I think he is the busiest male seiyuu in 2016. This year, he has major roles in 26 animes on TV and on the big screen, namely:
- Norn 9: Norn + Nonetto
- Zutto Mae kara Suki Deshita. Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai
- Accel World: Infinite Burst
- Gyakusatsu Kikan
- Boku no Hero Academia
- Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
- Tsukiuta. The Animation
- Gyakuten Saiban: Sono “Shinjitsu”, Igi Ari!
- Servamp
- JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Diamond wa Kudakenai
- Joker Game
- Arslan Senki: Fuujin Ranbu
- Occultic;Nine
- Bananya
- Fukigen na Mononokean
- Kiznaiver
- Noragami Aragoto OAD
- Tantei Team KZ: Jiken Note
- Dimension W
- Durarara!!x2 Ketsu
- Haikyuu!! Second Season
- Nisekoi: OAD
- World Trigger
- Nanatsu no Taizai: Seisen no Shirushi
- Dia no Ace: Second Season
- Fairy Tail
He is also in Japanese dubbing projects for some of the major TV, DVD and big screen works, namely:
- The Secret Life of Pets (Universal Pictures animated movie)
- Cantabile Tomorrow (Korean Drama adapted from Nodame Cantabile manga)
- The Last Ship (TNT Drama Series)
- Memories of the Sword (Korean Movie)
These do not include his Radio, Game, and Web TV works. Most recently, he had been working on an NHK Radio program. Some of his past animes also has some ongoing radio programs.
Kaji Yuki also made history in the Annual Seiyuu Awards since he won the Best Male Seiyuu Award for two consecutive years in 2013 and 2014, but he has already 3 of those trophies since he won Best Rookie in 2009. The list of awards I have found so far:
- Annual Seiyuu Award – Best Male Seiyuu 2013
- Annual Seiyuu Award – Best Male Seiyuu 2014
- Annual Seiyuu Award – Best Male Rookie Seiyuu 2009
- Tokyo Anime Award – Best Voice Actor 2013
- Anime Grand Prix – Voice Acting Award 2012
- Anime Grand Prix – Voice Acting Award 2013
AFAchan recently made a popularity poll of seiyuus among 10,000 fans and Kaji Yuki came as 3rd most popular in 2014 and rose to 2nd most popular in 2015 with a big increase of almost 40% in the votes. Is he going to dethrone Kamiya Hiroshi very soon, who held the top spot in both years? We will wait and see if AFAchan will make another poll this year and the next years to come.
Newtype Magazine also has their own popularity awards for current animes and in 2014, Kaji Yuki came out on the top spot for Male Seiyuus based on the poll participated by the magazine’s readers. I think I also saw a couple of the magazine’s issues with Kaji Yuki on the cover page, center spread, or feature stories.
So it doesn’t really come as a surprise why he is the busiest seiyuu this year.
Personally, I never bothered about Kaji Yuki’s voice in the past until I saw Nanatsu Taizai’s Meliodas. I admit I wasn’t a fan until I saw this anime. Meliodas is a mix of cute and outrageous and I think the voice contributed a lot to it. Proof of that is sometimes I just put Nanatsu Taizai episodes on a playlist and listen to it like an audio while I’m hammering my keyboard for some work. Meliodas’ voice is like music – relaxing, refreshing, energetic, funny, annoying, and a lot of other things.
Although Meliodas is so adorable and uber popular, I still think Yukine of Noragami is a much harder work for Kaji Yuki and by far, his finest acting, especially on Noragami episode 9 when Yukine received the Divine Punishment. I saw the DVD for the Noragami event and everyone who worked with him was really worried after that Divine Punishment episode. Surprisingly to me, he came out with only slightly scratchy voice after that.
Lately, he’s been given characters with low scary voice, like his character in Arslan Senki, Hermes/Ginkamen.
I watched Shingeki no Kyoujin many many times so there might be a “Kaji Yuki” factor to that, subconsciously.
I think I read two or three negative comments over the web from people about Kaji Yuki’s voice, which I can empathize with because I used to not bother about his works in the past. But I would definitely recommend Nanatsu Taizai anime for anime fans to appreciate this seiyuu’s extraordinary hard work and developing talent. I think Kaji Yuki is a bit like his character in World Trigger, Mikumo Osamu, who works so hard in order to make himself a little bit better each day.
It’s fun to look forward to Kaji Yuki’s next works and projects. To be continued…
animeshijie 