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While listening to the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Openings I noticed that the first 4 Opening songs (Original Series - StrikerS) were all sung by Nana Mizuki, the seiyū of Fate Testarossa. Looking at her Wikipedia Page I've also noticed that she's also been the seiyū for Hinata Hyuga in the Naruto Movies.

Now the other groups I know of who did Openings/Endings are FLOW, ALI PROJECT, ORANGE RANGE, Kalafina and ClariS, but I do not know if any singer of these groups were also a seiyū for any series (particularly ones their music was in) but I am wondering if it is common for a seiyū to also be a singer?

If so, is it also expected that if a singer sung the Opening/Ending Theme (or Insert Songs) they will also score a character role in the series?

Gao
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Memor-X
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    related (or dupe?): http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/9677/is-it-common-for-a-character-to-sing-in-op-ed – Darjeeling Aug 27 '15 at 08:16
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    Boiling this down, there seem to be 2 questions here: "Is it is common for a seiyū to also be a singer" + "is it expected that if a singer sung the OP/ED or Insert Songs they will also score a character role in the series?" The 1st question is a simple yes/no question where the answer is "Yes, it's common." The 2nd is partly a duplicate of the question Oshino Shinobu links to where the answer is "No," but the 2nd question also asks abou insert songs where the answer is "A *seiyuu* is first hired to voice a character and as a result might sing insert songs that are 'sung by' the character." – seijitsu Aug 27 '15 at 09:45

2 Answers2

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For the first question, the answer is yes. This is especially true with female seiyuu. As you noted, Nana Mizuki is also a singer other than a seiyuu. You can check her discography here. She even went to a duet with T.M. Revolution. Other female seiyuu's that is worth noted:

  • Itou Kanae (Meat - Haganai)

    Albums including Kokoro Keshiki and Miageta Keshiki

  • Hayami Saori (Shiraishi Urara - Yamada-kun to 7-nin Majo)

    Released her first single August 2015

  • Kitamura Eri (Honoka Sisters - Sidonia no Kishi)

    Has lot of singles and album.

  • Toyosaki Aki (Kanzaki Uiharu - Railgun)

    Discography here

  • Tomatsu Haruka (Yuuki Asuna - SAO)

    Discography here

  • Uchida Maaya (Takanashi Rikka - Chuunibyou)

    Discography here

  • Nitta Emi (Kousaka Honoka - Love Live)

    Discography here

  • PILE (Nishikino Maki - Love Live)

    Was already a singer even before debut voicing as Maki.

  • Uchida Aya (Kotori - Love Live)

    Example single is Spicaterrible

  • Nanjo Yoshino (Ayase Eri - Love Live, fripSide's Nidaime-sama

    She was chosen to as fripSide's main vocalist after the first quit the group and go solo. First vocalist was nao who voiced 5pb in Hyperdimension Neptunia. She also released a mini-album and singles in ballad style which is different that her usual trance fripSide singing style.

  • Hirano Aya

    She even own her own band with whom she got caught in a sex scandal.

  • Hanazawa Kana

    Discography here

  • Sato Satomi

    Discography here

  • Horie Yui

    As pointed by Steven, Horie Yui also owned her own singles and albums.

It is more rare for male seiyuus to also be a singer although they do sing as the characters they voiced. Some that I remember are:

  • Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu Dragneel - Fairy Tail)

    Other than singing as Natsu, also released his own singles.

  • Ono Daisuke (Sebastian Michaelis - Kuroshitsuji)

    Discography here.

  • Kenichi Suzumura (Zack Fair - Final Fantasy VII)

    Discography here.

  • Morita Masakazu (Kurosaki Ichigo - Bleach)

    His songs are mostly Bleach songs, that is he sang as Kurosaki Ichigo. As far as I know, Morita doesn't own his own singles/albums.

  • Hayami Shou (Aizen Sousuke - Bleach)

    Other than singing as Aizen, also released some singles and albums.

For the second question, no. In fact, usually it is not. Only some anime have the singer of OP or ED also fills a role in the anime. Like Kitamura Eri (Honoka Sisters) sings Sidonia no Kishi's ED. But most of the time they don't. This is because a lot of anime still have bands and people who's primary job is singer perform the OP and ED. The anime Black Bullet's OP was performed by fripSide, but Nanjo-sama didn't have any role in the anime, nor Satoshi (fripSide's composer and part of the duo and he is also not a seiyuu).

As an extra, Hyde of L'Arc~en~Ciel and VAMPS also voiced an anime once as himself. But his main profession is a singer and not a seiyuu.

絢瀬絵里
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    On what basis are you saying that "It is more rare for male seiyuus to also be a singer" than for female *seiyuu* to be singers? Though there are [fewer males than females listed in Hitoshi Doi's *seiyuu* database](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/individual.html), off the top of my head, a good deal of the male *seiyuu* of whom I'm aware have also sung character image songs, etc. (especially for their work in series that feature *bishounen* characters) so I would be very hesitant to claim that male *seiyuu* who sing are "more rare" without some credible citation. – seijitsu Aug 27 '15 at 09:35
  • With all those seiyuu listed, I was surprised not to see Hayashibara Megumi in there. – Paul Rowe Aug 27 '15 at 14:15
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    Towards 'names missing from this list', I'll also tack on Horie Yui, who has a big stack of studio albums, two best-of albums, and still voices more than a dozen distinct characters every year. – Steven Stadnicki Aug 27 '15 at 23:55
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    @seijitsu I mean male seiyuu that sing as themselves and not as the character. – 絢瀬絵里 Aug 28 '15 at 08:44
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Well they've (people above) answered your questions already but I'm just gonna add:

•Taniyama Kisho of the band Granrodeo. The band performed most of Kuroko no Basuke OP and Taniyama also voices Himuro Tatsuya from the series

• Suzuki Tatsuhisa of OldCodex, the band performed most of the ED of Kuroko no Basuke too while voicing Takao Kazunari. They also performed OPs for Free!! and Tatsuhisa voices Makoto.

•Ono Kensho who voices Kuroko Tetsuya sung 1 or 2 OP for the series too. He has released his own albums too.

•Osaka Ryouta, Shimazaki Nobunaga, Hanae Natsuki, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Aoi Shouta, Sakurai Takahiro and other seiyuu of Diamond no ace did a number of EDs for the series.

•Teru of GLAY, he's not a seiyuu but made a cameo at an episode of Diamond no Ace season 2 and another in an OVA. Glay performed a lot of EDs for the series.

•Tomatsu Haruka who voices Yuuki Asuka performed a couple of song (OP and ED) for Sword Art Online

•Sakamoto Maaya voices Tomoyo in Tsubasa Chronicle also sings ending song "Loop". She had released several albums and a number of her singles got featured in animes as opening and ending songs weather she got casted or not.

•Morikubo Showtaro who voices a lot of famous characters and a well known Singer, gave life to a game character Mega Man X back in 2000 and sings the the theme song of Rockman X6.

•Even Takeuchi Junko (Naruto's VA) did a cover of one of Naruto Shippuden OP Distance originally by Long Shot Party.

There are still others, but I think this list is enough. The band Flow doesn't have any members who do voice acting. I think so does the Ali Project. As for the others you've mentioned, I am not familiar with them.

As for the seiyuus singing the OPs and Eds, I don't think you have to be part of the cast for a certain anime to sing its OP or Ed or You have to sing its OP or ED to get a role in the show. I'm taking a wild guess that it all depends on the director and the sponsors. You know for marketing purposes. They're the ones who decide who gets casted after all.

Asiana29
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