Anime is a medium of many iconic elements that give each show a style like nothing else. The movement, backgrounds, color, and character design all work together to help make seemingly inanimate pixels and streaks look like they can actually breathe. And one of the most underappreciated elements that go into that immersion may literally be the breath itself: Voice acting.
Seiyuus, voice actors, and that guy from Police Academy all go behind the curtain to create your favorite characters with such distinction that you can still hear them when you close your eyes. A truly versatile performer can wear many hats within the same show, and the audience would never know, whereas a truly beloved voice or accent can just be flaunted and no one would care.
Updated on April 20th, 2021 by Sean Cubillas. As always, the anime world is constantly moving, with new voice work meeting anime fans at the speed of sound (or however long an ADR takes). This has meant new and exciting characters being shown to the world as well as even more cross pollination between anime voice work. For new and old anime fans alike who are still scratching their heads as to whether or not they've heard that voice before, here's even more proof that you probably have.
15 Johnny Yong Bosch: Revolutionary, Soul Reaper
Johnny Yong Bosch has quite the gilded history of playing cool, endearing main characters in anime. He was Shotaro Kaneda in Akira, Yukio Okumura in Blue Exorcist, and even Vash the Stampede in Trigun. Within the modern canon of anime fans, however, it's hard not to recognize him from two of the most exciting and most popular anime to come out in years.
He got to play the complicated yet ever charismatic leader of the Order of the Black Knights, Code Geass' Lelouch Lamperouge. At the other end of the fantastical meter, he was Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki, a high school kid by day, samurai/ghost slayer by night.
14 J. Michael Tatum: Demon Butler, Eccentric Time Traveler
Typecasting is often looked down upon within the entertainment industry within recent years, but who can look at J. Michael Tatum and not just see a guy who constantly pushes up his glasses for dramatic effect? He played the glasses-wearing Kazuomi Hirasawa in Eden of the East, the studious glasses wearer that is Iida Tenya in My Hero Academia, and Ouran High School Host Club's Kyoya Ootori, whose glasses can pierce anyone's soul.
In other words, this guy has voiced a lot of glasses. However, arguably his most famous roles are just as charming and stoic without the need of spectacles. In Black Butler, he was the ever loyal, ever devilish Sebastian Michaelis; and in Steins;Gate, he was the quirk, mad scientist, Rintaro Okabe.
13 Brina Palencia: Tien's Sidekick, Class 1-A's Comic Relief
Brina Palencia has the kind of adorable, kawaii voice that is perfect for cute, anime girls and cartoony mascots alike. She's Tony Tony Chopper in One Piece, Juvia Lockser in Fairy Tail, and Rei Ayanamis from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Two roles of Brina's that are just jarring to see side-to-side however is the shared voice between Dragon Ball's Chiaotzu and My Hero Academia's Minoru Mineta.
One is the adorable sidekick to Tien who's featured in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in Dragon Ball, and the other is the wacky yet cowardly underdog of U.A.
12 Crispin Freeman: The Edgiest Vampire & Ninja
Crispin Freeman has one of the most intimidating voices in all of anime. Looking at his body of work, this is a guy who can interrogate people by reading the phone book. Strong cases for this include his roles as Durarara!!'s Shizuo Heiwajima, Code Geass' Jeremiah Gottwald, and the Fate series' Kirei Kotomine.
However, his strongest and most intimidating of all walked the world of vampires and ninjas. In Hellsing, he was the forceful and eccentric Alucard; and in Naruto, he was the mysterious older brother everyone simultaneously wanted and hated, Itachi Uchiha.
11 Kyle Hebert: Pokémon Expert, Son Of A Saiyan
A true showcase of Kyle Hebert's talent as a voice actor is just how hard it's been to pinpoint his roles between anime. Examples of his incredible range include voicing the feral Kiba Inuzuka in Naruto, the cold and calculating villain that is Sosuke Aizen in Bleach, and the ever inspiring Kamina from Gurrenn Lagann.
His two most famous roles however couldn't be farther apart. In Pokémon, he's dazzled and educated trainers as the intelligent yet welcoming Professor Oak. In modern Dragon Ball, Kyle Hebert has also had the honor of playing the young and rambunctious son of Son Goku, Gohan.
10 Andrew Love: A Loving Dad, A Hated Marine
Here's one of the biggest instances of tonal whiplash in acting. Akio Furukawa is the energetic, buffoon dad from Clannad, the anime equivalent of someone cutting onions in your house. He’s the type of guy who’ll always support his wife’s eccentric baking and even sacrificed his career to take care of his ailing daughter, the picture perfect incarnation of a doting father and husband.
Via Andrew Love, he shares a voice with one of the most hated, if not the most hated villains in One Piece, Admiral Sakazuki, aka Akainu. Akainu is one of the strictest marines in the pirate world, using a philosophy of absolute justice to justify massacring hundreds and thousands of people for the sake of justice.
9 Greg Ayres: That One Kid in Class
If you’re an anime fan that’s not aware of Greg Ayres, you’re probably aware of at least one of the several prepubescent boys that he’s voiced. Mr. Ayres is a man of many talents, and all of those talents involve sounding like a child despite being grown man, and he plays that role perfectly.
His credits include Ganta from Deadman Wonderland, Sunohara from Clannad, Ayato from Angel Beats!, Kouta from Baka and Test, and even the wonderful singing role in Yukio from Beck. We may never know when Greg may finally hit puberty, but his list of work is certainly not making people impatient.
8 Tia Ballard: Magical Cat/Alien Girl Next Door
Tia Ballard has brought to life several female characters within anime, such as Sylph from Black Clover, Yoshino from Date A Live, and Moyu from Noragami. However, two of her most iconic roles show incredible range in terms of achieving cuteness. One is the adorable mascot character from Fairy Tail, Happy the Cat/Exceed super being.
Tia’s other role includes a pink-haired mech fighter who loves sweets. Seemingly flooding everyone’s meme/waifu feed within 2018, Darling in the FranXX’s Zero Two entered the community’s hearts through her eccentric attitude and deep character/relationship writing that nearly made Darling in the FranXX one of the greats.
7 Veronica Taylor: Beautiful Witch, Pokémon Master
Veronica Taylor has had the wonderful opportunity for showcasing her talents in two defining voices of people’s childhood. One was Botan, the witch/assistant of the Spirit World that would give Yuu Yuu Hakusho’s Yuusuke Urameshi his detective cases and stand in his corner when fighting against demons. Her other role wasn’t all that different in terms of monsters being caught.
In the growing world of Pokemon, Veronica Taylor gets to wear the title of Ash Ketchum’s original, English voice actor. From 1998 to 2006, she was the iconic voice telling many fans to catch them all.
6 Ian Sinclair: Attendant to the Gods, A Dandy Guy in Space
Ever the sultry voice in anime industry, Ian Sinclair has played many iconic roles: Dallas from Baccano!, Yuu from D. Gray-man, and even Tsukasa from the recent season’s Dr. Stone. However, two of his biggest roles are of such magnitude that they reach into the furthest sections of space.
One is Whis, the idle but not-to-be-trifled-with second of Dragon Ball Super’s Beerus, whose time travel powers border on plot breaking. The other is Shinichiro Watanabe’s more comedic alien hunter, Dandy from Space Dandy. He goes around space trying to collect newfound alien species and visit as many BooBies restaurants as possible. Truly a god within his own right.
5 Wendee Lee: Slaying Your Inner & Outer Demons
To list a few of Wendee Lee's ever growing, iconic roles, she has played Kei from Akira, Yoruichi from Bleach, Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop.
Any two of these characters could be put side to side on this list for the sake of showing off her range; but perhaps none can really encapsulate that space as the difference between Blue Exorcist’s arrogant, Shounen protagonist Rin Okumura and March Comes in Like a Lion’s self-deprecating Rei Kiriyama. Wendee Lee is a pillar of voice acting that is able to play the hotheaded son of Satan trying to avenge his adopted father and the quiet master of shogi just trying to go day by day.
4 Steven Blum: A Cool Cowboy, A Wild Samurai
Steven Blum is practically the Morgan Freeman of anime voice acting. You know him when you hear him, but his voice is so deep and smooth that he sinks you into the show anyway. Some of his best roles include voicing Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka, Orochimaru from Naruto, and even Toonami’s iconic host, TOM the Robot.
However, one would be remised if they didn’t mention Blum’s involvement with the works of Shinichiro Watanabe. Representing Blum on this list is Cowboy Bebop’s smooth, coolheaded Spike Spiegel whose poetic words drift out like his cigarette smoke, and Samurai Champloo’s dirty, hot headed Mugen, whose tongue is sharper than even his sword.
3 Laura Bailey: Deadly Sin, Master Of Soul Eater
A staple of female voice acting in the anime industry, Laura Bailey is the voice behind several iconic roles, such as Nodoka Manabe from K-On!, Tooru in Fruits Basket, and even several roles within Dragon Ball, the top of which include Trunks and Chi-Chi.
However, two characters that one may be surprised to find sharing Miss Bailey are the Fullmetal Alchemist's sin of seduction, Lust, and Soul Eater’s twin tailed reaper, Maka Albarn. It’s amazing just to hear that shift in tone between a sultry femme fatale and the quirky and spirited tones of a school girl. Great job, Laura Bailey.
2 Matthew Mercer: Titan Killer, Stardust Crusader
Matthew Mercer is dependable for voicing some of the anime’s best, stoic characters. Some characters of his that you wouldn’t want to find in a bar together would include Kiritsugu Emiya from the Fate series, Mizuki Akabayashi from Durarara!!, and Hit from Dragon Ball Super.
For this list, Mercer is the face of two of the modern anime community’s most beloved icons, the stern eyed, titan slaying captain of Attack on Titan, Levi, and the silent, bad boy master of Star Platinum, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures’ Jotaro Kujo. This entry almost seems like cheating considering that most of Jotaro’s lines are screams at his enemy, but his relationship with Levi is no less surprising.
1 Christopher Sabat: #2 to the Shounen Protagonist, #1 Hero in the World
Some of Christopher Sabat's seminal works include Gorou from Free!, Elfman from Fairy Tail, and Major Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist. However, topping his efforts on this list are some of his best roles in Shounen anime. Sabat shares the voices of One Piece’s Roronoa Zoro and Dragon Ball’s Vegeta and Piccolo (this doesn’t even scratch the surface of his roles in Dragon Ball), showing that for a long period of time, Sabat was a master of the anime second.
And while not necessarily playing the main character role, Sabat has recently started one of his best and most iconic characters in the ex-#1 Hero of the world of My Hero Academia, All Might. Though he rarely plays the protagonist, Sabat has proven that he can play characters that can often steal the show.