The 11th Seiyu (Voice Actors) Awards took place last weekend to honor the work of many successful voice actors and actresses! The ceremony took place in the JOQR Media Plus Hall on 18 March 2017.
The best male lead and best female lead this year were awarded to the main cast of the most popular anime of the year, Kimi no Na wa’s Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi.
The rest of the awards:
Best supporting male: Hochu Otsuka
Best supporting female: Megumi Han
Best newcomer male: Setsuo Ito, Yuma Uchida and Yusuke Kobayashi
Best newcomer female: Ari Ozawa, Sayaka Senbongi and Minami Tanaka
Best singing: Aqours
Best Personality: Natsuki Hanae
Kei Tomiyama Memorial Award: Ryusei Nakao
Kazue Takahashi Memorial Award: Sumi Shimamoto
Achievement Award: Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Mari Shimizu and Junko Hori
Special Award: Non
Many awards were given to the big winner of 2016, Kimi no Na wa. The anime received the Best Leading Voices for both male and female, and the Synergy award. The diversity of the works that won the awards shows that voice acting is spread on many different fields and genres.
Hochu Otsuka was expected to win best supporting male. Looking back on his career, he has worked on anime, radio shows and narration. He is a versatile voice actor and always present in the industry. Other well known names also came up. Ryusei Nakao (’Baikinman’ from Anpanman) received the Kei Tomiyama memorial award. Sumi Shimamoto (Nausica of the Valley of the Wind) received the Kazue Takahashi memorial award. The achievement award went to Kiyoshi Kobayashi, who is known for voicing Daisuke Jigen in Lupin 3rd, and Mari Shimizu, the voice of Astro Boy.
The awards this year had everything, from new faces to veterans. On 28 March 2017 from 19:30 a special 11th Seiyu Awards-program will be aired on Tokyo MX and a special feature will also be shown on GYAO!
Seiyu awards: Official Website
http://www.seiyuawards.jp/
The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
