Top 20 Best male seiyuu units [PART 2]

Continuing where we left off last week we enter the bottom 10 on this TOP 20 Best male seiyuu units. After talking about the big names in the business in terms of seiyuu units like ELEKITER ROUND 0, E.M.U or even ST☆RISH, we turn our heads towards the rest of the top where we can find another great collection of seiyuu units.

#11 – G.Addict

Currently on hiatus, seiyuu Pop-rock unit G.Addict originated from the anime Goulart Knights. Consisting of Takuma Terashima, Kaji Yuki, Atsushi Abe and Kazama Horie, G.Addict have released two singles, one mini-album and one full length album titled HIGH-END in 2011. Presenting us a bright pop-rock ready to catch us off guard with it’s energy, G.Addict sound good as a unit (same can’t be said solo-wise, some of them sing a bit “too” peculiar for some tastes) having some great singing voices like Takuma Terashima (ST☆RISH and M.O.E) and Kazama Horie that makes a pretty good impression with his singing skills. Kaji’s deep vocals somehow blend with the rest of the group making him sound considerably well besides the fact that he still has a lot to learn when it comes to singing. Atsushi Abe seems to be the one with the most peculiar vocal tone pending a little too much to the higher notes in comparison with his band members but it’s nothing that the other members can’t cover up. All in all they are an interesting act that have an interesting enough album released, produced with R.O.N’s – former member of OLDCODEX – help, drawing the full potential of the instrumentals not making anything corny like some producers usually make some seiyuu work on.

#12 – Maxboys

Hiroshima’s seiyuu unit formed in 2012 and consisting on multitalented seiyuu Yoshimasa Hosoya and new seiyuu Toshiki Masuda. Spreading their pop-rock since their very first release “大切なもの“, Maxboys released three singles and an album before disbanding in 2013. Immersing us with Yoshimasa’s vibrato and captivating us with Toshiki’s sweet mid-tone vocals, this unit was one that had a short lifespan but provided us with some great songs like “Sakura” and 消えない絆. 

#13 – KAmiYU

On #13 we have one of Kiramune’s biggest names: KAmiYU. Founded in 2011 and consisting of seiyuu royalty Hiroshi Kamiya and young seiyuu, stage actor Irino Miyu, the duo has already released two mini-albums and one single showing us their addictive pop. It’s a peculiar seiyuu unit because comparing with other units they have overall two pretty distinctive voices, Irino Miyu is more prone and trained when it comes to singing sounding incredibly good be it live or on recording, on the other hand we have Hiroshi Kamiya that is not the best of singers (we have to admit it) but even though he lacks that extra talent when it comes to singing he unexpectedly sounds good when in unison with Miyu. A unit that certainly has its flaws like any other unit but still we can withdraw some good songs from their repertoire like “Go the distance” and “REASON”.

#14 – Trignal

Another Kiramune unit this time we have the 2012 formed unit Trignal. Consisting on all promising voice actors, Ryohei Kimura (29), Takuya Eguchi (26) and Tsubasa Yonaga (30) this unit is a great platform for later these seiyuu eventually launch their solo careers and somehow through the way boost their popularity. When it comes to these guys we have to tread their music with a little bit of care. Sometimes sounding a bit ridiculous in some songs, be it because of the lyrics or the weak instrumentals, these guys have the short end of the stick most of the times sounding a bit off but when putting that aside we have in here three pretty unique voices, some more prone for singing like Takuya Eguchi or Tsubasa Yonaga and others less prone but in development like Ryohei Kimura (let’s not remind ourselves how badly Ryohei Kimura sang when he started off singing character songs). They could be better and unless they change a bit their music direction they’ll keep sounding ridiculous like on the “Summer Magic” single. There’s so much talent and potential but it’s so badly explored.

 #15 – CONNECT

Another Kiramune unit, Connect consisting on seiyuu Kenichi Suzumura and Iwata Mitsuo have already released one album, single and three mini-albums, all in only 5 years since their formation as a unit. An interesting unit worth of being part of this TOP 20 since it has one of Japan’s most talented singers (at least when we narrow down to the seiyuu industry) which is Kenichi Suzumura. It’s an unexpected duo but nevertheless they fail to entertain us with their music. No big problems with the vocals at all since Suzumura’s mid-toned vocals go pretty well with Mitsuo’s slightly lower-toned ones. The instrumental pieces sometimes are a bit lacking but they seem to overcome that when on a live setting giving more energy to the songs and making the crowd go wild with them.

 The TOP 20 is the following (missing final 5):

1 – ELEKITER ROUND 0
2 – E.M.U
3 – ST☆RISH
4 – QUARTET★NIGHT
5 – HE★VENS
6 – D.A.T
7 – 神谷浩史+小野大輔
8 – フェロ☆メン
9 – Marginal#4
10 – CELL DIVISION 
11 - G.Addict
12 - Maxboys
13 - KAmiYU
14 - Trignal
15 - CONNECT

Next and final part is released next week where we have the final five / honorable mentions. Part 3 is out on 16/02/2014.