[Summer 2011] Seiyuu top 10!

Remember last season's "voices hit or miss" post? Well, I decided I'll do things differently for Summer, mostly because I realized there was no point to rant about Kishio Daisuke for each show I'm watching. I don't like him. I think you got it.
Then, came the second question, do I still consider shows that started back in Spring? Do I consider shows that are going to run until Winter? In the end, after lots of talking with myself (and, I'll admit it, heavily influenced by the fact I was listenning to a radio show with Morita Masakazu as a guest), I thought : screw it! I'll consider everything!

So, in the end, the only shows I'll leave out (officially) are Beelzebub and Gintama. Sorry Sugita, I still love you!

10 - Ono Daisuke 
I have to admit I'm usually not much of a fan of his because his voice is usually very flat. That works perfectly for characters such as Huey (Dantalian no Shoka), but sometimes he surprises me like he did with Shizuo, and so he did as Yondaime. That's why he's there, because I didn't think he'd pull it off that well.

9 - Suwabe Junichi
As usual, he's perfect as the ambiguous villain in Natsume Yuujinchou. We won't talk about his singing in Utapri because that was terrific for everyone but he did well as the rich boy who's only thinking about girls.

8 - Mamoru Miyano
Once again leaving Utapri aside (even though his version of Amazing Grace was really pretty) he was just too perfect as Okarin in Steins;Gate. So perfect I didn't realize it was him at first.

7 - Nobuhiko Okamoto
He's everywhere, I just can't leave him out and I have to admit that while I was wary of him when I first read  Ao no Exorcist's castlist, he does a good job as Rin.
And he did fit Origami in Tiger&Bunny pretty well in my opinion. On the other he isn't special at all and tend to piss me off a bit in Kamisama Dolls. And he shouldn't sing. At all.

6 - Fukuyama Jun
Same as above, I didn't expect him to voice Yukio in Ao no Exorcist, I knew he'd pull it off because it's FukuJun but I didn't think it'd fit that well.
And then there's Rikuo in Nurarihyon, he really does that kind of dual personnalities well. And during this second season he appears more as night!Rikuo so I can hear his deep voice more. I'm happy.

5 - Kana Hanazawa
She's one of my favorite female seiyuu, ever, but well, before her character in Kamisama Dolls appeared she wouldn't have made it to the list. I love her, but I'm not a fan of her cute voice, so yeah, when she came down from the sky and started using her deep voice, I started fangirling.

4 - Kamiya Hiroshi
He's Natsume guys! Natsume is adorable!
He's Mephisto guys! Mephisto is such a twisted and interesting characters.
And the voices of both these characters are quite different. He's good, you can't deny it.

3 - Yusa Kouji
I don't even know why he's so high up the list, he's the young version of Nurarihyon in the eponym anime and Lunatic/Yuri Petrov in Tiger&Bunny. He sounded so evil and so nice, both at the same time.

2 - Ayu Matsuura
She voiced Rin in Usagi Drop. It was perfect. She's 10 years old.
That's all I have to say.

1 - Morita Masakazu
Sadly, he doesn't get many roles in anime (guess he must be busy with Bleach) but, I was stunned by his performance as Barnaby. When I checked the cast when it first started I admit I was a bit weirded out, first I didn't recognize him and second, I never thought of him as very good.
How wrong I was.
So, he's in first because he's the first seiyuu who made me cry so much with the tone of his voice alone. He'd better get more emotionnal roles (in anime) instead of his usual fighting addicts.
Too bad he speaks so fast on radio shows. But I can make out he's adorable all the same.
(And damn, guys, I have a surprise for you, as soon as someone uploads that damn song somewhere on the internet, it gets posted here, it's too epic! (and hilarious) Full version out on October 19th)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #14

Before I leave you with my usual anime report, December will come with a full album of Tiger&Bunny character songs (Oh god how much I want one for Agnès you have no idea) and second, and totally unrelated, a new Kalafina album is released in a few days. I can't wait. I love Kalafina.

We have attained Steins;Gate. El. Psy. Congroo

Steins;Gate has ended, after 6 months of weekly wednesdays spent watching the show. I was excited by the plot when it first was announced, I really enjoyed watching but I never thought I'd be that sad when it'll end.
Thankfully, they announced a movie and the trailer shows nothing but things we already saw in the anime and I have no idea what the hell they'll put in that movie. An alternate ending maybe?

While it isn't one of my favorite anime ever it is something I want to re-watch. It is something I enjoyed from the beginning to the end and it definitely is something I'd recommend.

The reason is simple, its fits a lot of my requirements for anime (not that there's such a fixed list in my head but who cares?)
- The plot is interesting. Even before knowing about Steins;Gate I knew I'd enjoy this, people making a time machine out of a microwave? It just sounds so weird that it's bound to be at least a bit interesting.

- It's well written. The pace is great. It introduces characters little by little, slowly builds the tension until the events finally take a tragic turn and everything goes faster. I complained about the episodes dedicated entirely to a single character before, but in the end everything falls together perfectly. In each of these episodes Okabe grew to understand people more, he grew to care more, to feel more, just so that in the end he and the world can be happy. It does show that nothing is truly meaningless and I find that a great lesson.

- The cast is eargasmic. Mamoru Miyano is someone I grew to love a lot since his role in Durarara!!, and to be honest I didn't recognize him at first and as much as I loved Light and Kida, Okabe is now my favorite role of his. He managed to voice the mad scientist moments as well as showing the despair that hit Okarin, that was quite the challenge I think. Aside from Kana Hanazawa (who I love) and Kobayashi Yuu (who I hate, I'm glad Rukako doesn't speak much) I wasn't too familiar with the girls but I was glad to ear Saori Goto (as Moeka) again (she's Q damnit! I loved Q) and very glad to discover Imai Asami, her voice really quited Kurisu well.

- It's pretty. I've admired huke's work for a long, long time so I'm always glad to see more of his designs animated. The atmosphere too is really well done, you can feel the tension sometimes or the peace of mind of the protagonist only by looking at the scenery around them. It's quite great.

- It's entertaining. That's one of the main point of anime isn't it? It's amusing to watch and I loved to see them all interact, even in the darkest moments of the story.

- It made my brain work. The ones who do that are always the ones I remember the most. Once you got the hang of it you couldn't help but wonder how the hell things will turn out, what will be achieved by working together, whether or not they'll beat CERN and how, at every episode there were things to think about.
Even if it wasn't the most brain wrecking anime I've seen, far from it, the simple fact it dealt with time travel just forced you to think to understand how it worked (and I just felt like I had to do researches afterwards)

And while I know it obviously had flaws, for now, I can't find one to share. (I'll probably do when I'll rewatch, you never pick everything up at the first watch)