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Aug. 11 is Taniyama Kishou-san's birthday.

Taniyama Kishou-san made his debut as a voice actor in mid of 1990's. In the 6th Seiyu Awards, he won the “Best Musical Performance” as a member of ST☆RISH, a unit from the “Uta no Prince-sama” series. In 2020, he voiced the main character from various titles such as “pet”. In 2005, he formed the music unit GRANRODE and had conducted the first online live, called “GRANRODEO 15th ANNIVERSARY Startup Live ~It just 15 years~” on Jul. 31 to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

At Anime!Anime!, we had conducted the annual reader survey titled “Who is your favorite character voiced by Taniyama Kishou? 2020 ver.” to celebrate his birthday. 479 responses were received between the survey period of Jul. 27 until Aug. 3.
The majority of the votes came from the female, which is about 92% while 8% is from males. For the age distribution, the votes came froma wide age generation, where about 35% of the votes came from aged 19, and below, about 25% came from those in their twenties, and about 20% came from those in their thirties.

■ The immovable top rank! The popular characters showed their popularity this year as well
1st Place
The first place goes to Nakahara Chuuya from “Bungou Stary Dogs”. The support rating is about 40%, and he took first place for three consecutive years.

Various comments regarding the screaming scenes, the acting which interweaves between hard-line and moderate lines, theme song, etc., were received. For example, “The gap between his coldheartedness as an executive of the Port Mafia, and the cuteness when being teased by Dazai-san, is irresistible,” “His screaming when running amok with his ability “Upon the Tainted Sorrow”, is just like a beautiful singing voice,” and “This is the character that makes me fall for Kishou-san. I also become a fan of GRANRODEO after hearing the opening theme!”

There were also comments from fans regarding the poet, which the character was a model of, “When I heard voice of Nakahara Chuuya's voice by Kishou-san, I felt as if Nakahara Chuuya from memo of Kobayashi Hideo, and Yasuhara Yoshihiro, was revived,” and “Nakahara Chuuya was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, so I was surprised when a voice actor from the same birthplace had gotten the role.”

2nd Place
The second place goes to Shinomiya Natsuki from “Uta no Prince-sama”. The support rating is about 15%, and he kept his ranking for three consecutive years.

We have received comments regarding the beautiful voice after he changes his character's personality, including “Only Kishou-san can sing in a powerful, cool voice despite the character's kind and delicate personality. He even does a good job of acting the cool, sharp personality of the second persona, Satsuki,” and “It seems to be difficult in voicing two types of character, but I like how he appears to show the cuteness, and coolness easily. And his singing voice! He also displays a singing voice that fits the music genius, Natsuki…” At the same time, a comment was mentioning the popularity comes from the distinction acting when compare with other characters, which are “The character is a cute, mischievous, and fluffy type but I enjoyed hearing the voices that are rare from the others.”

3rd Place
Third place goes to Jean Kirstein from “Attack on Titan”. The support rating is about 9% and he remains at the third place for two consecutive years.

Comments received are, “He is facing the Titan's threat despite being aware of his own weakness. I also like how he has human-like feeling,” “He is a character filled with emotional in the original work but I think he emotional had gone up a level after being voiced by Kishou-san,” and “Among the other irregular character, he is the most humane, and had the most feelings, making him cool. I feel empathy unintentionally.”
Don't miss out on emotional acting from the humane character in “'Attack on Titan' The Final Season”.

■Let's introduce the other comments!!
Regarding Tsukasa from “pet”, “The love filled with hatred, suffering, pain, distorted… I feel a fresh feeling building up every time I watched 'pet',” and “I am attracted to his acting as he is able to express the bare voice of a human.”

Regarding Tsukimori Len from “La Corda d'Oro”, “The singing of the character's song differs from the GRANRODEO's singing, and Taniyama-san's comfortable's voice is a perfect match with this strong-willed character. It makes me tremble.”

Regarding Sakamoto Ryouma from “Bakumatsu ROCK”, “This is a character that is able to make full use of Taniyama-san's rock personality. Even the story is also 'Rock!'.”
Regarding Natsume Kenji (known as Tobi) from “Ahiru no Sora”, “I can felt the coolness and interesting part from each of his strong Hiroshima dialect's line. Kishou-san's acting while using a dialect is quite charming, and it makes me fall for him more. I wish he could continue acting passionate, showy guys!”, shows that there is a vote received for an ongoing title.

Following the survey coducted last year, various characters from music theme works, including “Uta no Prince-sama”, “La Corda d'Oro”, and “SHOW BY ROCK!!”, had ranked in.

■Top 20 Ranking
“Who is your favorite character voiced by Taniyama Kishou? 2020 ver.”
1. Nakahara Chuuya “Bungou Stray Dogs”
2. Shinomiya Natsuki “Uta no Prince-sama”
3. Jean Kirstein “Attack on Titan”
4. Tsukimori Len “La Corda d'Oro”
5. Himuro Tatsuya “Kuroko's Basketball”
6. Natsume Kenji “Ahiru no Sora”
7. Tsukasa “pet”
8. Ikki “AMNESIA”
9. Kenji Shuji “Zettai Karen Children”
10. Crow “SHOW BY ROCK!!”
11. Aoidos “Granblue Fantasy”
12. Gunji “Togainu no Chi”
12. Sloth “Shirokuma Cafe”
12. Nayumi Takayuki “Kimi ga Nozomu Eien”
15. Chiaki Togane “La Corda d'Oro Blue Sky”
15. Hanai Azusa “Big Windup!”
17. Mori Nagayoshi “Fate/Grand Order”
18. Kitan “Gurren Langann”
18. Kiyojuuji Kiyotsugu “Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan”
18. Fungami Yuya “JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable”
18. Judah “Fist of the North Star Raoh Gaiden: Heaven of Overlord” “Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor)”

(Survey Period: Jul. 27 – Aug. 3, 2020)