The Japanese are fans of “ranking” TV shows that rank famous products for you, and it’s not hard to find variety shows that search out the most delicious gyoza, ramen or ekiben (train station bento) from around Japan and rank it for you. The other day I caught a different kind of ranking show: they asked 100 currently working anime voice actors to choose the 25 seiyu who had inspired them the most, a list that included the voices of such legendary characters as Crayon Shin-chan, Son Gokuh, Doraemon, Rei Ayanami, Luffy from One Piece, and so on. Over the two hour period, the show counted down the top names, with the voice actors in the studio recounting amusing “NG” stories (what the Japanese call bloopers, from “no good”) of mistakes they’d made during recording sessions, and so on.
The #1 most respected voice actor was Koichi Yamadera, the voice of Kaji-san.
