

Considering the extreme popularity of voice acting and [voice acting schools
in Japan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_acting_in_Japan), I'm curious to
know if the industry actually classifies the quality of each voice. I'm not
talking about things like age, gender, etc. Rather I'm interested in the tonal
quality of the voice.

Personally, I'm particularly taken by the tonal quality of [Mizuhara
Kaoru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaoru_Mizuhara), the seiyuu who voiced
[Kusakabe Misao](http://anidb.net/perl-
bin/animedb.pl?show=character&charid=3006) in Lucky Star. Kusakabe's voice has
got a thick, musical quality to it and sounds ... double-layered.

(I'm not the only one enamoured with Kusakabe's voice:

> Her character Misao Kusakabe in Lucky ☆ Star gained a cult following in fans
> and spawned internet memes due to her own addition of a nonsensical "vuah"
> (ヴァ) at the end of her sentence.("if it's picked up within 5 seconds, the
> germs don't get attached" 五秒以内だったら、菌がつかないんだってヴァ) This began in the 18th
> episode of the anime where her character Misao was nervous and embarrassed
> after eating food that has been dropped on the ground in front of others.
> The popularity was substantial enough to have a 13th Lucky Star character
> album featuring Misao released four months after the originally planned
> twelve albums were released even when her character already shared a duet
> character album as the 9th album.

This is at around the 18 minute mark of the 18th episode.)


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question
lucky-star voice-acting
How is the voice quality of a seiyuu classified?


Well I don´t think they actually classify the quality of each voice. Why do I
think so?

Most seiyuu are picked after they either send in some records or do a vocal
audition, or they have done voice overs/acting before and are scouted this
way.

When a company wants some voice acting done, they usually keep in mind the
characters that have to be voiced. Most of the time characters have a specific
personality and they want a voice to best represent this personality. For
example, let's look at Mizuhara Kaoru, the seiyuu who voiced Kusakabe Misao in
_Lucky Star_. She has a melodic yet playful voice which can represent the
character as one of the best. To even better grasp this concept, think of
Naruto being voiced with Kusakabe Misao's voice. This would not match the
personality the character has to represent.

So if there were to be a classification for seiyuu, it would differ per
character. So there are no known "standard classifications" for seiyuu.


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answer