Anime Anime Global

Jun. 19 is “Reading Aloud Day”.

Jun. 19 can be pronunced as “Roudoku” which mean reading aloud, and this day was set by NPO Japan Roudoku Bunka Association in 2002. This commemoration day was created so that art culture of reading aloud is spread, and various events including volunteer reading aloud, and reading aloud competition are held in Mid Jun.

Voice actors, who give birth to the characters, have also read aloud during the recital and audio book as well. We believe that there are quite some fans who like reading aloud as it carry a different allure than the anime.

In Anime! Anime!, we conducted an annual survey asking readers: “Which voice actor do you want to hear their 'reading aloud'”. We have received a total of 810 responses during the survey period of Jun. 7 until Jun. 14.
The male to female ratio was approximately 15% for male and approximately 85% for females, making females the majority. In terms of age distribution, the majority were youngsters below the age of 19 comprising approximately 35%, and approximately 25% were people in their 20's.

Let's introduce the result for the female voice actor category.

■From new to veteran, a wide range of voice actors have received votes.
1st place
The 1st place goes to Sawashiro Miyuki with a support rating of approximately 13%. She had remained the top for two consecutively year.

She was supported due to her voicing various characters such as “It amazing how she can voice young girl and also fascinating female!”, and “I was amazed at her diverse voice acting as I notice there is a lot of 'character that is voiced by Sawashiro-san' while watching the credit.”
We had received a lot of comments such as “She is good at expressing, I can even imagine the detailed story even if there is no video”. There was also readers who mentioned about the read aloud episode in the anime, “The reading scene to the children in “Library Wars” had leave a deep impression in me.”

2nd place
The 2nd place goes to Hayami Saori with a support rating of approximately 7%. She had ranked up from 3rd place last year.

There were a lot of comment that agree that her recital can make relax a person, such as “Her calm and clear voice make me feel comfortable and it make me want to hear more of it”, and “I want to healed by the gentle Goddess like voice of Hayami-san.”
There was fans who got charmed by her other than her characters, “She has done the narration for the variety program but her clear voice can be recognized immediately without emphasizing on it. It make me want to hear it unconsciously.”

3rd place
The 3rd place goes to Hanazawa Kana with a support rating of approximately 5%. She had ranked up from 4th place last year.

A lot of comments mentioning they want to be healed by her soft voice, such as “Her cute, dignified voice make me want to hear her recital properly”, “It because I can hear the voice gentle to the ear peacefully”, and “Her angelic voice will make me happy.”

The voice actor who took the top place in the survey are all voice actor that has a kind voice. Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, Yuuki Aoi has started a children book's read aloud project “#Seiyu Roudokukai” for the parent and children that are staying at home.
As a lot of voice actors has participated in this project, more people are aware on how interesting reading aloud is.

■Top 20 Ranking
“Which voice actor do you want to hear their “reading aloud” (Female Voice Actor Category 2020 version)”
1: Sawashiro Miyuki
2: Hayami Saori
3: Hanazawa Kana
4:Uchida Maaya
5: Noto Mamiko
6: Yuuki Aoi
7: Minase Inori
8: Ogata Megumi
9: Hayashibara Megumi
10: Sakamoto Maaya
11: Tanaka Mayumi
12: Takayama Minami
13: Kuwashima Houko
14: Sakura Ayane
15: Kayano Ai
15: Tanaka Atsuko
17: Kugimiya Rie
17: Park Romi
19: Mizuki Nana
20: Kitou Akari
20: Satou Satomi
20: Nozawa Miyako

(Survey Period: Jun. 7~ Jun. 14, 2020)