2022 was sparse and unpredictable in solo and seiyuu unit debuts. Time to cover the new artists of 2022.
From January 15 until January 22, 2023, readers and viewers of THTFHQ voted for these awards that value, first and foremost, talent and quality over popularity.
Nominees were shortlisted by The Hand That Feeds HQ and a winner emerged in each category.
To avoid petty fights between fans and disrespect towards seiyuu and their fans, no votes are disclosed in any of the written features covering THTFHQ AWARDS 2022.
If you want to check the abridged version of the complete results of this year’s edition, those were unveiled on episode 130 of SEIYUU LOUNGE, THTFHQ’s weekly podcast all about male seiyuu music and 2D groups.
Without further ado, these are the 3 seiyuu artists/seiyuu units that debuted in 2022.
#1 Kent Ito
Kent Ito had an absolutely flawless debut with the single “Mayonaka no Love”. His solo debut came a bit out of nowhere – as it was not expected he’d ever venture solo given how busy he is with voice acting work as well as his prior commitments to UMake.
However, this debut that came out of nowhere arrived to sweep everyone off their feet with a stylish, mature and slightly romantic citypop sound that made Kent Ito shine as an artist.
The soundscape created in “Mayonaka no Love” is so elegant yet so loungy, something that makes it so easy for it to be on loop to no end and you never get tired of this song.
With a funky sound with underlying nostalgia to the complexity and fun of the instrumental even down to the fancy lyrics and emotional performance, everything about this debut digital single was… flawless.
Now that Kent Ito managed to kick off his solo career on the right foot, he is aiming at repeating the feat and impressing with his 1st EP “Hanabi” which is set for a release in February 2023. Given his track record of quality and the sound we all got with “Mayonaka no Love”, the 1st EP is set to blow everyone’s minds yet again.
It is no wonder why he is your Best New Artist of 2022.
From this point on, the seiyuu mentioned are not ranked (the order in which they appear below doesn’t correspond to the place they ranked in the final voting):
Tomohito Takatsuka
Tomohito Takatsuka was the first seiyuu to make a solo debut in 2022 but due to bad timing and a forgettable debut single “Hoshi no Oto“, he… ended up not getting the spotlight some hoped he’d get.
This was, like all other debuts of the year, a debut that came out of nowhere (2022 was this unpredictable!).
And that, unfortunately, ended up reflecting in the media interest in his debut – barely existent – and subsequent non interest from seiyuu fans, which led to the CD to underperform on the Oricon charts, selling under 800 copies in total.
Takatsuka has been active in 2D music projects such as THE IDOLM@STER SideM – as a member of Beit – but he has never shown more than him being an “okay” singer with solid foundations.
As far as the quality of the music in “Hoshi no Oto”, it was far from remarkable and ended up not bringing anything new to the seiyuu music panorama nor did it make Takatsuka shine.
And then the timing for the release ended up not being the best as Takatsuka ended up being a prologue to what would end up being the best month of CD releases in 2022, February.
Dreamusic ended up not helping Tomohito Takatsuka’s debut shine and soon after the release of “Hoshi no Oto”, everyone went on radio silence. Only time will tell if Takatsuka returns with new music any sooner.
P☆LiSH
P☆LiSH made its debut in 2022 but it ended up being a debut that very few noticed.
The group features the vocals of Haruki Ishiya, Chikahiro Kobayashi and Eiji Takeuchi, co-hosts of the radio show Ishiya Haruki, Radio de migaku.
Despite the fact that the lineup features 2 seiyuu talents that have been growing in popularity thanks to the Hypnosis Mic franchise, I found it odd that most of their fans did not care much about this project.
What stands out with this group is the fact that the seiyuu are performing as the characters they voice in the radio dramas.
This is an idol group with presence in both 2D and 3D which is a rare thing among seiyuu.
Thank you to everyone that voted at the THTFHQ AWARDS 2022! A new edition will be held in January 2024 so make sure to follow THTFHQ on social media for notifications when the voting starts.
