Inori Minase, Ayaka Ohashi, Ai Furuhata, and Miki Ito - a review of sophisticated seiyu songs to end the tumultuous year 2020! Seiyu Artists Monthly Vol. 10

As the year 2020 comes to a close, five solo voice-over singers have released works this month that are worthy of a summary, as if to symbolize the richness of the voice-over music scene this year. We apologize for the brevity of the lineup, but here is a summary of each work.

Inori Minase "Starlight Museum

It was five years ago in 2015. On December 2, her birthday, Inori Minase made her solo debut as a voice actress. Her 9th single "Starlight Museum," released on her birthday this year, was a monumental one, created with a team of artists she met before the 5th anniversary of her music career.

One of Ms. Minase's greatest characteristics is the development of her high-toned singing voice, which radiates an overwhelming presence and clarity. Her energetic and energetic voice is expressed in the lyrics of her past songs, such as "harmony" (harmony ribbon) and "rainbow" (Catch the Rainbow!), which are set to an imposing symphonic track. The title track, with lyrics that incorporate keywords from his past songs such as "harmony" (harmony ribbon) and "rainbow" (Catch the Rainbow!), is also a great example of this. The couplings are also seamless, from the future-based "Crystallize" to the heartwarming pop number "Kakera of Memories," which is a continuation of the aforementioned "harmony ribbon" and "Ai Mai Moko.

Although this is a bit of a departure from the work review, Ms. Minase initially seemed withdrawn, saying, "Why should I ......" outside of her musical activities. It is not difficult to imagine that the confidence she has developed through her music activities has had a great influence on her mentality. Of course, the experience she has accumulated as a voice actress is probably behind this, but as a listener, it is very gratifying to see Ms. Minase tackle her musical activities with a positive attitude.

Ayaka Ohashi "WINGS

Ayaka Ohashi's third album "WINGS" was released on December 16. The lead song, "START DASH," was written by Yoshiki Mizuno (ikimono-gakari), to whom her production team had made an enthusiastic offer over the past three years, and is based on the theme of a "fresh start" for Ms. Ohashi, who is releasing her first album in two and a half years. The entire song is a lively and fresh pop song.

Other notable tracks include "HOWL," produced by DECO*27, and "MASK," written by e-ZUKA (GRANRODEO). Both songs have a serious tone, but "HOWL" is a high-speed digi-rock song that is typical of DECO*27, who is a vocaloid P. It has a challenging musical arrangement that pushes the vocalist's singing ability to the very limit, with rapid changes in rhythm and downer rap in the middle. Ohashi's ability to easily sing (and be heard) through these songs is a testament to her growth as a singer. Incidentally, a guitar riff from GRANRODEO's signature song "Can Do" sneaks into "MASK. As a fan of GRANRODEO, she must have groaned a lot.

Ai Furuhata "Make Up

Ai Furuhata's second mini-album "Make Up" was released on December 23. Although it was released within a short span of her debut mini-album "Moonrise" released in September this year, the content of the album continued to seriously challenge the revival of the 1980s sound. Akimitsu Honma (bluesofa) was invited as the producer for this album as well, and Furuhata himself wrote the lyrics for all the songs.

At the time of this writing, before the release of the new album, the only song that has yet to be revealed is "Purple Eye Shadow," but just by listening to a sample of this song, one can already get a sense of the anticipation that this album will surpass the previous one. For example, in terms of the lyrics, the song "I'm sorry," which would be sung as "I'm sorry" in current J-pop music, is sung with an ending that evokes the atmosphere of the time, and the song is sung with a gentle grace. Furthermore, the lyrics are also very elegant, from the way he blames "the rain" for any change in emotion to the choice of the word "light makeup" (薄粧). ......

Is it Homma's ability to switch so much of her sense of language and values to the 80's mode when writing lyrics? Or is it Ms. Furuhata's ability to produce her own music that makes this possible? Above all, her songs have a nice melancholy in that none of them end in a happy love ending, and I find myself listening to them over and over again.

Miki Ito "Rhythmic Flavor

Ito says that at her live performances, she is more pleased when people say they are "comforted" or "relaxed" than when they get excited (reference: Seiyu Animedia, January 2021 issue). Inspired by these comments, the concept of her third album "Rhythmic Flavor," which was released on December 23, was based on the idea of "looking forward and walking forward. The title of the album, which was her own idea, was chosen for the album, and the high quality of the contents shows that she is even more devoted to her musical activities and the "pop music" line that she has been building up to this point. The lead song is by Koichi Taho.

The lead track is "Beam You," a lo-fi, deflated number reminiscent of K-POP and R&B, with a track made by the team of Koichi Taho and UTA. The lyrics of "BEAM YOU" were written by Anna Takeuchi, a singer-songwriter, who sings of a life-sized love with a hint of purity. The same is true of "hello new pink," for which Yuni Shio wrote the lyrics, and we hope that he will continue his activities of utilizing his label-mate's connections to sing the words spun by female artists of his generation.

Born Fighter," a well-known "Mutsuki Shuhei frame" song, is a surprisingly rocking song, a departure from the "Morning Coffee" and other songs he has provided in the past. The "tame" part in the latter half of the chorus shows the artist's ability to create a song that is not easy to follow. From there, the pop song "Someday Surely," reminiscent of Mr. Children in the early 2000s, and the brass pop song "Good Song" by Junichi Sato (fhána), with a more sophisticated voice than before, were performed in a variety of arrangements that worked well together on the track. The album also showcases the singer's talent as a pop singer, which is well suited to the various arrangements of the tracks.

The final song on the album is "vivace," written by Chara and arranged by Kai Takahashi (LUCKY TAPES). The whispery singing style in this song, which Mr. Ito had never tried before, was taught by Chara during the pre-production recording at his home (the slightly tightened vocal cords in the latter half of the chorus, which evokes a scene of secretly gathering feelings in a solitary room, is a great match for this song). (The slightly tightened vocal cords in the second half of the song are also very well suited to this song.)

) The track, which was carefully crafted by Kai Takahashi, has a wavy city pop style with warm guitars and synthesizers with soft, full contours, and his "character" is fully demonstrated (in a song by a voice actor artist, no less!), (I never thought I would hear that ambient "sound" of water being poured into a glass in a song by a voice actor artist). ) It is a superb track that is as good as what is often referred to as "café music," and as one listens to it, one's shoulders relax easily. I can't stop thinking about Miki Ito's pop music every time she releases a new album.

And also on December 23, Yuki Nakajima released her debut album "Chapter I. The album features Mami Kawada, Tomoyuki Nakazawa, and Ryohei Sataka (y0c1e), who once produced the classic album "Little Trip" by anime song singer Ray. As a voice-over artist, Ms. Nakajima's music reflects her personality, and some of the colorful tunes on the album were reminiscent of those on "Little Trip.

In addition, there were many other works by Sachika Misawa, Akane Kumada, and others that could not be introduced in this article. In fact, it will be some time before we can enjoy the same listening experience as before, as the release of spring productions has been postponed due to the recent current trends, and even now, events are still being hesitated to be held.

Even under such circumstances, however, works such as those discussed in this report from this spring will reach us and add color to our daily lives. The forms may change, but the feelings remain the same. I hope to spend the remaining days of 2020 with a smile on my face as I look forward to many more encounters with the music of voice actors and artists that will be born next year.

(Text by Kota Ichijo)