Happy Birthday, Kayano Ai-san! Who’s Your Favorite Character? 3rd Place “Saekano” Kasumigaoka Utaha, 2nd Place “Anohana” Menma… A Change in the Characters Below 2nd Place!

September 13 is Kayano Ai-san’s birthday.

She debuted as a voice actor in 2010 and won the Best Rookie Actor Award in the 6th Seiyu Awards.
In 2021, she is in various titles including, “Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation”, “Girls und Panzer das Finale” Episode 3, and the “ARIA” series. She also released a memorial book & mini-album “Musunde Hiraite” in March to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her debut as a voice actor.

To celebrate her birthday, we conducted the same readers’ survey as last year asking, “Who’s Your Favorite Character Voiced by Kayano Ai-san?” There were 312 votes during the survey period from August 30 to September 6.
Most of the voters were male with a gender ratio of 70% male to 30% female, and the age range was on the younger side with 35% under 20 and 35% in their 20s.

■”SAO” Alice tops the list! Characters below 2nd place changed their rankings!

1st Place

Alice from “Sword Art Online Alicization” topped the list with 14% of the votes, keeping her at the top for 3 years in a row.

Fans supported her for being a fighting heroine with comments like, “Throughout the series, she portrayed every element of Alice, her strength, kindness, and cuteness,” and “I had the impression that Kayano-san plays cute characters, but when she played the dignified and powerful Alice, she became a character I admire.”
The fact that she was in a long-running series, 4 seasons in total including “War of Underworld”, is another reason why she left a strong impression on her fans.

2nd Place

2nd place went to Menma from “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day” with roughly 11% of the votes, moving her up from 5th place last year.

Menma is a childhood friend who suddenly appears in front of Jintan, a high school student who isolates himself from society. The girl with a secret received comments such as, “I love Menma’s unique squishy smile, and she has the most wonderful voice I’ve ever heard in an anime!”, and “How she portrays Menma’s true feelings that gradually get revealed towards the last episode and how she expresses her emotions is so amazing.”

By the way, 2021 is the 10th anniversary year of the broadcast. There were also many comments celebrating the shows 10th anniversary, “I’m happy I got to see Menma after all these years in the special program, radio, and the reading at the event to celebrate the 10th anniversary!” and “As I re-watched the anime from the beginning for the 10th anniversary, I realized once again that this show will never fade away.”

3rd Place

Kasumigaoka Utaha took 3rd place with roughly 9% of the votes, moving down from 2nd place last year.

“The best sadistic, dark-haired heroine! And yet, she’s also cute when she’s being a chicken,” “Her yandere voice and fragile kindness are wonderful. Kayano-san is the only one who can play Utaha senpai,” and “I love her dark long hair and big sister character. I’m hoping that “Koisuru Metronome”, which follows Utaha senpai as the protagonist, receives an anime adaptation!” are comments that show how the gap between her sharp tongue and her vulnerable side she occasionally shows melted the hearts of so many fans.

■Here are some comments for other characters!

For Darkness from “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!”, “A delusional female warrior is completely different from the characters she played in the past, but she pulled it off, showing her wide range of acting and talent.”
For Juliet Persia from “Boarding School Juliet”, “She’s earnest, kind, and her single-minded love is so cute. At the same time, she also has a dignified side aiming straight towards her goal, making her full of charms.”

For Saeki Sayaka from “Bloom Into You”, “Kayano-san’s cool voice is perfect for Sayaka. Although she seems to be cool and intelligent, I could feel the subtle and bittersweet emotions of her suppressing her feelings for her love and trying to stay as friends.”
There were also votes for the title which just had its latest commercial for the original novel released. For Shiro from “No Game No Life”, “I love Shiro’s cute whisper voice. It’s amazing how she sings the ending theme in her voice!”, and “Her voice hasn’t changed in the newly released commercial, and it made me fascinated by her again.”

While “SAO” Alice is strong in the 2021 survey, titles that had new developments, such as “Anohana”, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and “No Game No Life”, which released its latest commercial, moved up the ranking.

■Top 20

“Who’s Your Favorite Character Voiced by Kayano Ai-san? 2021 Edition”

1. Alice “Sword Art Online Alicization”
2. Menma (Honma Meiko) “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day”
3. Kasumigaoka Utaha “Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend”
4. Akatsuki Kirika “Symphogear”
5. Darkness “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!”
6. Shiro “No Game No Life”
7. Teruhashi Kokomi “The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.”
8. Hoto Mocha “Is the Order a Rabbit?”
9. Nishina Toriko “Otherside Picnic”
10. Kochou Kanae “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba”
10. Hiradaira Chisaki “Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea”
10. Juliet Persia “Boarding School Juliet”
13. Shiina Mashiro “The Pet Girl of Sakurasou”
14. Ibara Mayaka “Hyouka”
14. Dominique “The Case Study of Vanitas”
16. Itsuwa “A Certain Magical Index”
16. Saeki Sayaka “Bloom Into You”
16. Takebe Saori “Girls und Panzer”
16. Yuzuriha Inori “Guilty Crown”
20. Arimura Shion “Alternative Girls”
20. Kawamoto Akari “March Comes In like a Lion”
20. Kurashiki Shiori “Tokyo Xanadu”
20. Sakura Megumi “School-Live!”

(Voting Period: August 30 – September 6, 2021)

*This survey was held to investigate the readers’ “interests and attention towards current anime titles and characters”. The results should not be used to determine the supremacy of characters and titles. We hope this article will help you find new anime/characters and deepen your understanding of them.