Seki Tomokazu

Guest commentary by Eleanor:

In a world where female anime seiyuu seem to get all of the glory, there are but a few men that stand above the rest in talent, mostly unrecognized by the general public. Seki Tomokazu is one such man: appearing in countless anime, releasing character vocal image song after song, yet on the anime seiyuu polls, dwarfed by the names of Inoue Kikuko and Megumi Hayashibara and virtually unknown.

Seki's talents can easily be seen from the wide range of characters he has had to play. I believe the real test of the a seiyuu's talent is the range of characters and emotions that they can portray well, and Seki has had no lack of variety in his characters. From the fun-loving anime-obsessed Daigouji Guy to Van Farnel, a king of a slaugtered country, he has played them all flawlessly. But, in my biased opinion, his portrayal of Chichiri was one of his most challenging, requiring him to move from many extremes: from playfully happy, to a serious advisor, to downright emotional and screaming in some of the later TV episodes and in the OVAs.