Megumi Hayashibara

Biography: Megumi Hayashibara was born on March 30, 1967 in Tokyo, Japan. She's been an anime fan since her childhood, her favorite being "Uchuu Senchan Yamato", later translated into "Starblazers", that she saw when she was 11. As a child, Megumi thought that the characters were real. What a shock when she found out that it was some seiyuus (anime voice actors) that made them come alive! From that moment on, Megumi decided to become a seiyuu herself.

Later on, her father suffered a stroke, leading her to be interested in nursing. She applied for 5 different nursing schools. At one of them, the receptonist was very rude. To calm herself down, Megumi bought a manga magazine at the train station. In it was an ad for a voice audition. She decided to try it against her family's advice. 600 applicants were at the audition for Arts Vision, Megumi was among the 16 accepted.

She then started a several years long training at Arts Vision and in the same time went to a nurse school to reasure her parents who didn't really believe that she could make a career as a seiyuu. After three years of nursing school and six months working as a registred nurse, Megumi decided to become a voice actress full-time. She got her first role in 1986, at the age of 19, in the series "Maison Ikkoku as Yosuke Nanao", the little brother of Kozue Nanao, Godai's girlfriend.

Since then, Megumi hasn't stop being popular, her voice acting giving real life to her characters. Megumi says that she needs around seven episodes to really get used to a character. After that, she can make it do everything. Her most challenging role, to not say hardest, must be Ranma-chan from the serie Ranma½. For that role, Ranma being a man that change physically into a girl, Megumi had to learn how to speak, even swear like a man.
Megumi never had a problem getting the roles she wanted. Her next wish would be to have a part in a Hayao Miyazaki film.

"Voice-actors are known for their voices, not their faces," says Megumi. Even if this is true, we have to admit that her charming face helps to gain even more fans. Megumi-sama got married 1998.

If being a voice actress is her main profession, she is also a famous singer. Her first album solo, Half & Half was made in 1991. Her two last, Bertemu (1996) and Iravati (1997) are mostly composed of anime songs, which make them very successful. She also takes part in some groups like DoCo DoCo (with also Inoue Kikuko, Hidaka Noriko, Takayama Minami and sakuma Rei, all voice actresses in the anime Ranma ½). DoCo DoCo has released two albums in '91 and '92. They made a second group with Megumi, Hidaka Noriko, and Sakuma Rei named Ties. Their main single is Little Date from Ranma ½.
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