Hello everyone, today I wanna talk about the people behind DanPri characters (a.k.a. their VAs/seiyuu, though they do more than just voice act). Some kind of introduction I guess.
Sorry for reposting this, I accidentally posted it when I saved the draft :(
Shougo's voice actor, the most "normal" one among WITH in a glance. His voice is generally low-to-mid tone, but he's also known to be good at voicing mischievous early-teen boys. Seichi chose to be a voice actor because he's always loved acting, but he actually longed to be an actor. However, he sees voice acting as the most realistic path for him.
Seichi debuted from 2012, but it wasn't until 2016 that he started getting main roles. In 2017, he got the role as Shougo. When he found out about PriPara stage play, where the main casts' VA also act on stage, he basically told the director "if there's a stage play for DanPri too one day, I'm available (wink)". And yeah, that dream was no longer a dream, as he got to be Shougo's actor on the stage play.
Role in WITH: Tsukkomi (the "normal one")
If you watch them enough, you'd know that Kobatatsu and Reiou are known to be fooling around while Seichi reminds them to behave. He's the one that drags them back on track in radio shows, free talk sessions in lives, etc. However, according to Koba and Reiou, he's actually more carefree than it seems, and sometimes went out somewhere on his own without notice. In some fan reports, Seichi's often seen to be the one being doted on the most, and Koba-Reiou admitted through a Q&A session that Seichi has the "youngest member" vibe, despite being the tsukkomi.
Tatsuyuki Kobayashi
Nicknames: Kobatatsu (by fans/almost everyone), Ta-tan (by Seichi and other DanPri members), Tatsuyuki (by Seichi)
Birthday: April 21, 1989
Hometown: Chiba
Agency: avex
Some well-known roles outside PriPara:
King of Prism - Ace Ikebukuro
Twisted Wonderland - Cater Diamond
Paradox Live (Stage play) - Satsuki Ito
Asahi's voice actor, literal personification of bright morning sunshine on stage. He's actually more of a singer and stage actor than voice actor. He started his career as a singer after winning the 7th Anisong Grand Prix in 2013. You can see some footages of it on Youtube (here's the digest of his performances). After debuting as a singer, he also started acting on stage plays since 2016.
Kobatatsu's career as a voice actor started in 2015, and Asahi is his first non-nameless supporting role. His voice is generally mid-to-high, and he's good at playing cheerful, happy-go-lucky characters. Seichi said that Kobatatsu has a habit to talk in childish voice outside from work.
Role in WITH: Main performer + co-mentor(?)
Due to his background, he's the most experienced stage performer among WITH members. And because of that, he became the "main dancer" of WITH, especially during their early days. He also helped the other two on learning choreographies (e.g. Tick-Tock Magical Time for their first solo event) and on performing in general. Seichi and Reiou said that they learned a lot from him during the rehearsals of their stage play.
Although he seems so unserious, he's actually very multitalented. He's good at imitating other people's voice, drawing, making stories, singing, and so on. Reiou even drew WITH members on their birthday back in 2020 (here's the link: Shougo, Koyoi, Asahi). He started working on his own manga since 2023 and posts it on his Twitter.
Koyoi's voice actor, one of the funniest guys in the industry. He started his career as voice actor in 2012, but doesn't have that much leading roles yet. His voice is quite distinctive, yet also pretty versatile. Reiou started becoming more well-known after voicing in Ensemble Stars in 2015, and he got the role as Koyoi in 2017.
Role in WITH: Ghost-director
I've written about how Koyoi's past story was developed from Reiou's idea, but that's not the only thing he contributed to WITH's back story. He proposed many ideas for WITH Stage as they rehearsed, e.g. the dance battle scene between Koyoi and Shinya and DARKNESS SOUL duet scene with Shinya. The director originally asked him to do Koyoi's solo song on that part, but Reiou felt that it'd be more fitting to involve Shinya more.
He also came up with a concept for Quest Milky Way performance during their #IIZE Tour in 2019. Reiou asked the audience to light up their penlights in their own color instead of WITH's members, because WITH were going around the galaxy in that song, and the penlight colors represent everyone's colors as the "stars" (idols) in the galaxy.
Kentarou Kawai
Nickname: Ken-chan (by Seichi and other DanPri members), Kawataro (by some fans and DanPri members), Tono (by Uzawa-kun), Kawai-kun (by almost everyone)
Birthday: April 7, 1997
Hometown: Tokyo
Agency: Japan Music Entertainment
Shinya's voice actor, a newcomer who debuted in 2019. He focuses more on being an actor than voice actor, so his only role as a seiyuu is Shinya so far. He's especially close with Uzawa-kun, often goes out together and even invited Uzawa-kun to his family's home. Some fans called the two of them "Tarotaro" (from Kentarou and Shoutarou).
WITH members often praises Kawai-kun as a very earnest, polite, and hard-working kid. He's also a certified sword-fighting actor, and showcases his fighting skills through videos on his SNS accounts (example here). Among all DanPri casts, he's the one that often holds streaming to interact with fans via Instagram Live.
Shoutarou Uzawa
Nickname: Uzawa-kun (by almost everyone), Taroumaru (by fans)
Birthday: January 22, 1997
Hometown: Chiba
Agency: 81produce
Ushimitsu's voice actor, also a newcomer who works in the same company as Reiou. He has mid-to-high tone voice. He's voiced many supporting roles in anime, movie dub, and games. Before working under his current company, he was under Japan's children theater company.
Uzawa-kun is a Pretty Series fan, and he was really excited to get the role as Ushimitsu. He's also the one who played Adopara the longest (or, rather, the only one who really played it) among DanPri casts. He's really close with Kawai-kun, but due to his immersion during the stage play preparation, he used to call Kawai-kun "Tono" (Master). He did that everywhere, even when they meet outside work.
Tatsumaru Tachibana
Nickname: Tatsumaru
Birthday: April 21, 1991
Hometown: Fukui Prefecture
Agency: Stay Luck
Some well-known roles outside PriPara:
The God of High School - Mori Jin
Aoashi - Eisaku Ootomo
Kabukicho Sherlock - Toratarou Kobayashi
Mario's voice actor, an experienced stage actor who started his career as a voice actor in 2019. His natural voice is mid-to-high and sounds mild. He started acting since the age of 10, joining his father's theater company and performing with traveling troupe. He became the theater company's chairman in 2010-2015 before deciding to reside in Tokyo and work there.
Like Kawai-kun, he's also a certified sword-fighting actor, in addition to specializing in playing as a female on stage. His career as a voice actor is still quite short compared to his acting experience, but he's been climbing up in popularity and started getting more main roles. Among all DanPri casts, he's the closest with Seichi due to having voiced as main characters in a series together.
Oh, and he also has a youtube channel, although it doesn't seem to be that active lately.
I've never shared this, but back in April I made a bunch of Discord Nitro emote servers for personal use that I intended to eventually make public. I have since stopped buying nitro and never sent out the link, but they are just sitting dorment so I suppose I should post about them.
Check out the DanPri Emotes community on Discord - hang out with 1 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
Here's the first of three, the DanPri emote server! If I made this server today I would have added some Hibiki's, but it has plenty of both WITH and DarkMer all made from official art. Mario too!
I watched Grand Magus live last night. My throat and neck are sore so you understand what a great time I had ;) The setlist and performance were ideal.
Can’t forget to mention one of the best new heavy metal bands from Greece that also played as a support last night.
