Asami Imai

Imai runs two careers that keep colliding. She began voice work in the late 1990s, though the sources disagree about the exact year, and did not release music under her own name until 2009, when the single 'Day by Day / Shining Blue Rain' arrived on 5pb. Records. She is affiliated with the agency Early Wing, and formed the unit Artery Vein with fellow voice actress Eri Kitamura on the same label.

The role that made her is Kurisu Makise in Steins;Gate, a teenage research prodigy written as prickly, argumentative and unable to stop correcting people. Imai plays her at a clipped, faintly impatient tempo that turns the show's dense time-travel talk into sniping rather than exposition, which is most of why that series is watchable at all. She has kept the part across Steins;Gate: The Movie - Load Region of Déjà Vu and Steins;Gate 0.

Her other permanent role is Chihaya Kisaragi in THE iDOLM@STER, an idol character defined by her singing, which means the job extends well past the recording booth. Imai has performed Chihaya on stage for years: the anniversary concert films collected here run from the fourth through the ninth, plus the producer meetings and THE iDOLM@STER MOVIE: Beyond the Brilliant Future!. Around those sit the horror work as Ayumi Shinozaki in Corpse Party: Tortured Souls and a long tail of ensemble parts, including Noragami, Hyperdimension Neptunia and Senran Kagura.