Anime Anime Global

September 17th is Minako Kotobuki’s birthday.

Minako Kotobuki debuted as a voice actor in the late 2000s. She won a singing award in the 4th Voice Actor Award, and has played a wide range of characters since then.
In 2019, she had appearances in movies like『Violet Evergarden Gaiden: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll -』 and 『HELLO WORLD』. She is also currently active as a Unit Sphere voice actor. A drama series 『Gekidan Sphere』 commemorating the 10th anniversary for the formation of the unit is scheduled to begin broadcast from October.

So to get into the birthday celebration mood for Minako Kotobuki , Anime!Anime! made a survey asking viewers 「Who is your favorite character voiced by Minako Kotobuki？」. 94 responses were received within the survey period September 4th till September 11th.
The male-female ratio is about 60% for men and about 40% for women, with slightly more men. The age group was about 20% for those under the age of 19, and about 40% for those in their 20s, mainly younger people.
■Top place goes to Asuka-senpai from 「Sound! Euphonium」
1st place goes to Asuka Tanaka from 「Sound! Euphonium」. The support rate was about 17%.
Asuka Tanaka is the vice president of the brass band club. She was addressed as Asuka-senpai by her juniors indicating their closeness. Comments voicing their love towards her cool personality like「I was just moved by the way she bottles up all her real thoughts and shadows while gathering a whole brass band at the same time with a bright personality and a lot of effort. I want to live having a belief straight like that」 and 「She looks like a cool type of character at first glance but there were also times where she felt like those light-hearted types, though I’m still attracted by her cool barely-changing voice and expression in the end.」

2nd place goes to Rikki Hishikawa from 『DokiDoki! PreCure』.With only a slight difference in votes with 1st place.
Comments like 「Her charm not only comes from the way she interacts with the main protagonist and allies, her rushed tsukkomi or criticisms were quite adorable」, 「I admire her intelligence as she is those intelligent-type of girls」 and 「 I think the crisp voice acting was a perfect fit for Rikka. Of course her shouting voice during battle were pretty cool as well.」 were received.
By the way, Rikki Hishikawa has the birthday with Kotobuki-san, September 17th. A comment wishing a happy birthday 「Rikki’s birthday is also on September 17th so a double happy birthday to the both of them！」

3rd place goes to Tsumugi Kotobuki from 『K-On！』. The support rate was about 13%.
Tsumigi Kotobuki is the keyboardist of a female high school band named Ho-kago Tea Time. Many reader found out about Minako-san from 『K-On！』, popular comments on her personality like「Mugi-chan’s fluffy adorebleness mixed with Kotobuki-san’s voice is just to charming！」 and 「I was drawn towards her atmospheric rich-girl setting. Reigning over all anime characters at the top」

■Introducing the other comments!!
Comments for Touko Nanami from 『Bloom Into You』, 「Because of how her heart starts to flutter like a girl falling in love for the first time, even though she never had any romantic feelings before」 and 「Although the character is a honor student with a troublesome personality making it quite a difficult role, the voice was played out naturally as it if were pulled right out of the original source itself」

Comments for Karine Lyle from 『TIGER & BUNNY』, 「Both of her acting as an average high school girl Karine and queen-like Blue Rose were charming」 and 「From a strong hero with a cute idol voice, to a normal size high school girl, she shows various expressions depending on the scene, and there is also her calm voice that makes gives off a pleasant feeling」.

Comments for Saint-Germain from 『Senki Zesshou Symphogear』,
「First appearing as an enemy character with the same beliefs as the main protagonist, a great match with Kotobuki-san’s dignified voice」 and 「Because her low singing voice was intense」.
Comments for Mitsuko Kongou from 『A Certain Scientific Railgun』, 「Because it’s refreshing and interesting to hear Kotobuki-san’s high pitched voice」 and 「Sexy ＆Exotic！」.

In this questionnaire, many honor student characters were ranked in. There are many characters that were those not straightforward and have secrets type of characters, expressing certain complicated feelings as a result.

■Top 5 Ranking
[Who is your favorite character voiced by Minako Kotobuki？]
1st Asukka Tanaka 『Sound! Euphonium』
2nd Rikki Hishikawa（Cure Diamond） 『DokiDoki! PreCure』
3rd Tsumugi Kotobuki 『K-On！』
4th Touko Nanami 『Bloom Into You』
5th Karine Lyle （Blue Rose） 『TIGER & BUNNY』

（Survey Period：September 4th – September 11th 2019）

■Top 10 Ranking
[Who is your favorite character voiced by Minako Kotobuki？]
1st Asukka Tanaka 『Sound! Euphonium』
2nd Rikki Hishikawa（Cure Diamond） 『DokiDoki! PreCure』
3rd Tsumugi Kotobuki 『K-On！』
4th Touko Nanami 『Bloom Into You』
5th Karine Lyle （Blue Rose） 『TIGER & BUNNY』
6th Mizuki Kanzaki 『Aikatsu！』
6th Saint-Germain 『Senki Zesshou Symphogear』
8th Natsu Takasaki 『Baby Steps』
8th Toole 『Fate/Apocrypha』
10th Sakaya Kaguraza 『Girlfriend (Kai）』
10th Mitsuko Kongou 『A Certain Scientific Railgun』 『A Certain Magical Index』
10th Fram Nara 『Mobile Suit Gundam AGE』

（Survey Period：September 4th – September 11th 2019）