Grab Instantly Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 2 (Voice Over!, #2) Depicted By Maki Minami Released Through Digital Format
recap: Hime Kino wants to be a seiyuu voice actor and play one of the heroines on the long running magical girl show Lovely Blazer, Standing between her and this goal is her voice, which sounds more like someone doing their best raspy Batman imitation, Despite this, Hime has enrolled in Holly Academys voice acting program, Dumped in with a group of other problem students tagged the “Stragglers”, Hime must learn to overcome her issues,
In the previous volume, the Stragglers had scored a surprise hit in a lunchtime performance thanks to Hime accidentally discovering her “prince” voice, It still sounds too masculine for her tastes, but in a way that is pleasant to the ear, Now expectations are high for their next performance in a months time,
They reach out to a talented girl in the animation program to help them create a short anime, Problem: Ume Ichigo was the head of the Aqua idol team fan club, and has fallen out of love with them since Hime accidentally exposed their nastier personality traits.
And without a crush, Ume doesnt have the romantic inspiration to create art!
After some shenanigans, including trying to set Ume up with the girlshy Takayanagi, a compromise is reached and the performance can go ahead.
As that storyline is wrapping up, Aquas manager, Haruka Yamada, comes back into the picture, Despite Himes many flaws as a voice actor, he sees a certain amount of potential in her, and wants to use her for a few projects,
Himes home life comes more into focus here, Himes mother has long since given up on Hime ever amounting to anything, and has put her hopes on her pretty and talented younger daughter Akane, Mom is boggled by Yamadas interest in Hime, but is “sure, fine. whatever. Just dont come whining to me when Hime fails, Again. ”
Yamada is not exactly a nice person, being far too fond of trolling people, but he recognizes a toxic environment when he sees one, So he offers Hime the chance to prove herself, including being able to live in her own efficiency apartment, The catch is that Hime must work under an assumed name, disguised as a boy!
This really doesnt sound like the road to playing a cute magical girl! Can Hime pull it off
The art remains good, and the high school soap opera aspects work well the part where Ume is convinced she has to have a male crush to make her art sparkle is a bit cringy, but its shown as being silly and in the end Ume learns better.
Friendship works just fine!
This continues to be suitable for junior high students on up, but parents of younger readers may want to talk with them about parental favoritism and emotional abuse.
Most importantly, its shown that Hime hasnt realized this situation isnt normal, Yamada and the readers can recognize it, because we come in from the outside, but Hime has had to live with this for years,
Recommended for young anime and cartoon fans who want to learn more about the business of voice acting, THE GOOD
Hime Hime continues to impress me in this second volume as she and her friends struggle to get a girl who hates Hime to help them with their second super important lunch time broadcast.
And we always get to learn more about Hime's not so loving home life and mother who sees Home as only a disappoint while Akane is the perfect child with a modeling career.
Yamada: I will admit, I wasn't a fan of his in volume, but Yamada showed his true colors in this volume when he realized the home situation was something he needed to get Hime out of if they wanted her self confidence to stay intact.
Takayanagi: He's so, strange, and kinda rude, but it fits him well,
Mizuki and Shuma: These two are great comedy,
THE BAD
Ume: They try to hard to make us feel bad for her,
Akane and the mother Hime's family are not only good side right now, Hime and the rest of the Stragglers have already began planning their next lunchtime broadcast right after winning their first one, They want to make a big impact, just as before, so they decide to do a dubbing of an original anime made by another student at their school, However, this particular student has seemed to have lost her creative spark, and it's up to the Stragglers to help her get it back if they want her help! But once an artist's inspiration has fizzled out, is there ever anything left to spark
So the first half of this volume was mainly just about love, aspirations, and inspirations.
Which, I really appreciated reading because I've been having the same issues as Ume for almost a year now, Well It isn't exactly the same, but once an artist loses her/his drive or inspiration, any circumstance is one and the same, It's like the end of the world, it leaves us as a husk with empty hands that cannot mold or create new beautiful things such as we once could.
Those four chapters taught me something though, . . Perhaps that is why everyone is searching for love so desperately Perhaps, once someone has experienced love, it becomes hard for most to ever be entirely independent again, Although While love is great and all, I hope that Ume and I both will find something within ourselves to inspire greatness once again, Then again, is any human truly big enough to create something beautiful independently Perhaps that is another reason why it is imprinted in human nature to wish to find someone else like us.
If we find the piece of ourselves to create something beautiful on our own, some can do it, But to create something truly amazing, it takes a few of those pieces together from different people, and the kindness in their hearts, to breathe life into it, Most have the potential within them to be amazing all on their own if they can find a way how, But to expand far, far beyond human limitations, it must take many of those kinds of people to come together, Lastly, what many don't know is that true friendship can be just as beautiful as true love, And often, because that sort of friendship is rare, it is mistaken for romantic feelings and the entire relationship between the two becomes muddled, I think that sometimes we look too hard for precious things, And in the process of searching so fervently, we are blind to a miracle that could have been standing before us for a long time, It's really sad, but really beautiful at the same time,
Now, I digress when I say that Takayanagi as a Prince is so super duper amazing!! ltI would totally fall for him too! And his smile was so soft and gentle, unlike his usual gruff exterior.
ltAhh, I think I like Takayanagi more than Mitchy now, Sorry, Mitchy!
But speaking of Princes, Hime finally got some recognition from Haruka Yamada, and he
has even promised her that he will make her dream come true! As long as she'll make his come true.
He never has made such a deal ever before, although, I think he did that because he was all sentimental after witnessing Hime's home life, I think that's the reason why he got her that apartment too, He knew that Hime's mother would interfere, and that she was also most likely one of the reasons why Hime rarely had the confidence to do her Prince voice.
I do find it sad how the first person who Hime wanted to save that was in trouble was her mother, . . And the only reason her mother was in trouble was because of her, . . That's really so sad. And she doesn't hate her mother either, she just wants to make her proud, I think Hime wants to stop disappointing her mother for her mom's sake and her own, Neither one of them can take the heartache for many more years, So, I think that it was a good decision for Hime to move out when given the opportunity, And even though the mother seemed a tad reluctant to let her go, I think they really needed a break from each other, and an opportunity for Hime to freely spread her wings and prove all of her 'haters' wrong.
There is so much more I could say too, This volume has inspired me so much, and I find it amazing how all of it relates to exactly what I have been going through for the past year.
It has also taught me that when it comes right down to it, even though circumstances are different, there is ultimately no difference between certain problems that people face.
A fifteen year old artist who has lost her inspiration, versus a sixty year old artist who can't use her wrist anymore, They're both the same inside, They feel the exact same pain, Or even a daughter who has always disappointed her mother and never made her proud, and everyone else in her life thought the same thing, versus a child who was seen as never good enough, never perfect, yet was admired by quite a few outside the family.
Those two are ultimately the same as well, When someone who matters a lot to you and has always been there has never accepted you, nobody else who will ever accept you can matter as much as them.
Both children will still feel the same itching ache in their heart,
Well, anyway. I must say before I finish this review that I am almost in love with Haruka Yamada! With every appearance since he first appeared I've liked him more and more excluding one appearance, where it actually made me dislike him a bit.
And Hime as a boy is pretty cute, I can't wait to see the Yamada P, AQUA, and Prince Hime team!,