Gojo Satoru’s voice actor awarded Most Valuable Seiyuu  

The 18^th annual Seiyuu Awards was held in Tokyo on March 9 as reported by Oricon. The award show recognizes outstanding performances by Japanese voice actors in anime, TV, games and film. This year’s edition covers productions released between October 2022 and September 2023, and saw big wins for actors who lent their talents to Jujutsu Kaisen, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Frieren and Oshi no Ko. 

The Most Valuable Seiyuu Award, which is chosen by fans, was presented to Yuichi Nakamura who has done a wide variety of voices and dubbing work for anime, games and film. One of his most recent roles is Satoru Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen. 

The Main Cast Awards were awarded to Kana Ichinose and Kazuki Ura. Ichinose has played a number of leading roles during this awarding period, including Suletta from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury and Fern from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. In her acceptance speech she said she couldn’t be more thankful towards The Witch from Mercury staff and the character of Suletta. Kazuki Ura, who plays Yoichi Isagi in soccer-themed anime Blue Lock, declared that he was happy to receive this recognition for his work and that he plans to become the best voice actor in the world. 

Two of the three Supporting Voice Actor awards also went to The Witch from Mercury cast members- Yohei Azakami for his work voicing hotheaded Guel Jeturk and Mamiko Noto for her performance as the antagonist Prospera Mercury. Manaka Ishimi who plays Akane Kurogawa in Oshi no Ko also received a Supporting Voice Actor award. 

Newcomer awards were given to Yurie Igoma (Ruby in Oshi no Ko), Kikunosuke Toya (Denji in Chainsaw Man), Yuki Sakakihara (Robota in Lycoris Recoil), Nanoka Hara (Kana Arima in Oshi no Ko) and Hina Yomiya (Minami Kotobuki in Oshi no Ko). 

The ceremony only had one award specifically for game voice acting performances, and that went to Yuya Uchida for his role as protagonist Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI, as reported by Yahoo News Japan. 

The Seiyuu Awards began in 2007 and has since become Japan’s biggest voice acting-related event. Starting last year, the individual award categories were renamed to reflect diversity, moving away from actor and actress divisions.