For a reportedly quiet, bookish person, Rie Kugimiya's career has been nothing short of awe-inspiring; not only due to her participation in an insane number of (many of them famous) series, but also because of her wide range of character portrayals during that time. Fullmetal Alchemist's Alphonse Eric. Rosario+Vampire's Mizore Shirayuki. Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka's Yuuhi Katagiri. And we can't of course forget about the 'Four Tsundere Wonders' that popped into existence a year after each other in succession - Shana (Shakugan no Shana), Louise (Zero no Tsukaima), Nagi (Hayate no Gotoku!), and Taiga (Toradora!). Throughout all the supporting/cross-gender/extreme-personality characters she has portrayed, she has shown that she can take multiple roles and play them very comfortably.
But we have to admit that the two major factors that boosted her into the spotlight were the voicing of Alphonse Eric (her first major character in one of the most popular series ever) and also that of the Four Tsundere Wonders (she just kept...taking the roles). Surprisingly suited for roles involving childish, flat-chested, bipolar girls with a 99% chance of having a twin-tail or long hair, after the introduction of the four (around the beginning of 2008) she began to get a LOT more roles, and many of them major/main characters too. Most of them were, as one can see, either tsundere or very quiet and reserved characters. However, since the four proved that she was very suited to the type of character mentioned earlier in this paragraph, she started to get more and more of those roles and those roles only.
So what's wrong with it? Shouldn't a good actor - a unique actor who has put her mark on the voice acting industry - be selected over others?
Well, yes - and no.
I definitely admit that she is very suited for the tsundere loli role. HOWEVER, my point is NOT that she is overrated. Rather, she is overused. She has taken essentially most of small-whiny-girl roles in the romance-comedy/harem genre's major series in 2010-2011, starting with Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls (main), Okami-san (supporting), Toaru Majutsu no Index II (supporting), Hidan no Aria (main), Lotte no Omocha! (main), and Dragon Crisis (main). In each of these roles she has been excellent, but to be quite honest, I'm quite tired of hearing her voice on every other animated girl below 5'4'' now.
Muffled Retarded Tsundere - that's my most favorite type of retarded tsundere.
Well, who else could fit the whiny tsundere role? The strength of Kugimiya's voice is that she's able to infuse irrational, childish rage into a single voice like no other. However, if we dial a bit back on the Louise-o-meter (Zero no Tsukaima fans will know what I'm talking about...may rant on that someday), we have perfectly good voice actors that can take these roles, like Ayana Taketatsu and Hiroka Nishizawa. In fact, the former has done a ridiculous amount of loli tsundere stuff, but I think her voice sounds a bit more mature and portrays characters a bit more realistically. They would be just as good for these roles as Kugimiya would be.
Mio Isurugi (voiced by Taketatsu): A saner, more realistic alternative to LSD the Four Tsundere Wonders. Highly recommended for those not used to irrational bitching.
I guess what I'm saying in the end is that I want to hear from a more diverse range of actors, especially since there are brilliant and unique-sounding actors out there that can make you shiver with their voice alone (again, Taketatsu and Kana Hanazawa are two of my favorites). So I hope that in the future, I won't see an entire roster of series that have mains taken by Rie Kugimiya just because they have twin-tails. And that is essentially my view on this voice actor.
By the way, International Saimoe update: Although Tachibana Kanade wins against Misaka Mikoto in a popularity contest, the overall point distribution over the 8 rounds was such that Mikoto actually won against Kanade. Again, you guys know how I feel about this. Kanade was clearly more popular even directly facing Mikoto...things had better change in the next round or else.
Oh, and I lied...I'll probably do a Hanasaku Iroha review soon. I really, really like this anime, but I seem to be the only one to do so out of the 5 here, so I guess I have to do it >___>;; great slice-of-life, more details coming up soon.
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