Megumi Hayashibara and AM Radio in the 1990s / The Visionary Mind of "Idol Defense Force Hummingbird" [Kiri Nakazato's "2.5-Dimensional" Idol Historia Vol. 2

Nowadays, numerous "idol works" have been created for anime, video games, and other genres, and CD releases and real events are held every month by the casts who play the idols.

How were these "2.5-dimensional" idols, who freely move between two and three dimensions, born and how did they shape the scene? Writer Kiri Nakazato, who has been observing 2.5-dimensional idols of the Showa, Heisei, and 2025 eras, has started the second installment of her popular series summarizing the history of these idols!
⇒In this second installment of her popular series, she looks back on the birth of anime and idols and female voice-over units in the 1980s! Nakazato Kiri's "2.5D" Idol Historia - Part 1

Megumi Hayashibara and Mariko Kokubuta - Bonding with Fans through AM Radio

In the previous article, we talked about the 1980s, a time when anime and real idols were linked in a spectacular way. In the 1990s, the "voice-over" profession, which used to be a behind-the-scenes job where the voices of the characters were breathed into the characters, underwent a major change. They stood on stage, sang, and danced, and were not only the characters themselves, but also the performers themselves, in the glamorous spotlight. Seiyu Grand Prix, a magazine dedicated to voice actors and actresses and published by Shufunotomo, was launched in 1994 and became a symbol of this change.

And, in talking about the changes and diversification of what is required of voice actors, one person who is indispensable is Megumi Hayashibara, who is an indisputable presence in the industry.

So, first, let us take a look back at some of the popular voice actors representing the 1990s.

Megumi Hayashibara made her debut in 1986 in the first episode of "Mezon Ikkoku," and in 1988 she landed the hit role of Himiko Oshibe in "Wataru: The Hero of Majin Wataru," followed in 1989 by Momoko Sakurayama in "Mobile Police Patlabor," Eri Kasuga in "Chimpy," Renge Narau in "Shurat in the Sky," Grigori in "Madou Ou Granzort," and the previously mentioned "Grigori. In March 1991, he made his major debut as a singer with the single "Nijiiro no Sneaker" on the King Records Starchild label. In March 1991, he made his major debut as a singer with the single "Nijiiro Sneaker" on the King Records Starchild label.

Hayashibara's popularity as a voice actor reached its peak in 1995. In 1995, he was cast as Ayanami Rei in "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and Rina Inverse in "Slayers," two roles that would become major milestones in his career as a voice actor. Following this, around 1996-97, she reached the peak of her career as singer Megumi Hayashibara and became a regular at the top of the Oricon charts, selling over 200,000 copies in a row.

Her popularity was so great that to talk about the popularity of Megumi Hayashibara at that time is to talk about the anime industry in the 1990s. At that time, the prime time slot for anime productions for anime fans was the 18:00-19:00 slot on the TV Tokyo network, and just as anime fans were coming home from school, they would hear her voice on TV every day. Anime, CDs, and ...... radio. The week of the fans who followed everything was structured around the presence of Megumi Hayashibara.

So, did Megumi Hayashibara's incredible popularity lead to the idolization of voice actors?　It is interesting to note that this is not necessarily the case. Ms. Hayashibara has always had a strong behind-the-scenes orientation as an acting professional, and in order to convince her parents to allow her to pursue the precarious profession of voice acting, she also worked intensely to acquire a nursing license in parallel with her voice acting career. Those who know Megumi Hayashibara's personality would probably consider her personality to be rather the opposite of the idolization and artistization of voice actors. If Toshimichi Otsuki of King Records had not discovered her talent and persuaded her, she would never have debuted as a singer in the first place. Even though she has maintained a popularity that would easily fill the Nippon Budokan if she performed live, Hayashibara rarely sang outside of anime events and public radio broadcasts.

It is interesting to note that such stoic Megumi Hayashibara's heating of her popularity led the world to recognize the commodity value of voice actors as artists, and as a result, paved the way for later voice actors artists.

Another media that is inseparable from 1990s-style voice acting is AM radio. Hayashibara's activities ranged from voice acting to singing to writing essays, but the channel that most closely connected her with her fans was radio: "Megumi Hayashibara's Heartful Station" on Radio Kansai in 1991, and "Megumi Hayashibara's Tokyo Boogie Night" on TBS Radio in 1992. Tokyo Boogie Night" on TBS Radio started in 1992. She is like a sister to listeners, supporting them, giving advice, and sometimes scolding them. I believe that the young people of that time were even more enthralled by the anime works performed by such a person who was in a sense the closest to them, and by the supply of singing voices one after another.

Mariko Kunifuda, who was also a voice actress and singer at the same time, had her own charismatic radio programs, "Mariko Kunifuda's GAME MUSEUM" on Radio Osaka and "Twinbee PARADISE" on Bunka Hoso (Bunka Hoso), in addition to her two other roles as a voice actress and singer. Having a home radio program on both eastern and western Japan AM radio, the two giants of the time probably had one thing in common: their voices reached a wide audience (and core fans would listen to both while battling the noise). The synergistic effect of both voice actors and artists (singers) created great popularity, and AM radio is a special tool that connects charisma and fans as a familiar presence. This was the image of the top voice actors of the 1990s.

Now, this is a really long preamble, but the theme of this series is "2.5-dimensional idols. Therefore, based on the situation of voice actors at that time, I will not be discussing "Slayers" or "Neon Genesis Evangelion" as the key works of the 1990s. What I would like to talk about here is an extraordinary work that was produced 25 years too early: the OVA "The Idol Defense Force Hummingbird".

Idol Defense Force Hummingbird" was too far ahead of its time.

Idol Defense Force Hummingbird" is an OVA based on the light novel of the same name by Taira Yoshioka. Mr. Yoshioka's "Irresponsible Captain Tyler," which aired from January to July 1993 on the TV Tokyo network, comes to mind. The "Tyler Project," in which King Records also participated, was a pioneer of the production committee method.

The first volume of the video included a video of the extremely popular character Azalin de El Clan Raikun, Emperor of the Holy Ra'argon Empire, swimming in a pool in a state of undress as a special video bonus. He was also a pioneer who established a business style that has now become commonplace.

In September 1993, when the excitement over "Irresponsible Captain Tyler" had not yet died down, the OVA "Idol Defense Force Hummingbird" was released. In the 1990s, original video animation (OVA), which was not broadcast on TV but released on videotape from the beginning, was very popular (although magazines such as "Animedia" were adamant about using the OAV terminology). OVAs were produced over a longer period of time than anime that were generally broadcast weekly, and many of them were of higher quality than TV anime in order to overcome the disadvantage of not being broadcast on TV in terms of name recognition and to sell well.

It is precisely because of the OVA format that this work, "Idol Defense Force Hummingbird," was made into an anime. Let me briefly introduce the setting of the work,

"In the year 199X, the Japanese government announced the privatization of the Self Defense Forces. The entertainment industry was the first to enter this field, and what was born was the existence of "idol pilots," who were both fighter pilots and idols. The five Toriseki sisters, who had inherited their father's dream of becoming pilots, would debut as the idol group Hummingbird."

The story is as follows. It is a collaboration that is too greedy, combining the context of military + beautiful girls fighting in fighter planes with an idol story in which idols sing and dance on stage. Military, beautiful girls, and idols are all in a class of their own in terms of calorie production, so it is a concept that could only be realized in an OVA. The anime "Strike Witches" came out in 2007, about 14 years after the original, and "Girls und Panzer" in 2012, 19 years after the original, so the foresight is astounding. On the other hand, the fact that the "Idol Swim Meet" is held in a special swimming pool on the rented aircraft carrier Enterprise is a remnant of the 80s. The rival idol groups that appear in the film, such as "SNAP" (male idols) and "Fever Girls" (physical female idols), also reflect the times.

Another thing about this work that was ahead of its time was the relationship between the work and the voice cast. The five voice actors who played the heroines of "Idol Defense Force Hummingbird," the Toriseki sisters, also performed as the voice actor unit Hummingbird and took the stage at a concert. Looking at the members, Kotono Mitsuishi plays the role of the third sister, May Toruishi. She is the main character. The eldest daughter, Kamimu Toruishi, was played by Sakiko Tamagawa (now Sunakiko Tamagawa). The second daughter, Yayoi Toruishi, is played by Yuri Amano. Akie Kusaji plays the role of the fourth daughter, Ugetsu Toruishi. The fifth daughter, Mizunashi Toruishi, is played by Hekiru Shiina.

Kotono Mitsuishi got her big break in 1991 when she played Asuka Sugo in "Neon Genesis GPX Cyber Formula" and Usagi Tsukino in "Sailor Moon" in 1992. Ms. Yuri Amano continues her Yoshioka Hei works from her role as Yuriko Star, the heroine of "Irresponsible Captain Tyler". Ms. Tamagawa is well known for her roles as Cocoa in "NG Knight Ramune & 40" and Rei Kuki in "Genji Tsushin Agedama," and the first three daughters were all popular young voice actors of the time.

The fourth daughter, Akie Kusachi, who played Ugetsu, was a singer who made her debut in 1989. Although she had a rock flavor and was not exactly what you would call an idol, her singing ability and stage presence were well-received, and she took on her first challenge as a voice actress in this production. The fifth daughter, Mizunashi, was played by the then 19-year-old Hekiru Shiina.

Mr. Shiina had also seized the opportunity in an audition sponsored by Kadokawa Shoten and Sony Records (now Sony Music Records) the previous year (1992), and in 1994, the year after his debut as a voice actor in "Hummingbird," he made his debut as an artist with Sony Records. The fact that Ms. Shiina once tried to market herself as a member of the voice actress idol unit "Crystal A" when she was a member of the Japan Narration Acting Institute shows that there was a surprisingly early trend to create a voice actress who was also a singer, an artist, and an idol. I think that this is a good example of the trend toward creating voice actors who are also singers, artists and idols. Kotono Mitsuishi, Yuri Amano, and Hekiru Shiina, who appear in this work, share the same career path from Hinare to Artsvision.

As mentioned above, Ms. Hekiru Shiina made her debut as a singer the year after appearing in this work. She quickly rose to stardom, and in 1997 she became the first female voice actress to perform at the Nippon Budokan on her live tour, "Hekiru Shiina - STARTING LEGEND '97 With a Will". She was the first female voice actress to perform at the Nippon Budokan in 1997, and she is undoubtedly the model for the voice actress artists of the 2000s, who are both voice actresses and artists.

The concept of the group was "a popular young voice actor who excelled at acting, a singer in her own right, and a new voice actor artist on the eve of her breakthrough, who formed a unit and sang together. If you put it into words, you can see that this is a composition more often seen in idol productions in the 2010s than in the faces of their parents. In this sense, after all, "Hummingbird" was a work that came too soon.

Hummingbird as a unit is synonymous with the five-person version of the insert song "Love Wing. The simple choreography of the song is reminiscent of the times, but the sisters' baton is connected by Tamagawa's expressive voice, and before the chorus, Kusaji's vocals, which are unique to his profession, close the song. The chorus of the chorus has a flow that can only be achieved by a unit that combines actors with different roots. I think it is also historically important in the sense that they brought the culture of cheering for idols, such as the call to action, to the audiences at voice-over actor concerts.

Next time, the 2000s. In a corner of a game center, a new form of idol content will be born.

（Text by Kiri Nakazato)