Hiroko Konishi

Hiroko Konishi
Born October 26, 1975
Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan
Occupation Voice actress, Actress, Musician
Years active 1996–present
Website
hirokokonishi.blogspot.jp

Hiroko Konishi (小西 寛子 Konishi Hiroko, born October 26, 1975 in Saitama) is a Japanese voice actress, vocalist, and singer-songwriter. After Sagami Women's Junior College she transferred to Chuo University's law department, earning an LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) degree, and qualifying in the National Bar Examination . She is affiliated with the Ireland-baed Dimensionfree Limited / Office Squirrel, but has not performed voice actress roles to her credit after 2000.[1]

Life and career

Konishi formed a budding interest in stage acting as a junior high student, and as a high schooler, received voice training at the Nihon Narration Engi Kenkyūjo . Subsequently, she joined the Arts Vision agency, devoting herself to a voice actress's career (with songs recorded in the voice of characters), earning considerable reputation for her voice acting characterizations. She eventually switched representation to the Tanabe Agency , a top entertainment production company in Japan and thus expanded her career, so that the voice acting was now dobuling as an entertainment personality and a singer in her own right. She then left for the LMA Records, Inc. label, which then formed the Ireland-based Dimensionfree, with the Office Squirrel subsidiary in Japan (signed label since 2011).

In TV anime, she mainly impersonated the voices of adolescent female characters, though occasionally portraying boys and adult women as well. Her work covered a wide range, playing the narrator, or singing songs and themes for the anime shows in-character. Her seminal role was that of Ojarumaru, a little munchkin Japanese aristocrat from a thousand years ago, whom she played for the first 3 series (1998-2000), singing the closing song "Pudding de Ojyaru." This NHK anime feature was directed by Akitaro Daichi, and she would make regular appearances in his work. Daichi's "Jubei-chan" was originally developed specifically with Konishi's voice in mind. Konishi also played several voice roles under Junichi Sato's direction as well (Magic User's Club, Yume no Crayon Oukoku).

Since 1995, she had been recording character songs tied in with her anime roles, including many songs she sang as "Sophia Robelingue" in Mitsumete Knight which was compiled into an album Koi wa totsuzen ("Love is sudden") in 1998. Eventually, she released NOVELETTE (EMI Music Japan, 1999), her first album under her own identity. She teamed up with Ryo Arshe (Ryo Asakawa), her musical collaborator since 1998 and the artist NAOMI, forming the musical unit LITTLE CURE, which provided such tunes as the Eurodance composition "bit of love" for Konami's music video game Pop'n Music. Ryo Arshe is also the head of the record label she moved to, as well as chief representative of CCAS Ombuds, a judicial watchdog organization for whom she does occasional legal work.

As a TV personality, she has appeared on both NHK and public sector network shows. She had been a regular on the TV Tokyo-syndicated variety show Ichioshi Kiss, where she was portrayed as the youngest of three sisters, with co-stars Risa Stegmayer and Hinako Saeki. She was also narrator for the short-lived "pick of the week" show Ichioshi . She also acted in live action TV Commercials for "Dial 104" (cellphone directory assistance), as keitai detective PI Hiroko.

After establishing her official blog in the March of 2013, she showed a strong will to start the activity in Japan again, but it was stated in her blog under her agency that so many pieces of the false or wrong information in the Internet about Konishi and her agency shocked her and hurt her heart, that this situation made her difficult to do the show biz works for then, and that they were going to take a legal action against these posts in the worst case.

In such a difficult situation, a new song "SAYONARA ARIGATO" was released from her personal label “Office Squirrel” in December, 2013. She recorded the 1st place in the category of New Arrived, New release rock music. Additionally, this song ranked higher in J-POP, Amazon. Following this release, she was going to release the next songs in the February of 2014, but with the start of the legal proceedings against the online postings on website and BBS, the plan had been postponed until the release of "But She Was In Love..", which had been on hiatus due to the legal proceedings, in December 2014. However, there is not yet now her new rolls in her voice acting career since 2000.

She has a bachelor's degree in law, and has passed the national bar exam, doing occasional legal work for Ryo Arshe's judicial watchdog organisation. She has also been active filing legal claims to demand the removal of internet material she considers defamatory.

Notable voice roles (anime)

Notable voice roles (video games)

Radio

Drama CD

DEGITAL Drama

Occhokochoi no Miko-san, Yaruki no nai Onee-san, Nonbiri Kozo, Omikuzhi otoshita Shojyo, Neko no Miiko

TV programs

Commercials

Discography

Singles
Albums
DEGITAL Album

DEGITAL Single

Internet distribution

Trivia

External links

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ leading roles in boldface.

Citation

  1. ↑ 小西寛子 (Hiroko Konishi) (2013). "小西寛子オフィシャルブログ：リスと暮らす森の中のオフィス (Hiroko Konishi official blog - Office in the woods cohabitating with the squirrels)". Retrieved May 2014.