Ai Kayano (茅野 愛衣, Kayano Ai; born September 13, 1987) is a Japanese voice actress. A former member of Pro-Fit, she is a member of Office Osawa. She had leading roles in several anime series, including Meiko "Menma" Honma in Anohana, Inori Yuzuriha in Guilty Crown, Alice Zuberg in Sword Art Online: Alicization, Utaha Kasumigaoka in Saekano, Mashiro Shiina in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Saori Takebe in Girls und Panzer, Shiro in No Game No Life, Darkness in KonoSuba, Juliet Persia in Boarding School Juliet, and Mamako Oosuki in Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?. She has also performed opening, ending, and insert theme songs for each series.
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Biography
Kayano wanted to work in a job that would involve "healing people", leading to initially take up a course at a vocational school. She worked at the beauty industry, and became interested in acting after watching Aria. While attending school, she continued working in the industry and paid for her tuition.
Kayano joined Pro-Fit in 2010, starring in the original video animation Princess Resurrection. She also voiced a number of background roles in the anime series A Certain Magical Index II, voicing Itsuwa. She voiced Meiko "Menma" Honma in Anohana. Kayano, Haruka Tomatsu, and Saori Hayami performed the series' ending theme "Secret Base – Kimi ga Kureta Mono (10 years after Ver.)", a cover of a song originally sung by the band Zone. Kayano won the Best Newcomer Award at the 6th Seiyu Awards. She voiced Inori Yuzuriha in Guilty Crown.
Kayano voiced Mayaka Ibara in Hyouka. She and Satomi Satō performed the series' ending themes "Madoromi no Yakusoku" (まどろみの約束) and "Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery" (君にまつわるミステリー). Kayano voiced Mashiro Shiina in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Saori Takebe in Girls und Panzer, Ai Fuyuumi in Oreshura, Chisaki Hiradaira in Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea, and Shiro in No Game No Life. She performed the series' ending theme "Oración". She left Pro-Fit and became a freelancer in 2014. She joined Office Osawa in 2015. She voiced Megumi Sakura in School-Live!, Utaha Kasumigaoka in Saekano, Darkness in KonoSuba, Chizuru Hishiro in ReLIFE, Rin Tōyama in New Game!, Kirie Sakurame in UQ Holder!, Shuvi in No Game No Life: Zero, and Juliet Persia in Boarding School Juliet.
In 2016, Kayano hosted a show titled "Kayanomi ~Kayano Ai ga Nihonshu wo Nominagara, Taberu dake~~" (かやのみ 〜茅野愛衣が日本酒をのみながら、食べるだけ〜; lit. "Kayanomi ~Ai Kayano is Eating While Drinking Sake~") at Animate Times' YouTube channel. The show focuses on her looking through into various types of sake. The title of show is also a combination of her surname Kayano and the Japanese word for "drink", which is "nomi" (飲み).
Controversy
In 2021, controversy arose on Chinese social media as a result of Kayano's post regarding her February 11 trip to the Yasukuni Shrine. It contains a subject of controversies about Japanese soldiers who died in numerous wars involving Japan spanning between the Meiji and Showa eras, including 1,068 convicted war criminals who were executed by the International Military Tribunal; of which fourteen of them, including former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, are labeled as A-Class criminals. In response, her voice lines were removed in the Chinese version of Azur Lane and Girls' Frontline. Similar action was also taken in other games such as the removal of Kayano's voice lines in Guns Girl Z, Punishing: Gray Raven, and the Chinese version of Arknights, where she was replaced by Miku Itō and Mizuki Kitajima for all servers in 2021 in the latter two games.
