Relationship Voice Actor

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A form of Typecasting, linked with Pigeonholed Voice Actor. More notable in Japanese (because of the larger pool of seiyuu available), two or more voice actors are often put together in one anime series, most of the times as characters with a special relationship. Just like Pigeonholed Voice Actor, although they're not typecast into one type of character, but if one voice actor shows up, there's a good chance that a certain voice actor will show up too, sometimes as characters with a unique relationship with the first voice actor's characters. And their role relationship will also occasionally be pigeonholed. Take note that the examples below may or may not list all the shows in which two actors have worked in together.

Also see Those Two Actors for the live action version.

Examples of Relationship Voice Actor include:

Japanese Voice Actors (Seiyuu)

  • Kaori Nazuka and Yuko Sanpei:
    • In Daa Daa Daa, Nazuka as Miyu and Sanpei as Kanata.
    • In Eureka Seven, Nazuka as Eureka and Sanpei as Renton.
    • Natsu no Arashi, where Nazuka as Kaja Bergmann and Sanpei as Hajime.
    • Nanaka 6/17, Nazuka as Satsuki Arashiyama and Sanpei as Nenji Nagihara (6 years old) & Yūki.
    • Canvas 2: Niji Iro no Sketch, where Nazuka as Housen Elis and Sanpei as a school girl.
    • Atelier Totori has Nazuka as Totori and Sanpei as Gino.
  • Tomokazu Seki and Ayako Kawasumi: Seki often played as characters who wanted Kawasumi's character, either by force or not. Hence, it's quite often seeing Seki as the villain, or Kawasumi as the heroine that Seki's character wanted, including Reiji Kageyama and Ruriko Ikusawa in Gate Keepers, Gilgamesh and Saber in Fate Stay Night, Onyx and Gwendolyn in Odin Sphere. However, they also play genuine pair/love interests, such as Haru Glory and Elie in Groove Adventure Rave. Or cosplay couple Tanaka and Ohno in Genshiken. Or a She Is Not My Girlfriend, Opposites Attract type of couple in Nodame Cantabile. Or one-sided romantic interests as Kitagawa-kun and Kaori from Kanon Or getting their roles inverted (from Fate/stay night) as Ezio Auditore and Lucrezia Borgia respectively.
  • Hikaru Midorikawa and Takehito Koyasu often play two characters that rival each other. From Tamahome and Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi, Heero and Zechs in Gundam Wing, Masaki and Shu in Super Robot Wars to Zelgadis and Rezo in Slayers.
  • Toshiyuki Morikawa and Nobutoshi Canna, as either rivals (Griffith/Guts in Berserk, Kyosuke/Axel in Super Robot Wars), to allies (Tousen/Nnoitra in Bleach, Kiyota/Jin in Slam Dunk), to unrelated people, but STILL in one series (Mitsurugi/Maxi in Soul Series)
  • Though not as famous as those two early examples, Hikaru Midorikawa and Nobutoshi Canna are often co-working together, as they once are under the same music group.
  • Tomokazu Seki and Shinichiro Miki. Between the members of the Weiss Kreuz group (consisting them, Koyasu Takehito and Yuuki Hiro), they are the one who often got roles in the same series. The biggest example was Sousuke/Kurz from Full Metal Panic!. However there are also other instances such as Assassin-Gilgamesh in the Fate/stay night anime, whereas shortly after Assassin was killed in the anime, Gilgamesh makes his entrance (exit Miki, enter Seki). Or in the Martian Successor Nadesico. In the first series, Seki's character Gai rides the blue Aestevalis and have a very over-the-top personality. In the OVA Prince of Darkness, the one who rides the blue Aestevalis and have a rather jolly, flamboyant personality (not outright over the top, but still rather enthusiastic) is Miki's character Saburouta. (exit Seki, enter Miki).
    • Just a sidenote, in Pokémon, Seki was Kenji (Tracey) and Miki was Kojiro (James). Their encounters were mostly in the Orange Islands (so its enter Seki, exit Seki, with Miki staying still).
    • Van Fanel and Allen Schezar in Vision of Escaflowne
    • Manji and Shira in Blade of the Immortal
    • Rival band vocalists Shuiichi Shindou of Bad Luck and Taki Aizawa of Ask in Gravitation
    • Rival racers Takumi Fujiwara and Keisuke Takahashi in Initial D, along with Koyasu Takehito for the ride
    • Bob Makihara and Masataka Takayanagi in Tenjho Tenge
    • Minamoto no Yorihisa (Miki) and Tenma Morimura (Seki), the Seiryuu Hachiyou in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de.
    • In Hakuouki's prequel, Reimeiroku, Miki played the role of Hijikata while Seki as the main chracter, Ibuki Ryuunosuke.
  • Tomokazu Seki has an alleged rivalry with Tomokazu Sugita . Their characters often have strong interactions with each other as well: Sugita's Yuuichi Aizawa from Kanon, Kagami Mikage from Ayashi no Ceres, and Hideki Motosuwa from Chobits, to Seki's Jun Kitagawa, Alex Howell and Hiromu Shinbo, respectively. Lampshaded in an episode of Lucky Star, in which the character Sugita voices works in the same anime shop as Meito Anisawa/Anime Tenchou, Seki's role.

Clerk Sugita: So please purchase this Kyon!
Anime Tenchou: No, I recommend Sousuke!


English-language Examples

Yuri Lowenthal: Crispin Freeman, get out of my bedroom!

Crispin Freeman: Because you're Yuri Lowenthal, and I'm in your bedroom once again.

Other Language Examples

  • In Mexican dubs, Gerardo Reyero and Monica Manjarrez sometimes play characters romantically involved with each other, such as Han Solo and Leia Organa in Star Wars and Stu and Didi Pickles in Rugrats. Interestingly, the Manjarrez voiced-Rei Hino also had a short crush on the Reyero-voiced Mamoru Chiba in Sailor Moon.
  • Also, Enzo Fortuny has not one, but two pigeonholed relationships: one with Cristina Hernández (Cardcaptor Sakura) and a more recent one with Leyla Rangel (Inuyasha, Kim Possible).
  • Philippe Peythieu and Véronique Augereau, the french voices of Homer and Marge Simpson, are married.
  • In Spain we have several fiction-couples examples:
    • David Robles and Mar Bordallo.
    • Salvador Vidal and Maria Luisa Solá.
      • Maria Luisa Solá has crossed paths with Manolo Garcia quite often too.
    • Daniel Garcia and Graciela Molina.
    • Nuria Mediavilla and... well... pretty much every single important Spaniard male voice actor of the last 15 years established in Barcelona (and some in Madrid).


Two or more characters with the same Seiyuu and English actor set