Ayane Sakura, whose roles include the voice of Ochaco Uraraka in My Hero Academia, recently spoke on the change in perception of her profession in a radio segment with Nogizaka46 idol Nagi Inoue. Sakura is known for numerous popular roles, including:
- Ochaco Uraraka in My Hero Academia
- Iroha in My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Oregairu)
- Yotsuba in The Quintessential Quintuplets
- Nao Tomori in Charlotte
- Gabi Braun in Attack on Titan
- Tomoe in Tsukimichi
- Aira in DAN DA DAN
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Inoue shared her love for anime, which stemmed from her student days, as well as her nervousness about moving to Tokyo. In turn, Sakura shared her own experience from her student days:
“To be honest, when I was a student, if you heard ‘anime,’ you would be called ‘Akiba-kei’ and made fun of, and even if you told your relatives that you were (seriously) aiming to be a voice actor, you would be teased. It was a time when it wasn’t very accepted. But now, there are more celebrities who openly declare that they like anime, and I have the sense of ‘Ah, we’ve finally reached this era.’“
Sakura is one of the industry’s most well-known voice actors, making her first solo appearance on the cover of the popular Seiyuu Grand Prix magazine in December 2023. She made another appearance just recently in the March 2025 edition, which you can check out below:
Notably, the March 2025 edition came with the Voice Actor Directory 2025 Female Edition, which listed 1099 active female voice actors — a record total and a testament to its increasing viability. There were only 225 women featured in the list in 2001, meaning a 388% growth over the last two decades. Per Oricon, the directory has grown as such:
- 2001: 225 women
- 2004: 438 women
- 2008: 535 women
- 2014: 644 women
- 2016: 728 women
- 2018: 800 women
- 2019: 847 women
- 2020: 907 women
- 2021: 955 women
- 2022: 1003 women
- 2023: 1039 women
- 2024: 1063 women
- 2025: 1099 women
Fans can check out Sakura’s current Winter 2025 roles as Takao Ameku in Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective, Lu Shaotang in Sakamoto Days, and Arche in Farmagia.
Source: Audee
© Kohei Horikoshi / Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project
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