Anime News

Pokémon Voice Actors Lead First Batch of 17th Seiyu Awards Winners

Pokémon

Image via Pokémon

 

Ahead of the full Seiyu Awards ceremony on March 11, the first batch of winners for the 17th Seiyu Awards were revealed today with long-time Pokémon voice actors Ikue Otani (Pikachu) and Rica Matsumoto (Satoshi/Ash) taking out the Kids/Family Award together.

 

Alongside the Kids/Family Award, which was voted on by children, other awards announced today include the Merit Award, given out to voice actors who have greatly contributed to the industry through their careers, and the Kei Tomiyama Memorial Award and Kazue Takahashi Memorial Award, which is given to voice actors who have participated in many fields including production. 

 

Here is the full list of winners from today:

 

Merit Award:

  • Chikako Akimoto (Ippatsu Kanta-kun, Japanese dubs of foreign films, narration)
  • Yusaku Yara (Chibi Maruko-chan, Dr. Slump, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)

 

Kei Tomiyama Memorial Award:

  • Junichi Suwabe (Restaurant to Another World, Prince of Tennis, Kuroko’s Basketball)

 

Kazue Takahashi Memorial Award:

  • Maria Kawamura (Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Slayers, Gothicmade)

 

Kids/Family Award:

  • Ikue Otani (Pokémon)
  • Rica Matsumoto (Pokémon)

 

RELATED: Evangelion’s Voice Actors Wins Big at 16th Annual Seiyuu Awards

 

The rest of the winners will be given out in a ceremony on March 11, including the Leading Voice Actor Award and the Supporting Voice Actor Award. This year will see a change in the ceremony with the male and female awards combined to just be the “Voice Actor Award” rather than “Best Male Voice Actor” or “Best Female Voice Actor.” The committee says that the change respects keeping gender out of voice actor discussion as “voice acting is a job that transcends gender.”

 

This comes after Megumi Ogata won the Best Voice Actress in a Leading Role award last year for voicing Shinji Ikari in Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time and said in her acceptance speech that “seventy percent of the roles I’ve done are male and I don’t really consider myself an actress [in that sense],” advocating for the abolishment of gendered awards. 

 

Source: Oricon

 

Try Crunchyroll Premium Today!

——-

Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram