[SEIYUU] A Look at Seiyuu Awards: 2013′s Best Supporting Actors

In anticipation of the coming 8th Seiyu Awards, we continue to bring you more articles featuring last year’s winners. Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards are given to two candidates in each category. In this instalment, we introduce you the Best Supporting Actor winners from 2013, Junichi Suwabe and Yuuki Ono.

7th Seiyuu Awards Winners – Men: (clockwise from top left) Junichi Suwabe, Yuuki Ono, Yuuki Kaji, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Kazutomi Yamamoto

Junichi Suwabe for Tokyo Disney Resort ® 30th anniversary Edition CD (2is news)

Like most of the veteran seiyuu of his generation, Suwabe did not aspire to become a seiyuu at first. Having joined his school broadcasting committee and movie production circle, and was an aspiring movie director. Having accumulated experience from various jobs, he eventually enrolled in a training school and joined artiste management company Haikyō. In his 20s, he undertook countless narration jobs for prime time tv shows and commercials, far surpassing his peers.

Although his early career revolved around narration jobs and radio shows, his big break into the anime industry took the form of Atobe Keigo (Prince of Tennis). His voice gave cool, egoistic Atobe new layers of charisma, sealing his character niche. Nevertheless, he has mastered a truly unmatched range of character types. From the cool mature adult, hot-blooded shounen, the flirtatious bishounen and even the comedic hooligan, Suwabe has shown that no character is beneath him. Fans are unlikely to forget roles such as the sarcastic yet devoted Archer (Fate/stay night), wild and half-crazed Grimmjow (Bleach), Frau (07-GHOST), downright weird Undertaker (Kuroshitsuji), suave and flirtatious Ren (Uta no Prince-Sama) and recently, sardonic and hot-blooded Aomine (Kuroko no Basuke).

With his clean vocals coupled with Atobe’s popularity, he was the first male seiyuu to enter the Oricon Weekly Top 10 charts in 2005 with character single “Riyuu/E-Kimochi”. As part of the super-popular unit ST☆RISH, he took the Singing Award at the 6th Seiyuu Awards. He is also leader of seiyuu unit “Nazo no Shin-Unit STA☆MEN” consisting of Kouske Toriumi, Kenichi Suzumura, Daisuke Kishio, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Hiroki Takahashi and Makoto Yasumura, highly popular for their entertaining and comedic stage antics.

Junichi Suwabe at the Space Dandy Mini Stage (from Animax Asia Facebook)

He has shown great flair for hosting, often acting as the emcee for various events. His stage presence surpasses language barriers, charming crowds even at overseas fan events in Taiwan and even locally. Known as “Be-sama” to his fans, he drew a huge crowd when he graced AFASG for the Space☆Dandy mini-stage, together with co-star Yurin. Those who had attended the event cannot deny his charisma and wild popularity with the audience, many of whom fought for a chance to get an autograph.

Yuuki Ono, for Style of Prince feature, Girls Style

Having played soccer since he was in elementary school, Ono was all set for a career in the sport, having been scouted for a professional soccer team. However, a serious injury in his final year dashed all hopes of that becoming reality. For a child who only lived, ate and breathed soccer for all his formative years, his first real encounter with anime was when he was asked to record Kimi ga Nozomu no Eien  for a friend in university. To cut a long story short, he was so impressed by lead Kishou Taniyama’s voice, he became inspired to work the in same field as the man himself.

Having the ability to take on distinctly different voice tones for each character, Yuuki Ono has an uncanny ability to meld seamlessly into each character, it’s often difficult to remember that he’s the voice behind these roles.

With his versatility, memorable roles over his relatively short career has already spanned a wide spectrum, there’s the cool, collected Kaname Tsukahara (Kimi to Boku), the rash and hot-headed Taiga Kagami (Kuroko no Basuke), the devoted and reliable Zenkichi Hitoyoshi (Medaka Box), and the loyal but very domestic Ashiya (Hataraku Maou-sama!). Who can forget the pet rooster Nagoya in Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (and Tomio too)? Then there is also the mysterious and morally ambigious Magus (The Unbreakable Machine Doll) and recently, Moral (Hamatora).

Yuuki Ono (left) with Kensho Ono, Kuroko no Basuke feature

Known affectionately as OnoYuu or Onopin (in a reference to his role as “Pin” Kazuichi Arai in Kimi ni Todoke) to fans, his name has been pretty much  a source of derision at many events, sharing last names with fellow cast members Kensho Ono and Daisuke Ono, and a similar-sounding name to Aoi Yuuki and Yuuki Kaji – causing quite a bit of confusion at the Valvrave event in 2013. Other than being skilled at soccer, he also holds a hyper yoyo professional license and competes actively, reminiscent of his characters in Saint October (Joshua) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Kiryu).

Catch OnoYuu’s Taiga Kagami facing off Suwabe’s Daiki Aomine in one of the most thrilling rival match-ups of this season in Kuroko no Basuke, and OnoYuu as the spine-chilling villian Moral in Hamatora. Suwabe is also available as the bumbling Dandy (Space☆Dandy) on Animax, and the very fabulous Ren Jinguji (Uta no Prince-Sama) on Aniplus HD.

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Look forward to our next instalment:
Coming next: 2013′s Best Supporting Actresses  

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Image credit in order of appearance © ボイスニュータイプ , 2is news, Animax Asia, Girls Style, http://kanacaecilius.tumblr.com/
Top image taken from Voice Newtype Issue 47 : 7th Seiyuu Awards feature article. Voice Newtype is available at selected local Kinokuniya stores. 

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