Err… it’s baaaack… after like four months…
If you’re new to my blog, I have this special segment on here where I essentially talk and praise different seiyuu (Japanese for “voice actor/actress”) around the anime industry, and sort of educate people on the different roles and vocal ranges a particular seiyuu have. It’s a fun little thing I do (until I got hella lazy, as you can see), as I am very much into this intriguing side of watching anime.
I had the urge to do this particular seiyuu post much earlier when it was Hayami Saori’s birthday but there were various factors such as the MyAnimeList maintenance thing and school, blah blah blah yeah yeah. But here we are now.
But enough of my complaining, let’s jump right in!
General Information (thanks to Anime News Network/MyAnimeList)
- Given name: 沙織
- Family name: 早見
- Real name: Matsuo Saori (沙織 松尾)
- Birthday: May 29, 1991 (27 years old)
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
- Blood type: AB
- Height: 164 cm
- Twitter: @hayami_official
- I’m Enterprise agency profile: http://www.imenterprise.jp/data.php?id=66
Hayami-san has been in many, many anime throughout her now eleven years in the industry; her first role was in a show called Touka Gettan in 2007. But now, we’ve seen her depicting characters in some pretty major anime such as Tsurumi Chiriko in AnoHana, Shirayuki from Snow White with the Red Hair, Hina in Buddy Complex, Ononoki Yotsugi from the Monogatari series, Yukinoshita Yukino in My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Haqua du Lot Herminium from The World God Only Knows, Jabami Yumeko in Kakegurui, Shiba Miyuki from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, and Shiraishi Yuzuki from Sora yori mo Tooi Basho, just to name a few.
Even the anime she’s in as a side character is pretty darn impressive. Some great examples being Ogasawara Haruka from Hibike! Euphonium, Aragaki Ayase in OreImo, Fubuki from One Punch Man, Aoyama Midori in GochiUsa, and Takagaki Kaede from THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls.
Hayami also dubbed Ruby Rose, the main character of Rooster Teeth’s popular animated web series, RWBY, in Japanese.
When you look at the list of shows she has been featured in and compare them to each other, you notice that most of her roles’ voices are very similar sounding. There may be a small higher or lower pitch change in some roles but overall, Hayami tends to use the same kind of voice for a lot of her characters.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all. While she’s no Yuuki Aoi where she can do many different voices to the point of being amazed at how talented and diverse she is, with Saori, it’s nice that you can immediately know that that’s her in an anime she’s featured in. It really shows that she’s had a pretty big impact in the anime industry if many people can easily recognize her voice.
…eh, I apologize for the video clip selection. It’s difficult to find particular and good clips to use but hopefully these will suffice. But as you can hear, Hayami as Haruka in Hibike! Euphonium and Iida Kotori from Amaama to Inazuma are pretty similar. She can definitely do a variety of ages from teenage girl to a more mature woman like in GochiUsa.
However there are some roles where she can do a much, much different kind of voice. Two great examples are her as Mikazuchi Kagura from Fairy Tail…
…and a more recent and unique voice was her depicting Nishimiya Shouko, a deaf girl from the well praised 2017 anime film Koe no Katachi.
(The video below contains pretty big spoilers from this movie, I suggest you skip it if you haven’t watched it)
It’s interesting to hear someone like Hayami Saori play the role of someone whose deaf and has trouble speaking. But, I think she did a fantastic job doing so.
As for the musical side of things… wow, does Saori have a real nice voice. She has done a few openings/endings and also insert songs from shows she has been in such as the opening for Snow White with the Red Hair, “Yasashii Kibou” which she actually wrote and is her debut single , as well as the opening for Tsukimonogatari.
Other than songs in anime, she has a solo musical career, and is even in a pop duo group called Blue Drops with fellow seiyuu Yoshida Hitomi. Hayami released her first studio album, Live Love Laugh, in 2016 and here’s her singing one of the songs from that album live, “Escort”.
Man, when she started singing in this video, I actually said, “whoa”. I didn’t know she could sing a jazzy song like this one!
I think that’s all I have to say about Ms. Hayami today! She is very talented, both voice acting and singing-wise, and definitely deserves all the roles and praise she gets. I hope she continues to be successful!!
Thanks for reading, and if you have any seiyuu in mind that you’d want to see on this segment, definitely let me know in the comments!
-al
omunibasu 
Hayamin is a great example of, “if you plan on doing a one trick pony then do it right.”
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She may not have a great range of voices, but she can do incredible things regardless.
You missed her most astounding performance – her almost two and a half minute monologue as Kushikawa Hatoko in When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace. IIRC, one take – on the first try.
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Indeed. Absolutely nobody can overlook this monstrous performance.
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Ah yeah, I did see this clip but for some reason didn’t watch it all the way through 😛 but definitely, it’s interesting (and impressive, since you mentioned her doing this on the first try) to see her do a scene like this particular one.
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I only know a handful of seiyuu, but I sure love her! Even though Yukino Yukinoshita has a pretty standard kuudere voice, it’s probably my favourite Hayamin role.
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