Aki Toyosaki
Aki Toyosaki is an actor, born 1986.
Two roles in 2007 opened the door for Aki Toyosaki, Amuro Ninagawa in Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho and Su in Shugo Chara!, and two years later K-ON! made her one of the most recognisable voices of her generation. Yui Hirasawa won her Best New Actress at the 4th Seiyu Awards in 2010, shared with her work as Kana Nakamachi in Kanamemo, and the following year she took Best Lead Actress and Best Personality at the 5th.
Yui is useful shorthand for what she does: a bright, slightly unfocused warmth that never tips into the shrill register the job so often invites. She sounds like somebody thinking aloud. Yunyun in KONOSUBA runs the same quality through a much lonelier character, Marulk in Made in Abyss uses it for something tender and formal, and Aoi in Laid-Back Camp or Sakura in Skip and Loafer are the calm, easy version.
She is better in darker material than the K-ON! association suggests. Akane Minagawa in Scum's Wish is the sharpest turn against type here, Seitenshi in Black Bullet is cold authority, Charlotte in the Berserk films is fragile in a way that hurts, and Izana in Knights of Sidonia is quiet and watchful in a genuinely bleak show.
The music career ran alongside from the start. She sang the opening and ending themes for K-ON! in 2009, debuted with three other voice actresses in the group Sphere the same month, and released solo records afterwards. The Dangers in My Heart and Skip and Loafer, both 2023, are among the recent work.
Movies (29)
- KONOSUBA – God's blessing on this wonderful world! Legend of Crimson (2019)
- Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul (2020)
- Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight (2019)
- Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent (2013)
- The Moment You Fall in Love (2016)
- anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The Movie (2013)
- Laid-Back Camp the Movie (2022)
- Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (2012)
- I've Always Liked You (2016)
- K-ON! The Movie (2011)
- A Certain Magical Index: The Miracle of Endymion (2013)
- Accel World: Infinite Burst (2016)
- Knights of Sidonia: The Movie (2015)
- Heaven's Lost Property Final – The Movie: Eternally My Master (2014)
- Fureru (2024)
- Book Girl (2010)
- Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars (2021)
- Black Fox (2019)
- Hanasaku Iroha the Movie: Home Sweet Home (2013)
- RE:cycle of the PENGUINDRUM Part 1: Your Train Is the Survival Tactic (2022)
- UN-GO episode:0 INGA-RON (2011)
- Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: The Movie (2010)
- YuruYuri Nachuyachumi! (2014)
- ~Sphere's orbit live tour 2012 FINAL SPECIAL STAGE~ LIVE (2013)
- Otome Youkai Zakuro Picture Drama (2010)
- Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam Movie - Over the Wishes (2016)
- Fate/Prototype (2011)
- Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3: Bonus Stage (2025)
- Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Case; Irvine (2010)
TV (95)
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy (2020)
- Fruits Basket (2019)
- To Love Ru (2008)
- Laid-Back Camp (2018)
- KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! (2016)
- A Certain Magical Index (2008)
- Star Wars: Visions (2021)
- The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King (2026)
- A Certain Scientific Railgun (2009)
- The Qwaser of Stigmata (2010)
- Parallel World Pharmacy (2022)
- K-ON! (2009)
- The Dangers in My Heart (2023)
- Skip and Loafer (2023)
- Made in Abyss (2017)
- Noragami (2014)
- Samurai Girls (2010)
- Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ (2023)
- Penguindrum (2011)
- Terra Formars (2014)
- Last Exile (2003)
- Beelzebub (2011)
- Isekai Quartet (2019)
- CITY THE ANIMATION (2025)
- Arknights (2022)
- Knights of Sidonia (2014)
- Shugo Chara! (2007)
- Ushio and Tora (2015)
- Sengoku Youko (2024)
- Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (2019)
Where to start with Aki Toyosaki
Yui Hirasawa is the role every later part gets measured against, so K-ON! is the place to begin, and the show is far better made than its reputation as cute-girls-doing-nothing implies. Nothing else here is quite so easy to fall into.
Go from there to Made in Abyss, where Marulk gets a handful of scenes in a series much darker than its art style advertises, then to Scum's Wish for the against-type work. KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! is the funniest use of her voice, since Yunyun is written as a joke about wanting friends and Toyosaki plays her sincerely enough to make it land.
For the quieter end, Laid-Back Camp and Skip and Loafer are two of the most pleasant shows on this list. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is the one that will wreck you.