Maaya Sakamoto (坂本 真綾, Sakamoto Maaya; born March 31, 1980) is a Japanese actress and singer. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime Little Twins, and became known as the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki in The Vision of Escaflowne. Other major anime roles include Shinobu Oshino in Monogatari, Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club, Shiki Ryōgi in The Garden of Sinners, Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler, Crona in Soul Eater, Leila Malcal in Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Merlin in The Seven Deadly Sins, Eto in Tokyo Ghoul, and Echidna in Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. In video games, she has voiced Aerith Gainsborough in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, Aigis in Persona 3, Lightning in the Final Fantasy XIII games, the adult Sherry Birkin in Resident Evil, and Maki Harukawa in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. In the Japanese-dubbed versions of international films, Sakamoto has voiced Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars franchise and Rosalina in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Sakamoto has performed songs in both English and Japanese. She released her debut single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai", in collaboration with Yoko Kanno under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996. Her singles "Tune the Rainbow", "Loop", "Ame ga Furu", and "Triangler" have all reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart: "Triangler" in particular charted at number 3 and remained charting for 26 weeks. Her albums have had similar success, with Shōnen Alice and Yūnagi Loop both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; and her album You Can't Catch Me, released on January 12, 2011, became her first release to ever reach number 1. She held a concert at the Nippon Budokan on her 30th birthday.
Contents
Career
Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up in a family, formed by her parents and older brother. She started working as a voice actress at an early age and the first leading role she was given was in the 1993 OVA Little Twins.
In 1996, she was given the role of Hitomi Kanzaki, the leading role in the TV anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. For this anime she also performed the opening theme, which was released as her debut single on April 24, 1996. The single was produced by Yoko Kanno, who was also in charge of the soundtrack for Escaflowne. Her first album, Grapefruit, was released on April 23, 1997.
Sakamoto's early music was produced by Kanno and her team, which included Yūho Iwasato, Shanti Snyder and Tim Jensen. Sakamoto worked almost exclusively with Kanno and company for almost a decade. Apart from her work as a voice actress and singer, in October 1996 Sakamoto also debuted as a radio host presenting her own program, Sakamoto Maaya no Naisho-banashi, on radio station Nack 5.
In addition to her work as an Anime Seiyuu, Sakamoto performed the dub voice for many Hollywood actresses, such as Anna Chlumsky in My Girl, Anna Paquin in Amistad and True Blood, Claire Danes in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and Christina Ricci in Casper. Furthermore, Sakamoto also performed theme songs for several anime series, including "Gift" for Clamp School Detectives (1997), "Kiseki no Umi" for Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (1998) and "Platinum" for Cardcaptor Sakura (1999), which won the Best Theme Song awards from Anime Grand Prix for two consecutive years.
In 2002, Sakamoto worked again with Kanno and Yūho Iwasato for her 10th single, "Hemisphere", the opening theme for the TV anime series RahXephon. Released on February 21, 2002, "Hemisphere" peaking at number 22 in the Oricon and number 24 in the Count Down TV weekly charts.
In 2003, Sakamoto made her debut as a theatre actress on the Japanese version of the musical Les Misérables, playing the role of Éponine. This year she also starred in her first TV drama Suekko Chounan Ane San-nin, and also played the leading role in the short film 03† directed by Hidenori Sugimori. On the other hand, Sakamoto's 11th single "Tune the Rainbow" (Released on April 2, 2003), which was used as the main theme song for RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio, The only anime movie that was nominated for the 35th Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. became her first Top 10 single in Japan, peaking at number 9 in the Oricon weekly charts. Her fourth album, Shōnen Alice, released on December 10, 2003, became her first Top 10 album on the Oricon charts and also her last record to be produced exclusively by Yoko Kanno; since this release Sakamoto would involve further in the music making process and production of her records. Her fifth album, Yūnagi Loop, released on October 26, 2005, was her first co-produced by herself along with musician Mistuyoshi Tamura, whom she would continue working in her subsequent records. This album's only single, "Loop" the ending theme for TV anime series Tsubasa Chronicle peaked at number seven on the Oricon charts, also becoming her highest chart peaking single at that time. For this album's, Sakamoto has collaborated with many various well-known lyricist and composers, including Yūho Iwasato, Haruichi Shindō, Robin Fredriksson and Shusui.
Collaborations
Sakamoto first worked with the composer Yoko Kanno in her 1996 debut single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai" ("Promises Not Needed"), which was used as the opening theme for the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. Kanno collaborated with Sakamoto up until her fifth album, Yūnagi Loop, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Sakamoto also performed three songs for the series Wolf's Rain, for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity" (which is sung completely in English), "Tell Me What The Rain Knows" (with lyrics by Chris Mosdell) and "Cloud 9". She performed "Hemisphere", the opening theme of the series RahXephon, as well as two songs for the series' theatrical version RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio: "Tune the Rainbow" and "The Garden of Everything" (duet with Steve Conte). In 2008, Sakamoto and Kanno collaborated again for "Triangler", the opening theme song for the series Macross Frontier. She also performed the song "cream" with HIDE, which was featured in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mini album be Human. She was one half of the voice acting duo Whoops!!, alongside Chieko Higuchi.
Personal life
Sakamoto graduated from Toyo University with a Bachelor's degree in sociology in 2002. On August 8, 2011, she married the voice actor and her frequent co-star Kenichi Suzumura. On April 21, 2022, the couple announced the birth of their first child.
Filmography
Musicals
Angel Touch - Rin Otō
Bangare - Nin Sasaki
Daddy Long Legs ~Ashinaga Oji-san Yori~ - Jerusha Abbott
Les Misérables (Japanese production) - Éponine Thénardier
Letter ~ Bring to Light - Ritsuko Nonomura
Mizuiro Jidai - Natsumi Kugayama
Radio
Sakamoto Maaya no Vitamin M (坂本真綾のビタミンＭ) - Bay-FM
Sakamoto Maaya Chizu to Tegami to Koi no Uta (坂本真綾 地図と手紙と恋のうた) - TBS Radio
Broadcast date: April 7, 2007 ~ March 28, 2009
Konica Minolta presents Night on the Planet - Tokyo FM
Yellow tail music tail - Tokyo FM
Sapporo Beer Key of Dish - Tokyo FM
Sakamoto Maaya no Naisho Hanashi (坂本真綾のナイショ話) - Nack5
Girls' School Fantasy – NACK5
Sakamoto Maaya I.D. (坂本真綾 I.D.) - Nack5, FM Osaka, FM Aichi
Sakamoto Maaya no Who Is Lucy (坂本真綾のWho Is Lucy; Sakamoto Maaya's Who Is Lucy) – FM Fukuoka, Sendai City-FM, FM-Nigata, K-Mix
Sakamoto Maaya I.D. Night Flight (坂本真綾 I.D. Night Flight) - Nack5, FM Osaka, North Wave, Cross FM
Sakamoto Maaya no Escaflowneeyes (坂本真綾のEscaflowneeyes; Sakamoto Maaya's Escaflowneeyes) - Nippon Cultural Broadcasting
Sakamoto Maaya no Lucy's Radio Show (坂本真綾のLucy's Radio Show; Sakamoto Maaya's Lucy's Radio Show) - Nippon Cultural Broadcasting
Webcast
Maaya Sakamoto's Full Moon Recital Hall (September 23, October 23, November 22, December 21, 2010) -Ustream
reading of Japanese literary works
one of the special projects offered by a Japanese online magazine "Saizensen"
Dubbing roles
Discography
Studio albums
Grapefruit (1997)
Dive (1998)
Lucy (2001)
Shōnen Alice (2003)
Yūnagi Loop (2005)
Kazeyomi (2009)
You Can't Catch Me (2011)
Singer-Songwriter (2013)
Follow Me Up (2015)
Kyō Dake no Ongaku (2019)
Kioku no Toshokan (2023)
Awards and nominations
In the 23rd Anime Grand Prix, she ranked tenth place under the voice actress category with 126 votes.
In addition, in the first Seiyu Awards, she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her portrayal of Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club as well as "Best Musical Performance" for Tsubasa Chronicle's ending theme Loop.
Publications
Serialization
Sakamoto Maaya no Manpukuron (坂本真綾の満腹論) – Currently in Newtype.
- A monthly column
Books
I.D. (アイディ。) – December 9, 2005 – Essay collection
Chizu to Tegami to Koi no Uta (地図と手紙と恋のうた) – April 18, 2008 – Photo and lyrics book compilation
from everywhere. – February 21, 2011 – Essay collection