Best Seiyuu Performance–Male:
There wasn’t much of a consensus about which male performance stood out for 2014, though many had no opinion at all on the matter, so we’ll be skipping over this category this year.
Best Seiyuu Performance–Female: Suzuko Hara as Naru Kotoishi, Barakamon
Getting believable child performances from adults can be a tricky business, largely because no matter how child-like an adult’s voice might be, the tone and delivery still often has a maturity that is nearly impossible to hide. So, how do you get around that? Well, why not use an actual child? And that’s what they did in Barakamon, as they brought in child voice actress Suzuko Hara to play 7-year-old Naru. While casting children can also be fraught with trouble (as some children are simply not very good performers), Miss Hara knocked it out of the park by giving us a Naru so full of life and so genuine that even the curmudgeonly Handa could not help but warm up to her.
G.B. Smith
Greg Smith has been writing anime reviews and a review column on anime dubbed into English for several years, first at AnimeOnDVD and now for The Fandom Post. His occasional column on English anime dubs, Press Audio, appears whenever he comes across a dub worthy of a closer look. He is also the deputy editor for our seasonal and year end retrospectives.
Congrats winners!