Koshimizu Ami 小清水亜美 is just 21, but already she is one of the top voice actresses in Japan. The youthful vibrancy and great professionalism of her voice have won her numerous good roles, and she was recognized as the top supporting actress of 2006 in the first annual Seiyuu Awards."Amisuke," as she is called, is a big puppy-dog of a woman, with a lot of energy, a sweet temper, and a big mouth -- and many, many friends. Her blog is full of pictures of her with her seiyuu pals: Sanpei Yuuko, Mizusawa Fumie, Iizuka Mayumi, Itsuki Yui, Nazuka Kaori, Nabatame Hitomi, Yukana, Mizuhashi Kaori, Shimizu Kaori, Kadowaki Mai...the list goes on. She seems to be a strong, friendly person, with a sense of fun and an open, innocent heart.Depite her youth, she is already a veteran. Her debut role was as Nadja in Ashita no Nadja, when she was 17 years old and in 11th grade. Her most famous role is Tenma in School Rumble. And she won her supporting actress award for the role of Karen in Code Geass.Ami was born in Tokyo and was involved in acting from an early age. She was in the famous Wakakusa ("Young Grasses") Theatre Group when she got her debut role as Nadja in 2003. Wakakusa represented her for two years, then she became an independent, not attached to any agency, but hiring her own manager/assistant. The good roles she has got since then attest that leaving the protection of an agency did not hurt her. Recently, she is even branching out into production. She produced a singing event on Saturday at the Ginza branch of a karaoke chain, starring herself, Sanpei Yuuko, and others. (l-r) Ami at about ten; Nadja; Tenma; Ami; Ami.Ami's voice has a bright quality that gives her characters a strong presence. It was her striking performance as Tenko, the down-to-earth angel in Kamisama Kazoku, that put her at the front of my mind. The sweet immediacy she gave the role just blew me away.She also has great voice-control, the kind of supple control that can give a phrase a lot of movement and nuance. And she has tremendous range: from gentle Tenko to the masculine Paraietta in Simoun. From serious rebel Karen in Code Geass to scatterbrained Tenma.(left) Ami with Noto Mamiko: Tenma and Yakumo, sisters in School Rumble. Amisuke shows her typical exuberance, Noto-Kawaii her typical tranquillity.Ami can make even minor roles stand out. She made Kotomi in Asatte no Houkou come alive within seconds. As Sae in sola, she created a weird, somewhat unlikeable character with a unique fey drawl. The portrayal was so strong that it turned some viewers right off.Ami is proud of her ability as a seiyuu -- in a good way, as Kitamura Eri once said. She has declared that she intends to be as good a seiyuu as anyone. She is beginning to get roles that demand serious emotion, such as Paraietta and Karen, but she is so far best known for comedy.She can also sing. She has numerous character CDs, and is one of the better seiyuu singers. Unfortunately, her first album, Natural, did not do very well commercially, despite the two good video features that came with the premium edition. She has also performed on stage in the musical version of School Rumble.People have said that Ami's real personality resembles that of the wise fool Tenma in Sukuran (School Rumble). But when Nabatame Hitomi and Shimizu Kaori said that on-air, Ami bridled, saying she wasn't that dumb, and that people probably thought so just because it was her voice. Of course, the naive openness of her reaction just confirmed that she does in fact have something in common with Tenma. (l-r) Ami at her radio show; Ami with the figure of her character from Shuraki; Ami with Chinese chopsticks on location in Shanghai.When she was 17 and recording the drama CD for Nadja, she made a number of reading mistakes, since she didn't know kanji that well. She says in her blog that she still has a lot to learn. She dropped out of high school when her career took off, and only recently got her graduation diploma, by distance education from a school in Aomori. But her comparative lack of education doesn't mean she isn't smart and capable, as her success as an independent shows.Since 2005, she has been a regular host on the anime music radio broadcast Comchat Countdown, along with Sakurai Takahiro. With her nimble tongue, she is good at repeated catchphrases and puns; and with her straightforward nature, she often just blurts out what she thinks. Once when Ohara Sayaka was a guest on the show, Ami said she wanted to give as mature and womanly an impression as Ohara-san. Sakurai and Nabatame Hitomi, who was also a guest, laughed that that would be a real stretch. (l-r) Ami with her close friend Sanpei Yuuko; Ami's friend Itsuki Yui; Ami with Naba-sama (Nabatame Hitomi).Ami has said of herself that she talks too much, and speaks out when she should keep quiet. She had a moving piece in her blog earlier this year, lamenting how words can hurt people, and saying that since words were a seiyuu's profession she should be more careful with them.But it doesn't seem to make much difference to her friends. She and Sanpei Yuuko -- whom she calls "Pe" -- have been friends for ten years, since middle school. Pe is another highly talented and successful seiyuu. She was Renton in Eureka7, Souta for the last thirteen episodes or so of Otogijushi Akazukin, and Cure Dream in Precure 5. They are so close that Ami sometimes refers to Pe as "my wife" (in English). They even held a mock wedding banquet on a radio show last January, with Ami as the bride. The fact that neither one of them referred to the other in their blogs for a few weeks after that makes me think they realized they had maybe gone a bit too far. (l-r) Ami with her senpai Iizuka Mayumi; Ami, Nazuka Kaori (Eureka in Eureka 7), Kitamura Eri (Saya in Blood+), and Sanpei Yuuko; Ami's friend Mizusawa Fumie (Juliet in RxJ).Yuri pretense is a common meme in seiyuu radio shows, so the wedding banquet was probably all joke. But Amisuke and Pe are definitely very close friends, and Ami says she hopes they can be together forever. Nabatame Hitomi (Nobue in Ichigo Mashimaro) is a friend of Ami's who makes the yuri meme part of her public myth. The joke is that Ami is Naba-sama's "number three girlfriend": Itou Shizuka (who had a radio show with Naba-sama, and was Rei in Marimite) is her wife, and Noto Mamiko and Shimizu Kaori (Lain) are her first two girlfriends.Seiyuu Iizuka Mayumi (Makoto in Kanon) was part of the stimulus for Ami to become a seiyuu. She was an admired senior, several years ahead of Ami in the Wakakusa troupe, and they are still friends. (l-r) Ami, Makino Yui, Pe; Yukana and Ami; Shimizu Kaori.Ami had unspecified health problems a few months ago, although they don't seem to have affected her work schedule. She has said that since she reached 20, sometimes her body won't follow where her mind wants to go. Once when she was ill, her friend seiyuu/singer Itsuka Yui ("Yuin", Kira in Futakoi), who lives only five minutes' walk away, brought over some rice porridge for her.Ami has mentioned staying the night at Yuin's place, as she has at Pe's. On her 21st birthday, in February, Yuin and Kadowaki Mai (Souju in Futakoi) made her a cake. She has previously gone traveling with the pair, and she visited a hot spring last week with Saiga Mitsuki (Francis in Nadja, Makoto in Genshiken) and the (female) director of her radio show. Ami and Pe were invited to a birthday party for pro wrestler Kikutarou. He is apparently also a friend.These days, you can hear Ami in many shows. She is Yayoi in Xenoglossia, Yutira in Heroic Age, Sae in the recently concluded sola, Aika in AIKa R-16 Virgin Mission, and Kanako in the Marimite 3 OVA series. The final two episodes of (the first series of?) Code Geass will air at the end of July. This fall, Ami will star in Kimi Kiss ~pure rouge~. And she is swordswoman Akatsuki in Shuraki, a drama CD that is coming out this fall, marketed with quite dramatic 1/8 scale figures. (l-r) Itsuki Yui and Kadowaki Mai with the cake they brought Ami on her 21st birthday; Pe with a cake for her own 21st birthday, a few days after Ami's; Saiga Mitsuki. (below left) a capybara.In a show where seiyuu were asked what animal they would be, Noto Mamiko, Nabatame Hitomi, and Horie Yui all said that if Ami were an animal she would be a rodent. Ami felt put down. Then in a game center UFO catcher, her friends all wanted her to go for a capybara cellphone strap. The fact is, she does look a bit like a capybara, the South American animal that is the largest rodent in the world -- an extremely pretty capybara, of course.Ami has said she would like to buy land on the moon -- on the side facing the Earth -- and to make a "Koshimizu Shogunate" there, where she would create a "good country." I think big Amisuke would make a great ruler, positive and humane. She's looking for taxpayers, she says. Where do I sign up?Statistics: Born Tokyo, 15 February 1986. Height 168 cm, weight 48 kg (just over 5'6" and around 106 lb).Roles: Here are her major roles over the years, with a few recent minor roles included. Full info is available from the sites following the list:-- 2003: Nadja (Ashita no Nadja), Claes (Gunslinger Girl).-- 2004: Tenma (School Rumble), Kanoko (Sweet Valerians), Ichijou Sumireko (Futakoi)-- 2005: Anemone (Eureka 7), Natsuko (Futari wa Precure Max Heart), Nina Wang (Mai-Otome)-- 2006: Tenko (Kamisama Kazoku), Saya (Lemon Angel Project), Paraietta (Simoun), Megumi (Muteki Kanban Musume), Karen (Code Geass), Kotomi (Asatte no Houkou), Ritsuko Kubel Kettenkrad (Kujibiki Unbalance), Yukari (Gift~Eternal Rainbow~).-- 2007: Yayoi (Idolmaster Xenoglossia), Sae (sola), Yutira (Heroic Age), Kanako (Marimite 3), Aika (AIKa R-16 Virgin Mission), Ichiru (Keitai Shoujo), Yumi (KimiKiss pure rouge).English-language sites:Anime News Networken.wikipediaHashihime seiyuu galleryJapanese sites:ja.wikipediaAmi's home pageAmi's blogSeiyuu Watch Koshimizu Ami postsSanpei Yuuko's blogItsuki Yui's blogKadowaki Mai's blogMizusawa Fumie's blogNazuka Kaori's blogIizuka Mayumi's blogYouTube:-- Ami at 17 in an appearance for Ashita no Nadja (YouTube)-- Ami (Nina) and Kikuchi Mika (Arika) in a ten-minute TV talk for Mai-Otome. It takes a couple of minutes for them to relax, but after that they are quite funny. (YouTube)-- Ami and Mika at a Voice NewType photoshoot. (YouTube)-- Ami and Horie Yui performing at the Futakoi Live event (YouTube)
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