Megumi Ogata, the veteran voice actor behind some of anime's most iconic roles like Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon, called for the voice acting industry to become more "gender-free" during her acceptance speech at the 16th Annual Seiyū Awards.
As originally reported by Nikkan Sports and translated by Anime News Network, Ogata won the Best Lead Actress Award this year; however, the actor expressed genuine surprise over her win during her acceptance speech. "I have never really thought of myself as an actress, per se," she explained. "These days, we live in what's called a gender-free society, and in the voice actor world, there are people who have come out [as LGBTQ+]. There are also many people, like me, who hardly think of themselves as 'women' at all as they live their daily lives."
In her speech, she went on to suggest that going forward, the Seiyū Awards do away with the gender-binary based categorization of certain awards. She also argued the voice acting industry should consider the essence of an actor and not their gender when choosing performers.
Ogata made her voice acting debut as Kurama in the classic anime series Yū Yū Hakusho, which originally aired from October 1992 to December 1994. While she has since played a range of both male and female characters, she predominantly has voiced teenage boys in animated shows. This includes Makoto Naegi from Danganronpa: The Animation, Yugi Mutou from Yu-Gi-Oh! and the younger version of Takenori Akagi from Slam Dunk.
"I think that accepting the award will have significance within this industry, so I have decided to accept it sincerely. I am sorry for being pompous. I really am very happy," she continued. "It was a uniquely rigorous environment in this industry. I am so happy to receive this award along with everyone who has worked on it for these past 26 years. Congratulations, and thank you."
Ogata's push for a "gender-free" voice acting industry isn't the only recent example of LGBTQ+ advocacy in the anime/manga industry. While BL (Boys Love) stories are a well-established staple, canonical queer characters like My Hero Academia's Tiger and Blue Period's Yuka are becoming more and more common outside the boundaries of that genre. Moreover, Requiem of the Rose King, a new shojo anime from the winter 2022 season that is inspired by Willaim Shakespeare's plays Henry VI and Richard III, features an intersex protagonist in Richard III.
Ogata latest work is the anime movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0, where she portrays the prequel's protagonist, Yuta Okkotsu. The film will be released in North America on March 18.
Source: Nikkan Sports, via Anime News Network