The 20th Seiyu Awards, which honors the most active voice actors of the year, was held on March 15th at the Bunka Broadcasting Media Plus Hall (Minato-ku, Tokyo), and Maaya Sakamoto, Mutsumi Tamura, and Matsuya Onoe were selected for the Foreign Film/Drama Award.
Sakamoto, who received the award for her performance as the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm in the Japanese dubbed version of the movie "Fantastic Four: First Step," expressed her delight, saying, "I am truly grateful to receive such a wonderful award."
Sakamoto said that she "first got to do voice-over work" when she was eight years old and in the third grade of elementary school. She continued, "Now I'm challenging myself in various genres such as voice acting for anime and games, stage performances, and music activities, but the starting point for all of it was this voice-over work. Even now, I still think of it as the place where it all began."
"I learned both the joy and the difficulty of acting there, and I was captivated by it. Before I knew it, I had been able to continue for nearly 40 years. I truly believe that finding something I can pour my heart and soul into and be so passionate about for such a long time is a great treasure in my life," she said with emotion.
The Seiyu Awards, established in 2006, are co-sponsored by KADOKAWA, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. Aside from the MVS (Most Valuable Seiyu, the most outstanding voice actor as chosen by fans), the awards are selected by the Executive Committee and the Selection Committee. The 20th awards covered works and voice actors that aired, streamed, or were announced between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. To commemorate the 20th anniversary, Romi Park, who won the Best Leading Actress Award at the inaugural awards, and Aya Hirano, who won the Best New Actress Award, served as ambassadors.
