How many favorite voice actors do Japanese high school kids have and who are they?

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Survey sheds light on who the most popular voices in anime are among boys and girls these days.

You may have picked up on the fact that we’re big fans of particular anime and authors at SoraNews24, especially classics from before the new millennium and pretty much anything by Rumiko Takahashi. Our favorite series often go hand in hand with some of our favorite Japanese voice actors, from a legendary singer and “jeanist” award winner to the too-sexy-for-their-own-good men in the business. But since many of us are of a generation that remembers painstakingly recording each new episode of anime on their VCRs, we were curious to find out which professionals the current crowd of high school kids hold in highest esteem.

▼ Many of our favorite voice actors are from this era of anime, if you know what we mean.

Enter Messaging app Line’s recent survey about high school students’ anime-watching habits. 841 students (428 boys and 413 girls) who responded that they watch anime on something of a regular basis went on to answer some further questions about whether they have any favorite voice actors and in turn who those actors are.

Do you have (a) favorite voice actor(s)? If so, how many? (all responses)
● 10 or more: 15 percent
● 6-9: 4 percent
● 4-5: 10 percent
● 2-3: 23 percent
● 1: 7 percent
● I don’t have a favorite voice actor: 41 percent

The results indicate that just shy of 60 percent have at least one favorite voice actor. Among those that do, the most common response for both boys and girls was that they have two to three favorites. The distributions between number of favorites also checked out almost exactly the same for both boys and girls, though almost 20 percent of first-year high school girls responded that they have 10 or more favorites, making us wonder how much of a time commitment it must be to follow the activities of so many professionals.

Those who wrote that they have one or more favorite voice actors then proceeded to list their favorites, which were subsequently compiled into the results below.

Who’s your favorite voice actor? (all responses)
1. Yuki Kaji (3.9 percent of respondents)
2. Inori Minase (3.0 percent)
3. Kana Hanazawa (2.5 percent)
4. Hiroshi Kamiya (2.4 percent)
5. Natsuki Hanae (2.0 percent)
6 [tie]. Tomokazu Sugita (1.9 percent)
6 [tie]. Hiro Shimono (1.9 percent)
8. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (1.8 percent)
9. Kenjiro Tsuda (1.5 percent)
10. Aoi Yuki (1.4 percent)
I don’t have a favorite voice actor (41.5 percent)

In the overall ranking, 36-year-old male actor Yuki Kaji won the top spot for all respondents. Besides being known for his sexy smart mirror compliments, he’s also starred in some of the hottest anime of the past several years, including as Attack on Titan’s Eren Jaeger, Haikyu!!’s Kenma Kozume, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer’s Sabito, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic’s Alibaba Saluja, My Hero Academia’s Shoto Todoroki, and The Seven Deadly Sins’ Meliodas.

▼ Yuki Kaji

26-year-old female actor Inori Minase took second place as the only other person to score at three percent or higher. Among her various roles, Inori has provided the voice for The Anthem of the Heart‘s Jun Naruse, Is the Order a Rabbit?’s Chino Kafu, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?’s Hestia, Love Lab’s Suzune Tanahashi, and Re:ZERO – Starting Life in Another World’s Rem.

▼ Inori Minase

Rounding out third place was 32-year-old female actor Kana Hanazawa, whose many credits include Angel Beats!’s Angel/Kanade Tachibana, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer’s Mitsuri Kanroji, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic’s Kogyoku Ren, Psycho-Pass’ Akane Tsunemori, and Tokyo Ghoul’s Rize Kamishiro.

▼ Kana Hanazawa

Many of the above stars are engaged not only in voice acting but also in other kinds of performing, singing, narrating, and even YouTube-ing, ensuring that their talents are heard in a variety of forums.

The results, when broken down by sex, revealed some interesting differences. Let’s look at the boys’ responses first.

Who’s your favorite voice actor? (boys’ responses)
1. Inori Minase (14.9 percent of respondents)
2. Kana Hanazawa (4.2 percent)
3. Tomokazu Sugita (3.3 percent)
4. Yuki Kaji (3 percent)
5. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (2.6 percent)
I don’t have a favorite voice actor (41.6 percent)

Female voice actors took the top two spots, with male actors rounding out the top five. Second-place overall winner Inori Minase won first place by a significant margin, followed by Kana Hanazawa in second. 41-year-old Tomokazu Sugita (Assassination Classroom’s Tadaomi Karasuma, Gintama’s Gintoki Sakata, and Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer’s Gyomei Himejima), who tied for sixth in the overall ranking, secured third place among the boys.

▼ Dreaming of Inori Minase, perhaps?

Next, on to the girls’ top picks.

Who’s your favorite voice actor? (girls’ responses)
1. Yuki Kaji (4.8 percent of respondents)
2. Hiro Shimono (3.4 percent)
3. Hiroshi Kamiya (2.9 percent)
4 [tie]. Kenjiro Tsuda (1.9 percent)
4 [tie]. Takuya Eguchi (1.9 percent)
I don’t have a favorite voice actor (41.4 percent)

Meanwhile, on the girls’ side of things, the top five picks were all male voice actors. Yuki Kaji clinched first place again while 41-year-old Hiro Shimono (Attack on Titan’s Connie Springer, Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer’s Zenitsu Agatsuma, and My Hero Academia’s Dabi), the other sixth-place overall winner, took second. 46-year-old Hiroshi Kamiya (Angel Beats!’s Yuzuru Otonashi, Attack on Titan’s Levi Ackerman, and Natsume’s Book of Friends’ Takashi Natsume) came in third place among the girls and fourth overall.

▼ Actual photographic evidence of what could happen if you disagree with a high school girl’s favorite voice actors.

Now that we’ve gotten a better understanding of the most popular voice actors among the younger generation, we’ll just have to keep hoping that they’ll recognize the talent of classic actors such as Kappei Yamaguchi and others on their surveys someday, too.

Source: Line Research via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
Insert images: SoraNews24, Pakutaso (1, 2)
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