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Maaya Sakamoto Voice Actress

Maaya Sakamoto (born March 31, 1980) played the role of Mari Makinami , an Evangelion pilot and third-party agent who was first introduced in the second installment of the Evangelion Rebuild film series, ' Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Progress ' in 2009. She also had the same role in the sequel film, ' Evangelion: 3.0 You Can't Rebuild It ' and will also play Mari in the next installment of the series in 2020, 'Evangelion 3.0+1.0'.

Early career

Maaya Sakamoto is one of Japan's top voice actresses and has also established herself as an acclaimed singer and actress.

She began her voice acting career at a young age, portraying "Chifuru" in "Little Twins" at the age of 12. Soon after, she became a renowned star at the age of 16, when she lent her voice to "Hitomi Kanzaki" in the 1996 anime series "The Vision of Escaflowne." In the same series, she also sang the opening song, "Yakusoku wa Iranai," marking her debut as a solo singer. Popular composer Yoko Kanno was the producer of this song, and it was the beginning of a long-term relationship that led to many collaborations in the future.

Besides her roles as the illustrious Mari Makinami , she is also very famous for lending her voice to "Kiyomi Takada" in "Death Note" and for lending her voice to "Lunamaria Hawke" in "Gundam Seed Destiny".

Become famous

Around the same time she got her first break, Sakamoto began writing lyrics for her own songs. She released her debut album, "Grapefruit," with Kanno on April 23, 1997. It was the first of four albums Sakamoto released, most of which featured Kanno as a producer. Kanno and his musical team had a significant influence on her musical career, to the point that she worked exclusively with Kanno for nearly a decade.

In addition to her solo songs, she has performed the theme songs for various anime series, including Clamp School Detectives (1997), Record of Lodoss War (1998), and Cardcaptor Sakura (1999).

In addition to her career as a singer and voice actress, Sakamoto also debuted as a radio host and hosted her own radio show titled "Sakamoto Maaya no Naisho-banashi" in October 1996.

Sakamoto has continued to work in the voice acting industry since the beginning of her career, but she began taking on smaller roles in order to pursue her higher education. She graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in sociology in 2002.

Roles in video games

Sakamoto has had a successful career portraying video game characters. Among her most notable roles is voice acting in the Final Fantasy franchise. She debuted in the franchise as the voice of Aerith Gainsborough in the popular Final Fantasy 7. Then, in 2009, she was cast as the main character, Lightning, in Final Fantasy 13.

Acting career

In 2003, Sakamoto began her career as a stage actress. Her first leading role was as Éponine in the Japanese version of the musical "Les Misérables." The same year, she made her debut in the television drama "Suekko Chouan Ane San-nin." She also landed the lead role in the short film "03†" directed by Hidenori Sugimori.

Musical career

In 2003, Sakamoto released her fourth and final album, "Shonen Alice," produced exclusively by Yoko Kanno. This was the final album for both artists, as Sakamoto had broken off their partnership in order to have more creative freedom and control over her singing career. "Shonen Alice" was the first of her albums to reach the top 10 on the Oricon charts.

Two years later, in 2005, she released her fifth album, the first without Yoko Kanno, entitled "Yunagi Loop." Co-produced with Mitsuyoshi Tamura, she continued to work with him on her future albums. The album's lead single, "Loop," was the ending theme song for the TV anime series "Tsubasa Chronicle." Ranking 7th on the Oricon charts, it became her highest ranking at the time.

Reunion with Yoko Kanno

In 2008, Sakamoto reunited with Yoko Kanno for her 15th single, "Triangler," which is the opening theme song for the anime television series "Macross Frontier." It was an immediate success and reached the top 3 on the Oricon charts. It also became her best-selling single, with over 90,000 copies sold. She would later include the song on her sixth album, "Kazeyomi," released in January 2009. The song received great public interest and reached the top 3. To promote the album, she went on a nationwide tour to Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. She then released her tour as her first live DVD on August 11, 2011.

First place at Oricon

In 2010, Maaya Sakamoto released her best-selling album "Everywhere" on March 31 to celebrate her 30th birthday and also her 15th anniversary in the entertainment industry. In 2011, she released her seventh album "You Can't Catch Me," which became her first album to reach number one on the Oricon charts.