Aki Toyosaki
Aki Toyosaki (Toyosaki Aki?, born October 28, 1986) is a Japanese seiyu and singer born in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. She had her first major voice acting roles in 2007, voicing Amuro Ninagawa in Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho and Su in Shugo Chara!. She was later named as a "Best New Actress" at the 4th Seiyu Awards in 2010 for her role as Yui Hirasawa in K-On! and Kana Nakamachi in Kanamemo.
Her career as a musician began with her performance of the opening and ending themes of the anime series K-On! in April 2009. In the same month, she and three other voice actresses debuted as the musical group Sphere with their single "Future Stream". Later, K-On!'s ending theme was given Animation Kobe's "Best Song" award. She released her first solo single "love your life" in October 2009. She was awarded "Best Musical Performance" at the 4th Seiyu Awards for her performance on the K-On! mini-album Hokago Tea Time with four other actresses.
Acting career
Toyosaki had her first major role as voice actor in 2007, providing the voice of Amuro Ninagawa, the main character of the anime series Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho. She was then featured in Minami-ke and Shugo Chara! as Yoshino and Su, respectively. In 2008, Toyosaki reprised the two roles in Minami-ke: Okawari and Shugo Chara!! Doki.
She went on to voice Najimi Tenkūji in the 2009 series Akikan! and held the leading role in K-On!, providing the voice of protagonist Yui Hirasawa. She later took the roles of Koyoi Bessho, in First Love Limited, and Kana Nakamichi, the protagonist of Kanamemo. In Minami-ke: Okaeri, she reprised her role as Yoshino a second time.
In addition to voice acting, Toyosaki has also appeared on camera. Her first acting job was on Shikoku Broadcasting's informational variety show Saturday Naisho!! (土曜はナイショ!! Doyō ha Naisho!!?) from 2003 to 2004. She, Ayahi Takagaki, Haruka Tomatsu, and Minako Kotobuki appeared twice on the Anime Song Plus (アニソンぷらす Anison Purasu?) television show as the musical group Sphere on April 20, 2009, and July 27, 2009. During its run in July 2009, Toyosaki also narrated the show.[14] At the 2010 Seiyu Awards, she named as a "Best New Actress" at the for her role as Yui Hirasawa and Kana Makamichi.
Yui Hirasawa (平沢 唯 Hirasawa Yui)
Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki
Yui is the main character of K-On!. She is one of the members of the light music club and plays a Heritage Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar that she nicknames "Gita". She does not get good grades in school (though when properly coached, she can achieve astounding results) and is easily distracted by trivialities (mainly those deemed cute and adorable). Yui is clumsy and easily spaces out most of the time. She takes a huge liking for any kind of food (she practically never gains weight, which is greatly envied by Mugi, Mio, and Sawako). She has her younger sister Ui, who is the very mature and down-to-earth opposite of Yui, to take care of her and keep herself in line. Yui works extremely hard to get better at playing guitar, which is shown in later chapters. During performances, Yui plays with amazing energy and joy, which usually results in great response from the audience.
Yui is the band's main vocalist and has perfect pitch—she can tune her guitar perfectly without a tuner, which greatly impresses Azusa, who has played the guitar much longer than Yui. She has a very easy-going nature, but has incredible concentration when hyped, though this is only limited to one subject at a time. She will totally neglect any other things in the process to the point of forgetting anything she has learned beforehand. Despite all of this, Yui is still devoted to her band and will always practice hard enough for the club. At school, she has become quite admired for her great voice. However, she is known to forget her lyrics in mid-performance as well as overdoing things, making her unable to perform sometimes. Mio was the lead vocalist at first, since Yui could not play the guitar and sing at the same time. Yui is also known to write childish lyrics as Ui has assisted her in creating them.