We all have a manga that we hear about, and keep on our “want to get” list for a while, and once we finally get around to reading them, we wonder, “I love this! Why did I wait so long to check this out?”. Voice Over! Seiyu Academy was one of those experiences for me. I remember seeing advertisements and promotional material for the series, and thought it looked like a franchise I would enjoy, but only recently got around to picking up the series and giving it a read, and I absolutely adore it. Anyone who loves shoujo manga and themes of hard work and determination, with a dash or two of drama should check out Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, and not wait as long as I did to check it out. Let’s delve into this history of the series and then review the elements that make it such an enjoyable experience.
Voice Over! Seiyu Academy is a shoujo manga written and illustrated by Maki Minami that ran in Japan’s legendary shoujo manga anthology Hana to Yume from 2009 to 2013, spanning 70 chapters. The series was localizaed for a Western audience by Viz Media, and was published over 12 volumes from 2013 to 2015 in English. The only additional media the series has received to date are two drama CDs, with one coming included with the January 20, 2010 issue of Hana to Yume, and the other coinciding with the release of the second volumes release in Japan. These drama CDs are only available in Japanese audio at this time, so us American fans will have to cling to the book series, as it is the only current form of media we have for the series in English.
The story of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy follows Hime Kino, an aspiring voice actress attending Holly Academy, a technical high school that teaches its students a variety of unique skills and trades. Hime’s interest in voice acting began with her being a huge fan of a magical girl anime called “Lovely Blazers”, and after meeting the lead voice actress of the series in an experience that changed her life, Hime is inspired to throw herself wholeheartedly into pursuing her dream of becoming the voice of a future character in the series, following in the footsteps of her idol. Hime’s issue, as the reader quickly learns, is that she does not have a voice that lends itself to radio or TV very well. Her classmates in her vocal classes mock her for having a gravely, unflattering voice, but Hime does not let this dissuade her. She quickly makes friends with some of the other class rejects, and makes it her objective to do her best to improve her vocal performances and prove the teasing and mockery of her classmates wrong. As the story progresses, we see Hime and her friend’s daily school life, their hopes, dreams, the drama they get involved in, and ultimately, their attempts of breaking into the working world of vocal talent.
The story is set in contemporary Japan, and mostly takes places within the classrooms and halls of the fictional Holly Academy. In addition to the day to day school life of Hime and her friends is the professional settings they find themselves in, such as true-to-life auditions and recording studios. The recording studios also have true to life equipment which is a nice touch to the story, and an enjoyable attention to detail. The series expertly balances the slice-of-life moments with the scenes set in a more professional atmosphere, and neither aspect seems overpowering to the other. I found this balance to lead to strong character development and some truly memorable scenes in both camps.
The characters in Voice Over! Seiyu Academy are truly the stars of the show. We touched upon the previously mentioned Hime Kino in the previous paragraphs, but lets explore her character a little more and then talk about a little bit of the supporting cast. Hime Kino’s determined personality and perseverance, along with the struggle of having a rough voice that is deemed unfit for vocal talent by her peers really makes for a well written shoujo protagonist. Her goals, fears and ambitions all ring true, and have plenty of emotion behind how they are written, making the reader that much more invested in her and her journey towards her goal. Opposite of Hime, we have Senri Kudou, the perfect, powerful-voiced, male classmate of hers that is the main source of put downs towards Hime. Unlike Hime, Senri and his family have a rich history in the voice acting field, and he seems to get gigs in the industry effortlessly. Among the supporting cast are the other members of Hime’s class that are further behind in the development of their vocal talents, with the group nicknamed “The Stragglers”. These include Tsukino Todoroki, a shy, dark haired girl that is described as having a “soft, cute voice”, the edgy, rough and quick to anger Sho Takayanagi, and the self-confident to a comedic foreign exchange student, Mitchel Zaizen. The dynamic between the Stragglers is an absolute joy to behold, and they ways they play off of each other in the comedic scenes, as well as the way they bring each other up and inspire each other in each other’s pivotal moments are some of my favorite character interactions in a shoujo manga.
You may have asked yourself something along the lines of, “How does the story convey voice and audio in a strictly visual medium such as manga?” while reading this review, and that is where the art of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy really shines. There is no audio companion piece to the story, so the art really has to get clever on how to convey a voice to the reader’s head, which it does exceedingly well through the use of panels that depict how the characters interpret the source of the voices they hear, employing many different fonts to convey tone and sound, and highly detailed panels of the speaker’s facial expression as they deliver their lines. The masterful use of all of these techniques help Voice Over! Seiyu Academy transcend the barrier between written words and sound, giving the panels and characters a unique voice of their own, that is easy for the reader to imagine the sound of in their head.
The other aspect of the art is the style employed for creating the story and character art. The manga utilizes an art style that fans of shoujo manga will feel familiar with. The pretty, cutesy character designs, big, emotive eyes and sugary sweet aesthetics of the genre are all at play here, and given their own unique flair by the artist. Touching on the last paragraph’s topic a bit, expressions of emotion from that characters and backgrounds are a huge part of the art and how it conveys the topics at play within the story, and Voice Over! Seiyu Academy delivers on that in spades. The character art also fits the personalities of each individual character. I love when stories have a common link between the design of a character and their personality, and that aspect of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy pulls it off in a beautiful manner.
I would highly encourage fans of the shoujo genre or stories of the talent industry to give Voice Over! Seiyu Academy a try. The creative way it weaves ideas of sound and audio into a strictly visual medium is not only extremely impressive, but a total delight to read. The way the story injects its own creative ingredient to the shoujo manga formula make Voice Over! Seiyu Academy a must read for shoujo manga lovers.
