Recently, there has been a rise of Japanese voice actors (Seiyuu) starting their own YouTube channels. One possible reason for this trend is that voice actors want to connect with their fans as much as possible, especially during these tough times where COVID-19 is still uncontainable. Another reason behind this trend is that the voice actors just want to do what they like and share it with their fans in hopes of giving them entertainment.
Here are some well-known voice actors that set foot on their YouTube journey in 2020!
#1 Shirai Yusuke 白井 悠介
Shirai Yusuke is known for voicing characters from various music/idol series like Ramuda from HypMic, Yamato from IDOLiSH7 and Haruna from iDOLM@STER SideM. Shirai’s YouTube channel is entitled しらいむチャンネル (Shiraimu’s Channel) where he aims to upload 3 videos a week.
Before starting the channel, he actually discussed the matter with his manager and received his approval. You can watch the process of him negotiating with his manager on his first YouTube video. He also mentioned that he has been thinking of debuting on YouTube for almost half a year before this.
#2 Toriumi Kousuke 鳥海 浩輔
Toriumi Kousuke voices Guido Mista from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Mikazuki from Touken Ranbu. He considers being a YouTuber as a trend and wants to hop on it. Like many other YouTubers, Toriumi wants to do what he enjoys and what he thinks his fans would enjoy seeing him do, though he also mentions releasing cooking, food or drinking related videos, and doing something with his voice acting skills.
He also encouraged people to leave suggestions on what he should do in his videos in the comments. He also named the channel 鳥さん学級 which translates to Tori-san’s Class.
#3 Inoue Kazuhiko 井上和彦
Inoue Kazuhiko is a voice actor with 44 years of experience working in Japan’s voice acting industry, mostly known for voicing Kakashi from Naruto. Inoue used his name as his channel name while titling his videos on YouTube as “KAZUFUN” after his fan club, “KAZUFAN” (Note: both “FUN” and “FAN” are pronounced the same way as “fun” in Japanese). He also uses an app called Perfect Video to edit his videos.
For now, Inoue is sharing his experience and passion on cycling through his videos. Enjoy excellent landscapes and beautiful sceneries in Japan along the journey when watching his videos.
#4 Kimura Ryohei 木村良平
The voice actor behind the characters Kise Ryouta (Kuroko no Basket), Bokuto Koutaro (Haikyuu!!), Kamui (Psycho Pass), Kimura Ryohei, is now on YouTube! Kimura’s channel goes by the name “良平は酒飲みながらゲームしたい。” which translates into “Ryohei drinks while playing games.” He actually really enjoys watching game commentaries, which led him to start he own YouTube channel so he could do it himself.
On his channel bio, Kimura mentioned that he will be doing both recording and editing himself ,while his staff is in charge of uploading the videos and managing the channel. He also states that updates on his channel are irregular but he aims to upload two videos a week.
#5 Kaji Yuki 梶裕貴
The famous “main character” voice actor, Kaji Yuki who voiced Eren from Attack on Titan and Todoroki from My Hero Academia has just started his own YouTube channel. Kaji officially announced on Twitter that he is on YouTube on 8 April 2020. He actually started to do this by discussing it with a friend who is also a voice actor.
In his first video, he mentioned that he thought of what content that would bring a young child joy and positivity during these hard times, so he ended up focusing on reading stories on his channel. It is unknown on how regularly the channel will be updated so if you’re a fan, be sure to subscribe to the channel to get the latest updates.
Are there any voice actors that you would like to see starting their own YouTube channels? Let us known in the comments!
