Happy birthday to veteran voice actress Megumi Hayashibara, who turns 56 years old today! She’s a fantastic voice talent who blazed a path as the first seiyu to sign a record deal as a singer, thanks to her work as Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Let’s explore her amazing career in this blog post!
(Yes, I know we just did a post celebrating the birthday of Aoi Yuuki a few days ago. Why do Japan’s voice actresses have birthdays so close together???)
What’s Your Favorite Megumi Hayashibara Voice Actress Role?
Megumi Hayashibara grew up watching anime like Space Battleship Yamato, and at a young age she wondered who the people providing the voices for the anime were. After graduating from high school she had planned to become a nurse, but one day while browsing manga in a bookstore she saw an advertisement for a voice actress audition. Her parents were against her halting her studies. But they agreed she could pursue her new dream of becoming a seiyu as long as she continued work on her nursing certification in case things didn’t work out.
Her breakout role was as the female half of Ranma from Ranma 1/2. But she really exploded in popularity as Rei Ayanami from Evangelion, which had the entire country quoting lines like anata wa shinanai wa…watashi ga mamoru mono (“you won’t die… I’m going to protect you”). Her popularity led to something that had never happened before: she became the first Japanese voice actress to receive a record contract as a singer. These days we take it for granted that top voice talent will also have singing careers, but Megumi started it all.
Megumi Hayashibara’s rise to popularity is said to be part of the “third wave boom” of anime voice actors, beginning in 1993. This was when seiyu became part of the marketing behind anime, and fans started to follow shows simply because their favorite voices were in them.
Let’s look at the top voice actress roles of Megumi Hayashibara!
Ai Amano from Video Girl Ai. One of the best examples of the manga being way better than the anime, I was nevertheless a huge fan of this series.
Musashi/Jessie from Pokémon. Although international fans won’t be familiar with Jesse’s voice in Japanese, Megumi Hayashibara did great work in the series. She also voices Bulbasaur.
Ranma Saotome (female version) from Ranma 1/2. One of the first anime that became so popular you could show it to your “normie” friends.
Ai Haibara from Detective Conan. Megumi reportedly got this role because the manga creator was a Rei Ayanami fan and wanted Megumi to voice his character.
Lina Inverse from Slayers. Another significant role that fans have closely identified with Megumi-chan is Lina from Slayers. She also sang the OP and ED songs for the series, helping to reinforce the idea that seiyu make the best singers of anime songs.
Haruko Haruhara from FLCL. Another role fans might not be familiar with in Japanese because the English dub was so popular.
Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. Another iconic role for Megumi. Did you watch this anime in subtitled or English dubbed form?
Rei Ayanami from Evangelion. Of course, the most epic voice role for Megumi Hayashibara is Rei from Eva, which defined her career and put her at the top of Japan’s voice actress pantheon until the end of time. How could anyone else have performed this role? Megumi also voiced Shinji’s mother Yui (naturally) and Pen Pen the penguin.
Let’s finish this post by listening to Megumi Hayashibara singing “Fly Me to the Moon” from Evangelion.
Thanks for reading this post celebrating the birthday of Megumi Hayashibara. What was the first role of hers you encountered?
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