The anime industry would collapse faster than a cheap folding chair if voice actors actually unionised properly and walked out. These people are the engine nobody talks about.
This past Sunday, March 15, the twentieth Seiyuu Awards descended upon Tokyo with something genuinely unexpected—a modicum of progress. Organisers finally merged the lead actor categories into a single gender-neutral prize, which frankly seems rather overdue.
Gender, it turns out, is somewhat negotiable when you possess vocal cords of steel.
The Night’s Heavy Hitters
The marquee award—Best Leading Actor—ended up split between two relative newcomers who’ve absolutely detonated onto the scene.
Kikunosuke Toya collected his half for Denji in Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc, a performance that required him to scream like someone being dragged through a woodchipper whilst still maintaining emotional nuance. No small feat.
Shion Wakayama claimed her share for Momo Ayase in Dandadan, bringing genuine warmth and bite to what could have been another forgettable high-school protagonist. She made the character breathe.
But here’s where things got interesting. Toya’s acceptance speech peeled back the curtain on something we rarely see: the ugly groundwork beneath overnight success.
Between 2017 and 2022, he failed every single audition. Nearly quit entirely. The only thing that salvaged his career was enrolling at Megumi Ogata’s voice acting school—the same Ogata who voiced Shinji Ikari in Evangelion.
If Ogata hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here today, and maybe I wouldn’t even have continued acting.
The Full Roll Call
- Best Supporting Actors: Queen Ueda, Shinji Kawada, and the seemingly immortal Mayumi Tanaka—still voicing Luffy after all these years
- Rookie of the Year: Taihi Kimura, Taiga Takano, Momoka Terasawa, Yoshinori Nakayama, Hana Hishikawa, Minori Fujidera, Haruna Mikawa, and Manatsu Murakami
- Singing Award: AiScReam, representing the ever-expanding LoveLive! empire
- Radio Personality Award: Yoko Hikasa
- Synergy Award: The Idolmaster franchise
- Kei Tomiyama and Kazue Takahashi Awards: Shinichiro Kamio and Rei Sakuma
- Video Game Award: The Fate/Grand Order ensemble
- Most Valuable Seiyuu (Fan Vote): Akira Ishida
Merit awards went to veterans Aruno Tahara and Keiko Yokozawa, with a special distinction for Nami Mizuno. The ceremony also paused for remembrance, honouring those lost over the past year.
What Actually Matters
What’s fascinating here isn’t just who won—it’s the pattern of perseverance that almost never gets mentioned until someone stands onstage with a trophy.
Toya spent five years hearing “no” before he heard anything else. That’s the part nobody puts in the highlight reel.
Does Kikunosuke Toya’s near-decade of rejection change how we ought to view “overnight success” in entertainment? And with the gender categories finally merged, are we watching the beginning of a broader shift—or merely a convenient PR adjustment?
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