Japanese Voice Actors Rate Goku, Lelouch As Best Voiced Characters In Anime

Anime fans can be highly opinionated about their likes and dislikes, especially when it comes to their favorite shows, especially when it comes best of lists. What if the ones that are usually the subject of the polls got a chance to rate others in their field. TV Asahi, a popular Japanese television network, polled 200 popular anime voice actors and asked them to choose who theythink are “really great” in the field. The results were surprising and sparked a large amount of buzz among anime fans on social media.

Here are the results, of the top 25 voice actors according to 200 popular voice actors.

1. KOUICHI YAMADERA (Kaji, Neon Genesis Evangelion)
2. MASAKO NOZAWA (Goku, Dragon Ball)
3. KEIJI FUJIWARA (Mr. Nohara, Shin-chan)
4. Miyuki Sawashiro (Fujiko, Lupin the Third)
5. Tomokazu Seki (Suneo, Doraemon 2005)
6. Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy, One Piece)
7. Minami Takayama (Moomin Troll, Tanoshii Moomin Ikka)
8.Ryusei Nakao (Freeza, Dragon Ball Z)
9.Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo, Dragon Ball Z)
10. Akio Ohtsuka (Black Jack, Black Jack)
11. Megumi Hayashibara (Rei, Evangelion)
12. Toshiyuki Morikawa (Nick, Zootopia)
13. Hidekatsu Shibata (Mr. X, Tiger Mask)
14. Junichi Suwabe (Victor, Yuri!!! on Ice)
15. Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon)
16. Akiko Yajima (Shin-chan, Shin-chan)
17. Yoshiko Sakakibara (Haman Karn, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam)
18. Kiyoshi Kobayashi (Jigen, Lupin the 3rd)
19. Yoku Shioya (Ryouta, Slam Dunk)
20. Shigeru Chiba (Rei, Highschool! Kimengumi)
21. Noriko Hidaka (Minami, Touch)
22. Akira Kamiya (Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star)
23. Kaneta Kimotsuki (Suneo, Doraemon 1973)
24. Yuji Mitsuya (Tatsuya, Touch)
25. Hiroaki Hirata (Sanji, One Piece)

25. Sumi Shimamoto (Lady Clarisse, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro)

Among those surprisingly missing is the legendary Rica Matsumoto, who has voice Ashe in Pokemon for 20 years. She actually commented on the tv special over Twitter, saying she didn’t know about the poll, and that she will have to try harder, as a joke.

It was interesting that this poll was exponentially different than a similar poll that was run, however using online fans as the audience. It seems that the highly esteemed older actors were among the top of the results. The results seem to align with the Japanese cultural respect for the elders, with mutual respect and reverence being made to the older voice actors in the field. Did your favorite voice actors make the list?