Even in high school, she was a cosplayer. She went on to do photo sessions for amateur photographers, endearing herself to otaku. And she is a devoted gamer herself.
She is in the running for prettiest of all seiyuus, and definitely for sexiest. Her seiyuu work is good, and she can even sing pretty well, for a seiyuu.
Taken together, all this is a formula for success on many fronts, and Mayayan is succeeding onmost of them. Her first role was in 2010. She had three roles that year; 7 the next; 19 in 2012; 17 in 2013; and an incredible 26 roles last year. And that leaves out her beloved game work, which is growing quickly: she had 41 game roles in 2014.
Mayayan rose to prominence as Rikka in Chuunibyou in 2012, but it was two roles in 2013 that really caught my attention: the wildly inventive Hajime in Gatchaman Crowds, and the mature military officer Koganuma in Outbreak Company. Last year, she was Sharo in Was the Order Rabbit?, and Iki in Noragami. Last season, she was Ranka in Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls; and this season she has five roles in TV series: Ahde Ririruka in Dungeon, Yoshino Yuuki in Shokugeki no Souma, Shidou Irina in High School DxD Born, Doratan in Etotama, and Miyabi in Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches.
Here are pics of a few of her best-known roles: Sanka Rea (Sankarea), Rikka (Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai), Hajime (Gatchaman Crowds) --
Futaba (Ao Haru Ride), Sharo (Is the Order Rabbit?), Koganuma (Outbreak Company) --
Miyabi (Yamada and the 7 Witches), Ranko (Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls) --
Even in her youth, she liked the world of Akihabara. In high school she cosplayed Haruhi and Shana (not sure if this photo is from then or later):
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But her real motive in becoming a seiyuu, she says, was to do voices in the video games she liked to play. Here's a little video of her promoting a Chain Chronicle game:
But her real motive in becoming a seiyuu, she says, was to do voices in the video games she liked to play. Here's a little video of her promoting a Chain Chronicle game:
In her senior year of high school, she was worrying over whether to go to university or straight into seiyuu work. She thought that if she didn’t become a seiyuu, she would go to work for Square Enix, the game publisher. I haven't seen any indication that she did go to college, but she started work a bit later than some other seiyuus: she is now 25.She was also interested in traditional Japanese dance, and even thought of becoming a maiko (apprentice geisha).
Here are (1) various photosof Mayayan, with some info interspersed; those are followed by (2) a list of anime roles, and links to more info; at the very end of the post comes (3) a collection of YouTube videos. Some photos can be clicked to enlarge.
Here are (1) various photosof Mayayan, with some info interspersed; those are followed by (2) a list of anime roles, and links to more info; at the very end of the post comes (3) a collection of YouTube videos. Some photos can be clicked to enlarge.
born Tokyo 1989.12.29. Height 155cm (5'2"). B82-W59-H85.
nicknames: Mayayan, Marei.
2008 - enters Nihon Narration seiyuu school
2009 - gets first role, in Boku Otariman OAV (released in January 2010)
2010.04.01 - joins I"m Enterprise seiyuu agency (one of the biggest and most important)
2011 - voices first game, Gal☆Gan
2012.04 - first anime lead role, as Sanka Rea in Sankarea; first live-action movie role in Unofficial Sentai Akiba Ranger
2014.03.01 - "New Seiyuu" award in the 8th Annual Seiyuu Awards
2014.04.23 - debut single, OP for Akuma no Riddle
2014.09.11 - first magazine cover and gravure photos in Weekly Young Jump 41. again on 2014.12.11
2014.12.24 - first photo book Maaya published
2014.12.27 - birthday event for her 25th birthday, Maaya Happy Birthday Party.
Friends: Ootsubo Yuka; Touyama Nao (same class at seiyuu school); Yamamoto Nozomi (also in first game); Tokui Sora, with whom she had a radio show. Akasaki Chinatsu, Asakura Azumi, and Uesaka Sumire, all from Chuunibyou, are like family, since they worked together for over a year in various series of the show.
Senpai she admires: Inoue Kikuko. Favorite game character Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy VII. Maaya was influenced by her to try karate for a while.
Her younger brother Uchida Yuuma is also a seiyuu with I”m Enterprise
She eats natto every day, likes baseball, and is interested in the occult. She enjoys both taking photographs and being photographed.
Links:
Anime Roles:
Anime News Network list augmented with roles listed in Japanese Wikipedia
Kami-sama no Memo-chou as staff member
Manyuu Hiken-chou as village girl A
Shirokuma Cafeas otter cub
DOG DAYS'as Risha Anrobe
Bodacious Space Piratesas Izumi Yunomoto
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha as maid girl, male attendant
Gekijouban Date A Live: Mayuri Judgment (movie)asYamai Kaguya
Games
(as far as I can tell from various sources, she has done no ero-games)
-- listing in Japanese on Japanese Wikipedia
Radio
(she has been a host of 16 different radio shows, and is hosting two at the moment)
-- listing in Japanese from Japanese Wikipedia
TV Dramas
-- she has been a character in two sentai shows
-- she has been a character in three episodes of a TV sitcom and one of a police show
TV Variety
-- she has been a host of seven shows, including three that are still running
Discography
-- full list in Japanese on Japanese Wikipedia
Videos:
Unofficial Sentai Akibarangers figure spot:
Mayayan and Sakura Ayane are told to stroke each other’s hair while the one being stroked is reading a spot:
Mayayan shows her "sexiest pose", and Ishikawa Kaito says: “Speaking just for myself, that was delicious.” Panelists: (l-r) Taketatsu Ayana, Yuuki Aoi, Ogura Yui, Mayayan:
Mayayan wows Washizaki Takeshi and Akesaka Satomi with cute readings of lines: