Maaya Sakamoto

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本 真綾) is a Japanese actress and singer.

She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime Little Twins, and became known as the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki in The Vision of Escaflowne.

Other major roles in anime include Leila Malcal in Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, Jeanne d'Arc in Fate/Apocrypha, Shiki Ryōgi in The Garden of Sinners, Eto in Tokyo Ghoul, Riho Yamazaki in Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective, Moe Katsuragi in Risky Safety, Princess Tomoyo in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club, Sayaka Nakasugi in Birdy the Mighty, Ciel Phantomhive in Black Butler, Shinobu Oshino in Monogatari, Lunamaria Hawke in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Merlin in The Seven Deadly Sins, Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Quinella in season 3 of Sword Art Online, and Echidna in Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World.

In the Japanese dubbed versions of international films, Sakamoto has voiced Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars films and series, as well as performing the dub voice for Natalie Portman in numerous films.

In video games, Sakamoto voices Aigis in Persona 3, Maki Harukawa in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Aerith Gainsborough in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Aura and Natsume in .hack, La Mariposa in Dead or Alive, Lightning in the Final Fantasy XIII games, Ling Xiaoyu in Tekken, and Alisa Ilinichina Amiella in God Eater.

As a singer, Sakamoto has performed songs in both English and Japanese.

She started working as a voice actress in a very early age and the first leading role she was given was in the 1993 OVA Little Twins.

She released her debut single "Yakusoku wa Iranai" in collaboration with Yoko Kanno under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996.

Her singles "Tune the Rainbow", "Loop", "Ame ga Furu", and "Triangler" have all reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart: "Triangler" in particular charted at number 3 and remained charting for 26 weeks.

In 1996, she was given the role of Hitomi Kanzaki, the leading role in the TV anime series The Vision of Escaflowne.

For this anime she also performed the opening theme, which was released as her debut single on April 24, 1996.

The single was produced by Yoko Kanno, who was also in charge of the soundtrack for Escaflowne.

Apart from her work as a voice actress and singer, in October 1996 Sakamoto also debuted as a radio host presenting her own program, Sakamoto Maaya no Naisho-banashi, on radio station Nack 5.

in addition to her work as a Anime Seiyuu, Sakamoto also performing the dub voice for many Hollywood actress such as Anna Chlumsky in My Girl, Anna Paquin in Amistad and True Blood, Claire Danes in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and Christina Ricci in Casper.

Her first album, Grapefruit, was released on April 23, 1997.

Sakamoto's early music was produced by Kanno and her team, which included Yūho Iwasato, Shanti Snyder and Tim Jensen.

Sakamoto worked almost exclusively with Kanno and company for almost a decade.

Furthermore, Sakamoto also performed theme songs for several anime series, including "Gift" for Clamp School Detectives (1997), "Kiseki no Umi" for Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (1998) and "Platinum" for Cardcaptor Sakura (1999), which won the Best Theme Song awards from Anime Grand Prix for two consecutive years.

In 2002, Sakamoto worked once again with Kanno and Yūho Iwasato for her 10th single, "Hemisphere", the opening theme for the TV anime series RahXephon.

Released on February 21, 2002, "Hemisphere" peaking at number 22 in the Oricon and number 24 in the Count Down TV weekly charts.

In 2003, Sakamoto made her debut as a theatre actress on the Japanese version of the musical Les Misérables, playing the role of Éponine.

This year she also starred in her first TV drama Suekko Chounan Ane San-nin, and also played the leading role in the short film 03† directed by Hidenori Sugimori.

On the other hand, Sakamoto's 11th single "Tune the Rainbow" (released on April 2, 2003), became her first Top 10 single in Japan, peaking at number 9 in the Oricon weekly charts.

Her fourth album, Shōnen Alice, released on December 10, 2003, became her first Top 10 album on the Oricon charts and also her last record to be produced exclusively by Yoko Kanno; since this release Sakamoto would involve further in the music making process and production of her records.

Her fifth album, Yūnagi Loop, released on October 26, 2005, was her first co-produced by herself along with musician Mistuyoshi Tamura, whom she would continue working in her subsequent records.

This album's only single, "Loop" the ending theme for TV anime series Tsubasa Chronicle peaked at number seven on the Oricon charts, also becoming her highest chart peaking single at that time.

For this album's, Sakamoto has collaborated with many various well-known lyricist and composers, including Yūho Iwasato, Haruichi Shindō, Robin Fredriksson and Shusui.

In 2008, Sakamoto worked once again with Yoko Kanno for her 15th single, "Triangler", which was used as opening theme for the TV anime series Macross Frontier.

"Triangler" became a big hit, peaking at the Top 3 single of the Oricon charts.

The single ended up becoming Sakamoto's biggest selling single to date, with more than 90,000 copies sold.

The song was later included in Sakamoto's sixth album, Kazeyomi, which was released in January 2009 and also peaked within the Top 3.

For promoting this album, Sakamoto began her first low-scale national tour, on which she held three concerts in Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo.

She held a concert at the Nippon Budokan on March 31, 2010, her thirtieth birthday.

Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up in a family formed by her parents and her older brother.

In 2010, Sakamoto celebrated her 15th anniversary in the entertainment industry, releasing on March 31—her 30th birthday—her greatest hits album Everywhere, and also holding a concert at the Nippon Budokan.

also in 2010, Sakamoto was playing the role of Ritsuko Nonomura in Japanese musical adaption of the South Korean movie A Moment to Remember, along with Rina Chinen and Rina Uchiyama.

Her albums have had similar success, with Shōnen Alice and Yūnagi Loop both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; and her album You Can't Catch Me, released on January 12, 2011, became her first release to ever reach number 1.

The tour was later released as her first live DVD on August 11, 2011.

In 2011, her seventh album, You Can't Catch Me, became her first album to reach the first stop of the Oricon charts.

Her 2012 Mitsubachi tour concluded with an announcement at her New Year's Eve concert of a new full-length album of songs written and composed solely by Sakamoto, as well as a short concert tour to support it.