Anime Anime Global

April 21 is Shimono Hiro’s birthday.

Shimono Hiro made his debut in the 2000s. He won Best Musical Performance as a member of ST☆RISH on the 6th Seiyu Award, and Most Valuable Seiyu on the 15th. He is playing main characters in “Kemono Jihen”, “Bakuten!!”, and other titles this year as well.

To celebrate his birthday, we conducted a reader survey titled ‘Who is your most favorite character voiced by Shimono Hiro?’ again. During the survey period from April 7 to April 14, a total of 2,217 responses were received. For the gender ratio, the females were the majority with about 94% while the males were about 6%. For the age distribution, we received the majority of responses from the readers of younger ages: about 35% were from minors, 29% were from twenties, and 18% were from thirties.

■Top-3 characters held the spots. Some characters from the latest titles have been ranked high.
1st place
1st place went to Agatsuma Zenitsu “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” as last year. The support rating was about 26 %.
The readers mentioned his gap: ‘He is usually coward, but he becomes so cool when he fights! The voice to show the gap is amazing.’ ‘He is usually coward, but he can do hard for Nezuko, which is so cute.’
This title is a blockbuster that became the highest-grossing film, and many readers commented, ‘I got to know Shimono-san through this title.’, and ‘Thanks to Zenitsu, I got interested in anime and voice actors.’, which prove its significant influence.

2nd place
2nd place went to Kurusu Sho “Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love Kingdom” as last year.

His strength attracts many readers. Some readers compared the character with Shimono-san himself: ‘He is cute, but also reliable and cool. He never gives up and overcomes any difficulty, which is very impressive.’ ‘He is cheerful, positive, and diligent, which is like Shimono-san himself.’ ‘Shimono-san sings and dances as Kurusu Sho at live performances, which makes me feel like I actually met Sho-kun. That’s wonderful.’

3rd place
3rd place went to Jean Otus “ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.” as last year. The support rating was about 8 %. Top-3 characters held the spots.

The comments received were, ‘I like how calmly Jean talks. He is thoughtful about his younger sister, which is also nice.’, ‘His dull voice is amazing. Shimono-san plays Jean’s cute aspect as well, and I really love the gap.’, ‘He doesn’t show emotional ups and downs that much, so I can feel the attentiveness to how he plays and breathing even more. I also like mature, cool Shimono-san.’ Those 3 characters on the top positions have quite different characteristics.

■Let’s introduce other comments!!

Nobimaru “Kemono Jihen”
‘He perfectly plays the Nobimaru’s clever, scheming aspect.’
‘Nobimaru is mature but sometimes becomes childish, which is perfect for Shimono-san.’
Tajima Yuichiro “Big Windup!”
‘The mood of powerful and honest high-school baseball boy is beautifully captured, so I looked up who plays this character.’
‘Shimono-san matches genius-like Tajima.’

Miyoshi “Joker Game”
‘Shimono-san often plays cute boys, but Miyoshi is a spy with a low voice. I like this gap. This character is sexy and classy, but somewhat frail, which I like as well.’
Kamina Ayato “RahXephon”
‘I really love his mysteriousness and seriousness! I also like the worldview and use of classic.’ His debut work also got some votes.

In the survey 2021, familiar characters received most of the votes. However, Nobimaru “Kemono Jihen” got 7th place from the titles released in 2021.
Among top 20, Anubis “Tototsu ni Egypt Kami”, a non-human character, got a spot as well.

■Ranking Top 20
Who is your most favorite character voiced by Shimono Hiro? 2021
1. Agatsuma Zenitsu “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba”
2. Kurusu Sho “Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love Kingdom”
3. Jean Otus “ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.”
4. Dabi “My Hero Academia”
5. Connie Springer “Attack on Titan The Final Season”
6. Yoshii Akihisa “Baka to Test to Shokanju”
7. Nobimaru “Kemono Jihen”
8. Zeno “Yona of the Dawn”
9. Ohashi “African Office Worker”
10. Tajima Yuichiro “Big Windup!”
11. Tachibana “Teiden Shoujo to Hanemushi no Orchestra”
11. Miyoshi “Joker Game”
13. Ray Blackwell “Ikemen Revolution Alice and Love Magic”
14. Nai “Karneval”
15. Tsubaki Sasuke “Sket Dance”
16. Toudou Heisuke “Shinsengumi Wasurenagusa”
17. Kaburagi Issa “Yowamushi Pedal”
18. Ouma Kokichi “Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony”
19. Anubis “Tototsu ni Egypt Kami”
20. Justice “The Morose Mononokean Tsuzuki”

（Survey Period: April 7 – April 14, 2021)