I've finally made a page with photos of all the seiyuus in Simoun, and pics of their characters. Better late than never. Despite the fact that some of the characters were male, the entire cast was female. For various reasons, probably both social and aural, this gave the show some of its special flavor. It was nice to find the faces of some of the older seiyuus, such as those for Wauf and Halconf and Anubituf. And Furoe's seiyuu, who turns out to be 16, has only done this one show, so her photo is a cap from one of the DVD extras. There are links to further info about each seiyuu. There's also a link to pages showing pics of all the minor characters and telling which one of the main cast members played them. In seeking out information about Yukana (Dominura), I discovered that she is a controversial figure. In 2000, she was accused of having ruined one sound director's marriage. When you see her photo, you'll see someone who looks rather sharp and extremely attractive. She took six months off to go and do English study in the US, then returned and changed her stage name from Nogami Yukana to just Yukana. One post I saw said that in fact the sound director in question was a bachelor, so who knows what actually happened. Then last year, she was chosen to play Four Murasame in a new Zeta Gundam OVA, and the older seiyuu who had played the role in the '80s went ballistic, covering her home page with closely-argued tirades against the sound director who had chosen Yukana. The rumor was that Yukana had got the role because of a personal or physical relationship with the sound director. The "casting couch" is apparently not unknown in the seiyuus' world. Gundam fans sided with the previous seiyuu and although their ire was against the sound director, Yukana was tarnished. In Yukana's entry in the Hashihime Seiyuu Gallery, there's a link to a Japanese site about the controversy. But Yukana's great talent seems to have overcome all that. Not only did she play Mashiro in Mai-Otome, and Dominura, Eri and Erif in Simoun, but she has important roles in two current hits: Code Geass and Soukou no Strain. Roles that differ considerably from either of her roles in Simoun. I love her work in both shows, and so far can actually recommend the latter show itself, which is mecha SF with a plot based loosely on A Little Princess (!?), and which stars the great Kawasumi Ayako.
(Read the rest of this entry)