Yuki Kaida

Yuki Kaida's calling card is a boy's voice. Her range is wide and she has used all of it, but the roles that made her name are young men: Kurapika in Hunter x Hunter, Shusuke Fuji in The Prince of Tennis, Abe no Masahiro in Shonen Onmyoji. In Japanese animation this is a specialism rather than a novelty, and the actresses who do it well are doing something quite technical, holding a pitch low enough to read as male without losing the flexibility that makes a performance expressive.

Kurapika is the one that matters. He is a young man organised entirely around a purpose he will not discuss, and the part needs somebody who can stay flat and controlled for long stretches and then open up without warning. Kaida has carried him through the 1999 series, films and even a stage musical, which is an unusual amount of continuity in an industry that recasts freely.

The Prince of Tennis is the other long engagement, running from the original series through sequels, specials and a shelf of side stories. Outside the boys she keeps an adult-female register that gets far less attention: Echidna in Queen's Blade, Femieanne in Aldnoah.Zero, China in Hetalia. Formerly with the Toritori Office agency, she now works freelance.