Maaya Sakamoto

Biography

Maaya Sakamoto is a renowned Japanese voice actress and singer, who began her career in the voice acting industry in 1992 with her role as Chifuru in Little Twins. She gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of Hitomi Kanzaki in The Vision of Escaflowne. Her impressive range of roles in anime includes characters such as Riho Yamazaki in Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective, Moe Katsuragi in Risky Safety, Princess Tomoyo in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club. Additionally, she has voiced Sayaka Nakasugi in Birdy the Mighty, Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler, Shinobu Oshino in the Monogatari series, Shiki Ryougi in the Kara no Kyoukai films, and Motoko Kusanagi in various installments of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. In video games, her voice can be heard as Aura and Natsume in the .hack series, Lisa Hamilton/La Mariposa in Dead or Alive, Aeris in Kingdom Hearts, Aigis in Persona 3, Lightning from the Final Fantasy XIII series, Ling Xiaoyu in the Tekken games, and Alisa Illinichina Amiella in God Eater.

Sakamoto has also made a name for herself in music, releasing songs in both English and Japanese. Her first single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai," was a collaboration with Yoko Kanno and was launched on April 24, 1996, under Victor Entertainment. Several of her singles, including "Tune the Rainbow," "Loop," "Ame ga Furu," and "Triangler," have ranked in the top 10 on the Oricon singles chart, with "Triangler" peaking at number 3 and remaining on the chart for 26 weeks. Her albums have also enjoyed commercial success; both Shōnen Alice and Yūnagi Loop reached the top