One of the areas of the genre we don`t get a chance to cover a lot ,due to time and a overwhelming number of groups out today is Seiyuu Idol groups.
Most Seiyuu units are short term and created just for a certain anime, others like Sphere and LISP” are just regular units created by Seiyuu who have generated a strong following in their field.
While these units are in many regards underground, I like to place an [*] by that term as many of the regular units sale or have sold when they were active as much or more then Morning Musume.
Therefore, they are underground in the terms that they center on a certain segment of fans, just as Indie Idols focus on pro-Indie wotas.
Therefore, here is a look at a few of the Seiyuu Groups active today [this by the way is not the entire list of groups]
Regular units
Sphere
This unit that we have covered early on in PIH and was pushed to the side unfairly by the amount of other units that needed to be covered.
When it comes to regular fulltime units Sphere is the leaders and have returned with a new upbeat single LET-ME-DO!!
LISP
Not far behind them is a new unit ,just a year old called LISP is made of the following members Asumi Kana, Kataoka Azusa, and Hara Sayuri and they had their first release in 2010. In April of this year they got their own TV show called LIS★P” [LIS Produce”] to go along with their once a month Nico Nico internet show [LISP Pajama Party].
RO-KYU-BU
A group that has popped up recently, that has the eye of Seiyuu Idol fans is RO-KYU-BU.
If you are an Up-Front company fan, you want to check out this unit as Yui from YuiKaori is in this unit.
Popular voice actress idols Sphere are back with another single "MOON SIGNAL". [On sale now] Sphere will be releasing a concert DVD on New Year’s Day and the DVD will be on sale in both the standard and blu-ray versions. Fans purchasing the blu-ray version "~Sphere’s rings live tour 2010~ FINAL LIVE BD plus Sphere in 3D" will be able to enjoy Sphere in 3D.
The DVD features footage from their nationwide tour that was held this year from April to July. Fans will get to watch their favorite idols perform 18 songs, the footage of which was sourced from their final stop at the NHK Hall in Tokyo.
Sphere, a group that I have covered in the past has a new single coming out on October 20 called “MOON SIGNAL”. It will be their sixth single.
The members are also having solo single releases.
The solo singles will start to come out on November 3.
First up will be Tomatsu Haruka who will release her seventh solo titled “Baby Baby Love” Her single will be used as the ending theme to the anime “Motto ToLOVEru -toraburu-.”
November 10th Toyasaki Aki will release her single, which is untitled as of now. November 17th will see Takagaki Ayahi release her second solo “Hikaru no Firement.” The final release will come from Kotobuki Minako on the 24th.
There are a number of Idol groups in Japan ranging from Majors, Independent, Akiba, Maid Café, Underground and Seiyuu. In fact the list of groups large and small could be in the 100`s
Sphere is an Idol unit created by four Seiyuu [voice actors] /Pop Singers, the members are
* Tomatsu Haruka [20]
* Kotobuki Minako [18]
* Takagaki Ayahi [24]
* Toyosaki Aki [23]
Tomatsu
Tomatsu has been in a number of music groups in her young career including The Children, Eclipse and now Sphere .Tomatsu has released two albums and eight singles since debuting in 2007 and has done 23 Seiyuu roles including Vashti Mileina in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season. In 2009, she was cast as Ion in the Rune Factory 3 video game.
Her highest release as a soloist was Motto Hadenine, which debuted at #10 .The single, charted for 13 weeks and sold 26,421 copies before falling off the Oricon charts
Motto Hadenine
Kotobuki
Outside of Sphere ,Kotobuki is best known for her role as Kotobuki Tsumugi in K-ON! And as a member of the K-ON! Unit Sakurakou K-ON Bu. To date she has released six singles, with her recent being Chu-Bra! Character Song Maxi Jinguji Yako. Kotobuki was cast in 2009 as Farron Serah in Final Fantasy XIII video game.
Takagaki
Takagaki made her debut in 2007 as a Seiyuu and in 2009, she joined Sphere. She has been a character voice in 36 anime including Mobile Suit Gundam 00 as Grace Feldt .Outside of Sphere she has released 10 singles. Her next single will be released on July 21 .It will be her first non-character single. In 2009 Takagaki was cast as Yahan in the video came Sekirei ~Mirai Kara no Okurimono~ and as Fear in Dungeons & Dam.
Toyosaki
Toyosaki made her debut in 2007 as a Seiyuu and in 2009 she joined Sphere ,she recently won the "Best New Actress" at the 4th Seiyu Awards in 2010 for her role as Hirasawa Yui in K-On! And Nakamachi Kana in Kanamemo. At the same awards she also won Best Musical Performance". Outside of Sphere is also a member of the K-ON! Unit Sakurakou K-ON Bu .It is with Sphere and K-ON Bu that Toyosaki has enjoyed her best success as a singer. With K-ON Bu, she saw their first two singles Cagayake! Girls and Don’t say Lazy sell 62,000 and 67,000 in their debut weeks. October 2009 she released her first non-character single Love Your Life reaching #12 on Oricon.
Love your life
Together these women came together in 2009 to create the Seiyuu Idol group Sphere.
Sphere is managed by the same company that handles the Visual Kei band Antic Café and others in Music Ray`n and are under the Sony label.
In April 2009, they made their debut with Future Stream reaching # 22 on the Oricon Charts selling 6,280 copies, not bad for an first release of this type.
Future Stream
This was followed in July 2009 with Super Noisy Nova .SNN saw Sphere reach sales of 10,462 , however their Oricon ranking improved to #14 and they managed to stay in the charts for 8 weeks .
Super Noisy Nova
November 2009 they released their third single Kaze wo Atsumete / Brave My Heart.
This single saw Sphere enter the charts at #15 and a small bump in sales of 13,238 before falling out of Oricon 5 weeks later.
Kaze wo atsumete
In December 2009, Sphere released their debut album A.T.M.O.S.P.H.E.R.E with 12 tracks and giving Sphere enough material to start entering the touring circuit as a regular Idol unit. A.T.M.O.S.P.H.E.R.E Entered the charts at #19 and again saw the unit’s sales rise a little at 14,419
Atmosphere
In April 2010, they returned with their fourth single Realove:Realife that saw the group have their highest debut to date #12 with sales of 17,318 and a shift to a rock sound and their best overall single to date. Realove: Realife shows the range that this group has and one of the reasons that Sony is letting them evolve and grow with more releases and lives in the offering.
REALOVE:REALIFE
July 28 will see Sphere releasing their fifth single Now loading...SKY!!
August 2 Update
New Single PV
Now Loading ....SKY!!
With more tours ,Music show appearances and singles in the works and the members individual success starting to make it`s way into the units fan base ,Sony looks set to allow Sphere to evolve past a Seiyuu Idol unit.
If you’re looking for a unit that is different then your traditional Idol units and you’re not concerned if they are beating AKB48, Morning Musume or whoever in the rankings and just want a good Idol unit to checkout and maybe even follow, then Sphere is worth checking out.
