight for 10+ years. Trends can change very fast. But yeah, it seems rather unbelievable.

people who care about seiyuu should care about daijin shes tthe head of the seiyuu union

Jan 16, 2017 2:12 AM by DateYutaka

Rei366 said:
After reading the Anime-now article about it, I want to watch this 3hours long show!

You can watch it on Youtube if you search for 声優総選挙 (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here).

Rei366 said:
After reading more commentaries here, I wonder how "anime-fans" can ignore who Hayashibara is (her roles, the fact she was kind of a prototype for the "seiyûs craze" of today).

Jan 16, 2017 1:11 AM by pandora18

After reading the Anime-now article about it, I want to watch this 3hours long show!

After reading more commentaries here, I wonder how "anime-fans" can ignore who Hayashibara is (her roles, the fact she was kind of a prototype for the "seiyûs craze" of today).

A little picture the Slayers illustrator posted to celebrate her heroin's voice: pic.twitter.com/4I1quDWWkP

Jan 15, 2017 5:08 AM by Rei_III

Damn the only 1 I know is Miyuki Sawashiro and others is clueless for me

Jan 13, 2017 9:03 AM by Koolman511

crx07 said:
I'm amazed she got here, and not only that, it's top 4. I think she's too young for seiyuus to adore.

That is true, but you should keep in mind that she's been around for almost 20 years already since she started out so young. She can almost qualify as a veteran already.

Jan 13, 2017 8:47 AM by pandora18

Wow... no Park Romi?

Jan 13, 2017 4:29 AM by Littmann

crx07 said:
Who are their respondents? Seiyuus or anime fans?

Fans. Koichi Yamadera is on the top with 5,1% of votes, Akira Ishida is second with 3,3% of votes and Miyuki Sawashiro is the third with 2,1% of votes. (There was about 1000 names available for voting)

Jan 13, 2017 3:59 AM by AntonKutovoi

tsubasalover said:
*4.Miyuki Sawashiro

I'm amazed she got here, and not only that, it's top 4. I think she's too young for seiyuus to adore.
Younger seiyuus tend to biased toward older seiyuus. When these younger seiyuus are still not seiyuus, they loved the seiyuus voicing the anime (most likely favorite anime) they watched, and thus inspiring them to pursue voice acting. When they are already a seiyuu, I don't think they lost their respect to the seiyuus they adored when they are still young.

waalex11 said:
Aw come on ... Masako Nozawa #2!? She's fucking overrated. Super limited and sounds like an old grandma on steroids for the voice of Goku.

Fellow seiyuus loved her. What can we do about that?

AntonKutovoi said:

Shuhan said:

Case and point.

Actually, Niconico held a poll of their own today/yesterday (depending from where you live). HanaKana is in Top-25, but Yamadera still on the first place, and way ahead of everyone else.

Who are their respondents? Seiyuus or anime fans?
@Shuhan It's more like "someone who doesn't know about the voice acting industry"

Jan 13, 2017 3:17 AM by crx07

waalex11 said:
Aw come on ... Masako Nozawa #2!? She's fucking overrated. Super limited and sounds like an old grandma on steroids for the voice of Goku.

She is 81 years old.

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Jan 13, 2017 1:06 AM by Johnnyd3rp

cure_potato said:

I'm not sure where you watched it - and if you watched it live. But on the "first running" you sure could see the names/titles of series/voiced characters & the points on the roulette pretty good I'd say.
There were people selected into the ranking with 300-400 points while people with 500-600 points weren't even named in the show - but you could see those when the show was live in TV.

As for example you could see series like Monogatari Series, Nisekoi, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto etc. and their seiyuus in the roulette with more points - but they weren't ranked so yeah. I don't have any "screenshots" etc. since I was watching live and din't care about it in the end anymore since -that's Japanese TV. [you just gotta deal with these facts since they keep happening]
You might find a lot of info in the 2 channel threads where people are still complaining about the "cheated" results - also the twitter hashtag with the show's title should show a few things.

Yeah I did watch it live. I saw the names of those series you mentioned but it was too fast to see any corresponding points. They might have been seiyuu who ranked lower than 25th? Hunter x Hunter was most likely for Sawashiro Miyuki though, since they showed bits of that.
I re-watched bits on Youtube and can't see those names anymore. The points displayed on the left of the roulette seem to correspond to the rank in question.
I'll try to see if anyone made screenshots of that 1st version.

Edit : I rewatched more of the video on Youtube, paused it several times and you were right ! Some people with high scores who clearly were not ranked judging from the displayed series. Someone was up there in the 700s !! Someone featured in Gundam and Dragon Ball Z, hmmm....

Jan 12, 2017 11:22 PM by pandora18

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