Dengeki Gs have finally released the castings of the new Love Live Sunshine. It was to not much surprise that the names they released are relatively unknown. 5 years ago, back when Love Live was first announced, no one knew who they were. However, thanks to a lot of research, we can now fill you up on who these new girls are!
Anju Inami (Voicing Chika Takami)
Affiliated with Sony Music Artists Inc.
Birthdate: 7th Febuary 1996
Hobbies: Movie Appreciation
Talents: Singing
So far from her profile and music that she produced, she is a singer and stage actor on top of being a seiyuu. In fact, for the upcoming Naruto Live Action theatre, she plays Yamanaka Ino! So for those in Singapore who are watching the performance, you can catch sight of her! Her first seiyuu role comes from Hinata no Ashioge, a short animated movie where she voices the main character, Hinata. You can take check out the PV for that right here!
As a singer she has also produced several songs and many of them have been used as game openings. Her new single LOVE★DON!! is being used as the opening to the game LOVE★DON!!★QUIXOTE. On top of that, she has also sung the opening theme Good Shepard to the PS Vita game, Library party. She already has a strong fan base with more than 5,000 followers on her official twitter account and is one of the more well-known among the other 8 seiyuus.
Rikako Aida (Voicing Riko Sakurauchi)
Affiliated with Ken Production
Birthdate: 8th August
Talents: Conversing in English.
As a seiyuu, she does not have much roles other than 1 role from the game, Hypedevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart as one of the games characters, Poona. Other than that, not much information could be gathered. However, just from her one role as Poona, you can tell that she has a nice clear, soothing voice and it would be unwise to underestimate her due to her lack of roles.
Nanaka Suwa (Voicing Kanan Matsuura)
Affiliated with Amuleto
Birthdate: 2nd November
Hobbies: Appreciating movies, games and talking walks.
Talents: Dancing, piano, calligraphy, yukatas and dress fitting
Nanaka Suwa came from A&G+ Academy’s Vocal Course where she was one of 2 top graduates. So far she has hosted a range of A&G+ radio and has a small role in the anime Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de as Yaya. On top of that, she has her own radio known as “Suwasuwa’s Smiley Stream” which features a laidback atmosphere that you can relax and listen to after a long day at work.
After seeing several of her videos online, she will strike you as a rather serious person, but at the same time extremely humble. In her comment video for winning the top graduate, she admits that although she won, she still isn’t good at singing and would continue to do her best.
Also read: [NEWS] Akagami no Shirayukihime casts Prince Izana and Garack
Arisa Komiya (Voicing Dia Kurosawa)
Affiliated with Box Corporation
Birthdate 5th February 1994
Hobbies: reading manga and about Edo-era history
Talents: Dancing and drawing
Arisa Komiya has a large pool of experience with her acting as Usami Yoko in the Super Sentai Tokumei Sentai Go-busters as well as performing her character song from that role live. On top of that, she has acted in several TV dramas, commercials and was even in a movie that starred the Idol group, Dempagumi.inc.
In addition, she also has released her own photobooks and CDs and even performed in the Robotic;Notes stage play as Akiho Senomiya. Just by looking at her wide range of roles, she is more than experienced performing live which will definitely help her with this new role. She already has accumulated many fans and around 1,400 followers on her official twitter account.
Shuka Saito (Voicing You Watanabe)
Affiliated with Holy Peak inc.
Birthdate 16th August
Hobbies: Reading, taking walks and observing people
Talents: Dancing, badminton and calligraphy.
Unfortunately, other than her official profile, there isn’t really much information on the roles that she has done. Other from the fact that she is an actress and has a dazzling smile, we have to wait for her to make more appearances to find out more.
Aika Kobayashi (Voicing Yoshiko Tsushima)
Affiliated with NEWCOME Inc.
Judging from her twitter account and her youtube channel (yes she actually has one), Aika Kobayashi strikes me as an energetic girl who seems really happy-go-lucky. The videos on her channel gives you the impression that although she is about to have a big break as a singer and seiyuu, she is still a teenage girl on the inside.
However, this teenage girl has already a few anime theme songs under her belt. She has sung the ending themes to both Freezing and Queen’s Blade Rebellion. With such a strong start as a singer, I am sure she will impress us even further.
Kanako Takatsuki (Voicing Hanamaru Kunikida)
Affiliated with Victor Entertainment (the same company as Pile)
According to her official profile, she has the voice of a Showa-era idol which gives her songs a mysterious feels. And judging from her debut single, you can definitely feel that old-school-ness of her singing.
But if you think that’s all to her, you have to take a listen again. Apparently she is also an utaite and have have done several covers of many anime songs. From the video, you can infer that she is an iDOLM@STER fan (a YayoiP in fact) from the tapestries she has. However she has also covered several Love Live songs which makes it even more interesting as it is the first time I have heard of an Utaite becoming a seiyuu.
Furihita Ai (Voicing Ruby Kurosawa)
Affiliated with Office-tb
Like Shuka Saito, Furihita Ai is a new seiyuu with few roles. She has voiced characters from several games as well as being the Assistant MC for Voice Academia. Once again there is limited information online so we can only wait and see.
Suzuki Aina (Voicing Mari Ohara)
Affiliated with I Am Agency
Birthdate: 23rd July
Hobbies: Singing, drawing and appreciating anime
Talents: 3rd Kyuu in English
Her hobby is to sing and she is definitely good at it. She has clinched the Finals Best 3 for the 7th All Japan Anison Grand Prix, which is definitely no mean feat. Her voice bears a striking resemblance to Mizuki Nana. Although we do not know much about her, you should definitely keep an ear out for her!
So these are the 9 new girls who will be alongside their 2D counterparts to fight and achieve their dreams. Let’s help them along the way and let the sun shine on Love Live Sunshine!
Credits to @satsu_nyan from Seiyuuri for the generous sharing of information.
